| Title | : | Une vie |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0543893790 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780543893796 |
| Language | : | French |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 299 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1883 |
L'averse, toute la nuit, avait sonné contre les carreaux et les toits. Le ciel bas et chargé d'eau semblait crevé, se vidant sur la terre, la délayant en bouillie, la fondant comme du sucre. Des rafales passaient pleines d'une chaleur lourde. Le ronflement des ruisseaux débordés emplissait les rues désertes où les maisons, comme des éponges, buvaient l'humidité qui pénétrait au-dedans et faisait suer les murs de la cave au grenier.
Une vie Reviews
-
- Excuse me?
- Madame. 'Ow may I 'elp you?
- I'm looking for a book. Une vie.
- Envie, madame?
- By Maupassant.
- Mont Passant?
- Here, let me write it down.
- Ah! Une vie, de Maupassant.
- Yeah, that's what I said.
- Tout à fait, madame, tout à fait. Yes, we 'ave this book.
- Could you tell me a bit about it?
- Avec plaisir, madame. Jeanne, the 'eroine, is a naïve young girl. She knows nothing of the world, she is rich, 'er parents think they are protecting 'er by 'iding from 'er the verities the most simple of the life. She falls in love with an 'andsome young man, Julien. Three months later they are married.
- I think I see where this is going.
- I am sure you do, madame. They 'ave a romantic 'oneymoon on La Corse, 'ow you say, on Corsica. But as soon as they are 'ome, Jeanne sees a terrible change in 'er new 'usband. 'E is cold, 'e is mean with the money, then she finds out that 'e is deceiving 'er with--
- Hey, no spoilers.
- Spoilers, madame?
- I'm already sold. Put it on the pile. Was she a lesbian?
- Who, madame?
- The author. My girlfriend said--
- I fear that l'amie de madame is labouring under a misapprehension. Maupassant was not a woman. Alors, if 'e was not a woman then 'e was not une lesbienne.
- You're saying that Maupassant was a guy?
- Exactement madame, you 'ave expressed it with précision.
- You're sure? I mean, apart from what Chantelle said, the subject matter--
- I am quite sure, madame.
- So what else did he write?
- The most famous novel of Maupassant is Bel-Ami. Georges Duroy is a good-looking, unscrupulous man. 'E becomes a successful writer but all 'is work is written by 'is mistresses. 'E--
- Wait a minute. So let me see if I've got this right, Une vie is supposed to be written by a man but reads like it was written by a woman, and the other one, what's it called, Bel-Ami is about a man who published books under his own name that were actually written by women, and--
- What do you mean, madame?
- Well, you can't help wondering if in real life--
- I am sorry madame, I 'ave other clients to attend to. Does madame wish to buy this book?
- Like I said, sold. I'll take Bel-Ami too.
- That will be one hundred and thirty five euros, madame.
- Thank you for the chat.
- It was my pleasure, madame.
- And I know they'll improve my French.
- It is not possible, madame.
- Well, ah, au revoir.
- Au revoir, madame.
[Ding!]
- Another one, Henri.
- You know Jules, you don't think that maybe--
- I do not think that, Henri.
- Sorry, Jules.
- That's alright, Henri. -
One of those absolutely beautiful books that leave me almost at a loss for words.
So well-written, in beautifully flowing French, and such a hard topic: a woman's lack of choice in 19th century conventional society. A
Madame Bovary without the energetic, yet fatalistic drive to change her condition, Maupassant's Jeanne suffers as much, but has a lot less adventure and passion to remember at the end of her life. She is proof that you indeed regret what you didn't do. Even the suffering 19th century girl breaking down over the symbolic
The Yellow Wallpaper has more choice than Jeanne, who remains entirely passive in her dominant social environment.
The tragic feeling of loneliness never leaves the main character, and alienation from the rest of the world is the theme of her life:
"Elle sentait entre elle et lui comme un voile, un obstacle, s’apercevant pour la première fois que deux personnes ne se pénètrent jamais jusqu’à l’âme, jusqu’au fond des pensées, qu’elles marchent côté à côté, enlacées parfois, mais non mêlées, et que l’être moral de chacun de nous reste éternellement seul pour la vie."
Sad, beautiful, must-read! -
Sometimes it is as bitter to see an illusion destroyed as to witness the death of a friend.
On pleure parfois les illusions avec autant de tristesse que les morts.
A raw and saddening portrayal of the overwhelmingly unhappy life of a woman. -
"A life" or the banal story of a woman!
Indeed this book of crude realism tells little: Jeanne, a naive young girl, will marry a boor who will humiliate and deceive her.
But the interest lies above all in the painting of women in the nineteenth century: the author, who, let us remember, is a man, manages to put himself in the shoes of this anti-heroine that is Jeanne. And he describes his sufferings, these minor daily outrages, with subtlety and clarity.
I don't know what Maupassant's feelings were for his character: compassion, annoyance or resentment? But for my part, that's a bit what I felt: Jeanne is moving at the beginning because it is certain she undergoes the mistreatment of an ungrateful husband. But, then, she gradually disturbs us with her passivity. She does not deserve her marital fate. Who is so "flower-blue" in her youth, so sweet and faithful as a wife, will go from disillusionment to frustration. And yet, she has nothing: richer than Julien; she has a property, a vital rank, and her parents are always with her to support her. It cannot say that all women had given a chance at birth. So why so few reactions from him? We would have liked her to get carried away by this so cruel husband when, for example, she discovers adultery or pushes him out of her home with the support of her parents, who, let us remember, are the actual owners. Peoples. In short, she could have reacted as much as she has strengths despite her inferior status as a woman.
