La Jeunesse du roi Henri (Ponson du Terrail)

Overview

La Jeunesse du roi Henri is a multi-volume historical adventure romance by Pierre Alexis, vicomte Ponson du Terrail (1829-1871), the creator of Rocambole. It belongs to his cycle of cloak-and-dagger novels about the Wars of Religion, following the young Henri de Navarre (the future Henri IV) through the St Bartholomew's Day period. French Wikisource's author page dates it to 1864; the Internet Archive holds the Charlieu et Huillery volumes of 1865-1868, each with its own sub-title (vol. 1 La Belle Argentière, vol. 2 Le Serment des quatre valets, vol. 3 La Saint-Barthélemy, vol. 5 Le Beau Galaor). The date 1854 in the project's inventory is a slip: Ponson du Terrail was 25 in 1854 and the cycle is of the 1860s.

Marie and this novel

The book matters in the diary less as reading than as a key to a man. In autumn 1876 Marie was humiliated by Count Pietro Antonelli; the entry in which she gives her account is dated Friday 13 October 1876, the "vendredi 13 octobre" she later cannot bring herself to reread (067.1040).

• 13 October 1876 (067.0038): in her written account of what happened, Marie describes Antonelli as a man "sans instruction, sans éducation et n'ayant pour principes que les exemples des preux du club [...] et de 'la Jeunesse du roi Henri' par Ponson du Terrail, l'unique roman qu'il a lu".
• 15 November 1876 (067.1013): lying in bed she begins "la fameuse 'Jeunesse du roi Henri'": "Ah ! si je l'avais lu avant, ce bon livre ! Il ne serait rien arrivé avec Antonelli. Ce coquin copiait un des héros les plus répugnants. Et copiait visiblement." Novels, she concludes, serve to recognise men who copy the heroes of Ponson du Terrail and Xavier de Montépin; Dumas, by contrast, "met de la noblesse et de l'honneur dans ses livres lors même qu'on n'y rencontre que souterrains et échelles de soie".
• 5 December 1876 (067.1431-1432): she finishes it "à grand peine", "tous les huit volumes", and regrets not having known it earlier: "Comme je me conduirais bien si je comprenais les allusions si fréquentes du Moine à la 'Jeunesse du roi Henri'. M'en a-t-il assez parlé... Et je ne savais rien." (The RSR note on that entry reads "le Moine" as a person who took his seduction techniques from the novel; Marie does not say here whom she means.)

Notes and doubts

• Ponson du Terrail and Xavier de Montépin are named together for the same kind of book; other unspecific Ponson/Montépin novels in the diary (067.0021, 067.0265, 064.0624) are not this one.
• Date: Wikisource's author page lists 1864; the Online Books Page lists a Dentu edition of 1866 and a Fayard edition of 1880, so a single "first edition" year should be treated with some care.
• The Internet Archive volumes are public-domain scans (Public Domain Mark). Further volumes of the series (for instance vol. 5, Le Beau Galaor) are also on the Internet Archive.

Sources

• French Wikisource, author page "Pierre Alexis de Ponson du Terrail": https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Auteur:Pierre_Alexis_de_Ponson_du_Terrail
• The Online Books Page, "Ponson du Terrail, 1829-1871": https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/who/Ponson%20du%20Terrail%2c%201829%2d1871
• Internet Archive records for the volumes listed under `full_text`.