“Change” of the Office in summary
The novel is written in the second person of the singular: the author, as it were, identifies the hero and the reader: “You put your left foot on the brass bar and vainly try to push the sliding door of the coupe with the right shoulder…”
Leon Delmon, the director of the Paris branch of the Italian firm Scabelli, which produces typewriters, secretly leaves for Rome and for a few days from his colleagues and family. On Friday at eight in the morning, buying a novel at the station to read on the road, he sits on the train and sets off. He was not used to going by the morning train – when he travels for business, he drives in the evening, and not the third class, as now, but the first. But the unusual weakness is explained, in his opinion, not only by the early hour – this age makes itself felt, because Leon is already forty-five. But, leaving an aging wife in Paris, Leon goes to Rome to a thirty-year-old mistress, next to whom she hopes to find a leaving
The decision to go to Rome came suddenly. On Monday, after returning from Rome, where he was on a business trip, Leon also did not think that he would soon go there again. He had long wanted to find a job for his mistress Cecil in Paris, but until recently did not take any serious steps in this direction. However, on Tuesday, he called one of his clients – the director of the travel agency Jean Durieux – and asked if he knew of any suitable place for the familiar Leon – a thirty-year-old woman of extraordinary abilities. Now this lady serves as secretary to the military attaché at the French embassy in Rome, but is ready to agree to a modest salary, just to return to Paris. Durie called the same evening and said, that he planned to reorganize in his agency and is ready to provide the work of the familiar Leon on very favorable terms. Leon took the liberty to assure Durie in agreement with Cecile. At first Leon thought of just writing Cecil, but on Wednesday, November thirteenth, the day when Leon turned forty-five and the festive dinner and the congratulations of his wife and four children caused him vexation, he decided to put an end to this prolonged farce, this established falsehood. He warned his subordinates that he would leave for a few days, and decided to go to Rome to personally inform Cecile that he had found her a place in Paris and that, as soon as she moved to Paris, they would live together. Leon is not going to arrange a scandal, no divorce, he will visit the children once a week and is confident that Henrietta will accept his terms. Leon looks forward, how happy Cecile would be to his unexpected arrival-to surprise her-he did not warn her-and how she would be even more pleased when she found out that from now on they would not have to meet occasionally and stealthily, and they could live together and not part. Leon thinks out the trifles, as on Saturday morning he will be waiting for her on the corner opposite her house and how she will be surprised when she leaves the house and suddenly sees him.
The train stops, and Leon decides, following the example of an English neighbor, to get off to the platform to breathe air. When the train starts, Leon again manages to sit down on his favorite place – the man who took it while Leon went to the dining car, met a friend and moved to another compartment. Opposite to Leon is a man reading a book and making notes on her fields, probably he is a teacher and is going to Dijon to give a lecture, most likely on questions of law. Looking at him, Leon tries to imagine how he lives, what his children are, compares his way of life with his own and comes to the conclusion that he, Leon, despite his material well-being, would be more worthy of pity than a teacher engaged in favorite thing, if not for Cecile, with whom he will begin a new life. Before Leon met Cecile, he did not experience such a strong love for Rome, only opening it for himself with her, he was imbued with a great love for this city. Cecil for him – the embodiment of Rome, and, dreaming of Cecile near Henrietta, he in the heart of Paris dreams of Rome. Last Monday, after returning from Rome, Leon began to imagine himself a tourist, arriving in Paris every two months, at most – once a month. To prolong the feeling that his journey is not yet complete, Leon did not dine at home and came home only in the evening. Just over two years ago, in August, Leon went to Rome. Opposite him in the compartment sat Cecil, with whom he was not yet familiar. He first saw Cecil in the dining car. They talked, and Cecil told him that her mother was Italian and was born in Milan, but is listed as a French subject and returns from Paris, where she spent her vacation. Her husband, who worked as an engineer at the “
Leon’s thoughts turn back to the past, now to the present, to the future, in memory of him, that old and recent events, the story follows random associations, repeats the episodes as they appear in the head of the hero – randomly, often incoherently. The hero often repeats: this story is not about events, but about how the hero perceives events.
Leon comes to mind that when Cecil is not in Rome, he will no longer go there on business trips with the same pleasure. And now he is going to talk to her about Rome for the last time – in Rome. From now on, Leon will become the two Romans, and he would like Cecil to give him most of her knowledge before she leaves Rome, until they were devoured by Parisian everyday life. The train stops in Dijon. Leon leaves the car to stretch his legs. So that no one takes his place, he puts on it a book he bought at the Paris station, which he still did not disclose. Back in the compartment, Leon recalls how a few days ago Cecile had accompanied him to Paris and asked when he would return, to which he replied: “Alas, only in December.” On Monday, when she again will see him off to Paris and again ask when he will return, he will again answer her: “Alas, only in December,” but not in a sad, but joking tone. Leon is dozing off. He dreams of Cecil, but her face was frozen with a look of mistrust and reproach that struck him so much when they said good-bye at the station. And is it not because of that that he wants to part with Henrietta, that in every movement, in every word, there is an eternal reproach? Waking up, Leon recalls how two years ago he also woke up in a compartment of the third class, but on the contrary. he was dozing off Cecile. Then he did not know her name yet, but still, taking her in a taxi to the house and saying goodbye to her, he was sure that sooner or later they would meet. And it is true that a month later he accidentally met her at the cinema, where the French film was going. At that time, Leon stayed in Rome for the weekend and with pleasure looked around his sights with Cecile. Thus began their meetings.
