His killer was Fernand Bonnier de la Chapelle. Who was this twenty year old and what drove him to murder? Bénédicte Vergez-Chaignon paints a sympathetic portrait of the young idealist manipulated by local resistance leaders. As she tells Bonnier’s story, the author illuminates the imbroglio of North Africa’s competing political forces. She traces Bonnier’s short life, the assassination, his court-martial and execution within 48 hours, the subsequent judicial investigations which became bogged down in the complex rivalry between the Allies, the remnants of the Vichy regime, the Resistance and other factions. The story ends with Bonnier’s posthumous rehabilitation and recognition as a member of the French Resistance.
Bonnier’s biography reads like an absorbing novel, with its twists and turns, reconstructed dialogue and author’s acute observations. As well as being a tragic human story, It is an illuminating study of the convoluted political context of the affair, which will be unfamiliar to some Anglophone readers. It is an academically rigorous piece of original research, based in part on previously inaccessible family archives.
The book has been translated into English by Richard Carswell.
Bénédicte Vergez-Chaignon’s story of Darlan’s assassination was received in France as
* ‘a shocking book and a historian’s great work’ (Le Patriote Résistant)
* ‘a detailed enquiry … bordering on a detective novel which brings out the conspiratorial atmosphere reigning in Algiers in the wake of the Allied landing of 8 November 1942’ (Le Monde des Livres)
* it ‘shows the extent to which the 1940s were years of complete ambiguity’ (Le Figaro Littéraire)
* ‘Bénédicte Vergez-Chaignon, a meticulous historian, paints the portrait of a young idealist dying to wash away the stain of defeat’ (Midi Libre).
His killer was Fernand Bonnier de la Chapelle. Who was this twenty year old and what drove him to murder? Bénédicte Vergez-Chaignon paints a sympathetic portrait of the young idealist manipulated by local resistance leaders. As she tells Bonnier’s story, the author illuminates the imbroglio of North Africa’s competing political forces. She traces Bonnier’s short life, the assassination, his court-martial and execution within 48 hours, the subsequent judicial investigations which became bogged down in the complex rivalry between the Allies, the remnants of the Vichy regime, the Resistance and other factions. The story ends with Bonnier’s posthumous rehabilitation and recognition as a member of the French Resistance.
Bonnier’s biography reads like an absorbing novel, with its twists and turns, reconstructed dialogue and author’s acute observations. As well as being a tragic human story, It is an illuminating study of the convoluted political context of the affair, which will be unfamiliar to some Anglophone readers. It is an academically rigorous piece of original research, based in part on previously inaccessible family archives.
The book has been translated into English by Richard Carswell.
Bénédicte Vergez-Chaignon’s story of Darlan’s assassination was received in France as
* ‘a shocking book and a historian’s great work’ (Le Patriote Résistant)
* ‘a detailed enquiry … bordering on a detective novel which brings out the conspiratorial atmosphere reigning in Algiers in the wake of the Allied landing of 8 November 1942’ (Le Monde des Livres)
* it ‘shows the extent to which the 1940s were years of complete ambiguity’ (Le Figaro Littéraire)
* ‘Bénédicte Vergez-Chaignon, a meticulous historian, paints the portrait of a young idealist dying to wash away the stain of defeat’ (Midi Libre).
The Man Who Murdered Admiral Darlan: Vichy, the Allies and the Resistance in French North Africa
228
The Man Who Murdered Admiral Darlan: Vichy, the Allies and the Resistance in French North Africa
228
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781032520995 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
| Publication date: | 01/30/2025 |
| Series: | Routledge Studies in the Modern History of France |
| Pages: | 228 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d) |