This fact is perhaps what the author seeks to do: make us react, we readers, by telling us about this life "suffered", gloomy and frustrating. Maybe the fate of women will one day change and gain rights and consideration. What will happen a century later in Western societies with their emancipation? -
Introduction
Note on the Translation
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of Guy de Maupassant
--A Life
Explanatory Notes -
Compared to
Bel-Ami, this was a slower-paced read, but the writing is nonetheless beautiful. I was captivated by Maupassant's sensitivities in his descriptive skills in general.
It is a carefully crafted story of an aristocratic lady with a sheltered bring-up who has lived through shattered dreams about love, unhappiness in marriage, betrayals by husband, best friend and friends, disillusions with the mores of her times and disappointment with life in general. Maupassant writes with compassion where the protagonist is concerned, and with clear-sighted satire on the subject of religion and dogmas.
The setting is mainly in a seaside suburb of Rouen with some diversion to the island of Corsica, all beautifully portrayed. The times are in the early 19th century.
I was totally transported by the writing, whether it was the twists and turns of the story, or the enthralling descriptions of thoughts and emotions, or the refined painting of places and scenes. My only complaint is that the ending seemed to be a bit abrupt.
-
Love does exist…but hatred too exists; and the hurt that comes with betrayal.
Une vie (A Life) is a story of an evolution and disillusionment.
-“Life is not all fun".
-“I'm afraid not, my child, and there's nothing we can do about it.”
The story begins on a beautiful spring day with the 17 year old Jeanne de Lamare out of the convent school already full of beautiful hopes, desires and dreams of the future.
And she began to dream of love.
Soon after, she meets and marries the love of her life only to experience bitter betrayal, witness death and come face to face with her shattered beliefs and expectations, the monotonousness of life, inevitable passage of time and a repetitive and meaningless existence.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
(The more things change, the more they stay the same.) -
1) L'HISTOIRE :
Une Vie, c'est l'histoire de Jeanne, jeune femme fraichement sortie du couvent, sur le point d'emménager avec ses parents dans le domaine qui lui reviendra. Elle y rencontre bientôt le vicomte Julien de Lamare, qu'elle épouse. C'est le compte-rendu scrupuleux d'une faillite.
2) MON AVIS :
Ce texte est d'une tristesse accablante.
Lors du déménagement hors des Peuples, on croirait relire un chapitre des Choses de Georges Pérec : dans les deux textes, la même résignation devant la même accumulation de biens, comme un sédiment laissé par le temps à la surface des choses.
Une vie me hante autant que le Pérec. Il est parti pour rester longtemps en tapinois, sous la surface mais bien là, à me poser la même interrogation : et toi, que fais-tu de ta vie ? Te laisses-tu porter par le courant, combien de temps est-ce que tu t'es encroûté dans telle activité, combien de temps est-ce que tu comptes encore tenir ce train de vie-là ?
Il me ramène à la séparation devant l'aéroport de Saint-Denis.
Il me pose la question de ce que je ferai, lorsque les êtres qui me sont le plus chers viendront à mourir.
Une vie me met le nez dans mon inertie, me requiert et réveille ma conscience alanguie.
Il m'agace, devant les milles manies de Jeanne qui passe tout son temps à l'impossible entreprise de restaurer les jours passés.
Il me fait douloureusement exister et me réinscrit dans l'écoulement du temps, sans ambages et sans équivoque.
Bande-son :
La niaise - Leïla Huissoud -
In Une Vie, Maupassant makes a good portrayal of a woman's sad and unhappy life. Jeanne, who had a secluded upbringing, and a convent education is too naive to understand the realities of life. Leading an easy and carefree life with her indulgent parents, she dreams of ideal love and happiness from which she awakes with a rude shock to the reality of life when she marries a boorish aristocrat. The happy dreams of her young heart to love and be loved, and to be blessed with a perfectly happy and content marriage were completely destroyed in the face of her husband's harshness and infidelity. She is forced to submit and settle to a painful existence in which her central focus becomes her son. But even here Jeanne is to be disappointed since he grows up to be an uncaring and undutiful spendthrift.
Maupassant's portrayal of Jeanne is sympathetic. With his sensitive writing, he invites the reader's sympathy toward Jeanne's unhappy life. It is true that Jeanne lacks character, being always timid and submissive, but still, the reader cannot stop feeling sympathetic towards her suffering. It is admirable of Maupassant to expose a woman's unjust suffering at the hand of a man, being himself a man. Credit goes to him for this unbiased portrayal of a man's cruelty and the resulting woman's suffering.
However, even though the theme was sensitive and engaging, I couldn't help feeling that the story was a bit too naive overall. Some of Maupassant's excessive melodrama exasperated me. The constant deviation from the storyline to describe in minute detail the beauty of the setting was too disturbing to the flow of the story. In short, I got the impression that here is a short story extended, for the storyline and most of the other descriptions ran separately failing to make one coherent connection. But I learned that Une Vie is Maupassant's first attempt at a novel, and that probably speaks for the flaws. -
Una vida es una novela costumbrista que tiene lugar en Francia a principios del siglo XIX. La protagonista es una joven, hija de un barón, que se casa con un vizconde, y pronto descubre que la persona de quien se enamoró no es lo que parecía. Me llamó la atención ver en la sinopsis que Tolstói la consideró la mejor novela francesa desde Los miserables.
