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A review by helgamharb
L'Amant by Marguerite Duras
5.0
4.5
Je suis exténuée de désir.
I am worn out with desire.
It is extremely and refreshingly satisfying to read a book in its original language and appreciate the unblemished and literal words penned by the author.
Très vite dans ma vie il a été trop tard.
Very early in my life it was too late.
This haunting, sensual, melancholic, dreamlike and poetic autobiographical novel is about a forbidden love affair between a teenager, who is narrating the story and a man 12 years her senior.
Il la regarde. Les yeux fermés il la regarde encore. Il respire son visage. Il respire l’enfant, les yeux fermés il respire sa respiration, cet air chaud qui ressort d’elle. Il discerne de moins en moins clairement les limites de ce corps, celui-ci n’est pas comme les autres, il n’est pas fini, dans la chambre il grandit encore, il est encore sans formes arrêtées, à tout instant en train de se faire, il n’est pas seulement là où il le voit, il est ailleurs aussi, il s’étend au-delà de la vue, vers le jeu, la mort, il est souple, il part tout entier dans la jouissance comme s’il était grand, en âge, il est sans malice, d’une intelligence effrayante.
He looks at her. Goes on looking at her, his eyes shut. He inhales her face, breathes it in. He breathes her in, the child, his eyes shut he breathes in her breath, the warm air coming out of her. Less and less clearly can he make out the limits of this body, it’s not like other bodies, it’s not finished, in the room it keeps growing, it’s still without set form, continually coming into being, not only there, where it’s visible but elsewhere too, stretching beyond sight, toward risk, toward death, it’s nimble, it launches itself wholly into pleasure as if it were grown up, adult, it’s without guile, and it’s frighteningly intelligent.
Saigon, 1929.
She is a 15 year old French girl, from an impoverished family; he is a wealthy 27 year old Chinese man.
She is over-confident, mature, moody and desperate to escape a life of poverty.
He is weak, afraid, sentimental and easily intimidated by his domineering father.
Will their illicit love affair survive under the merciless social conditions?
Does love even exist in their affair or is it more of an infatuation or their need to satisfy the desire of the flesh?
Elle a dû rester longtemps la souveraine de son désir, la référence personnelle à l’émotion, à l’immensité de la tendresse, à la sombre et terrible profondeur charnelle.
For a long time she must have remained the queen of his desire, his personal link with emotion, with the immensity of tenderness, the dark and terrible depths of the flesh.
Je suis exténuée de désir.
I am worn out with desire.
It is extremely and refreshingly satisfying to read a book in its original language and appreciate the unblemished and literal words penned by the author.
Très vite dans ma vie il a été trop tard.
Very early in my life it was too late.
This haunting, sensual, melancholic, dreamlike and poetic autobiographical novel is about a forbidden love affair between a teenager, who is narrating the story and a man 12 years her senior.
Il la regarde. Les yeux fermés il la regarde encore. Il respire son visage. Il respire l’enfant, les yeux fermés il respire sa respiration, cet air chaud qui ressort d’elle. Il discerne de moins en moins clairement les limites de ce corps, celui-ci n’est pas comme les autres, il n’est pas fini, dans la chambre il grandit encore, il est encore sans formes arrêtées, à tout instant en train de se faire, il n’est pas seulement là où il le voit, il est ailleurs aussi, il s’étend au-delà de la vue, vers le jeu, la mort, il est souple, il part tout entier dans la jouissance comme s’il était grand, en âge, il est sans malice, d’une intelligence effrayante.
He looks at her. Goes on looking at her, his eyes shut. He inhales her face, breathes it in. He breathes her in, the child, his eyes shut he breathes in her breath, the warm air coming out of her. Less and less clearly can he make out the limits of this body, it’s not like other bodies, it’s not finished, in the room it keeps growing, it’s still without set form, continually coming into being, not only there, where it’s visible but elsewhere too, stretching beyond sight, toward risk, toward death, it’s nimble, it launches itself wholly into pleasure as if it were grown up, adult, it’s without guile, and it’s frighteningly intelligent.
Saigon, 1929.
She is a 15 year old French girl, from an impoverished family; he is a wealthy 27 year old Chinese man.
She is over-confident, mature, moody and desperate to escape a life of poverty.
He is weak, afraid, sentimental and easily intimidated by his domineering father.
Will their illicit love affair survive under the merciless social conditions?
Does love even exist in their affair or is it more of an infatuation or their need to satisfy the desire of the flesh?
Elle a dû rester longtemps la souveraine de son désir, la référence personnelle à l’émotion, à l’immensité de la tendresse, à la sombre et terrible profondeur charnelle.
For a long time she must have remained the queen of his desire, his personal link with emotion, with the immensity of tenderness, the dark and terrible depths of the flesh.