r/bookclub • u/nicehotcupoftea World Reader Leader | 🎃🧠🥇 • 27d ago

Parisian Days [Discussion 2/3] Bonus Book: Parisian Days by Banine: A Tale of the Unexpected through The Great Parisian Future

Hello readers, welcome back to the second discussion of Parisian Days. Today we are discussing from A Tale of the Unexpected through The Great Parisian Future. Last week u/lazylittlelady left us on a cliffhanger, wondering what was going to break the monotony for Banine - let’s find out what it was!

A summary of this section follows and questions will be in the comments. Next week u/tomesandtea will lead us through to the end of Banine’s Parisian adventure.

Links:

Schedule

Marginalia (includes RtW Azerbaijan)

5 Ways White Russian Émigrés Influenced French Culture

A Tale of the Unexpected

Cousin Gulnar breaks the monotony with her surprise arrival and exuberant personality. Banine and Gulnar move into a furnished apartment together, and Gulnar sets upon her task of finding Banine a lover. Gulnar makes friends with a Russian taxi driver, Colonel Nikolai Karpov. Banine learns that Gulnar has a “husband”, Otto von X, who is always away on business and seems to be financing her lifestyle. She spends her days shopping, and employs a heavily drinking maid, Clémentine. Otto eventually arrives; he is elegant and sophisticated, but prone to jealousy. He stays a month and on his last night, they visit a Russian nightclub, where émigrés listen to nostalgic songs and shed a tear for the homeland. Later, a jazz song reminds Banine of the sound of the drumbeat of mourning back in Baku, where penitents flagellate themselves. When Otto leaves, he begs her to be faithful, and her promise satisfies him. Gulnar immediately plans a party at the Josévous’s to celebrate his departure, and invites Colonel Nikolai Karpov to spice things up. One of Gulnar’s admirers, Almeria, after drinking heavily, threatens Nikolai with a sword. Another guest, Jérôme de Labusserie, a friend of Murad, watches on, and as Gulnar becomes more flamboyant, Banine feels like an onlooker.

White Emigration in the Wake of the October Revolution

Banine writes about the massive, diverse group of Russians who fled to Paris after the revolution and civil war. These people included Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Ukrainians, Chechens and many others. Nobody knows the exact count, which could be anywhere from 2 to 10 million, because so many people crossed borders unofficially, didn't register, or married quietly. They came from every social class, making dangerous border crossings. After a Soviet decree in 1921 stripped the émigrés of their nationality, the Nansen passport was created in Geneva, where refugees regained legal status and could seek assistance. Many famous names were amongst them: Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Kschessinska and a dozen members of the Tolstoy family. Many of the émigrés were deeply unhappy, pining for their homeland. Musicians like Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff found it hard to compose with their homeland lost. Some refused to return, but also refused to fit in, living in their own bubbles and blaming the locals for their troubles. Banine suggests that the excess of foreigners may have been the tipping point for French hospitality. She notes that Russian men were more likely to marry French women than vice versa. But overall, the majority of Russians preferred to marry Russians. They set up large numbers of schools for their children to create a little Russia, published many newspapers and books, and worked in varied jobs, often for the first time. Hundreds joined the army and were later involved in the Resistance. Banine reflects on how quickly war can tear a society apart, noting that calling the October Revolution a "turning point" really ignores the actual human suffering behind it. While many people found a way to move on, her father never did. She moves on to discuss her own group of emigrants, the Caucasians. Many came from wealthy oil families, like one uncle who spent his entire fortune just so his nephews couldn't touch it. Those nephews struggled because they wouldn't take on manual labour. She even jokes about the Georgians who kept claiming royal titles even though their throne had been gone for years. On the other side, she notes that the Armenians were much better at adapting since they’d already been through so much persecution.

Banine didn't feel like she fit in with the Russians, who held onto a dead past and their homeland. For some reason, the Caucasus didn't mean much to her, and she felt comfortable in the West. She mentions seeing New Year's greetings in a 1970 newspaper from Russian military groups. These people had left Russia 50 years ago, but they were still organised by the old Russian military and social structures. Banine then talks about how Russian émigrés reacted to the German occupation of France. Most stayed neutral, which was the safe bet, while many joined the resistance because they felt they had to defend Russia even abroad, and some sided with France against the Germans. Then there were the collaborators, who either wanted to destroy Bolshevism or saw a way to get rich by working with the German army. These reactions just depended on their own personal situations and character.

The Great Russian Future

The two men in Gulnar's life could not have been more different; Nikolai Karpov was a true white émigré, and Jérôme de Labusserie was a true Frenchman. Nikolai was quintessentially Russian, handsome, stupid and uncultured, whereas Jérôme, her stand in lover, was civilised, delicate and cultured, trying to polish Gulnar into a beautiful creature. Banine's jealousy was enormous, feeling inferior to her cousin. Meanwhile, Nikolai was jealous of Otto. Gulnar asks Jérôme to find Banine a lover, and he introduces them to a distant cousin, a provincial surgeon called Lucien Grandot . She finds him attractive but irritating. He gently tries to seduce her, but his banality nauseates her. Eventually his seductive charm wins her over and she lets him hold her hand one night after having dined alone. At his hotel room, she rejects his advances, telling him she finds him disgusting; she goes to leave, but he takes her to bed. This time she gives in. While she felt pleasure at his touch, she dislikes everything else about him. Grandot invites them to his home in Orléans, and Banine feels a sudden sense of being out of place in France. Grandot repulsed her and brought out the worst in her. She grows more and more depressed as Otto’s arrival looms, and Nikolai becomes increasingly jealous. Gulnar tries to calm Nikolai's jealousy by putting on a more distant attitude towards Otto when he arrives, like her role model, Mathilde de la Mole. This worries Otto, who asks Banine if Gulnar has been cheating on him. She doesn't feel able to tell him the truth. The next day, Nikolai turns up drunk with Jérôme to claim his rights to Gulnar. She tells him to leave and Otto cries because Nikolai is young and handsome and he knows that it is only his money attracting Gulnar. Jérôme advises Gulnar to be more careful when selecting lovers; her time would be better spent working on her cultural education. She takes that advice, cultivating herself for a month, until…

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