Ramuntcho

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Ramuntcho (1897) is a novel by French author Pierre Loti. It is a love and adventure story about contraband runners in the Basque province of France. It is one of Loti's most popular stories—"love, loss and faith remain eternal themes"[1]—with four French film adaptations. It was first published in 5 parts, from 15 December 1896 to 15 February 1897, in the Revue de Paris. Calmann-Lévy published the novel in two parts on 10 March 1897. A dramatized version was staged in Paris in 1910, with incidental music by Gabriel Pierné.[2]

Plot

Characters and places

The novel is notable for its documentary description of French Basque culture.

Characters

  • Ramuntcho. The bastard son of Franchita (father unknown), he struggles to be an accepted member of Basque society in the village of Etchezar. An accomplished pelota player and smuggler.
  • Franchita. Mother of Ramuntcho, she has a mysterious and possibly scandalous past.
  • Ignatio. Franchita's oldest brother (Ramuntcho's uncle) who lives in the Americas.
  • Gracieuse Detcharry (also Gatchutcha and Mary Angelique). Ramuntcho's beautiful blonde girlfriend.
  • Dolores Detcharry. Gracieuse's mother.
  • Arrochkoa Detcharry. Brother of Gracieuse. Friend of Ramuntcho, accomplished pelota player and smuggler.
  • Pantchika Daraignaratz. Blonde girl engaged to Arrochkoa. Mother is "Madame."
  • Olhagarray. Cousins of Madame Daraignaratz who live in Erribiague.
  • Itchola. Leader of the band of smugglers, he is older and hardened.
  • Florentiono. Ramuntcho's friend and fellow smuggler. Red hair.
  • Marcos and Joachim Iragola. Two brothers who are renowned singers and lyricists. Members of the band of smugglers.
  • Jose Bidegarray, mysterious stranger who brings tidings from Ignatio in the Americas.

Places and things

  • Etchezar. Town in Basque France where the story mainly takes place. (Sare and Ascain in the original manuscript [3])
  • Bidasoa river that separates Spain and France. The smugglers often cross it at night.
  • Gizune Mountain that dominates the landscape of Etchezar.
  • Erribiague, a neighboring village higher up the mountain and more primitive.
  • Amezqueta, a distant village where the nunnery is located.
  • Pelota, an ancient Basque game played with a ball and wicker glove against the side of a church wall.
  • Kalsomine, a white-wash used to cover stone buildings and walls.
  • Mantilla, a head-dress often worn by Spanish women.
  • Fandango, a favorite Spanish dance with castanets.

Screen adaptations

Background

Loti took command of a gunboat in December 1891, at Hendaye, and the novel Ramuntcho was born of his encounter with the Basque country. Hendaye became a place he felt destined for him.[4]

In December 1891 Julien Viaud (Loti) took command at Hendaye of Javelot, a gunboat charged with watching the French-Spanish border at the mouth of the Bidassoa, an area where smuggling was particularly prevalent. In the first months it appeared to him a colourless place, as his diary of the time indicated, but then its charm worked upon him, to the point where he wanted to buy the house he was renting. He gave it a Basque name Bakhar-Etchéa – it became the symbolic opposite of the old family home in Rochefort where his mother and father lived.

Two years after his arrival in the Basque country, his diary noted the start of the writing of the novel:[5]

Tuesday 1 November 1893. – A calm, clear, bright and chilly day. A great melancholy of dead leaves, dead things... In the solitude of my study I conceived the plan and began to write Ramoncho, which will perhaps be the great thing I shall turn towards, against the infinite sadnesses of this winter...[6]

At this point Loti was about to become only an episodic visitor to the Basque country so his diary, already filled with impressions and anecdotes was used almost without modification in the novel.

The novel was written as much in Rochefort as in the Basque country, to which Loti made trips however in 1894 and 1895, before returning to his post on the Javelot in May 1896. From February to June 1894 Loti visited the Holy Land "from which he returned as atheist as before he had set out". In 1894 too, he met Crucita Gainza (1867–1949) a Spanish Basque, a dancer and dressmaker, and installed her at his home in Rochefort. On 26 November 1893 he had written in his diary that he came to the Basque country:[7]

to re-create life. To choose a young woman who might be the mother of my children, to transmit me, prolong me, re-start in me the mystery of new incarnations and I feel myself full of will, of force, of youth..[8]

In October 1894 he learned that Crucita was pregnant and wrote that he dreamt of "this little Basque who will be born of us.." Their child was born on 29 June 1895. She gave him 3 illegitimate children (1895–1900).