Inventing his fellow travelers biography, Leon begins to choose their names. Looking at the newlyweds, whom he christened Pierre and Agnes, he remembers how he once went along with Henrietta, not suspecting that one day their union would be a burden to him. He ponders when and how to tell him that he decided to part with her. A year ago Cecil came to Paris, and Leon, explaining to Anrietta that she was associated with her in the service, invited her into the house. To his surprise, the women got on very well, and if anyone felt uncomfortable, it was Leon himself. And now he has an explanation with his wife. Four years ago, Leon was in Rome with Henrietta, the trip was unsuccessful, and Leon asks himself if he would have loved his Cecil so much if they had not been preceded by this ill-fated trip.
Leon comes to mind that if Cecil moves to Paris, their relationship will change. He feels that he will lose her. Probably, he had to read the novel – because he bought it at the station for that, to pass the time on the road and not to give doubts to settle in his soul. After all, although he never looked at the author’s name or title, he did not buy it at random, the cover indicated that he belonged to a certain series. The novel undoubtedly refers to a man who is in trouble and wants to be saved, starts on the road and suddenly discovers that the road chosen by him is not leading where he thought he was lost. He realizes that settling in Paris, Cecil will be much farther away from him than when she lived in Rome, and will inevitably be disappointed. He realizes that she will reproach him for what he has done, that his most decisive step in life turned into a defeat, and that sooner or later they will part. Leon imagines that on Monday, when he sits on a train in Rome, he will be glad that he did not tell Cecile about the work she found for her in Paris and about the apartment offered for the time of her friends. This means that he does not need to prepare for a serious conversation with Henrietta, because their life together will continue. Leon recalls how, together with Cecile, went to Rome after her unsuccessful arrival in Paris, and on the train told her that he would never leave Rome, to which Cecile replied that she would like to live with him in Paris. In her room in Rome hang the views of Paris, just as in the Paris apartment of Leon hang the views of Rome, but Cecil in Paris is as unthinkable and not necessary to Leon, as Henrietta in Rome. He understands this and decides nothing to say to Cecile about the place,
The closer Rome is, the harder Leon is in his decision. He believes that he should not mislead Cecil and before leaving Rome should tell her directly that although this time he came to Rome only for her, this does not mean that he is ready to forever associate his life with her. But Leon is afraid that his confession, on the contrary, will inspire hope and trust in her, and his sincerity will turn into a lie. He decides this time to give up his appointment with Cecile, since he did not warn her about his arrival.
In half an hour the train will arrive in Rome. Leon picks up a book that he never opened for the whole trip. And he thinks: “I must write a book, only in this way I can fill the emptiness that has arisen, I have no freedom of choice, the train takes me to the final stop, I am bound hand and foot, doomed to roll on these rails.” He understands that everything will remain the same: he will still work with Scabelli, live with his family in Paris and meet with Cecile in Rome, Leon will not say a word to Cecile about this trip, but she will gradually understand that the path of their love does not lead anywhere. Several days that Leon is to spend alone in Rome, he decides to devote his books to writing, and on Monday night, without seeing Cecile, he will board a train and return to Paris. He finally understands, that in Paris Cecil would become another Henrietta and in their joint life the same difficulties would arise, only more painful, since he would constantly recall that the city that she should have brought closer to him was far away. Leon would like to show in his book what role Rome can play in the life of a man living in Paris. Leon is thinking about how to make Cecil understand and forgive him that their love turned out to be a fraud. Only a book can help here, in which Cecile appears in all its beauty, in the halo of Roman grandeur, which she so fully embodies. The most sensible thing is not to try to reduce the distance separating these two cities, but in addition to the real distance there are also direct transitions and points of contact, when the hero of the book, strolling around from the Parisian Pantheon,
The train approaches Termini station, Leon recalls how, right after the war, she and Henrietta, whilst returning from the honeymoon, whispered when the train left Termini station: “We will return again as soon as we can.” And now Leon mentally promises Henrietta to return with her to Rome, because they are not so old. Leon wants to write a book and revitalize for the reader the decisive episode of his life – a shift that took place in his mind, while his body moved from one station to another by the flashing scenery outside the window. The train arrives in Rome. Leon leaves the compartment.
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