The Nun

'You can leave a forest, but you can never leave a cloister; you are free in the forest, but you are a slave in the cloister.'Diderot's The Nun (La Religieuse) is the seemingly true story of a young girl forced by her parents to enter a convent and take holy orders. A novel mingling mysticism, madness, sadistic cruelty and nascent sexuality, it gives a scathing insight into the effects of forced vocations and the unnatural life of the convent. A succès de scandale at the end of the eighteenth century, it has attracted and unsettled readers ever since. For Diderot's novel is not simply a story of a young girl with a bad habit; it is also a powerfully emblematic fable about oppression and intolerance.This new translation includes Diderot's all-important prefatory material, which he placed, disconcertingly, at the end of the novel, and which turns what otherwise seems like an exercise in realism into what is now regarded as a masterpiece of proto-modernist fiction. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Product details

• Authors: Denis Diderot, Denis/ Goulbourne Diderot, Russell Goulbourne
• Assisted by: Russell Goulbourne (Translation), Russell (Lecturer in French Goulbourne (Translation)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 15.10.2008
• EAN: 9780199555246
• ISBN: 978-0-19-955524-6
• No. of pages: 189
• Dimensions: 133 mm x 197 mm x 13 mm
• Series: Oxford World's Classics; Oxford World's Classics
• Subjects: Education and learning > Readings/interpretations/reading notes > English; Fiction > Narrative literature; Französisch, Klassische Belletristik, 18. Jahrhundert (1700 bis 1799 n. Chr.), Literaturwissenschaft: 1600 bis 1800, Literaturwissenschaft: Prosa, Erzählung, Roman, Autoren