Themes

According to the French critic Patrick Besnier, (introducing a 1990 edition of the novel), Loti's book is one "shaped by the rapports between father and son – their non-existence, their impossibility.."

In Ramuntcho the Basque country is presented as a quasi-paradisiacal land. Time and history do not weigh upon this Arcadie, the slow passage of days and months is simply a succession of feast days and of rejoicing. The outside world doesn't intrude, even military service is left hazy – the reader learns only that Ramuntcho departs for "a southern land". From this Basque paradise, Ramuntcho is going to be excluded; the novel is the story of a fall, and of an exile from Eden. Unwilling at first to do his military service: "Non, je peux ne pas le faire, mon service! je suis Guipuzcoan, moi, comme ma mère;...Français ou Espagnol, moi, ça m'est égal.."[9]

Yet he does his service, to please Gracieuse, and he chooses a nationality, French.

To the lack of differentiation French/Spanish, other themes of borders emerge – for example the border between adulthood and adolescence. According to Besnier, Loti, in his Basque life,

lived protected from the realities and cruelties of existence, and in a state of perpetual adolescence. In this happy land, it seems only games and pleasures exist, the two principal occupations being pelota and dancing, and the only 'work' really evoked, smuggling, which itself is a kind of game between police and thieves.[10]

When Ramuntcho returns, having symbolically exchanged the 'pantalon rouge' of the military, for the 'tenues légères' of the players of pelota, he is changed. Even those amongst his comrades who have become fathers, continue to participate in their world as before, but not Ramuntcho.

The sentiment of exclusion from paradise which begins for the hero was one Loti knew. Lost childhood obsessed the writer, he was an exile in the world of adults where he would never truly integrate himself, neither able to take it seriously, nor to conquer the anxiety which it inspired in him. He wanted to ensorcerize it..to live in a universe of a manufactured adolescence..[witness] his celebrated taste for dressing up and costume balls, disguising reality, of which so many photographs give proof – Loti as a Pharaoh, Loti as Louis XI, Loti as a Berber.[11]

Time and again in his life Loti travels to a land of possible salvation, that he thinks might know the secret of primitive innocence – time and again follows disillusion, and the traveller understands that, far from him being saved, rather he has brought contagion ('progress', 'civilization') to the dreamed of paradise.[12]

In the Basque country too, Loti tried to find his paradise; he learnt to play pelota and began learning the Basque language. He was gendarme, yet wanted to join the smugglers in their expeditions – he had a hatred for all 'official masks'.

A story of rustic games, and with an innocent character, the novel seems to belong in a certain tradition which blossomed at the end of the eighteenth century – the idyllic pastoral novel – works like Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian's Estelle et Némorian or, best known of all, Bernardin de Saint Pierre's Paul et Virginie. The characteristics: young lovers, inexperienced, a mix of naive sensuality and chastity, an exaltation of simple life and frugal ways, a timeless world enclosing one, a beautiful and beneficent Nature, seem to appear again, a hundred years later, in Loti's work. But the critic Patrick Besnier has argued that more than the idyll, Ramuntcho belongs in the Bildungsroman tradition, to the novel of apprenticeship and of formation.

The title is significant. One name. This is Daphnis without Chloe, Paul without Virginie. Ramuntcho is alone. It is the painful story of a birth. And the novel about love in beautiful natural surroundings is only a stage, an appearance of this book, a dark and tragic book..[13]

The apprenticeship is a series of ruptures and of renunciations so that on the last page Ramuntcho appears as une plante déracinée du cher sol basque.

