Terme de Glossaire

Subtitled ‘Roman de ma douzième année’ (Novel about my twelfth year), ‘War of the Buttons’ was published by Mercure de France in 1912. It tells the story of a war waged by two gangs of children in the French countryside, from two neighbouring villages, Verlans and Longeverne, where the trophies were the buttons ripped from the enemy’s clothing.

The author, Louis Pergaud was actually a primary school teacher in a small village and the book must have undoubtedly been based on the young, relatively uneducated peasants he frequented. In the novel, we find the often truculent, Rabelaisian, vengeful and nationalistic spirit that characterised French society of the time. Violent, nasty, and bordering on the perverse, Pergaud’s children are lucid: “Just imagine, when we’re grown up, we might be as stupid as they are!” These are the words the author puts in their mouths regarding their parents.

Born in 1882, he won the Prix Goncourt in 1910 for his work ‘De Goupil à Margot’. Louis Pergaud was reported missing on 8th April 1915 during an offensive on the Meuse front, in Marchéville. His body was never found.