Es el primer libro que leo de Guy de Maupassant y me ha encantado su forma de escribir, muy similar a la de Blasco Ibáñez en algunas expresiones y sobre todo en la forma de describir el paisaje. Aunque la historia está repleta de este tipo de pasajes no me ha resultado en absoluto pesada. De hecho, es lo que más me ha gustado de ella. -
Jeanne grew up in a sheltered life, being the heiress to a fortune and having gone to school at a convent. After finishing school she meets Viscount de Lamare who woos her, weds her and takes her off to Corsica for a spectacular honeymoon. Upon returning from France Jeanne finds her new husband is not quite the man she expected. Her naivety is overwhelming at times, but clearly that is point. We follow Jeanne's life through all of her disillusionment across the years into her senior years. She never quite shakes the rose-tinted glasses off her eyes and the reader feels simultaneously sorry for and angry at her for it.
Being the first novel written by Maupassant it's a rather decent book, though as an early novel it's clear to see why he's better known for his short stories. The attempt at character development falls short since Jeanne remains relatively the same throughout the story. Maupassant's descriptions of landscapes are probably the best part of the book, and surprisingly he delves into a blatant sexual territory (complete with orgasms outdoors!).
As a parody of contemporaries of Maupassant and the novels written before 1883 this is really a fun book. The important thing is not to take it too seriously because you will want to smack the shit out of Jeanne. -
Life doesn't always turn out as one would hope.
Wonderful prose , beautifully translated and there was a happy ending after all!
My first foray into Maupassant and won't be my last.
Loved it. -
Upon completion of her convent education at the age of seventeen, Jeanne is taken home by her father to start her adult life. Jeanne, wearing metaphorical rose tinted spectacles, is dreaming of a future of romance, a happy marriage and two children - a boy followed not long after by a girl. Jeanne's wealthy parents are providing her with a property of her own. So it seems that she is off to a good start.
But is she? Things don't go entirely to plan, and she soon learns about love and life. It is not so very long before her fresh joyful attitude changes to cynicism: "Tout n’était donc que misère, chagrin, malheur et mort. Tout trompait, tout mentait, tout faisait souffrir et pleurer."
And every time you think that things can't get worse they do...
Clouds are said to have silver linings, and fortunately Jeanne has them in the form of supportive parents and the maid Rosalie. It is ultimately Rosalie who tells Jeanne that "La vie, voyez-vous, ça n’est jamais si bon ni si mauvais qu’on croit."
De Maupassant is known as a master of short story writing, but he certainly knew how to write longer works too. I can't vouch for any translation, but in the original French the writing is just beautiful! Maupassant deftly uses nature and the elements to provide not only a marvellous atmosphere and beautiful descriptions, but also for example to create a sense of foreboding in his description of autumn. He creates a story of the ordinary life of an ordinary girl, but oh, what a dismal life! -
Je n'ai pas pu lâcher ce livre. Quelle tristesse !
Je ne m'attendais pas à une telle histoire, ni aux thèmes abordés. Vraiment, Maupassant est bien trop souscoté ! -
جمله انتهای کتاب: 《میدونین زندگی اونجور که مردم فکر میکنن نه خیلی خوبه نه خیلی بد.》
موپاسان توی این کتاب مثل رومنرولان در جانشیفته زندگی یک زن رو از سن پایین تا انتها روایت میکنه. اما با یک تفاوت خیلی بزرگ: موپاسان اندیشههای سیاسی و اجتماعیش رو به رخ نمیکشه.
تقریبا میشه گفت تاثیرگذارترین شخص در شیوه و سبک موپاسان کسی نیست جز فلوبر، که در جوانی باهم آشنا شدن و در شکلگیری سبک اون خیلی بهش کمک کرده و بعدها باهم نامهنگاریهای زیادی انجام دادن و رفیقهای صمیمی شدن.
یک بخش معروفی از نامههای فلوبر به موپاسان هست که من خیلی دوستش دارم: 《اوضاع بد است؟ بنویس!》
و این بهنظرم دقیقا چیزیه که سبک موپاسان و شاید خیلی از نویسندههارو شکل داد. اشخاصی که فقط خواستن بنویسن چون اوضاع بد بود و ناامید بودن.
و نتیجه این شد که موپاسان نویسنده فضا شد، نویسنده طبیعت، نویسنده احساسات کشفناشدنی، نویسنده رنگها و بوها و امیال انسانی از خوبها تا پستترینشان.
من بهخاطر چخوف به سوی آقای موپاسان اومدم، این نویسنده کیه که چخوف ازش دفاع میکنه؟
بله موپاسان موضوعات و داستانهای سادهای داره و نخیر شما اولین نفری نیستید که این رو بهش میگید. در زمان خود موپاسان هم منتقدین به شدت ازش انتقاد میکردن و حتی میگفتن که نوشتههای اون رمان نیست. چرا؟ چون شبیه رمانی که اونها میشناختن نبود. چون موپاسان چیزی رو خلق کرد که دلش میخواست. چیزی رو توصیف کرد که خودش میدید، تصمیم گرفت که به سبک ناتورالیسم رو بیاره. خواست جهان رو همونطور که هست ببینه و اون رو با همهی زشتیها و ناامیدیهاش آشکار کنه.
و در این امر هم موفق شد اما این موفقیت براش دوامی نداشت و در آخر پس از یک خودکشی ناکام در یک آسایشگاه روانی بهخاطر مریضی که داشت درگذشت.
در پایان، اگر دنبال داستان هیجانی و پیچیده و عجیبی هستید، بروید و پشت سرتون هم نگاه نکنید. اما اگه خواستید یک روایت ساده از زندگی پر از جملات و توصیفات زیبا با یک ترجمه محشر رو بخونید. کتاب مناسبیه.
