"Leon's Wedding"

"The Wedding in Lyon" is the shortest piece in Zweig's collection of novels "Letter from a Strange Woman".

The story takes place in 1793, when a rebellion broke out in Lyon, France.

In response to the rebellion in Lyon, the French National Assembly proposed a bill to burn the entire city to the ground.

For a time, the city was filled with murders, rivers of blood, and the prisons were overcrowded. So the cellars of public buildings, schools and monasteries also became places where suspects were held.

Among the suspects in the cellar of the city hall is a young man named Robert, the son of a city official. The day when the turmoil occurred happened to be the day when Robert married his childhood sweetheart. As a member of Percy's army, he needed to fulfill his duties. Before he could get married, he followed the royalist general to break out. Then there was no news for several months. The bride can only pray that he crosses the border and escapes to Switzerland.

After that, various news came out that was difficult to distinguish between true and false. In order to rescue the groom, the bride ran around. When she learned that her groom was no longer alive, she took off her revolutionary badge and cursed Fouche, the "Executioner of Lyon". Finally, she was arrested and imprisoned for offending the powerful figures.

Life has no meaning for the bride at this time. The thought of meeting her beloved in another world soon fills her heart with joy and satisfaction.

However, at this moment, among the suspects held in the cellar, the bride saw her "dead" fiancé!

The excited bride told the inmates her ordeal. People who were tired, cold, and unfriendly a moment ago were so moved by the true love of this scene that they temporarily forgot their own fate and gathered around the newlyweds to express their congratulations or sympathy.

"But this excited girl proudly refused the pity of others. No, she was happy, completely happy, because she knew that she could go to hell with her beloved ***, and no one would There is no need to feel sorry for anyone. The only drawback is that she has not taken his last name and cannot go to see God as his real wife." So, a priest among the inmates expressed his willingness to do it for him. They performed the wedding ceremony and fulfilled her wish.

The bride’s excitement moved all the inmates, and people took action to decorate a simple altar using limited items. Even the guarding soldiers were infected. "They did not disturb them, just stood at the door and became silent witnesses of this special wedding."

"At this second, no one thought about death. , even people who feel death are no longer afraid of it.”

The most touching thing is that the inmates vacated one of the two cells as newcomers. In the wedding room, they spent their wedding night and the last night of their lives. All the others huddled willingly in the outhouses and waited quietly for them.

"They closed the door gently behind the newlyweds. No one dared to say an inappropriate joke about their wedding night, because their hearts were filled with a solemn emotion. Since You have no control over your own destiny, so why not do your best to bring happiness to others! Everyone is grateful for this wedding, because it relieves them and no longer thinks about the fate they are about to face. They lay scattered on the straw mats, either awake or asleep, until dawn. In this room with rising and falling breathing, not a single sigh was heard."

Finally, these people in prison. All the suspects were shot dead, and the miracle they expected never happened. As the author said, "Life is indeed full of wonderful things, but real miracles are rare."

Although this story is short, it touches the heartstrings. The girl's persistence and no hesitation in love not only moved the prisoners who were numb and indifferent under extraordinary circumstances, allowing them to face death calmly at the end of their lives, but also cleansed the vulgar souls of us in the materialistic world.

If you are immersed in materialistic values ??for a long time, your soul will inevitably become vulgar and greasy. The value of literature is that when we inevitably become greasy, literature can make us less vulgar.

Literary creation can have many themes, among which two enduring and arguably eternal themes are love and death.

Especially when the two are combined together, they often produce a tragic and gorgeous effect.

This is true at all times and in all countries.

The Chinese ones are like "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", and the foreign ones are like "Romeo and Juliet".

This seems to form a hint that perfect love is linked to death. Or only in fairy tales. Almost all fairy tales end with "From then on, the prince and princess lived a happy life."

As for ordinary people like us, we have to worry about food, rice, oil, salt, shit and urine. The prince and princess only need love. . If ordinary people in the world of fireworks only care about love, there will only be one ending that is self-evident.

It is precisely because of this that desperate and tragic love looks so colorful, like fireworks. The viewers only care about the beauty, while the cleaners only pay attention to the burned ashes and remaining garbage.

Despite this, love is still desirable.

Although no one has actually seen it.