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artemismatchalatte 's review for:
The Nun
by Denis Diderot
I picked this book from my TBR classics shelf. I needed a book for “N” for the A-Z classics challenge and a French Classic for Classics Bingo. I haven’t read anything by Diderot before The Nun. I’m not big on philosophy, which is what Diderot was famous for, but I had wanted to read this story for a long time.
This was a strange story which I have reason to believe may be somewhat based in fact. Diderot’s sister was a nun who died in a nunnery after going mad. Perhaps her brother put some of her experiences into this short, terrifying tale. Somewhere in the notes it also mentioned that Suzanne’s story is based off another young nun’s actual accounts of her life at a convent. Diderot was not a fan of religion either so this piece could have been written to simply oppose the Catholic Church which was extremely powerful in his 18th century France.
The main character, Sainte Suzanne is a young girl who is forced into the convent by her parents. She is the child of an affair her mother had with a man who wasn’t her husband. Suzanne’s two legitimate sisters spend all their parent’s money so that Suzanne is forced to take the holy vows to keep her off the street.
At the first nunnery, Suzanne is horribly abused both physically and emotionally by the Mother Superior and her cronies. She is moved to another nunnery through the kindness of an overseeing church official and her devoted lawyer. In the second nunnery, she quickly becomes the favorite of her new Mother Superior.
With this next part, I couldn’t tell if Diderot wanted to write a lesbian nun story or one entirely about abuse within the church. Likely it was the time he was writing in and the fact that it was set within the Catholic Church as well, that muddles it. This whole part of the story came off pretty homophobic; according to the priests, the Mother Superior’s and the other nun’s desires for each other clearly are a form of madness and possession of the devil so claims some of the priests. There was another nun, Sister Therese who was jealous of Suzanne being the mother superior’s new favorite which is why I thought that at least she was probably a lesbian.
Diderot explicitly has Suzanne talk about many instances of kissing and caressing so its clear that the relationship she has with the Mother Superior is highly sexualized. Again, I’m not sure if this is supposed to be like the 18th century novella version of a badly written Yuri manga about nuns or if it was supposed to be straight up abusive. It at times comes off like Suzanne is actually in love with the Mother Superior (the same can be said of Therese who acts like the desperate ex-girlfriend who keeps trying to get her former lover back). Then there are other points where Suzanne is scared of the Mother Superior. I’m not really sure what to do with this book exactly.
I rated this 2.5 stars! I liked Suzanne’s voice and it was interesting to read about what the experiences of a nun could have been in 18th century France. However, I didn’t like how confusing the second nunnery is with Suzanne and the Mother Superior. I couldn’t easily classify this as a romance or an abusive situation. The whole idea that one woman “infects” another with lesbianism is just so stupid and homophobic, I can’t even. Either women are into other ladies or they’re not. The fact that this was set within the Catholic church in the late 1700s only added to prejudices and confusion.
Triggers: Abuse (physical, emotional, possibly sexual) and homophobic ideas
This was a strange story which I have reason to believe may be somewhat based in fact. Diderot’s sister was a nun who died in a nunnery after going mad. Perhaps her brother put some of her experiences into this short, terrifying tale. Somewhere in the notes it also mentioned that Suzanne’s story is based off another young nun’s actual accounts of her life at a convent. Diderot was not a fan of religion either so this piece could have been written to simply oppose the Catholic Church which was extremely powerful in his 18th century France.
The main character, Sainte Suzanne is a young girl who is forced into the convent by her parents. She is the child of an affair her mother had with a man who wasn’t her husband. Suzanne’s two legitimate sisters spend all their parent’s money so that Suzanne is forced to take the holy vows to keep her off the street.
At the first nunnery, Suzanne is horribly abused both physically and emotionally by the Mother Superior and her cronies. She is moved to another nunnery through the kindness of an overseeing church official and her devoted lawyer. In the second nunnery, she quickly becomes the favorite of her new Mother Superior.
With this next part, I couldn’t tell if Diderot wanted to write a lesbian nun story or one entirely about abuse within the church. Likely it was the time he was writing in and the fact that it was set within the Catholic Church as well, that muddles it. This whole part of the story came off pretty homophobic; according to the priests, the Mother Superior’s and the other nun’s desires for each other clearly are a form of madness and possession of the devil so claims some of the priests. There was another nun, Sister Therese who was jealous of Suzanne being the mother superior’s new favorite which is why I thought that at least she was probably a lesbian.
Diderot explicitly has Suzanne talk about many instances of kissing and caressing so its clear that the relationship she has with the Mother Superior is highly sexualized. Again, I’m not sure if this is supposed to be like the 18th century novella version of a badly written Yuri manga about nuns or if it was supposed to be straight up abusive. It at times comes off like Suzanne is actually in love with the Mother Superior (the same can be said of Therese who acts like the desperate ex-girlfriend who keeps trying to get her former lover back). Then there are other points where Suzanne is scared of the Mother Superior. I’m not really sure what to do with this book exactly.
I rated this 2.5 stars! I liked Suzanne’s voice and it was interesting to read about what the experiences of a nun could have been in 18th century France. However, I didn’t like how confusing the second nunnery is with Suzanne and the Mother Superior. I couldn’t easily classify this as a romance or an abusive situation. The whole idea that one woman “infects” another with lesbianism is just so stupid and homophobic, I can’t even. Either women are into other ladies or they’re not. The fact that this was set within the Catholic church in the late 1700s only added to prejudices and confusion.
Triggers: Abuse (physical, emotional, possibly sexual) and homophobic ideas