Le Silence de la mer (), English titles Silence of the Sea and Put Out the Light, is a French novella written in 1941 by Jean Bruller under the pseudonym "Vercors". Published secretly in German-occupied Paris in 1942, the book quickly became a symbol of mental resistance against German occupiers. The German officer is a former composer, dreaming of brotherhood between the French and German nations, deluded by the Nazi propaganda of that period. He is disillusioned when he realizes the real goal of the German army is not to build but to ruin and to exploit. He then chooses to leave France to fight on the Eastern Front, cryptically declaring he is "off to Hell".
English translation
The book was translated into English by Cyril Connolly and published in 1944 under the title Put Out the Light. Connolly's translation was reprinted in a bilingual edition in 1991 titled Silence of the Sea.
Le Silence de la Mer, a French–Belgian TV adaptation, was directed by Pierre Boutron and screened in 2004.
In 2013, a new English version by Anthony Weigh was staged at the Trafalgar Studios theatre in London as part of the Donmar Trafalgar season, starring Leo Bill, Simona Bitmate, and Finbar Lynch. Simon Evans directed.
See also
- Underground media in German-occupied Europe
- Code Name Melville
- French Resistance
- Le Monde 100 Books of the Century
- Les Éditions de Minuit
- Suite Française, another novel with a German composer/officer character quartered in a French home during World War II.
- Vichy France