Les Temps Nouveaux: a mirror of Belgium during the Second World War
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Published on 27.02.2022
The online article – comic book review » History can shake a whole country, even a peaceful village in the Belgian Ardennes. The plot of Temps Nouveau by Raives and Warnauts mainly relates the duality of the lifestyles of two brothers, Thomas and Charles, which almost everything opposes.
Maxime Corpataux
The plot begins with the return of the prodigal brother, Thomas, who has served for many years as a sailor in all the seas of the globe and as an agent with the Belgian Colony of the Congo. This arrival revives some family scars that are still little covered: Thomas and Alice, Charles’s wife, weren’t they madly in love?
But this protagonist has nothing to do with the good bourgeois morality of the fields in which his brother delights, he loves life and solidarity. Thus, it will not be alone that he will return to his native village, but accompanied by a Spanish Republican emigrant fleeing the grip of the Francoists. Everyone is surprised and talks. We even heard that he would have the idea of establishing a brothel to diversify his clientele! Or, Thomas has nothing to do with what people will say.
Moreover, the context no longer lends itself in accordance with pleasure and prosperities. Europe is beginning to succumb to the rise of fascism in all walks of life. Even Charles, the good notary seems to be familiar with the Rexistes (Belgian fascists), all this for a recovery of the Nation, in the sense of the ideas of Mauras.
Then comes the War. Belgium is occupied and must collaborate with the enemy. But the landing of the Allies changes the situation. As in France, the liberation of Belgium provoked an outburst of personal revenge and accusations at all costs: Alice, Charles’ wife, suffered the punishment of shearing, what a downfall. Thomas, he, by his convictions, helps the Americans to install a hospital and to secure the surroundings. But the air is not at the party in this family. Where did Charles the so-called collaborator go? After an investigation, it turns out that Charles had remained faithful to his country, but was playing a dangerous double game: he was a double agent for the Belgian resistance.
At the end of the hostilities, the small world of the peaceful village reunites and tries somehow to rejoice in the future. Because indeed, these are new times which are announced with the emancipation of the women, the end of the influence of the clergy in the company and of the more strengthened social claims.
Temps Nouveaux by Warnauts and Raives wonderfully illustrates a village of Epinal in deep and picturesque Belgium. The protagonists are nevertheless quite stereotyped between the communist prodigy son, a good brother, a reac notary, and the sister-in-law who chooses security over love. Despite everything, the plot pushes us to know the outcome, which is easily guessed, but which creates a sociological and philosophical fresco of a society at the dawn of the changes that only a war can bring about.
Technical sheet :
Title : The New Times
Authors: Raives and Warnauts
Editing: The Lombard
Kind: roman chart
Public: 12+
Published on : November 12, 2021
Number of pages: 128 pages