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Book Review: Astérix: Le Papyrus de César
The publication of Julius Cæsar’s Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Commentaries on the Gallic War) made a sensation in Rome and amplified the already exalted reputation of Cæsar. Unknown before now, the original manuscript included a chapter which candidly recounted the Roman army’s failure to conquer the Gauls of Armorique, home of the fierce warrior Astérix, his inseparable companion Obélix, and the rest of the villagers whose adventures have been chronicled in the 35 volumes preceding this one. On the advice of his editor, Bonus Promoplus, Cæsar agreed to remove the chapter chronicling his one reverse from the document which has come down the centuries to us.
Unfortunately for Promoplus, one of his scribes, Bigdata, flees with a copy of the suppressed chapter and delivers it to Doublepolémix, notorious Gallic activist and colporteur sans frontières, who makes the journey to the village of the irréductibles in Armorique.
The Roman Empire, always eager to exploit new technology, has moved beyond the slow diffusion of news by scrolls to newsmongers like Rézowifix, embracing wireless communication. A network of Urgent Delivery Pigeons, operated by pigeon masters like Antivirus, is able to quickly transmit short messages anywhere in the Empire. Unfortunately, like the Internet protocol, messages do not always arrive at the destination nor in the sequence sent….
When news of the missing manuscript reaches Rome, Prompolus mounts an expedition to Gaul to recover it before it can damage the reputation of Cæsar and his own career. With battle imminent, the Gauls resort to Druid technology to back up the manuscript. The story unfolds with the actions, twists, and turns one expects from Astérix, and a satisfying conclusion.
This album is, at this writing, the number one best-selling book at Amazon.fr.
Ferri, Jean-Yves and Didier Conrad. Astérix: Le Papyrus de César. Vanves, France: Editions Albert René, 2015. ISBN 978-2-86497-271-6.
Reading the Asterix books got me interested in the history of Rome when I was a kid.
That sounds hysterical. I didn’t realize they were still producing Asterix books.
I had the one where Asterix and Obelix have to complete the trials of Hercules. The scene where they try to navigate the bottomless pit of Roman bureaucracy in order to secure a permit was always a favourite of mine.
Some purists argue that the new volumes, written and illustrated by successors of the creators (René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo) don’t come up to the standard they set but the series has always been uneven. I’m glad they’re still being published.
In grade school, I borrowed and read some Asterix from a British kid. There was an unofficial waiting list whenever he had those books.
Excellent! You are inspiring me to start collecting all the Asterix books (now that I’ve got all the Tintin books and most of the Blake and Mortimer books).
Excellent! Let me know when you’ve collected them. I’d like to borrow them.
Someone mentioned to me today how Julius Caesar started the tradition of wannabe politicians publishing self-glorifying books as a campaign tactic.
Just one more reason to loathe the sucka.
The original Smurfs books are also underrated. One could argue that Les Schtroumpfs noirs was the first modern zombie story, as that story was published (in comic strip form) nearly a decade before Night Of The Living Dead.
What Hanna-Barbera eventually did to them was a grave injustice (though the first season was pretty faithful to the original material).
;-)
He’s the one whose book still exists, mainly because two thousand years later, it’s still a great read. Plus, there are inscriptions in Egypt assuring the ages that “the Pharoah rocks.”
The fact that his descendants ended up ruling the Empire didn’t hurt.
Yabbut, the Pharoah already was the Pharoah. He wasn’t campaigning for the office.
;-)
I need to Gettafix of some Asterix.
Getafix was the name of the druid in their tribe, wasn’t it?
EDIT: Yep.
How great was Caesar? Great enough to have his assassins in the mouths of the devil, along with Christ’s betrayer? You decide.
Great enough to have Asterix & Obelix mock him? I think so.
I remember some of these comic books from childhood. I don’t have any of them any more, but if I find any, I’ll buy the for my nephews. I think high-school was the last time I had the pleasant surprise of running into another guy who read them & loved them. I don’t think they were popular in Romania, but they must have sold–they were around for years when I was a kid.
Does anyone know whether any of the movies–I believe, M. Depardieu plays Obelix?–is any good?
Also, is this the first of the stories to be self-referntial–like the old Batman stories that turned around to be dealing with bad guys who apparently were less interested in crime than in uncovering the truth about the Batman?
Is this a work of fiction? He suffered several reverses and recounted them….
Your comment-
“Cæsar agreed to remove the chapter chronicling his one reverse…”
Is not correct in that; example- Due to poor reconnaissance, Caesar was completely surprised and ambushed by the Nervii, fighting a very tough battle that could have went either way….
He also clearly recounts his reverse ( defeat) at Gergovia. His attack was poorly planned and cost him the better part of 3 cohorts.
He also recorded reverses in his Civil War commentaries.
It’s a comic book. The premise of the fictional story is that Cæsar suppressed his failure to conquer the fictional village of Armorique to bolster his reputation. One of the running gags in Astérix (although not used much in this volume) is that Cæsar usually refers to himself in the third person, as in the Commentaries.
I think in the latter commentary he also gives a fine example of political judgment in reproducing the dialogue between some veterans & some new troops, concerning sacred oaths.
But I think this other business from the comic book hinges on a failure he could not put behind him–the last free Gauls are a living defiance as opposed to failures surmounted…
So many jokes I didn’t get at the time.
The names of the characters differ in the French and English editions.
The village druid is Panoramix in the original, and Getafix in English.
Obélix’s pet dog is Idéfix in French, Dogmatix in English.
The village chief is Abraracourcix (à bras raccourcis — “with arms up ready to fight”) in French, and Vitalstatistix in English. His wife is Bonnemine in French, Impedimenta in English.
The bard is Assurancetourix (Assurance tous risques meaning “comprehensive insurance”) in French, Cacofonix in English.
Naturally, there is a Wikipedia page which translates all of the characters of Astérix into the many languages in which the comic has been published.
Asterix was never as good as Tintin…but pretty good anyway. I grew up on them (beginning with the French versions when I was three, and could apparently follow both French and English…not anymore…) and then my kids grew up on them. They’re pretty politically incorrect, but they’re so well-done!
Minor correction: Armorique is not fiction, but refers to the region of Aremorica in what is now Brittany.
I haven’t read any Asterix since I convinced myself that I was Gaulish, myself.* Perhaps I should look into it.
*Based on too-good-to-verify linguistic evidence, I believe my RL last name to be derived from the Arverni tribe. I acknowledge that the evidence is shaky, but I don’t really care.
If you liked Tintin, you will probably like Blake and Mortimer, created by one of Hergé’s collaborators who worked on several of the best mid-period Tintin books. Very much the same style but quite a bit more wordy (often to a fault), and pitched to a slightly older audience.
And like Asterix, new volumes are being produced by a couple teams of new artists and writers. (And I think I like the newer ones better.)
I’ll bet this explains why I’m missing my copy of Le Sceptre d’Ottokar and some of the others.