Memories of a Rose: Love Saint-Exupery. View from the side of Consuelo

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Antoine Saint-Exupery's books are full of tenderness. How quivering are his words in the “Planet of People” about the fate of almost every young girl: “They give him their heart - a wild garden, and he only likes mowed lawns. And the fool takes the princess into slavery. Yes, that is often the case. And, reading these lines, you firmly believe that the pilot who created the Little Prince is not at all such a fool. However, speaking beautifully does not mean confirming one's posture with deeds, as the story of the novel by Saint-Exupery and his wife Consuelo shows.

Most often, she is remembered, pitying the famous writer. He loved her so passionately - and suffered so much. Consuelo was known for her hysterical disposition, emotional instability, she even lay with a nervous breakdown in a psychiatric clinic. The life of Antoine and Consuelo was full of scandals and - on his part - bright romantic gestures. At least that's what Antoine's own version looks like. But any love story can be told by two, and from Consuelo's side, the story does not look so straightforward.

Rich, educated, beloved

Consuelo Sunxin was born in El Salvador to a family of wealthy landowners. As if in a fairy tale, she was one of three daughters. And, probably, the one who is destined to marry the king one day. At the age of 19, Consuelo received a grant to study English and came to San Francisco. It was here that she met her first husband, a Mexican, a simple clerk from a paint warehouse. The marriage was unsuccessful, the couple soon began to live separately, and then Consuelo was widowed - her husband died in an accident on the railway. However, even before that, Consuelo spoke of his death. In Latin America, it was a shame to be a divorced woman, a widow much more decent. True, according to Consuelo, her husband died during the Mexican Revolution. He died heroically.

Consuelo, 22, left San Francisco. She moved to Mexico City, enrolled in jurisprudence, but soon became interested in journalism and moved to another faculty. In Mexico City, she also did not stay long - she went to study in France. It was there that she got married a second time. Her chosen one was the Guatemalan diplomat, a well-known writer in Latin America and also a journalist Enrique Gomez-Carrillo. The marriage was happy, but less than a year after the wedding, Enrique died of a stroke, and Consuelo became a widow twice.

Consolation could be that, as the widow of a diplomat and famous writer, Consuelo was well provided for. She adopted Argentine citizenship and received a good pension for her deceased husband. In addition, she inherited his fortune and residence in Buenos Aires, gave a lecture on his work and biography for royalties. Arriving in Buenos Aires to give such a lecture, she met Saint-Exupery. That is, she was introduced. She is well educated, rich and young, he is a nobleman, at the beginning of his fame and also young. Ideal to start a romance.

How to humiliate a Catholic woman

If, at the time of Consuelo's life, psychologists had already studied the behavior of house tyrants with psychopathic inclinations and wrote several books with warnings, one would suspect that Consuelo wrote Antoine's behavior according to them. As we already know, sometimes she could well lie in a big way: so that she would not just become a widow, but as a result of the Mexican Revolution, for example. But there have not been such books yet, the very topic of psychopathic behavior in the family has not been discussed by anyone, so it remains only to come to terms with the fact that if Consuelo lied in her memories, in general she wrote from nature and very reliably.

For starters, Saint-Exupery did not force her to leave after they were introduced. Everything looked on the verge of decency: he pushed the woman into a chair and completely blocked her from getting off of it, although she repeated several times that it was time for her to go. Thus, he squeezed out of her consent to fly with him and two more acquaintances to go on an airplane right now. Already in the plane, he moved on to the next stage of rapprochement: he made the plane roll and drop sharply, extorting a kiss. Like, otherwise he will now crash the plane on the ground. His demeanor was so far removed from what was considered in deeply Catholic Latin America as romantic and affectionate courtship as much as possible, and Consuelo refused over and over again.

Then Saint-Exupery changed tactics and began to sob. In general, he sobbed easily, no mean man's tears. Once - and tears flow down the face in streams. "You don't want to kiss me because I'm ugly!" Antoine was really not very handsome. Heroic growth was his only virtue. In general, Saint-Exupery used a technique that, according to the classification of modern pick-up artists, is the first step to sex out of pity. And Consuelo wavered. She kissed him. From this began their relationship, painful, cruel, causing Consuelo and nervous breakdowns, which she did not know before meeting Antoine.

She quickly agreed to the marriage. To celebrate, Saint-Exupery promised to buy her the largest diamond in Buenos Aires. Not bought, of course, he just really loved beautiful and loud words. Instead, he continued to push Consuelo, and now talk about a wedding disappears somewhere. What for? After all, he already lives with her. No, Consuelo's wedding, of course, is not profitable, she loses the right to everything that gave her, cynically speaking, the death of her previous husband. But, on the other hand, cohabitation with a man covers even an adult woman, a widow, with such a shame that only a wedding can wash away.

So far, Consuelo is only trying on the role of the wife of a genius. Antoine showers her with compliments and kisses, and then declares that it is necessary to work on the book, but … In general, it breaks down. And she, shouldering the responsibility for his, in fact, work, takes him by the hand into the study, begs him to write, in the morning collects the sheets of paper covered with writing.

