{"title":"Marguerite Duras","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"the-lover","title":"The Lover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFirst published in France in 1984, Marguerite Duras’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Lover\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eL’Amant\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e) is a haunting, semi-autobiographical novel set in French Indochina in the late 1920s. Recounted through the fractured memories of an older narrator, it returns to the adolescence of a poor French girl living with her troubled family near Saigon, and to her affair with a wealthy young Chinese man she encounters while crossing the Mekong River. Desire, money, family resentment and the racial hierarchies of colonial society shape their relationship, while the narrator’s shifting perspective makes memory itself an elusive presence.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWinner of the Prix Goncourt in 1984, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Lover\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is among Duras’s most celebrated works, distilling the intensity of her fiction into a spare, lyrical prose in which silences can carry as much weight as words. Rather than offering a straightforward account of first love, Duras explores the ways desire becomes entangled with shame, power, class and the stories we construct about our younger selves. The result is an intimate yet unsettling portrait of adolescence and recollection, inseparable from the colonial world in which it unfolds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the book\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Very early in my life it was too late.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— Marguerite Duras, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Lover\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOn \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Lover\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“The Lover is a great literary act of looking back.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— Anthony Macris, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Conversation\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardner's EU","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64052344684874,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}]},{"product_id":"the-ravishing-of-lol-stein","title":"The Ravishing of Lol Stein","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFirst published in France in 1964, Marguerite Duras’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Ravishing of Lol Stein\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLe Ravissement de Lol V. Stein\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e) is a mesmerising novel of desire, memory and the uncertain boundaries of identity. At a summer ball in the fictional town of S. Tahla, nineteen-year-old Lol Stein watches her fiancé, Michael Richardson, abandon her for an older woman, Anne-Marie Stretter; the experience leaves her profoundly altered. A decade later, married and outwardly settled, Lol returns to the place of her youth, where her friendship with Tatiana Karl and her fascination with Tatiana’s lover, Jacques Hold, draw her back towards the scene of her original loss.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMoving through repetition, silence and shifting perspectives, Duras refuses the consolations of a straightforward psychological explanation, leaving Lol’s inner life tantalisingly beyond reach. The novel explores the instability of memory, the consuming nature of desire and the strange possibilities of watching and being watched. Widely regarded as a turning point in Duras’s career, it brings her spare, hypnotic prose to a new level of formal daring, occupying a distinctive place in postwar French literature and in the evolution of the modern novel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the book\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Nothing is given to Lol Stein. She takes.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— Marguerite Duras, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Ravishing of Lol Stein\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOn \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Ravishing of Lol Stein\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“One of the most fascinating and original novels of the twentieth century.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— Madeleine Borgomano, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLe Ravissement de Lol V. Stein\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (Foliothèque; translated from the French)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardner's EU","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64052388397386,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}]}],"url":"https:\/\/thelamppostparis.com\/collections\/marguerite-duras.oembed","provider":"The Lamp-Post Library \u0026 Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}