Marie – Madeleine Bourdouxhe (1943 trans. Faith Evans 1997) 141 pages
The striking cover of Marie and the fact that it is published by Daunt Books was enough to convince me to pick up this novella, and I’m so glad I did. I’m not familiar with Belgian writer Madeleine Bourdouxhe’s work but the afterword explained she was a friend of Simone de Beauvoir and Victor Serge, among others, and she was part of the resistance during the war, so I’m glad to have finally discovered her.
Marie was published in 1943 and details the sexual awakening of a young married housewife (the original title was A La Recherche de Marie, maybe it was felt Anglophone readers wouldn’t get the reference to Proust?) It has an elegiac tone at times – not only for Marie but for everyone she encounters and for the city of Paris – and I felt the spectre of war was certainly present.
It begins with Marie and her husband Jean on holiday in the south of France, away from their Parisian home:
“It wasn’t as hot as earlier on, but as the afternoon came to an end, everything remained steeped in torpor, retaining the heat of the whole day. There is something ineffable around Marie that was making her happy. Jean was next to her, serving her coffee, giving her a cigarette: and intimate little scene, on the balcony of a hotel, overlooking the sea.”
Marie seems very devoted to her husband, but the authorial voice – which shifts between tenses – suggests he not entirely worthy:
“There was definitely strength in his character – or rather, there were bouts of strength. Jean had a way of claiming his due, or more than his due: a somewhat egotistical way of deciding, of drinking, of eating, of sitting, of occupying his place.”
During this holiday Marie finds herself strongly sexually attracted to a man around ten years younger than her. Their affair continues beyond the holiday season and Bourdouxhe is wonderful at minutely analysing unspoken moments between people:
“They mutually accept this great silence, and the richness, the sincerity that lies within it. They also know that in that moment they are seeing everything from the same point of view and that, for both of them, that red sail on the sea stands out as clearly, as harshly, as cruelly, as the thing that is deep inside them.”
There is a lot to this seemingly straightforward tale. The lover remains nameless and none of the characters are as fully drawn as Marie. She is absolutely Bourdouxhe’s focus, through which she explores the roles of women, sexuality, agency, choice.
The war also creates a sense of foreboding for everyone the story touches. Having googled, I know the town that Marie and Jean find themselves in at one point was 90% destroyed in 1940.
Marie is a woman with a rich inner life and a sensual response to her surroundings. As she starts to externalise some of this, Bourdouxhe shows how unknown people can be even to those closest to them, the pressure of societal forces for women, and the challenge in making an inner and outer life congruous with one another.
Marie is a powerful novella and I’m looking forward to exploring this author further.
“She weeps the strange, bitter tears of an exhausted woman who is gradually letting herself be worn out by a symbol.”
Lovely review review, Madame Bibi. I’m so glad you liked this one, it’s a great read for summer, very evocative and beautifully expressed.
I would also highly recommend Bourdouxhe’s brilliant novella La Femme de Gilles (there’s a review on my blog if you’re interested), which is darker (and sadder) than Marie, but brilliantly observed. It’s a love-triangle style of story that hits the reader hard…
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It is a perfect summer read, absolutely. La Femme de Gilles sounds great Jacqui, thank you!
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Daunt Books never disappoint! Sounds like a really good one – something timeless about its themes, even in a very precise moment of time.
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They never do! Yes, absolutely- although Marie is living in a very different time, her experiences will definitely still resonate.
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I LOVE that cover! Gorgeous. This sounds really good and have noted it for future reading. Your Novellas month is going to cost me… 🙂
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It’s so striking isn’t it? I hope you enjoy it Cathy! Novellas in November always costs me 🙂
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Excellent review! Echoing Jacqui’s recommendation of La Femme de Gilles which is, indeed, darker but I enjoyed it even more than this one.
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Thanks Susan – La Femme de Gilles seems a must-read!
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Ooooh! Sounds brilliant – and I think I have a collection of her short stories on the TBR!!!
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I think you’d really like her Kaggsy!
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Earlier this year I read a little collection of her stories, A Nail, A Rose from Pushkin Press, it is so very good! I’ll have to keep an eye out for more of her work.
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Pushkin Press are such a great publisher! I’ll look out for that collection, I’d really like to read more of her.
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I loved this one and the other novella mentioned above. I have the book of short stories on my shelves too.
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That’s great to hear how much you enjoyed her Annabel. I definitely want to read more of her work.
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I read this a few years ago, and you’ve brought it back to me beautifully. A vivid, summery novella from a gifted writer. Great review.
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Thanks so much Ali, really kind of you. Lovely to hear how much you enjoyed this too.
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