A brief and poetic story of love told entirely in dialogue, and dialogue of the most elliptical nature. Gradually the story emerges of an adolescent brother and sister who have discovered their classic, eternal, old-fashioned love for each other and who decide to spend one day, and one day only, making love. And where will this take place? In a taxi, the driver of which they will bribe to convey them, with drawn blinds and a hamper full of champagne and exotic foods, from one Paris landmark to another, while they make love in the back of his cab. They will not commit heroic suicide afterward, but return to their adjoining rooms in their parents' flat and carry on their lives as before. Such is the plan of the story, and in writing it, Violette Leduc shows an unexpected versatility. She has interrupted her autobiography (La Bdtarde, Mad in Pursuit) to produce a modern myth, a work of pure poetic imagination. The story creates its own atmosphere, the reader is gently conditioned into accepting it. It is touching and it is believable, and Helen Weaver's translation matches the flashing lyricism of Leduc's text in masterly fashion.

The Taxi

Violette Leduc

Farrar. Straus & Giroux

This 1955 controversial novel was censored for its sexually explicit passages describing lesbianism.

Ravages

Literature & Fiction

Panther

Trapped in the depths of poverty, an old woman escapes into an existence where objects, streets, and entire cities have voices and personalities. Told with a feather-light touch and masterful compassion, this is a story for those moments when we catch ourselves talking to the furniture.

Lady And The Little Fox Fur

Peter Owen Publishers

LA BATARDE

History

Europe

Virago Press

The uncensored translation of the French erotic classic. Leduc's novella follows the story of a passionate love affair between two schoolgirls.

Therese and Isabelle

Salammbo Press

Censored in France in 1954, Therese and Isabelle was published for the first time in its full original version in 2000. Leduc's novella follows the story of a passionate love affair between two schoolgirls, aiming to describe 'as exactly, as minutely as possible the sensations of physical love'.

Therese and Isabelle: The Unabridged Text

An obsessive and revealing self-portrait of a remarkable woman humiliated by the circumstances of her birth and by her physical appearance, La Bâtarde relates Violette Leduc’s long search for her own identity through a series of agonizing and passionate love affairs with both men and women. When first published, La Bâtarde earned Violette Leduc comparisons to Jean Genet for the frank depiction of her sexual escapades and immoral behavior. A confession that contains portraits of several famous French authors, this book is more than just a scintillating memoir―like that of Henry Miller, Leduc’s brilliant writing style and attention to language transform this autobiography into a work of art.

Batarde (French Literature)

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Dalkey Archive Press

A candid account of the author's first forty years, revealing a woman humiliated by personal circumstances and appearance but determined to establish an identity through passionate and agonizing love affairs with men and women

La Bâtarde

Riverhead Books

Mad in Pursuit

An account of the author's desire to become a celebrated writer paints a portrait of Parisian literary life after World War II

Riverhead Trade

In a small French town, a young girl grows up under the hard blue gaze of a mother who will not hold her hand. Her only comfort lies in the warmth of her ill grandmother.&nbsp; Yet the world around her is humming with curiosity. From the obsessive Madame Barbaroux and her endless spring cleaning, to the homeless Monsieur Dezaille and his beloved collection of saucepans, Leduc exposes the eccentricities of provincial life with unflinching candour and striking beauty.&nbsp; An extraordinary tale of a stifled childhood and an unrelenting love of life from the protégée of Simone de Beauvoir.

Asphyxia

Community & Culture

Gallic Books

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Books by Violette Leduc