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The Lover
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the novel. For the film based on it, see The Lover (film).
 First edition cover of L'amant |
|
| Author | Marguerite Duras |
|---|---|
| Original title | L'Amant |
| Translator | Barbara Bray |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Genre(s) | Nouveau Roman |
| Publisher | Editions de Minuit |
| Publication date | 1984 |
| Published in English | 1986 |
| Media type | hardback |
| Pages | 148 pages |
| ISBN | 2707306959 |
L'Amant (English: The Lover) is an autobiographical novel by Marguerite Duras, published in 1984 by Les Éditions de Minuit. It has been translated to 43 languages. It was awarded the 1984 Prix Goncourt.
Set against the backdrop of French colonial Vietnam, The Lover reveals the intimacies and intricacies of a clandestine romance between a pubescent girl from a financially strapped French family and an older, wealthy Chinese man.
In 1929, a 15 year old nameless girl is traveling by ferry across the Mekong Delta, returning from a holiday at her family home in the village of Sadec, to her boarding school in Saigon. She attracts the attention of a 27 year old son of a Chinese business magnate, a young man of wealth and heir to a fortune. He strikes up a conversation with the girl; she accepts a ride back to town in his chauffeured limousine.
Compelled by the circumstances of her upbringing, this girl, the daughter of a bankrupt, manic-depressive widow, is newly awakened to the impending and all-too-real task of making her way alone in the world. Thus, she becomes his lover, until he bows to the disapproval of his father and breaks off the affair.
For her lover, there is no question of the depth and sincerity of his love, but it isn't until much later that the girl acknowledges to herself her true feelings.
Duras' real-life Chinese lover was named Lee. The last she heard of him, he became a born again Christian and loved his family very much. He died and was buried in the same city in Vietnam where Duras first met him.
Duras was only 15 at the time of her love affair, which is the age of the heroine in the novel.
- L'Amant at the Editions de Minuit homepage