Yellow Tapers for Paris
| Industry | Publishing |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | London , United Kingdom |
| Products | Books |
Yellow Tapers for Paris is a 1943 novel authored by the Scottish writer Bruce Marshall.
Plot summary
Set against the backdrop of France's 1940 defeat, the novel attributes this downfall primarily to the nation's own spiritual and ethical deterioration rather than exclusively blaming German military action.
The central figure, Bigou, is a principled yet non-religious and ethically complex accountant employed at a thriving industrial company in Paris. He uncovers that numerous enterprises, including his employer, partake in deliberate tax avoidance schemes. Through Bigou's encounters with coworkers and other firms, the story reveals extensive corporate malpractice in France before the war.
Bigou's family life introduces his resolute daughter Odette and his ill wife Marie, alongside his acquaintances, illustrating a society preoccupied with wealth and indulgence. Although religion is largely ornamental, Bigou holds a local priest in high regard for his genuine character.
The narrative draws a distinction between the bewildered middle class and the avaricious, shrewd upper class. Marshall offers a critique of France’s ethical decline, particularly among its leaders and clergy, who favored social standing and material gain over spiritual values. This moral erosion resulted in both spiritual and financial hardship for ordinary citizens.
Symbolism
The yellow tapers (yellow candles) serve as symbols of Catholic funeral ceremonies, underscoring the novel’s themes of demise and deterioration.
Yellow Tapers for Paris & Suite Française
Observers have identified similarities between Marshall’s Yellow Tapers for Paris and Irène Némirovsky’s Suite Française, both composed during the same era but differing in scope—Marshall’s concluding prior to occupation and Némirovsky’s extending through it. Both novels feature protagonists connected to finance.
Despite these resemblances, there is no implication of plagiarism; Némirovsky’s manuscript remained unpublished until 1998. Both writers were Catholic converts living in Paris as expatriates during the Nazi invasion, established novelists by 1940, and parents to daughters of comparable ages. Each fled from the Nazi advance and wove these experiences into their literary works.
Marshall’s background was in financial accounting, whereas Némirovsky hailed from a banking family. Although contemporaries active within Paris’s literary circles with overlapping timelines and professions, there is no documentation that they ever met.