References

  1. Lesley Blanch, Pierre Loti, Collins 1983, p.239 ISBN 0-00-211649-9
  2. Lesley Blanch, p. 239.
  3. Folio edition, 1990, p. 255
  4. Besnier, Patrick (1990). "Préface". Ramuntcho. By Loti, Pierre. Besnier, Patrick (ed.). (in French). Gallimard. p. 9
  5. Besnier, 1990, p. 10 (in French)
  6. Moulis, André (1965). "Genèse de Ramuntcho" [Genesis of Ramuntcho]. Littératures (in French). 12: 49–78. doi:10.3406/litts.1965.1005. p. 55:
    "Mardi 1er novembre 1893. — Jour calme, clair, lumineux et froid. Une grande mélancolie de feuilles mortes, de choses mortes... Dans la solitude de mon cabinet de travail, je conçois le plan et commence d’écrire Ramoncho qui sera peut-être mon grand recours contre les tristesses infinies de cet hiver."
    [Machine translation:] "Tuesday 1st November 1893. — A calm, clear, bright, and cold day. A profound melancholy of dead leaves, of dead things... In the solitude of my study, I conceive the plan and begin to write Ramoncho, which may perhaps be my great solace against the endless sorrows of this winter."
  7. Besnier, 1990, p. 12 (in French)
  8. Moulis, André (1980). "Amours basques de Pierre Loti (Pages inédites du Journal intime de Pierre Loti)" [Basque loves of Pierre Loti (Unpublished pages from Pierre Loti's private journal)]. Littératures (in French). 2 (1): 99–131. doi:10.3406/litts.1980.1177. p. 107:
    "Dimanche 26 novembre. — Et cependant, je viens ici, au contraire, pour recréer de la vie, pour choisir une jeune fille qui soit la mère d'enfants issus de moi, pour me transmettre, me prolonger, me recommencer dans le mystère des incarnations nouvelles, et je me sens plein de volonté, de force et de jeunesse..."
    "Sunday 26 November. — And yet, I come here, on the contrary, to re-create life, to choose a young woman who will be the mother of my children, to transmit me, prolong me, to begin again in the mystery of new incarnations, and I feel full of volition, of strength and youthfulness..."
  9. Besnier, 1990, pp. 13–14 (in French)
    "Dans Ramuntcho, le pays basque a tout en effet de la terre paradisiaque : un Eden, précise Loti à deux reprises. [...] L’histoire et le temps ne pèsent pas sur cette Arcadie : le lent passage des jours et des mois est simplement une succession de fêtes et de réjouissances ; le monde extérieur n’intervient jamais et semble ne pas exister : même le service militaire de Ramuntcho échoue à introduire des données précises en ce domaine — le lecteur apprend seulement que le héros part pour « une île australe ». [...] De ce paradis basque Ramuntcho va être exclu : par là, le roman est, au sens biblique, l’histoire d’une chute, hors de l’innocence et de l’Eden. [...] Ce moment crucial a lieu au chapitre V « Tu as ton service à faire à l’armée » lui dit Gracieuse, et Ramuntcho : « Non, je peux ne pas le faire, mon service ! Je suis Guipuzcoan, moi, comme ma mère ; alors, on ne me prendra pour la conscription que si je le demande... ». Il n’accepte pas les frontières politiques du monde « réel », la seule identité qu’il se reconnaisse — basque — échappant à ces critères extérieurs : « Oh ! mon Dieu, Français ou Espagnol, moi, ça m’est égal [...] »."
    [Machine translation:] "In Ramuntcho, the Basque Country truly has all the hallmarks of a paradise: an Eden, Loti specifies twice. [...] History and time do not weigh upon this Arcadia: the slow passage of days and months is simply a succession of festivals and celebrations; the outside world never intervenes and seems not to exist: even Ramuntcho’s military service fails to introduce any precise details in this regard—the reader learns only that the hero is leaving for ‘a southern island’. [...] Ramuntcho will be excluded from this Basque paradise: thus, the novel is, in the biblical sense, the story of a fall, from innocence and Eden. [...] This crucial moment occurs in Chapter V: ‘You have your military service to do,’ Gracieuse tells him, and Ramuntcho replies: ‘No, I can avoid it! I am from Gipuzkoa, like my mother; so, I’ll only be drafted if I ask for it...’ He doesn’t accept the political boundaries of the ‘real’ world; the only identity he recognizes—Basque—escapes these external criteria: ‘Oh! my God, French or Spanish, it’s all the same to me [...]’."
  10. Besnier, 1990, p.15 (in French)