راجعبه نمره مطمئن نیستم و شاید تغییرش دادم. فعلا: 3.75/5 -
C'est la première fois depuis le lycée que je relis un Maupassant. Et je vois qu'il n'a rien perdu de séduisant, d'attachant. Le sous-titre du roman est »Humble vérité«. J'ajouterais qu'on pourrait aussi l'intituler »De l'art de se gâcher la vie«. Mais l'héroïne ne peut agir autrement, elle est Prisonnière du Temps, des conventions, de l'éducation qu'elle a reçue, mais aussi de sa naïveté, de sa bonté et de son manque d'action. Que pourrait faire Jeanne, face à un mari qui ne l'aime pas? Qui prétend être un gentilhomme, mais qui est le pire des hommes, un avare, un séducteur, un »pauvre con«? Avec Julien et autres familles aristocratiques du roman, Maupassant nous montre deux choses: la déchéance de l'aristocratie face à une bourgeoisie industrielle, bancaire et son rigidité qui ne permet pas de compromis. L'aristocratie et l'Eglise se lient, et qui n'est pour eux est contre eux. Cette liaison du trône et de l'autel peut paraître obsolête après les grands changements et secousses qui avaient eu lieu au XVIIIe siècle, culminant avec la Grande Révolution. Jeanne, l'enfant de l'Ancien Régime, doit quasi souffrir pendant toute sa vie. Chercher son bonheur ailleurs, comme l'avaient fait tant d'hommes et de femmes, c'est-à-dire hors de son mariage, n'est pas une alternative pour elle.
C'est un roman mélancolique, et cette mélancolie devient de plus en plus grave quand on approche de la fin. Mais ce qui sauve ce roman du défaitisme total, ce sont les descriptions de la nature, de la mer, de la vie des paysans normands que Maupassant insère remarquablement tout au long d'Une vie. Maupassant n'analyse pas, il donne seulement la description qui est de telle nature que chaque personnage apparaît devant nous avec une netteté, avec une clarté très précises. Et la fin du roman donne aussi à penser que Jeanne, éprouvée toute sa vie durant, trouvera enfin (!) son sens, sa raison d'être. Mieux vaut le trouver tard que jamais. -
" La vie est un côte. Tant qu'on monte, on regarde le sommet, et on se sent heureux.
Mais, lorsqu'on arrive en haut, on aperçoit tout d'un coup la descente, et la fin, qui est la mort.
Ça va lentement quand on monte, mais ça va vite quand on descend.
A votre âge, on est joyeux. On espère tant de choses, qui n'arrivent jamais d'ailleurs. Au mien, on n'attend plus rien...que la mort. [....] On finirait par devenir fou, ou par mourir, si on ne pouvait pas pleurer. " -
Available free at Librivox, here:
https://librivox.org/a-womans-life-by... read by the talented Lisa Reichert. She is better than the ordinary Librivox reader!
This is
Guy de Maupassant's first novel, written when he was twenty-seven. It is also known as Une Vie and L'Humble Vérité. The author completed only six novels before his death in 1893, at the young age of forty-two. He is better known for his short stories, but I am drawn to his novels. He belonged to the Naturalist school of writing, clearly evident here in this book.
Set in Normandy, France, the central protagonist Jeanne, has completed her final year of “education” in a convent. She is seventeen and the year is 1819. Her father and mother have arranged for her to inherit a newly refurbished chateau overlooking the sea not far from Étretat, the remarkable and stunningly beautiful rock formations 92 km northeast of Le Havre. Maupassant, as a naturalist, has both the eyes to see and the writing skill to lyrically draw the striking beauty of the landscape! He draws with a fine touch the cliffs and the sea, the flora and the fauna of the area and the people who inhabit this part of France. He draws the peasants and the clergy and the aristocrats. I adore how he draws nature.
Now, let’s look at the plot. It concerns Jeanne's life. Maupassant does not view mankind or human nature affably. Jeanne, straight out of the convent, is naïve and innocent, with no knowledge whatsoever of the realities of life. She dreams and believes she will soon fall rapturously in love and marry a good, kind wonderful man. What rolls out is life, which is to say real life, not the happy fairytale version, but instead a dark version where there exist only occasional glimmers of hope.
I was caught up in the story and it felt very real to me. There are characters that do terrible things, but I understood why they felt compelled to do what they did; I felt compassion for them and rooted for them. Here, I am speaking of the . This is not a happy story, but as a result, when events turn just a teeny bit toward the better, you feel overjoyed, very moved and extremely happy.
Lisa Reichert is one of the better / best narrators at Librivox. She reads smoothly. She does not overdramatize. I could hear every word. Her French pronunciation is OK—you can figure out what French words she is saying. Four stars for this Librivox narration.
I was gripped by this story. I continually needed to know what would happen / go wrong next. The wisdom voiced by an elderly priest had me smiling—he knew his parishioners through and through! I recommend this book. There are beautiful and accurate descriptions of nature and, if you are like me, your heart will be moved.
***************
*
Bel-Ami 5 stars
*
A Woman's Life 4 stars
*
The Necklace 3 stars
*
Pierre and Jean 2 stars
*
Mont Oriol, Or, a Romance of Auvergne TBR -
I love Maupassant and always find he tackles the timeless difficult issues of life, that resonate down through the ages, with masterly and devastating acuity. The ‘life’ we examine is that of Jeanne, a naive young country girl, born into a life of privilege and convent educated, but destined to misfortune and tragedy. Poor Jeanne who is slow to acquire any degree of self knowledge and never really understands the realities of the life with all its brutal contradictions, and so is a ‘victim’ in devastating fashion.