Finally, it comes to registering with the city hall. The lovers come. Consuelo dictates his name, his address. Antoine … is crying. What's the matter? He cannot marry so far away from his family. A touching scene. Only such an act is a public slap in the face of a Catholic woman. She not only began to live with a man before the wedding - in front of strangers from this wedding, speaking symbolically, he ran away, out loud refused to marry. Consuelo is humiliated, but before Antoine's tears, she also feels guilty. After all, when a man cries - it's serious.

Married to a genius

Saint-Exupery still has no intention of giving up his new toy, toy number two. Number one was the plane for him. Large, overweight, he, in fact, was poorly suited to the pilots of those plywood airplanes that he drove. He constantly got into accidents, but was not going to abandon aviation. If he wanted something, he definitely got it, by hook or by crook. All his life, planes remained number one for him. Only then - Consuelo, a toy that amused him when he had to stand with his feet on the ground.

Antoine leaves for France and takes Consuelo with him. There, in France, he formalizes their union. He, in fact, was hardly going to refuse marriage, it was important for him only to once again show his power over a woman, over circumstances - that was what that act was in the city hall of Buenos Aires.

Naturally, marriage does not change his life in any way. He got himself Consuelo not because he dreamed of starting a family with her. Family life was not for Antoine at all. So his life went on as usual, as before the wedding. Parties, endless fleeting and, moreover, quite carnal romances with women, posing in the glory of the hero of the sky and the famous writer. Consuelo did not remain in debt. Upon learning of another betrayal, she promised to stab him one day. She left at night in bars. Threatened with suicide - naturally, not intending to commit suicide, hoping to somehow break through his frivolity, almost indifference towards her. Antoine flaunted his concern about Consuelo as well as writing and piloting airplanes. In the meantime, he himself could calmly not show at home for weeks and not give any news about himself.

Consuelo responded by falling in love with other men. Not like Antoine - she was looking for a long relationship, someone to whom she could go. Antoine, noticing a man in her life, acted immediately and cunningly cut off everyone. Without her income, without a man to take care of, Consuelo could not leave, she was locked. Meanwhile, thousands of women were jealous of her - after all, she was the wife of a genius! Thousands of women without the dozens, of course, who slept with her husband.

Wife and not wife

Once Saint-Exupery disappeared from Consuelo's life for a year. And then he just told her to come to America, to New York. God knows why, but he needed his toy number two again. He himself did not even bother to meet his spouse - he was met by his friend. And not with words of cordiality - with instructions. You dare not talk to anyone, especially journalists.

- Can you hear me? He forbids you to speak, to give any interviews. Listen to me well. The journalists are about to show up with their cameras. I will tell them that you do not understand either English or French. You are deaf and dumb. Otherwise Tonio will send you, I don't know where. Tonio will not forgive you if you speak.

The husband meets Consuelo very coldly, harshly interrogates with whom she spoke on the way from the plane to him, whether she did not speak for sure. Then he stops talking. In the taxi, they don't say a word to each other. And what should they talk about - after a year's separation, which, moreover, fell on the Second World War?

In the evening, Antoine brings his wife to a party and she sees food. Bread, butter, various treats … She had just finished eating dried crusts in France. Her husband at this time in New York lived comfortably. After the party, it turns out that Consuelo will be living in the same hotel, but in a different room. Otherwise, she interferes with her husband. After all, he has constant parties in his room, women … But Consuelo found a job. The job gave her new acquaintances, possible financial independence. If she dared, she could break up with her husband. But after so many years it is very difficult to decide together. So far, she asks her husband to find her accommodation in a different hotel.

Oddly enough, Antoine agrees. Arranges cute housewarming. Will Consuelo be free soon? But he continues his games. Crammed into dinners for two, but he himself does not come. Consuelo finds him in a cheerful company in a cafe. During the day, she demonstrates indifference, which drives her to despair. At night, she burns with tenderness, confesses her love, instilling in her the belief that one day their relationship will become normal. And it changes, it changes endlessly.

Who knows how these endless games would have ended, but Antoine once again let down toy number one. Now as cruel as ever. The plane crashes. Antoine goes missing. Only in our time are the wreckage of his plane and the bracelet from his hand found near Marseille. And then - complete uncertainty. Maybe the creator of the Little Prince just took off to the stars and got lost between them?

A beautiful end to a beautiful legend about a brave pilot, a gentle soul who knew how to understand people and the beauty of the world so well and so selflessly, patiently, tenderly love such an unbearable woman like Consuelo. True, Consuelo knew how to write - and wrote "Memories of a Rose." The rose was she, thrown by her Prince, and failed to become the only one out of thousands. But who would believe a woman who, for some reason, threw tantrums to her husband, and even lay in a psychiatric hospital …

Her story is also one of thousands. It is worth remembering about 20 years of hard labor, a bullet from the author of "Scarlet Sails" and other life vicissitudes of Ekaterina Bibergal, beloved of Alexander Green.