The Ravishing of Lol Stein

Zusatztext “Brilliant . . . shoots vertical shafts down into the dark morass of human love.” — The New York Times Book Review   “In The Ravishing of Lol Stein! Marguerite Duras writes brilliantly [and] strongly . . . The drama proceeds savagely! erotically! and . . . the Duras language and writing throughout the book shine like crystal.” —Janet Flanner! The New Yorker Informationen zum Autor One of France's most important literary figures,  MARGUERITE DURAS  is best known in the United States for her novel  The Lover,  and for her brilliant film script  Hiroshima, Mon Amour.  She is also the author of many other acclaimed novels ( The Ravishing of Lol Stein ) and screenplays ( Détruire, dit-elle ). Born in Saigon in 1914 and died in Paris in 1996. Klappentext The Ravishing of Lol Stein is a haunting early novel by the author of The Lover. Lol Stein is a beautiful young woman, securely married, settled in a comfortable life-and a voyeur. Returning with her husband and children to the town where, years before, her fiancé had abandoned her for another woman, she is drawn inexorably to recreate that long-past tragedy. She arranges a rendezvous for her friend Tatiana and Tatiana's lover. She arranges to spy on them. And then, she goes one step further . . . Lol stein was born here is South Tahla, and she spent a good part of her youth in this town. Her father was a professor at the university. Lol has a brother nine years older than she—I have never seen him—they say he lives in Paris. He parents are dead.   I have never heard anything especially noteworthy about Lol Stein’s childhood, even from Tatiana Karl, her best friend during the school years together.   On Thursday, which was a school holiday, they used to go out and dance in the empty playground. They had an aversion to marching in schoolgirl file with the others, and preferred to remain back at the school. And they knew, better than the other students did, how to solicit that favor and get their teachers to grant it. Shall we dance, Tatiana? A radio in a nearby building was blaring a medley of old-fashioned tunes—a program of nostalgic favorites—which were all the needed. With the monitors gone, alone in the vast school courtyard where, that day, between dances, they could hear the street noises: Come, Tatiana, come, let’s dance, Tatiana, come on. That much I know.   This too: Lol was nineteen when she met Michael Richardson one morning during summer vacation, at the tennis courts. He was twenty-five. He was the only son of well-to-do parents, whose real estate holdings in the vicinity of Town Beach were considerable. He had no real vocation. Their parents consented to the marriage. Lol must have been engaged for six months, the wedding was to take place that autumn, she had just finished her final year of school and was on vacation in Town Beach, when the biggest ball of the season was held at the municipal casino.   Tatiana does not believe that this fabled Town Beach ball was so overwhelmingly responsible for Lol Stein’s illness. No, Tatiana Karl traces the origins of that illness back further, further even than the beginning of their friendship. They were latent in Lol Stein, but kept from emerging by the deep affection with which she had always been surrounded both at home and, later, at school. She says that in school—and she wasn’t the only person to think so—there was already something lacking in Lol, something which kept her being, in Tatiana’s words, “there,” She gave the impression of being in a state of passive boredom, putting up with a person she knew she was supposed to be but whom she forgot about at the slightest occasion. The epitome of thoughtfulness, but also of indifference, people were quick to discover, she never seemed to suffer or be hurt, had never been known to shed a sentimental, schoolgirl’s tear. Tatiana ...

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Marguerite Duras
• Editore: Pantheon Schocken Books
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 12.03.1986
• EAN: 9780394743042
• ISBN: 978-0-394-74304-2
• Pagine: 192
• Dimensioni: 132 mm x 203 mm x 11 mm
• Categoria: Narrativa > Romanzi