Violette Leduc La bâtarde
Violette Leduc La bâtarde
Violette Leduc La bâtarde
Violette Leduc La bâtarde

Violette Leduc La bâtarde

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Published by Édititons Gallimard 1964, Condition: Good. French

 "To have an inner life, to think, to juggle and leap, to become a tightrope walker in the world of ideas. To attack, to riposte, to refute, what a contest, what acclaim. To understand. The most generous word of all. Memory. To retain, a geyser of felicity. Intelligence. The agonizing poverty of my mind. Words and ideas flitting in and out like butterflies. My brain a dandelion seed blown in the wind." - Violette Leduc

 

Earlier this week we uploaded a copy of Le Taxi by Violette Leduc that is for sale in our bookshop. The story deals with the topic of incest between a brother and sister as they drive around Paris in the back of a taxi having sex and talking about their time together growing up in the city. While the subject of the book was and remains taboo, Leduc was never one to shy away from the extremes of life in her writing. She was innovative in her sexual boldness, her ability to delicately express the tenderness that can be felt between two people and in her belief of her talent and her writing capabilities. 

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Violette Leduc holds a place in literary history that is as formidable and notable as many of her contemporaries that include Jean Genet (who said of her: “She is crazy, ugly, cheap, and poor, but she has a lot of talent.” ) Simone de Beauvoir (her formal mentor and lifelong friend who she stalked at Cafe Fleur and tried repeatedly to have a love affair with) Albert Camus, Jean Cocteau and Jean Paul Sartre. Despite living and working at the same time as these writers her name holds much less cultural sway, despite her utterly breathtaking body of work. Most famous for her memoirs La Bâtarde, whereby she details being the illegitimate child of a poor house maid and rich man who refused to acknowledge her existence, she wrote many other works that were often semi autobiographical with a devastating and intense focus on lesbian intimacy and sex, polygamy, love and identity.
To read more click here to read our blogpost on Leduc.