Her early life is idyllic and she lives with adoring parents in beautiful seclusion in a chateau in Normandy on an estate by the sea, “..facing her was a broad lawn as yellow as butter under the night sky. Two tall trees rose up like steeples in front of the house, a plane to the north and a linden to the south….. Jeanne gazed at the broad surface of the sea, which looked like watered silk, sleeping peacefully under the stars. In the quiet of the sunless sky all the scents of the earth rose up into the air. A jessamine climbing round the downstairs windows gave a penetrating scent, which mingled with the fainter smell of the young leaves. Gentle gusts of wind were blowing, laden with the sharp tang of the salt and the heavy sticky reek of seaweed. At first the girl was happy just breathing the night air; the peace of the countryside had the calming effect of a cool bath.”
From daydreaming and being a free spirited youth where ‘her whole childhood at the convent had been taken up with the future, and she had busied herself with fantasies’ but reality stalks her upon her wedding night, and all her illusions are shattered when her Father suddenly draws off our spirited young innocent to invoke her submission, “.. remember this and only this, you belong totally to your husband” , and from that point onward poor Jeanne is wracked by the vicissitudes of a cruel world she doesn’t understand and knows, only fleetingly, love and happiness, but experiences at great length loss, betrayal and humiliation.
From this moment onward the life of the poor ingénue disintegrates and degradation follows, and after a short lived romance, surrounded by greed and avarice, she is given over to despair, “She believed herself to be so directly the target of unrelenting misfortune that she became as fatalistic as an Oriental; and the habitual experience of seeing all her hopes and dreams crumble and vanish meant that she shrank from all further endeavour.”
The author shows the slow disintegration that follows and the complete demoralisation of the young girl now become the embittered middle aged woman, “Sometimes she would spend the whole afternoon sitting looking at the sea; sometimes she went down to Yport through the wood, repeating the walks of old days which she could not forget. What a long time it was since she had wondered through the countryside as a young girl intoxicated with dreams!”
Those closest to her will disappoint and betray her and she is shocked and repelled, "at the cravenness of human beings, slaves to the foul procedures of carnal love that makes cowards of the heart as well as the body. Mankind seemed to her unclean when she thought of all the dirty secrets of the senses, the degrading caresses, and the dimly discerned mysteries of inseparable couplings.”
Not just a coming of age novel but a slow crumbling of the edifices of love and marriage, organised religion and human greed; Maupassant lays bare the ugly side of life with all its degradation and disappointment, in chilling and controversial (too explicit for its time) fashion. -
Une Vie
Maupassant (1850 – 1893)
If you were expecting to read the happy story of the life of a beautiful young lady from the age of sixteen to forty-six, you will be seriously disappointed.
Maupassant has worked out in detail everything that could go wrong and will go wrong.
A life of grief, misfortune, and destruction of everything a young person innocently hopes for when leaving the convent where she had her noble and religious education.
Jeanne, cherished and the only daughter of Baron Le Perthuis des Vauds, had every reason to hope for a bright and happy life. And so it seemed at first. Just four month after her return the family castle on a clifftop in Normandy, she is presented and swiftly married to a new neighbor, the young and good looking Viscount de Lamare.
Honeymoon on the isle of Corsica was her first and last encounter with love and happiness.
As soon as the young couple had returned to the family property ‘The Poplars’, the life of Jeanne was behind her.
Her husband changed personality overnight, rejected Jeanne, preferred to have his own bedroom, spent his time hunting and became physically neglected, dirty, bearded, unkempt and rude in every way.
The baron and his wife had gone to live in another property in Rouen.
One day, to Jeanne’s great surprise, on the floor of her bedroom, Rosalie her maid since childhood, gives birth to a child, a boy, she cries without end and refuses to tell the name of its father.
Jeanne’s husband getting into a rage of fury, wants the maid to be chased away with her bundle, without further delay.
Jeanne calls her parents for help, who in turn call the parish priest for advice and Rosalie is further pressed and reveals the child’s father, who is no other than Julien, Jeanne’s husband.
Jeanne is devastated and her family now turns against Julien, but the priest knows how to smooth those waves, in hinting at some secret knowledge he has, from sins of the older generation.
Rosalie is also forgiven and with the gift of a small farmstead, a young husband is found, willing to marry Rosalie with a child.
Jeanne at this time realizes that she too is expecting and soon gives birth to the legitimate child, a boy, to be named Paul. She turns all her attention and love to the child.
When Jeanne’s old mother dies, her sorrow is without limit until she discovers in her mother’s old papers, some secret love letters establishing the truth, her mother also had a secret lover in her youth. Jeanne is heartbroken and destroys all these letters, to avoid her father to get to know them also.
Meanwhile, Julien, the Viscount has discovered another lady to pursue, wife of some noble neighbor. Following the priest's advice, Jeanne passes the information secretly to the deceived husband, who in a rage of jealousy assassinates the adulterous couple.
Jeanne now has to live with the knowledge that, even though through another meddling of the priest, she was the key to that act of fury.
Fifteen years go by, and young Paul is growing up. After some years of college, where he spends little attention, he runs away with a young woman to London first and then to Paris.
He spends money without counting, asking his mother for help every time he is in need.
At first by the thousands, then by ten thousand and in the end several hundred thousand francs. He now threatens to commit suicide if he cannot be helped.
Jeanne calls her old father for help. In the end, all their fortune is lost and spent, even the castle had to be sold. The old baron dies of grief, and Jeanne falls ill and almost loses her mind.
Rosalie, her maid, turns up at the baron’s funeral and now takes care of Jeanne.
At this point, the downward spiral of the story finally stops.
Rosalie, now over forty, same age as Jeanne, has grown to a strong woman and her good common sense knows how to handle Paul and his money problems.
In the end, the very good news is the arrival of a little girl, Paul's daughter, and Jeanne's granddaughter.
