La Vicomtesse d’Éristal n’a pas reçu son balai mécanique

One of the last presentation inscriptions written by Jean Anouilh, six months before his death, in his final book. He addressed it to his friend Jean Raspail, the self-proclaimed “consul of Patagonia,” a title Anouilh himself had bestowed on him just after finishing Le Jeu du Roi (1976), one of his most emblematic texts.

La Vicomtesse d’Éristal…, an autobiographical account despite the author’s denials, looks back with humor on the first thirty years of his career — from his job in the complaints department of the Grands Magasins du Louvre, which he had taken to escape law school, to the premiere of Pauvre Bitos (first staged in 1956), one of the 47 plays in his repertoire. Of the play, he said: “[…] that’s the one where I really had fun; it caused a scandal at the time — Pauvre Bitos.” From his brief stint at the Grands Magasins, he retained two memories: the first “complaint” he had to handle, whose title this book faithfully reproduces from the wording received at the time by the complaints department, and the memorable remark made by the head of that department when the young Anouilh announced his departure: “A pity, Anouilh, for you had the makings of a fine complaints clerk.” No comment.