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For those Asterix amateurs, this is one more piece for the collection. Another great story.
There are comments on cooking, medical health and depravity, just for good measure. This is a particular point of horror to the Romans who like dirty orgies. The rest is a fun romp through Switzerland pushing all the steroetypes of banks and neutrality and above all cleanliness.
The idea is that in the world of 55BC all Gaul has been conquored by the Romans, except for one small village which holds out against the invaders. In a rare case of helping a Roman, Gettafix is asked to aid a Roman investogator who has been poisoned by the corrupt officials he is auditing. Originally done as a comic in a french childrens' magazine, the Adventures of Asterix the Gaul have grown beyond that small framework and can be enjoyed by peoples around the world.
To save his life Asterix must recover a tiny flower known only to grow in Helivita. Along the way potions are drunk, Romans as bashed and friends are made. The source of their survival is a magic potion brewed by the village Druid which gives the drinker superhuman strength.
The Gauls are not waging a war with the Romans, they just go about their lives and after being thumped a few times, the local Romans are more than happy to let them do it.This is one of my favorites in the Asterix series.
Panoramix realizes that in order to save him, he needs a particular flower that grows in the Alps for the antidote. As usual in Asterix books, national stereotypes as well as anachronisms abound: the Swiss are fanatical about cleanliness, they already dominate banking, they engage in yodeling, and so forth. One of the finest Asterix books, this one has the unusual feature of having a Roman as one of the good guys. So, Asterix and Obelix have to go to Helvetia (modern day Switzerland) in order to find said flower. It's a fun book, and the fact that Asterix and Obelix are willing to save a nominal enemy, highlights their noblesse. He is a tax collector (of all jobs) who is poisoned by a corrupt Governor, fond of embezzling Rome when not setting up decadent orgies. The ailing taxman, fearing for his life at the hand of the inept Roman doctors, call our indomitable Gauls.
*** Another of the books where Goscinny actually tries to fulfill the original idea of using the Asterix books to teach something (geography always was Asterix and Obelix's best subject); it's quite fun in places, but the contrast of the slovenliness of the charges under the jurisdiction of the corrupt Roman and the orderliness of the Swiss tends to wear a little thin. Rene Goscinny, Asterix in Switzerland (Dargaud, 1970)A corrupt Roman official poisons a tax collector, and Getafix is called in to cure him (since the Roman doctors are unable to do anything). Getafix requires an Edelweiss blossom for the antidote, and thus sends Asterix and Obelix off to Switzerland to get it.
A Quaestor from Rome comes to investigate, and the Governor poisons him. He, and his friends Asterix and Obelix come to visit him in bed. "Asterix in Switzerland" is the sixteenth Asterix comic, first published in France in 1970. Dying, the Quaestor sends for Getafix, who has a reputation for medicine out in Gaul. Getafix can heal the man, but he needs the Edelweiss flower, and the best specimens come from the mountains in Helvetia, so Asterix and Obelix are sent to find it.It's worth a look for Asterix fans. It's a fairly good one, and I liked it. The Governor of Condatum loves his Roman orgies, and has been taking the taxes for the Roman Empire and putting them in his own savings.
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