The Impudent Ones
A Novel
by Marguerite Duras
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Pub Date Mar 09 2021 | Archive Date Mar 11 2021
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Description
Published for the first time in English, the debut novel of Marguerite Duras—renowned author of The Lover and The War—is the story of a family’s moral reckoning and a daughter’s fall from grace
Marguerite Duras rose to global stardom with her erotic masterpiece The Lover (L’Amant), which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt, has over a million copies in print in English, has been translated into forty-three languages, and was adapted into a canonical film in 1992. While almost all of Duras’s novels have been translated into English, her debut The Impudent Ones(Les Impudents) has been a glaring exception—until now. Fans of Duras will be thrilled to discover the germ of her bold, vital prose and signature blend of memoir and fiction in this intense and mournful story of the Taneran family, which introduces Duras’s classic themes of familial conflict, illicit romance, and scandal in the sleepy suburbs and southwest provinces of postwar France.
Duras’s great gift was her ability to bring vivid and passionate life to characters with whom society may not have sympathized, but with whom readers certainly do. With storytelling that evokes in equal parts beauty and brutality, The Impudent Ones depicts the scalding effects of seduction and disrepute on the soul of a young French girl.
Including an essay on the story behind The Impudent Ones by Jean Vallier—biographer of the late Duras—which contextualizes the origins of Duras’s debut novel, this one-of-a-kind publishing endeavor will delight established Duras fans and a new generation of readers alike.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781620976517 |
| PRICE | $25.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 256 |
Featured Reviews
Lynn B, Media/Journalist
Dramatic, intense, romantic...a book that I have been waiting to read for a long time. I enjoyed delving into this one while the atmospheric plot unfolded. I enjoyed this book immensely and would highly recommend it.
Kasa C, Reviewer
Marguerite Duras was a writer of fierce intelligence and observation who fictionalized elements of her life through her work, this being her first novel published in 1943. This however is its first appearance in English, and thanks to a wonderful translation, reads more contemporary than expected. Maud is a passionate 20 year old, trapped in a family of such extraordinary toxicity it beggars belief. Whether they are in their bourgeois apartment outside Paris or at their (failed) farm property in the southwest of France, there doesn't appear to be any affection that isn't baneful. Maud shares with her creator a family situation in which her mother rules the roost with a decidedly bias toward Maud's older brother who himself is as obnoxious as they come. Duras describes the rural life so explicitly, the reader can almost smell and hear it. Another description mentions that this is post-war France, but since it was written in 1941, that cannot be; however, there is no evidence of WWII in these pages.
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