Le Petit Nicolas

Nicolas again

Le petit Nicolas (Little Nicholas) was created by René Goscinny and illustrated by Jean-Jacques Sempé and it was published for the first time in 1959. Nicholas is an illustration of an ideal childhood and a nostalgic memory of the 1950s.

The humor of the books derives from their unique story-telling style: the adventures of Little Nicolas are told in the first person by Nicolas himself. On the one hand, the books are a parody of the story-telling habits of little children; for example, the author makes frequent use of stylistic features such as run-on sentences and employs an egocentric, naive point of view. On the other hand, adults are the targets of the books' humor when the straightforward and uncomplicated worldview of the child narrator exposes the flaws of adult perception. The subversive element in the Petit Nicolas thus made it an early example of modern children's literature that is centered around the experience of the child, rather than an adult interpretation of the world.

Characters

The characters from the French edition include (with names from the English translation in square brackets):

Nicolas (the main character) [Nicholas]: He is sensitive and attached to true values like friendship, love of one's parents and sense of justice.
Clotaire [Matthew]: "He's bottom of the class."
Alceste [Alec]: Nicholas' best friend, "he's fat and he eats all the time."
Eudes [Eddie]: "He's very strong and likes to punch our friends on the nose."
Geoffroy [Geoffrey]: "His dad is very rich and buys him everything he wants."
Agnan [Cuthbert]: He is ranked first in the class and is the teacher's pet and therefore nobody likes him.
Joachim [Jeremy]: He has got a little brother.
Maixent [Max]: He runs very fast because of his long legs.
Rufus (whose father is a policeman) [Rufus]: "He's got a cop's whistle."
Marie-Edwige [Mary-Jane]: "She's very nice".
Louisette [Louise]: The daughter of a friend of the mother of Nicolas, Nicholas wants to marry her.
Rex [Rex]: He is a stray dog that Nicolas found and his real name is Kiki.

Other characters include Nicolas's parents, as well as teachers and administrators in the school. The teacher is hard-working and loves the children, although they usually drive her crazy. The superintendent, Mr. Dubon, is known as "le Bouillon" ("Old Spuds").

When Nicolas is going to a camp for vacations, he and the other children are forced to take a nap. The supervisor decides to tell them a story about "a caliph who was a very good man but who had a very evil vizier...", which is a prelude to Goscinny's future comic series Iznogoud. The supervisor then tells about how the caliph dresses as a common man to find out what people think of him, and the evil vizier takes his place, which is the plot of one Iznogoud adventure.

As an example, in the French version of one particular story, an English student named George MacIntosh is enrolled in Nicolas' class. Because the name "George" in French (Georges) is pronounced with a soft "g" (like "su" in "measure"), the class has difficulty coming up with a nickname, but eventually decides on "Djodjo," playing with the hard "dj" sound. In the English version, George's nationality had to be changed; he became Flemish, and his nickname went from "Djodjo" to "Djocky".

In this version, the teacher M. Dubon (nicknamed "le Bouillon") becomes Mr. Goodman (nicknamed "Old Spuds" from his verbal tic of demanding the children 'look him in the eye' linked to the fact that Nicholas knows potatoes have eyes). In the French version of the story, M. Dubon gets his nickname from the concept of bubbles of fat resembling eyes rising to the surface of boiling broth ("bouillon").

French edition

Anne Goscinny, René Goscinny's daughter, recently found and gathered many original stories of Nicholas which were published by IMAV editions in 2004 and 2006. 1 million copies of those new books have been sold in France and they are enjoying a wide success abroad.

With more than 10 million copies sold in more than 30 countries, Nicholas is one of the best known French properties in the world.

English edition

An English edition with the title Young Nicolas was completed by Stella Rodway for Hutchinson & Co. in 1961. It was published in the USA by Bobbs-Merrill in 1962. The characters' names retain the French form. The title page lists the authors simply as "Sempé and Goscinny".

An English edition of the series, entitled Nicholas and containing anglicized character names, was released in 1978, translated by Anthea Bell. It was republished in 2005 by Phaidon Press. Four further volumes followed from Phaidon, ending with Nicholas in Trouble in 2008.

Nicholas was the subject of a Mildred L. Batchelder Honor for translated children's books in 2006 given by the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, and Nicholas and the Gang received the same honor in 2008.

Movie adaptation

For the first time, Le Petit Nicolas will be adapted into animated form (on TV) and live-action form (movie) in September 2009.

English books

Young Nicolas (Le petit Nicolas)
Nicholas (Le petit Nicolas)
Nicholas Again (Les récrés du petit Nicolas)
Nicholas on Holiday or Nicholas on Vacation (USA and Canada) (Les vacances du petit Nicolas)
Nicholas and the Gang (Le petit Nicolas et les copains)
Nicholas in Trouble (Le petit Nicolas a des ennuis)

External links

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