Business is business
| Business is business | |
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| Author(s) | Octave Mirbeau |
| Original title | 'Les affaires sont les affaires' |
| Country |  France |
| Language | French |
| Genre(s) | comedy |
| Publisher | Fasquelle |
| Publication date | April 1903 |
Business is business (French: Les affaires sont les affaires) is a French comedy in three acts, by the novelist and playwright Octave Mirbeau, performed in April 1903 on the stage of Comédie-Française, in Paris, and worldwide acclaimed, especially in Russia, Germany and United States[1].
An English-language adaption by Sydney Grundy was produced in London in 1905. An English translation, by Richard Hand, has been published by Intellect Books : Two Plays: “Business is Business” and “Charity”, January 2012, 147 pages (ISBN: 9781841504865).
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[edit] Comedy of manners
That work is a classical comedy of manners, with characters, in the tradition of Molière[2], where Mirbeau criticizes the French society of the Third Republic and the world of business, legal kind of gangsterism[3].
When the play was presented in Paris during the 1994-5 season (400 performances), comments were that business and scandals are no different today than they were 100 years ago.
[edit] Main character
The fable is built around the main character, symbolically named Isidore Lechat. He is a predator without any scruples, predecessor of the modern masters of business intrigue, a « brasseur d'affaires » and money-grubber, who is a product of the new world, a figure who makes money from everything and spreads his tentacles out over the world. He sacrifices his children in his obsession to get more and more money and power: Lechat insists upon purchasing an aristocratic husband for his daughter Germaine, and upon making his corrupted son Xavier the leader of Parisian society, paying for him fabulous gambling debts. Can there be anything that money won't buy?
But allmighty Lechat, in spite of his 50 millions francs, is powerless in front of death (his son is killed in a motor-car accident), as well as in front of love (his daughter Germaine rejects a "beautiful" marriage he just arranged and runs away with her moneyless lover, Lucien Garraud). Lechat, in a shakespearian final scene, is overwhelmed by the shattering of his plans, but overwhelmed especially by the mortal blow to his vanity[4].
[edit] Notes
- ^ Pierre Michel & J.-F. Nivet, Octave Mirbeau, l'imprécateur au cœur fidèle, Librairie Séguier, 1990, p. 709-723.
- ^ Philippe Baron, « La Technique dramatique d'Octave Mirbeau », in Octave Mirbeau, Presses de l'Université d'Angers, 1992, pp. 369-377.
- ^ Philippe Baron, « Les Corbeaux, d’Henry Becque, et Les affaires sont les affaires, d’Octave Mirbeau », Cahiers Octave Mirbeau, n° 8, 2001, p. 199-210.
- ^ Pierre Michel, Foreword, Éditions de Septembre-Archimbaud, 1994, p. 7-17.
[edit] Bibliography
- (French) Philippe Baron, « Les Corbeaux, d’Henry Becque, et Les affaires sont les affaires, d’Octave Mirbeau », Cahiers Octave Mirbeau, n° 8, 2001, p. 199-210.
- (French) Pierre Michel, Foreword to Les affaires sont les affaires, Éditions de Septembre-Archimbaud, 1994, pp. 7-17.
- (French) Pierre Michel, « Vauperdu, le premier manuscrit de Les affaires sont les affaires », Cahiers Octave Mirbeau, n° 10, pp. 233-255.
[edit] External links
- (French) Octave Mirbeau, Les affaires sont les affaires.
- (French) Pierre Michel's foreword.
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