The Wild Palms is a novel by the American writer William Faulkner , published in 1939 . The author’s name of the novel - “If I Forget You, Jerusalem” ( If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem ) was changed at the first publication by publishers, but since the 1990s the novel began to be printed under its original name. In a Russian translation, the novel was first published in 1994 as "Wild Palms."
| Wild palm trees (If I forget you, Jerusalem) | |
|---|---|
| The Wild Palms (If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem) | |
| Genre | novel |
| Author | William Faulkner |
| Original language | English |
| Date of writing | 1939 |
| Date of first publication | 1939 |
One of Faulkner’s five novels not related to the “ yoknapatofsky cycle ”, to which the bulk of his novels belongs.
Content
Creation History
Like some other Faulkner novels, the title of the novel contained a biblical quote - If I forget you, Jerusalem is from the Psalm 136 ( By the rivers of Babylon, we sat there and wept when we remembered Zion ... , Psalm 136: 5 ). At the first publication, the publishers, contrary to the will of the author, gave the novel the name of one of two parts - “Wild palm trees”. Since 1990, the publication of the novel in the United States began to appear under the original name, or both names are mentioned in parallel: "Wild palm trees (If I forget you, Jerusalem)."
In a Russian translation, the novel was first published in 1994 in the journal Zvezda as “Wild Palms” (translation by Grigory Krylov); he came out as a separate publication in 1997, along with the story Horse Riding [1] . In the 9-volume and 6-volume collections of works of Faulkner, published in the 2000s. Publishing house " Terra ", the novel is not included.
Artistic Features
The novel is distinguished by a peculiar construction. It includes two parts with independent plots - the tragic love story of a man and a woman called “Wild Palms” and the story of a prisoner , carried away by a flood in a boat and trying to return to prison, called “The Old Man”. Each of the parts is divided into five chapters, which are alternating: the chapter "Wild Palms" and the chapter "The Old Man", and the chapters were also written alternately. Faulkner himself in an interview explained the construction of the novel [2] :
| At first it was one story - the story of Charlotte Rittenmeyer and Harry Wilburn, who sacrificed everything for love, and then lost it. And until I sat at the table, I had no idea that I would get two separate stories. However, when I reached the end of what later became the first chapter of Wild Palms, I unexpectedly discovered that something was missing; that the story needs to be strengthened, somehow raised, like counterpoint in a piece of music. Then I began to write “The Old Man,” and wrote it until the plot of “Wild Palms” again regained its pitch; then I cut off the “Old Man” at the place where its first part is now ending, and continued the story of “Wild Palms”, and unfolded it until its plot began to weaken again ... |
The idea of counterpoint in relation to prose Faulkner, most likely, was borrowed from the English writer Aldous Huxley , who was the first to formulate the theory of "literary counterpoint" in his novel " Counterpoint " ( 1928 ).
Although the plots of the two parts are not directly related, there are certain exchanges between them, as well as ideological opposition: as Faulkner himself wrote, “I contrast two types of love in contrast. One man sacrifices everything for the love of a woman, another - sacrifices everything in order to free himself from love. " According to the writer’s researcher N. A. Anastasiev , “Even from a cursory retelling, it is clear that both stories, as the author wanted, contrast with each other, one way of life’s behavior tests itself differently, one idea - another, which is opposite in essence. Thought is opposed to feeling. Will to instinct. Riot - to humility. Self-expression - discipline and fidelity to duty ” [3] .
Story
Wild palm trees
The action takes place in 1937–38. in New Orleans , Chicago , Utah , Texas and on the Mississippi coast near the sea.
New Orleans Hospital intern doctor Harry Wilburn at the party meets Charlotte Rittenmeyer, a married young woman who is fond of art. Passion flares up between them, but the relationship seems hopeless, since Charlotte is provided by her husband (besides she has two children), and Harry barely makes ends meet. However, when Harry finds a wallet with a large amount, they decide to leave and settle in Chicago. Harry gets a job as a laboratory assistant at the hospital, and Charlotte sometimes receives orders for window dressing and begins to sculpt clay figures for sale. After Christmas, Charlotte is offered a permanent job until the summer, but Harry understands that, working day and night, they almost stopped seeing each other and that they did not strive for this. He gets a job as a doctor at a distant mine in Utah and they leave. It turns out, however, that the mine was ruined, and neither the working Polish workers (who do not understand English) nor Harry are going to pay money. In the spring, Harry and Charlotte leave for Texas, leaving almost no money. It turns out that Charlotte is expecting a baby and wants to get rid of him. After much hesitation, Harry decides to have an abortion , but he is unsuccessful, and Charlotte is getting worse. She goes to see her husband and children, then Harry and Charlotte settle for a few days in a cottage on the Mississippi coast, from where Charlotte is taken to the hospital where she dies. Harry is sentenced to life imprisonment in Parchman prison. Charlotte’s husband (who promised her not to do anything against Harry) is trying to make an acquittal in court, but they don’t listen to him. He gives Harry a cyanide pill, but he destroys it, deciding that for the sake of Charlotte's memory he must endure all the suffering of the conclusion, because otherwise their love will disappear even from the memory of any of the living people.