    "À cette indifférenciation (ni espagnol ni français, mais basque), d’autres thèmes viennent s’ajouter : ainsi, l’adolescence (ni enfant ni adulte). Telle que la décrit Loti, la vie au pays basque est protégée des réalités et des cruautés de l’existence : on y vit une adolescence perpétuelle. Sur cette terre heureuse, il ne semble y avoir que des jeux et des plaisirs, les deux principales occupations étant la pelote et la danse, le seul « travail » vraiment évoqué, la contrebande, dont tout montre qu’elle est une variante des jeux de gendarmes et voleurs."
    [Machine translation:] "To this lack of differentiation (neither Spanish nor French, but Basque), other themes are added: for example, adolescence (neither child nor adult). As Loti describes it, life in the Basque Country is sheltered from the realities and cruelties of existence: one lives there in a perpetual state of adolescence. In this idyllic land, there seem to be only games and pleasures, the two main pastimes being pelota and dancing; the only ‘work’ truly mentioned is smuggling, which everything suggests is a variation of the game of cops and robbers."
  11. Besnier, preface, Folio 1990 edition p. 16 (in French)
    "Le sentiment d’exclusion du paradis qui commence alors pour le héros, Loti l’a toujours connu : l’enfance perdue l’obséda, il fut un exilé dans le monde des adultes où il ne s’intégra jamais vraiment, ne pouvant ni le prendre au sérieux, ni dominer l’angoisse qu’il lui inspirait. Il voulut le conjurer : l’attachement à la vie de marin et la présence rassurante des « frères » à la fois soumis (par la hiérarchie) et tout-puissants, tout cela témoigne de l’immaturité affective essentielle de Loti, de son effort pour demeurer dans l’univers d’une adolescence factice. Tout autant son goût célèbre du travestissement et des bals costumés, maquillages du réel dont témoignent tant de photographies : Loti pharaon, Loti Louis XI ou berbère."
    [Machine translation:] "The feeling of exclusion from paradise that then begins for the hero was something Loti had always known: his lost childhood haunted him, he was an exile in the adult world where he never truly integrated, unable to take it seriously or overcome the anguish it inspired. He tried to ward it off: his attachment to the life of a sailor and the reassuring presence of his ‘brothers,’ both subservient (by the hierarchy) and all-powerful, all testify to Loti’s fundamental emotional immaturity, to his effort to remain in the world of a fabricated adolescence. Equally evident is his celebrated penchant for cross-dressing and costume balls, disguises for reality, as seen in so many photographs: Loti the pharaoh, Loti Louis XI, or the Berber."
  12. Preface, Folio 1990 edition, pp. 16–17 (in French)
    "Le grand voyageur Loti aborde chaque nouveau rivage comme la terre d’un salut possible, où l’Autre sait peut-être le secret de l’innocence primitive qui livrerait l’accès au paradis : à chaque fois, c’est le « mariage de Loti » avec ce monde inconnu. Puis, à chaque fois, la désillusion, le voyageur comprend que, loin d’être lui-même sauvé il apporte peste (civilisation, progrès, etc.) au paradis rêvé."
    [Machine translation:] "The great traveler Loti approaches each new shore as the land of possible salvation, where the Other perhaps holds the secret of primal innocence that would grant access to paradise: each time, it is Loti’s ‘marriage’ with this unknown world. Then, each time, disillusionment sets in; the traveler understands that, far from being saved himself, he brings plague (civilisation, progress, etc.) to the paradise he dreamed of."
  13. Besnier, 1990, p. 18 (in French)
    "Le titre d’ailleurs ne trompe pas : Daphnis sans Chloé, Paul sans Virginie, Ramuntcho est seul. Déjà et à jamais manque le nom de l’autre. Plus que de l’idylle, Ramuntcho participe du Bildungsroman, du roman d’apprentissage et de formation. C’est l’histoire douloureuse d’une naissance, et le roman d’amour en beaux décors naturels n’est qu’une étape ou qu’une apparence de ce livre, noir et tragique malgré, à la fin, un départ vers « l’immense nouveau plein de suprises »."
    [Machine translation:] "The title, moreover, is no illusion: Daphnis without Chloe, Paul without Virginia, Ramuntcho is alone. Already, and forever, the other’s name is missing. More than an idyll, Ramuntcho belongs to the Bildungsroman, the coming-of-age novel. It is the painful story of a birth, and the love story set against a beautiful natural backdrop is merely a stage or a superficial aspect of this book, dark and tragic despite, at the end, a departure towards ‘the immense new world full of surprises’."