It was about time to read something good in this story. -
This is realism. Reality can be harsh, especially to the unprepared. Our "heroine" Jeanne has spent much of her young life in a convent school, which has shielded her from the coming realities of life as wife, mother, family survivor. Sometimes translators/editors would similarly shield us from the complete contents of a work.
I originally had the misfortune of buying a "complete works" set of Maupassant to discover entire significant passages had been cut out, bowdlerized, to protect us from the information the author was trying to finally bring to light. I was alerted to this by a reviewer, and I began to compare different editions of works I'd obtained. Which is not to say that this edition is the only edition that is complete, but caveat emptor. Many readers have been bored, "put off," disillusioned by a poorly translated or heavily edited edition.
A good case in point is made by one omission in a particular translation of A Woman's Life. A "good marriage" has been agreed upon by Jeanne, her parents, and a local scion. The marriage is "good" because it joins two land-owning families together--with the added benefit of the couple seemingly enchanted by one another. The night of the wedding, Jeanne's father takes her for a stroll:
"Darling, I have a difficult part to play, which is really your mother's; but, as she refuses, it devolves on me. I do not know to what extent you are aware of the facts of life. There are mysteries which are kept carefully hidden from children, and especially from girls. For girls should preserve their purity of mind, their spotless purity, until the moment when we surrender them to the arms of the man to whom their happiness is committed. It is for him to raise the veil. But if no whisper of these things has reached them, they recoil sometimes from the somewhat crude reality behind their dreams. Hurt and wounded, they refuse their husbands the absolute rights that are his by human and natural law. I cannot tell you more, my love. But do not forget this: you belong to your husband, entirely."
This moment was preceded by 48 pages of chaste romance, walks in the country, meetings with the local priest, chit chat, rustic rural evocations. The beginning of the end of Jeanne's innocence is foreshadowed by this paragraph--which has been removed from some early editions!
This is not a salacious novel, but it does address relations between many titled couples of independent means in nineteenth century Europe. It is not melodramatic, it moves briskly, it is full of historical detail and well-rounded characters.
Tolstoy thought Maupassant an excellent writer and storyteller, but he was upset with him because he didn't moralize. Realism probably shouldn't moralize, or exaggerate. This is a must read. -
Жанна росла в хорошей, любящей семье, быстро вышла замуж по любви за красавца Жюльена, родила от него сына. Но всю жизнь после замужества она была несчастна. Психологический портрет Жюльена де Ламара великолепен и скульптурно выпукл – такой типаж часто встречается во все времена. Болезненно мелочный и жадный, охоч до присвоения жениных денег, никчемен и тратящий всю свою энергию на то, чтобы недоплатить за услуги, при этом любитель волокититься за женщинами и изменник, принимающий как должное все, что ему удается загрести - как имущество, так и любящих его женщин. Ей встретился плохой муж. Жанна своими руками испортила сына Поля, заласкав и занянчив его до потери трезвой оценки его места в мире и обществе, и продолжая безвольно потакать всем его прихотям. Жанна пытается найти утешение и поддержку в религии. Но напрасно. Антиклерикальность романа подчеркивает великолепная аллегория, когда аббат Тольбиак забивает тростью только что ощенившуюся суку, это воплощение самой жизни. Жанне повезло, что мудрая служанка Розали отплатила добром на добро, сотворенное Жанниными родителями, людьми порядочными и добрыми, но не практичными. Всю свою жизнь Жанна живет не для себя, а во имя других людей – мужа, родителей, сына. Она была и осталась неприспособленной к жизни, постоянно нуждающейся в опоре. Отдавшись на попечение Розали, ей удалось остаться на плаву, а иначе сынок пустил бы ее по миру. Но мудрость жизни в том, что какая бы она ни была, она ни хороша, ни плоха, и смысл ее в продолжении и любви.
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It had good lessons, but it was not an enjoyable or good read at all. My dad gave a nice copy of this book to me for Christmas. Five months later, I finally got around to reading it. It was a terrible, depressing book. Even after I reported most of the horrendous plot, my dad only said, "It's good for her." I would not recommend this book to girls my age. The main character, Jeanne, is surrounded by evil, wanton people. She seems to be the only good person in the whole book, but of course she was naive and thoughtless and weak. In the book a woman said something to her that I thought summed up the cause of most of her ruined life: "You've made a bad marriage, that's the whole secret. One has no business to marry without knowing anything about one's husband." It was hard to watch a blooming young woman change into a ruined, penniless, abandoned old woman. But it's by Maupassant. What did I expect?
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“Tada ji pastebėjo, kad nebeturi ką veikti ir niekad nebeturės ką veikti. Visa jos jaunystė vienuolyne prabėgo svajonant apie ateitį.<…> Paskui, vos tik sp��jo išeiti iš tų atšiaurių sienų, kur buvo prasiskleidę jos iliuzijų žiedai, tuoj pat išsipildė jos meilės lūkestis. Išsvajotąjį žmogų ji sutiko, pamilo, ištekėjo už jo per kelias savaites, kaip paprastai įvyksta greitose vedybose, ir jis nusinešė ją savo rankose, nieko neleidęs pagalvoti.
Bet štai saldi pirmųjų dienų tikrovė pavirto kasdienine tikrove, kuri uždarė duris neaiškioms viltims, žaviam nežinios nerimui. Taip, baigta, nebėra ko belaukti.” -
One of the most wonderful books I've ever read in my life. I read it when I was in high school 10 years ago, and it still makes me emotional when I think about it. A must-read!
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Ravie d’avoir lu ce classique qui pose un regard bien sordide sur le condition de la femme et sur la société bourgeoise de l’époque.
