Étude en anglais du roman Ensemble, C'est Tout d'Anna Gavalda

« Ensemble c’est Tout » d’Anna Gavalda

The author :

Anna Gavalda was born on the December 9th 1970 at Boulogne Billancourt near Paris.

In 1992, she received LivreInter’s price for her book “La plus belle lettre d’amour”. She taught French at College Nazareth near Paris.

In 2000, she received Le Grand Prix RTL Lire for her short stories “Je voudrais que quelqu’un m’attende quelque part”.

« Ensemble c’est tout » was published in 2004 and it sold in 2 040 000 copies. In 2007, Claude Berri adapted it to the cinema. The characters were acted by Audrey Tautou as Camille, Guillaume Canet as Franck, Laurent Socker as Philibert and Françoise Bertin as Paulette.

The characters :

It’s the story of four people who have nothing in common.

Camille is a 26 years old sensitive and discreet girl. She works the evening in a cleaning company “Touclean”. She has a talent : drawing. She looks melancholic and sad. She asks help to a couple of friends, Pierre and Mathilde Kessler. They lend a maid’s room under the roof to her. She accepts and she lives in this sad room, without heating nor toilet.

In the same building lives Philibert Marquet de la Durbellière.He is 36 and is an aristocrat who lives in a big Haussmann apartment which belongs to his family. He keeps it since his grandma’s death. He is shy and he stutters. He sells postcards in a museum. He accommodates Franck Lestafier, a 34 years old cook and the only leisure are the girls, his motorcycle and the visits to his grandmother Paulette.

Paulette is 83 years old and lives alone with her animals, and, when she breaks himself the hip and falls, she discourages to have to go to retirement home and panics at the idea of dying far from her garden and from her cats.

The story:

One day, Camille meets Philibert in front of their building, he forgot the entry code. He seems a good man to Camille and she invites him in her maid’s room for diner. He accepts and says he’ll bring picnic.

At the date, he dresses very nice and put a boater. He brings a basket picnic with coat of arms of his family on the dishes. He is surprised to see how the maid’s room looks like, without heating. They drink alcohol to warm themselves and try to know each other.

She tells him she works in an office and he answers he works in a museum as a conservator.

At the end of the diner, they become friends. Philibert is embarrassed to lie to Camille about his job and shyly, he tells her, he doesn’t really work in a museum but outside, to sell postcards. Camille confesses to him, she doesn’t really work in an office but she cleans it.

He is worried about Camille’s condition of life and some days after their diner, when the weather is very cold, he goes upstairs to see how she is.

He finds her with fever, sick and almost unconscious.

He carries her to his flat and in spite of his education and good dating manners, he undresses her without looking at her !

He calls a doctor and decides to keep Camille at his home until she heals.

But Franck doesn’t agree with Philibert.

He doesn’t want a third person lives with them especially a woman. He is very angry and he isn’t nice with Camille.

When Camille is no sicker, she returns working but she doesn’t want to return in her maid’s room alone. She becomes attached to Philibert and in spite of Franck, she feels good in the apartment.

She begins again to draw while Philibert tells her the history of France, with the kings and the queens.

About Christmas, Philibert goes to his family and Camille and Franck stay alone in Paris.

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