Curious Objects : Le petit bonhomme vit encore

Curious Objects

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This game, a recent acquisition by the Library, is beautifully preserved in its original box. Its title, ‘Le petit bonhomme vit encore’ means ‘the little man lives on’. Players had to keep the man alive, guiding him through pitfalls including broken bridges, a precipice and a guardhouse, on the way to safety in the Temple of Fortune. The game’s title refers to a traditional game played with a lit match or candle, but it was also a phrase which referred to a person surviving many hardships, and it had political and poetical resonances. For example, it was used as the motto for <i>Le nain jaune</i>, an early nineteenth-century satirical journal of liberal tendencies. The game pieces consist of thirty colour lithograph cards and a figure on a mahogany stand, complete with printed instructions, two bone dice and a shaker cup. </p>