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le livre porte bien son nom
(je vais garder jeanne dans mon cœur toute ma vie) -
Who would have thought that such a little book (just 202 pages) could incite so many different emotions (on the part of the reader as well as the characters). One minutes I was swooning over landscape and seascape and melting in Maupassants prose, and the next I was wanting to ring the protagonists neck!
The book starts with a young Jeanne who is on her last ever day at the convent school in 1819 and who is desperate to taste freedom and start her life after being cooped up for so long, only being able to stare out of windows and dream what her life will be like when she is finally out in the world. Jeanne’s daydreams are filled with longing and a restless spirit that is aching to see far away lands and nature and finally breathe after all these years at school. Jeanne’s parents (a Baron and Baroness) pick her up on her last day and drive her to Poplars which is to become her home by the sea. Maupassants narrative is so beautiful in parts that I longed to be there too; to experience what Jeanne was experiencing.
“First of all facing her was a broad lawn as yellow as butter under the night sky. Two tall trees rose up like steeples in front of the hous, a plane to the north and a linden to the south.”
“Jeanne gazed at the broad surface of the sea, which looked like watered silk, sleeping peacefully under the stars. In the quiet of the sunless sky all the scents of the earth rose up into the air. A jessamine climbing round the downstairs windows gave a penetrating scent, which mingled with the fainter smell of the young leaves. Gentle gusts of wind were blowing, laden with the sharp tang of the salt and the heavy sticky reek of seaweed. At first the girl was happy just breathing the night air; the peace of the countryside had the calming effect of a cool bath.”
Jeanne’s first few months are spent getting to know her new surroundings and enjoying her freedom and soon she is introduced to a young man by the name of Julien who is a count and after a breif and all-consuming romance they marry. Jeanne starts to pick up clues that all is not what it seemed as early as the wedding night when he forces himself on his new bride but desperately wanting to believe that she has married the right man and stay happy she puts it to one side. I feel the need to note here (for amusements sake) that Julien calls his wifes breasts Mr Sleeper-out and Mr Kiss-me-quick and certain other part of her womanly anatomy The road to Damascus. Fortunatley these aren’t mentioned more than once.
The story is very much about the downward spiral of one woman’s life. We watch Jeanne’s hopes and desires and dreams turn into boredom and frustration and self-pity.
“Suddenly she realised that she had nothing to do and never would have anything.”
“But now the magic reality of those first days was about to become the every day reality, which closed the door on those hopes and delightful enigmas of the unknown.”
“Habit spread over her life like a layer of resignation like the chalky deposit left on the ground by certain kinds of of water.”
“Sometimes she would spend the whole afternoon sitting looking at the sea; sometimes she went down to Yport through the wood, repeating the walks of old days which she could not forget. What a long time it was since she had wondered through the countryside as a young girl intoxicated with dreams!”
Maupassant has such a way with words that he drew me into Jeanne’s world and I felt the same longing she felt. It took me back to days when I had the world at my feet too and thought I could do anything, had no cares in the world – OK so my carefree days were a little different to Jeanne’s as in rather than floating round some big mansion by the sea, it was made up of nights out on the town, no mortgage to pay and a feeling of being able accountable to nobody except myself (ahh, to be so naive once more!). I do sometimes wonder how I would have coped in those days – one part of me thinks how lovely to do nothing all day other than read my books and take little walks round the garden with my parasol in hand, and the other part thinks but what would happen when you got bored of that? A woman didn’t have a choice then. In those particular circles they were there to look pretty and be seen but not so much heard. How dull!
Despite my sympathy towards Jeanne, not just because of her longing for something else but also because of her brutish husband and selfish son, I still found myself wanting to grab her shoulders and give her a good shake! My God, this woman can make a fuss. Her level of self-pity knows no bounds – we have hysterics, weeping, falling on someones breast and weeping, collapsing on a chair and weeping, we have fainting, panic attacks and wailing. There were times when I wanted to yell “get a grip, love!” at the pages.
“She continually repeated: ‘I have no luck in life.’ But Rosalie would retort: ‘What would you say if you had to earn your living and had to get up at six every morning and go out to work? There are plenty of women who have to do that, and when they are too old to work, they starve to death.’”
Quite!
This book, I believe, should have been translated as One Woman’s Life rather than A Woman’s Life as it is very much about Jeanne and her personal story.
I read quite a few Maupassant books when I was at school (we studied Boule de Suife and some of his other shorter stories) but it’s far too long since I have read anything else of his. I’m glad I did – it reminded me why I liked him. Recommended. -
Una vita è un romanzo profondamente malinconico, di vite solo subite o vissute attraverso altri; esistenze lugubri, accompagnate da un dolore tanto persistente da diventare un amico, in cui "ogni gesto" viene "compiuto automaticamente, come dalla macchina dell’abitudine". Smorza un po' questo grigio, per fortuna, lo stile di Maupassant (non a caso pupillo di Flaubert):
"La primavera fu stranamente calda e precoce. Dal cominciare del dolce mattino fino alla calma e tepida sera, il sole faceva germogliare la superficie terrestre; ed era come un brusco e potente rigoglio di tutti i giorni nello stesso tempo, una di quelle irresistibili ondate di vita, uno di quegli ardori di rinascita che la natura sfoggia talvolta in certe annate privilegiate che farebbero credere al ringiovanire del mondo. Questo fermento di vita turbava vagamente Giovanna ch’era capace di provare un languore improvviso davanti a un fiorellino nato fra l’erba, o malinconie deliziose, ore di mollezza fantastica. Poi l’assalivano perfino i ricordi teneri teneri dei primi tempi d’amore, benché sapesse bene che non poteva venir dal suo cuore un nuovo moto d’affetto per lui (oh, tutto ciò era finito, finito), ma la sua carne, accarezzata dall’aria, penetrata dai profumi della primavera si turbava come incitata, istigata da una voce invisibile, morbida. Si compiaceva d’essere sola, s’abbandonava sotto il tepore del sole, si sentiva percorsa da sensazioni vaghe e serene che le lasciavano inerte il cervello. In uno di questi assopimenti, una volta, le tornò fulmineo il ricordo del vano soleggiato, che s’apriva nel denso fogliame del boschetto di Etreat, là dove per la prima volta aveva sentito fremere il suo corpo accanto all’uomo che amava (allora lo amava), là dove aveva balbettato per la prima volta il primo desiderio del cuore, dove aveva creduto di mutar le speranze in vita vera. Rivedere il piccolo bosco, farvi una specie di pellegrinaggio sentimentale e superstizioso, come se il ritorno a quel luogo potesse variare il corso del suo destino!"
