Sueurs froides (Book) (1958)

Sueurs froides, by Boileau-Narcejac (Pierre Boileau and Pierre Ayraud [Thomas Narcejac], writing as Boileau-Narcejac

Also known as D’entre les mort (Among the Dead), The Living and the Dead, and Vertigo

Paris, France: Éditions Denoël, 1958

Originally published in 1954

List of main characters:

Roger Flavières, retired detective

Paul Gévigne, friend of Flavières

Madeleine Gévigne

Renée Sourange

Earlier this summer, I completed an online course about Alfred Hitchcock (TCM Presents The Master of Suspense: 50 Years of Hitchcock), which was taught by Dr. Richard L. Edwards of Ball State University, in collaboration with TCM and Canvas Network. One of the films that we discussed as part of the course was Vertigo. Its critical reputation has been elevated in recent years, but I have to admit that I didn’t enjoy it as much as other Hitchcock films. When I learned, however, that Vertigo is based on a French novel, I decided to read it and see what the original story was all about. I did indeed read the French paperback version pictured at right, but you can still find the English-language translation.

In the novel, an old childhood friend, Gévigne, contacts the retired detective Flavières for help in discovering what is happening to his wife, Madeleine, who appears to be lost in altered states part of the time. Gévigne expresses concern about her well-being because one of her relatives, Pauline Lagerlac, exhibited the same symptoms and committed suicide.

Flavières is reluctant at first. He is retired; he suffers from bouts of vertigo because he witnessed another police detective fall to his death while on the job. He wonders if Madeleine needs professional medical help and not a detective tracking her every move. But Gévigne is persistent. He wants to know more about his wife’s habits and daily excursions before he comes to any conclusions about her mental state or her intentions. Flavières agrees to help and soon finds himself falling in love with Madeleine Gévigne.

(This blog post about the novel Sueurs froides contains spoilers.)

The novel is divided into two parts, and one of the reasons for this division is the invasion and occupation of Paris during World War II: It introduces a major break in the personal recounting of events by Flavières and a break of four years in the narration. Another reason, one even more important to the plot, is that Flavières couldn’t help Madeleine Gévigne after all: She kills herself at the end of part one by throwing herself from a church tower.

Or does she? Part two picks up Flavières’s story and the possibility that Madeleine is alive after all, that Flavières left Paris with inaccurate memories of events surrounding the Gévignes. He is determined to find out the truth in part two.

Everything in the novel is described from Flavières’s perspective, and that vantage point is perfect for noir. The narrative unfolds from his point of view, which makes it easier to wonder if he is a reliable narrator. In part two, he visits Doctor Ballard, who suggests that he really isn’t mentally unfit, just in need of rest at a colleague’s health retreat near Nice. Before going to Nice, however, Flavières takes a detour to track down a woman he believes is Madeleine come back to life. When he insists on bringing up the past with her and asking her questions about the Gévignes, she calls him mad. And readers have to wonder if she (and not Doctor Ballard) might be right. The limited number of characters (the novel has only four main characters) means that Flavières interacts with very few other people, which makes it even harder to judge if his perspective is accurate.

Even the publication details of the novel are cloaked in a bit of mystery. It is written by two authors, Pierre Boileau and Pierre Ayraud. The latter uses a pen name (Thomas Narcejac) and, writing together, they use a hyphenated version of their names (Boileau-Narcejac). All these identities rolled into one author on the cover is something like the multiple identities taken on by one of the characters in Sueurs froides. The title of the novel has alternate titles in both French and English, again suggesting that identity is fluid.

For readers like me whose first language is English, this is one instance when I can recommend watching Hitchcock’s film Vertigo before reading the original story in French. I started learning French in kindergarten, and I am sorry to say that I haven’t kept it up like I wanted to, but it was fun to read the story in its original language. Remembering the plot of the film helped me, with my somewhat limited French, in reading the story.

And it’s a great story, much better in the original published version. Flavières is more tormented, more driven, more culpable than his counterpart, Scottie Ferguson, played by Jimmy Stewart, in Hitchcock’s film version. Flavières makes a much better noir protagonist.