Old Man
The action takes place in the summer of 1927 , during the Great Flood in the Mississippi . The protagonist is a young prisoner at the Parchman prison (his name has never been named), who is serving a 15-year sentence for trying to rob a train.
When it becomes known that the river demolished the dam and spilled, the prisoners of the Parchman prison were transported by truck, and then by train to the preserved high embankment, where residents of flooded areas were evacuated. Two prisoners, including the protagonist is sent on a boat to save residents who climbed trees and waiting for help. On the way, the stream overturns the boat, the second prisoner escapes in a tree, and takes the first one. He manages to swim, he takes a pregnant woman into the boat, waiting for help on the tree, and tries to return. However, the stream ("Old Man") blows them downstream, preventing them from reaching land, and the journey continues for several weeks. On the island, which manages to land, a woman gives birth to a child. After a while, they are all picked up by a ship heading to New Orleans , but the prisoner wants to go back and give the boat, so he asks to drop them off. They find themselves in the Francophone part of Louisiana , and spend some time in the hut of a Frenchman (with whom they do not understand each other), engaged in the extraction of crocodile skins. However, before the dam exploded, they were evacuated to New Orleans, from where a prisoner and a woman in a boat sailed back up the Mississippi. Finding the police, he surrenders and gives the boat back. He is brought back to Parchman, where he is added to the term of 10 years for trying to escape.
Reviews
- N. Anastasiev [4] :
| Nevertheless, its unity is ensured not just by a certain constructive principle. The commonality of the situation in which his characters are placed is important. This situation: a person escapes from the routine of everyday life, from a state of, I would say, moral innocence and plunges into reality, bubbling and bubbling ... In the history of the High Convict, in the history of lovers, two radically opposite ways of resisting suffering and catastrophes are proposed - in in this sense, if we use musical terminology after the artist himself, the work is built on dissonance . But in the finale there is harmony . Faulkner does not give a definitive answer to the question of which path is truer and what is the true freedom of man, but he again, for the umpteenth time, comes to the conclusion - the main conclusion - that man is capable of resistance and struggle. |
- N. Makhlayuk [5] :
| In each of its parts, different sides of a single conflict between man and nature are developed. In Wild Palms, this is an internal conflict of feelings, moral standards, and the very nature of man ("a man in conflict with himself," according to Faulkner). In “The Old Man”, the conflict of man and nature appears in its real physical aspect as confrontation, the confrontation of man by external, impersonal and self-willed forces of nature. At first glance, in the final chapters of the novel, a paradoxical transformation of the images of the main characters takes place. The convict, who so successfully opposed the inexorable elements, refuses further resistance, and Harry, defeated in the fight against himself, continues to resist by his own free will. However, this contradiction is removed if we look at both protagonists as a figurative disclosure of the dual conflict between man and nature. |
Cultural Influence
- In 1940, a Spanish translation of the novel Las palmeras salvajes appeared , made by Borges (according to one version, his mother translated the novel) and influenced Latin American literature.
- In Godard’s film “ In the Last Breath ”, the main character Patricia quotes a phrase from the novel, saying that between nothing and suffering she would choose suffering. This is Harry Wilburn’s last sentence - Yes, he thought, between grief and nothing I will take grief — which ends with the Wild Palms piece.
- Allusions to the novel are contained in the film “ Oh, where are you, brother?” "( 2000 ) of the Coen brothers: the name of the character of Vernon Waldrip appears in" The Old Man "(that was the name of the bridegroom of the girl who left the prisoner and sent him a postcard after his wedding). In addition, the film is about the escape of prisoners from the Partchman prison, in addition, the flood motive plays an important role in the plot (during the explosion of the dam for the construction of a hydroelectric power station). References to Faulkner are also found in other Coen films [6] .
Editions in Russian
- William Faulkner. Wild palm trees. Novel. Per. from English G. A. Krylova // " Star ". 1994. Nos. 11-12.
- William Faulkner. Wild palm trees; Horseback [Per. from English G. A. Krylova, M. I. Becker; After N. Makhlayuk; The artist. A. A. Vlasov]. SPb .: Humanitarian Agency "Academic Project", 1997. - 429 p. ISBN 5-7331-0030-3
Notes
- ↑ Literature and Art'95 - RSL (Unavailable link) . Date of treatment February 16, 2010. Archived on April 6, 2009.
- ↑ Cit. by: N. Anastasiev. Faulkner. Essay on creativity . M: Fiction, 1976.
- ↑ N.A. Anastasiev. Owner of Yoknapatofa (William Faulkner) . M .: Book, 1991.
- ↑ N. Anastasiev. Faulkner. Essay on creativity . M: Fiction, 1976.
- ↑ N. Makhlayuk. “Thunder and prose music are soundless”: about W. Faulkner’s novel “Wild Palms” // William Faulkner. Wild palm trees; Knight's move. SPb .: Humanitarian Agency "Academic Project", 1997.
- ↑ WFotW ~ William Faulkner: Frequently Asked Questions Archived August 5, 2010 on Wayback Machine