Bookshelf

Albert Cohen, "Belle du Seigneur", Folio, 2007.

Ce roman est un «chef d'œuvre absolu», selon Joseph Kessel.
Belle du Seigneur est un roman de l'écrivain suisse francophone Albert Cohen publié en 1968. Commencée dans les années 1930, sa rédaction fut interrompue par la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Le roman Belle du Seigneur fut finalement publié par les éditions Gallimard en 1968. Certaines scènes burlesques ont été retirées du livre à la demande de l'éditeur Gaston Gallimard puis publiées séparément sous le titre Les Valeureux en 1969. Troisième volet d'une tétralogie qui commence avec Solal (1930) et Mangeclous (1938), ce roman a reçu le Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française. Le roman Belle du Seigneur a longuement été repris, corrigé, augmenté. L'auteur y entrecroise et superpose les voix des personnages. Dans les cent six chapitres se mêlent la passion et la drôlerie, le désespoir et les exaltations du cœur. Le roman raconte l’amour fou d’Ariane et de Solal mais aussi l'amour de Cohen pour la langue française et pour l’écriture.

Belle du Seigneur est considéré comme l'un des grands romans de langue française du XXe siècle, qualifié de «chef d'œuvre absolu» (Joseph Kessel), «comme une culture en produit une douzaine par siècle» (François Nourissier). Il connaît aussi un succès public de très grande ampleur et demeure la meilleure vente de la collection Blanche des éditions Gallimard[4].

L'édition utilisée pour étudier Belle du Seigneur est l'édition Folio 2007 (comprenant 1 110 pages). On signale que certaines citations n'ont pas de ponctuation et comportent des fautes d'orthographe. Il s'agit de la volonté de l'auteur et non pas d'erreurs typographiques

About the author

Nadia Sikorsky

Nadia Sikorsky was born and raised in Moscow. She graduated from the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University and went on to complete her postgraduate studies there, earning a PhD in History. She spent 13 years at UNESCO, first in Paris and then in Geneva. After serving as Director of Communications at Green Cross International, founded by Mikhail Gorbachev, she launched NashaGazeta.ch in 2007, Switzerland’s first Russian-language online daily newspaper.

In 2022, Nadia Sikorsky was named to Le Temps’ Forum des 100, which brings together individuals who, in the newspaper’s view, have “significantly contributed to the success of French-speaking Switzerland”, from across public life, business, politics, science and culture.

After 18 years at the helm of NashaGazeta.ch, Nadia Sikorsky decided to devote herself to what had always held a special place in her work as a journalist: culture in all its diversity. This led to the creation of Russian Accent, a trilingual cultural blog in Russian, French and English, born in the heart of Europe, in Switzerland, which has become her second home and whose multiculturalism and multilingualism have helped shape the character of this new project.

At the heart of the project is the perspective of a European of Russian origin, drawing on more than 35 years of professional experience and a deep knowledge of both cultural traditions. Nadia Sikorsky sees her role as that of a cultural mediator between the two. The title of the blog, Russian Accent, reflects this idea: the accent is neither a linguistic barrier nor a political position, but a distinctive cultural imprint within a European context.

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