After Me Comes the Flood: From the author of The Essex Serpent

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We are witnessing a kind of individualization, impoverishment, detachment from context, self-centering without scruples. Après moi, le déluge" ( pronounced [apʁɛ mwa lə delyʒ]; lit. 'After me, the flood') is a French expression attributed to King Louis XV of France, or in the form " Après nous, le déluge" ( pronounced [apʁɛ nu lə delyʒ]; lit. 'After us, the flood') to Madame de Pompadour, his favourite. [1] It is generally regarded as a nihilistic expression of indifference to whatever happens after one is gone, [2] though it may also express a more literal forecasting of ruination. [3] Its meaning is translated by Brewer in the forms "When I am dead the deluge may come for aught I care", and "Ruin, if you like, when we are dead and gone." [4] Elegant, sinister and psychologically complex, After Me Comes the Flood is the haunting debut novel by Sarah Perry, the bestselling author of The Essex Serpent and Melmoth.

After Me Comes the Flood: From the author of The Essex

Elegant, sinister and psychologically complex, After Me Comes the Flood is the haunting debut novel by the bestselling author of The Essex Serpent and Melmoth. Mould, Michael (2011). The Routledge Dictionary of Cultural References in Modern French. Routledge. p.43. ISBN 978-0-203-83092-5. Karl Marx and Fyodor Dostoevsky apply the phrase in their writings to describe the selfishness and apathy of certain corrupting values. Sarah Grace Perry FRSL (born 28 November 1979) is an English author. She has had three novels published, all by Serpent's Tail: After Me Comes the Flood (2014), The Essex Serpent (2016) and Melmoth (2018). Her work has been translated into 22 languages. The phrase itself is in reference to the biblical flood [5] and is believed to date from after the 1757 Battle of Rossbach, which was disastrous for the French. [6] One account says that Louis XV's downcast expression while he was posing for the artist Maurice Quentin de La Tour inspired Madame de Pompadour to say: "Il ne faut point s'affliger; vous tomberiez malade. Après nous, le déluge." [7] [note 1] Another account states that the Madame used the expression to laugh off ministerial objections to her extravagances. [4] The phrase is also often seen as foretelling the French Revolution and the corresponding ruin brought to France. [8]Après moi le déluge" was adopted as the motto of the Royal Air Force 617 Squadron, which carried out the " Dambuster" raids on German dams in the Ruhr region on the night of 16–17 May 1943. Use italics (lyric) and bold (lyric) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part Sian Cain, Costa book award 2016 shortlists dominated by female writers, The Guardian, 22 November 2016. This was written from the perspective of a statue. I think it's about King Louis XV. He was the one who famously said "Apres moi le deluge" which means "after me come the floods." He was hated by the French people and his reign seeded the resentment towards the monarchy that eventually led to the French Revolution.

AFTER ME COMES THE FLOOD | Kirkus Reviews

Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. In this eerie debut novel from Perry ( Melmoth, 2018, etc.), now published in the U.S. for the first time, a man becomes lost in the woods only to be welcomed by a household of strange but passionate residents.

Stephen from Beloit, WiThe full phrase, "Apres moi le deluge," is translated (by Regina in the song) as "after me comes the flood." The history of this phrase is a bit muddled, but it usually means "I won't worry about the consequences, because after me, everything will be destroyed." Mostly-irrelevant history to follow: