Seeking appropriate quotations

[igenlode]

Still fiddling around with Chapter 2 of "Teach Me to Live" in the hopes of delaying the 'reveal'...

For some reason I decided that it would be a good idea to head each chapter of the story now dubbed "Count Philippe Takes a Hand" with an appropriate quotation from the original novel, since I'm already using the tongue-in-cheek 'In which...' format for the putative chapter titles! At any rate, I initially intended to use the quotation about 'a happiness that can hurt nobody' (which I see now that I've already used in the final chapter of "Blue Remembered Hills", though that clearly won't be making an appearance until long after this one), but since the story is now split over four chapters instead of the intended three short scenes, that particular sentence applies only to Chapter 2. So I had either the choice to come up with three more quotations from the novel for the remaining chapters or to drop the idea altogether.

I'm afraid I looked for remembered ideas in the English edition, and only then traced the corresponding sentences in the original French -- just to check that they actually did have the same implication. For example, it was during this process that I discovered that the 'insufferable naivety' referred to in the Penguin translation, at the point when Raoul gets so annoyed with Mme Valerius, actually applies to the old lady and not to Raoul -- in the French, it's quite clear that it's given as the reason why he finds her annoying rather than a description of his behaviour towards her! Both characters are naive and irritating during this interview, so it was an understandable confusion :-p
However, meanings do shift during translation, and it's never a good idea to base an argument on over-analysis of a specific translated phrase. As witness the Bible...

Current plan:

• Title - Count Philippe Takes a Hand
  • Chapter 1 - In which Philippe is worldly
  • Epigraph - Le comte... désireux de savoir à quoi s'en tenir, avait demandé un rendez-vous à Christine Daaé. (Ch.8: 'Où MM. Firmin Richard et Armand Moncharmin ont l'audace de faire représenter "Faust"...')
• • Chapter 2 - In which Raoul is unworldly
  • Epigraph - Nous ne marierons jamais, c'est entendu... mais ceci est un bonheur qui ne fera mal à personne. (Ch.12: 'Au-dessus des trappes')
• • Chapter 3 - In which Christine enjoys worldly success
  • Epigraph - Si je devais donner mon cœur sur la terre, elle n'avait plus, elle... la Voix, qu'à remonter au ciel. (Ch.13: 'La lyre d'Apollon')
• • Chapter 4 - In which old ghosts are laid
  • Epigraph - Quoi qu'il arrivât, votre situation dans le monde m'interdisait à jamais la pensée d'une honnête union... (Ch.13: 'La lyre d'Apollon')

Ironically, the Christine and Raoul in the final chapters of "Count Philippe" are actually a good five years younger (and less battered) than the versions in "To Ease Your Troubled Mind", despite all the references to 'old lovers'! While it presumably makes a difference to their relationship that they are forty and have been physically familiar for those twenty years rather being forty-five and having been separated for fifteen, it occurs to me that it might make more sense to amend the wording at this point of the story to refer to familiarity rather than aging.