"Oh, sì, erano gli stessi fremiti, era la stessa dolcezza, la stessa ebrezza perturbatrice degli altri giorni primaverili, quando attendeva l’avvenire, e ora che l’avvenire era chiuso ella riaveva tutto, tutto! Ne gioiva e pur ne soffriva, come se la gioia eterna del mondo risvegliato, penetrando nella sua pelle avvizzita, nel suo sangue agghiacciato, nella sua anima vinta, non vi potesse più infondere che un incanto debole e dolente.
Le sembrava, anche, che qualcosa fosse mutata intorno a lei, da per tutto. Il sole doveva essere un po’ meno caldo che nei giorni della sua giovinezza, il cielo un po’ meno azzurro, l’erba un po’ meno verde, e quanto ai fiori, erano certo pi pallidi, meno odorosi e non inebriavan più come allora. E tuttavia, qualche volta, un tal benessere di vita la prendeva, che ricominciava a fantasticare, a sperare, ad attendere, perché… perché è mai possibile che, non ostante la crudeltà della sorte, non si possa sognare ancora quando fa bello? E andava, andava per ore e ore come sferzata dall’eccitazione della sua anima, e si fermava di colpo sedendosi sull’orlo della strada a ripensare sempre le stesse cose: perché non era stata come le altre? perché non aveva avuto anche le semplici gioie d’un’esistenza tranquilla? E per un momento dimenticava d’essere vecchia, di non aver più nulla davanti, fuorché qualche anno lugubre e solitario; dimenticava che la sua strada era già stata percorsa e faceva come un tempo, come a sedici anni, tanti progetti dolci al suo cuore, vagheggiando così l’avvenire. Poi era come se le piombasse sopra, crudelmente, la sensazione della realtà, si rialzava esaurita come se un peso le avesse spezzato le vene e diceva a set stessa: «Oh vecchia pazza! vecchia pazza!» riprendendo, più lentamente, la via di casa." -
3,5/5
Liūdnoka knyga apie neišsipildžiusią gražios meilės svajonę ir sudužusias iliuzijas apie laimę, turbūt įprastus, tipiškus dalykus XIX amžiaus Prancūzijoje, ir ne tik. Tai, kad aprašė paprastą istoriją, autorius ypač pabrėžia romano pabaigoje: „Gyvenimas, matote, nėra nei toks jau geras, nei toks jau blogas, kaip manoma“. Mopasanas – rašytojas realistas, ne romantikas, kaip kiek anksčiau kūręs V. Hugo, bet ir ne natūralistas kaip amžininkas E. Zola.
Romanas „Vieno gyvenimo istorija“ – pirmasis po daugelio novelių, todėl jis kiek panašus į ilgą novelę: nesudėtingas siužetas ir struktūra, nedaug veikėjų. Kadangi Mopasanas buvo didelis Flobero gerbėjas (kai kas romane man asocijavosi su „Ponia Bovari“) – įtakos neneigė ir pats autorius, nes jam buvo garbė turėti tokį mokytoją. Nors tai trumpasis romanas, bet man – kaip toks – pasirodė šiek tiek ištęstas, o autoriaus siekis Normandijos gamtos aprašymus sutapatinti su pagrindinės veikėjos dramos peripetijomis – nelabai įtikinamas, nes per daug vidinė herojės būsena neatsiejama nuo gamtos vaizdų. Pagrindinė herojė Žana – ne kovotoja, jos gyvenimas rutuliuojasi nuobodoka kreive žemyn: jaunystės optimizmą ir svajones palengva keičia rezignacija, nes vyru nusivilia labai greit, o vienintelis išlepintas nevykėlis sūnus ne tik nieko nepasiekia, bet materialiai sužlugdo ir motiną. Vis dėlto autorius knygos pabaigoje – kad ji nebūtų pernelyg pesimistinė – įžiebia vilties kibirkštėlę: Žana myluoja anūkę, kuri gal būt įprasmins jos gyvenimą.
Romano pliusai – dvasiniai išgyvenimai vaizduojami tikrai mopasaniškai, šiame romane jau dygsta gilaus psichologizmo daigai (Žanos apmąstymai ir vidiniai monologai), kurie išsikeros vėliau parašytose knygose. Autorius stengiasi likti nuošalyje, neperša savo nuomonės, kad skaitytojai patys suvoktų įvykių prasmę ir darytų išvadas. Tam pasitarnauja ir nesudėtinga leksika, aiškūs, loiški sakiniai – knyga skaitosi lengvai. Kaip pirmasis blynas – romanas tikrai neprisvilęs, dėka to gimė kiti – įdomesni turiniu ir forma – kūriniai.
