La Batarde

By: Violette LeDuc, Derek Coltman (Translator), Deborah Levy (Introduction by), Simone de Beauvoir (Foreword by)

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Paperback | 27 June 2023

At a Glance

Paperback
672 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21 x 13.5 x 4.5

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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 agonising 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 behaviour. 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.

About the Author

Violette Leduc (1907-1972) has been referred to as "France's greatest unknown writer." Admired by Jean Genet, Nathalie Sarraute, and Albert Camus, Leduc was championed by Simone de Beauvoir when she published her scandalous autobiography La Batarde (1964). Like Therese and Isabelle, many of her audacious novels are largely inspired by her life. She is the subject of Martin Provost's biopic, Violette (2013).

About the Translator

Derek Coltman has translated such French works as Marie-Claire Blais s A Season in the Life of Emmanuel, Jean Varenne s Yoga and the Hindu Tradition, and Violette Leduc's La Batarde. He lives in England.

Industry Reviews

"Notoriety aside, Leduc is first and foremost a first-rate writer. Not someone who just tells a provocative story and is unafraid to reveal the most offensive parts of her personality and of her experience, but someone who is in love with words, struggles with them, wrestles with language, dies for adjectives, is tortured by her search for le mot juste."-Women's Review of Books

“There are a number of similarities, both literary and personal, between Violette Leduc and Jean Genet. . . . Both are completely indifferent to conventional moral values, and describe their thefts, homosexual exploits or black market profiteering with a strange innocence that is only partly the result of a deliberate pose.”—Times Literary Supplement

“The experiences Leduc records exemplify, without intellectualizing, many of the ideas of Sartre, Genet and Simone de Beauvoir. Her insights are sparks thrown off by the striking of her senses and emotions. They define without structuring.”—The New Leader

“La Batarde is a success based not on wit, wisdom or literary grace but on the unpleasant pleasure many people find in watching someone else behave shamelessly.”—Time

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