The Other Side of the Mountain by Michel Bernanos
"The Other Side of the Mountain" is a novel by French author Michel Bernanos, notable for being the only work he published under his real name. The story follows a young narrator who, after a night of heavy drinking, impulsively joins a French galleon bound for the gold mines of Peru. His journey quickly descends into chaos when the ship encounters calm seas, leading to dire food shortages and ultimately cannibalism among the crew. The captain's death leaves the narrator and the ship's cook, Toine, as unlikely survivors, barricaded in the galley.
As they drift in a surreal ocean environment, they encounter strange phenomena, including bizarre landscapes and unearthly sea creatures. Their hopes rise upon spotting land, only to discover a hauntingly eerie setting filled with lifelike human statues, carnivorous plants, and an otherworldly landscape. As they journey toward a mountain, the narrator and Toine face the terrifying reality that they are becoming part of the chilling tableau of despair. The novel explores themes of survival, the human condition, and existential dread, culminating in a haunting reflection on existence itself.
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Subject Terms
The Other Side of the Mountain
First published:La Montagne morte de la vie (1967; English translation, 1968)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Fantasy—Magical Realism
Time of work: An indeterminate time, probably the seventeenth or eighteenth century
Locale: The Atlantic Ocean and an unearthly body of land
The Plot
The Other Side of the Mountain was published posthumously and was the only book French author Michel Bernanos published under his real name. The son of well-known novelist Georges Bernanos, Michel published thrillers and an adventure novel under pseudonyms.
The novel’s narrator is a young man, barely eighteen years old. During a night of heavy drinking, he decides to sign on with a French galleon destined for the gold mines of Peru. Emerging from the previous night’s drunkenness on the ship’s deck, the boy responds sluggishly to the orders of the boatswain. For this offense, he is keel-hauled. He avoids drowning only because the ship’s captain happens by and intervenes to save him.
Coming to, the young man finds himself in the charge of Toine, the ship’s cook, who claims to be neither kind nor hard-hearted. The boy finds Toine to be a loyal companion, and life on the ship becomes bearable. The voyage, however, goes badly. The ship hits a dead calm and is stranded in mid-ocean. Despite careful rationing, the ship’s provisions run out, and the crew members are reduced to cannibalism. When the captain attempts to restore order, he is killed.
Meanwhile, the cabin boy and Toine barricade themselves in the galley, observing the behavior of the crew with horror and barely surviving on provisions Toine has set aside for such an emergency.
Suddenly a wind appears, followed by rain, which provides fresh water. In the captain’s absence, Toine takes charge, asserting much-needed leadership despite his lack of navigation skills.
A storm strikes, and the ship’s crew, with the exception of Toine and the narrator, is lost. Although they are not lost, neither are Toine and the narrator saved. They find themselves adrift in a strange sea under strange stars surrounded by unearthly sea creatures and unearthly silence. The sun and sky are red and equally alien.
The hopes of the two men are buoyed when they sight a mountainous body of land on the horizon. This land also proves to be bizarre, with red powdery beaches that melt into the water, making it bloodlike; a village full of lifelike human statues frozen into eternal despair; carnivorous flowers; and forests full of trees that kneel in prayer to a mysterious rhythmic heartbeat somewhere deep in the earth.
The two men journey up to the largest of the mountains, passing more human statues and slowly turning more stonelike themselves. Finally, they come to a crater in which, floating in a lake of blood, is a blue eye with a huge black pupil, trained on them. Retreating, they join the other statues and are frozen in time, with only their tears to make existence bearable.