Violette Leduc | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1907-04-07)7 April 1907 Arras,Pas-de-Calais, France |
| Died | 28 May 1972(1972-05-28) (aged 65) Faucon, Vaucluse, France |
Violette Leduc (7 April 1907 – 28 May 1972) was a French writer.
She was born inArras,Pas de Calais, France, on 7 April 1907. She was theillegitimate daughter of a servant girl, Berthe Leduc, and André Debaralle, the son of a rich Protestant family inValenciennes, who refused to legitimize her.[1] In Valenciennes, Violette spent most of her childhood suffering from poor self-esteem, exacerbated by her mother's hostility and excessive protectiveness. She developed tender friendships with her grandmother Fideline and her maternal aunt Laure. Her grandmother died when Leduc was a young child.
Her formal education began in 1913, but was interrupted byWorld War I. After the war, she went to a boarding school, the Collège de Douai, where she experiencedlesbian affairs with her classmate "Isabelle P", which Leduc later adapted into the first part of her novelRavages, and then the 1966Thérèse et Isabelle. During her time at the Collège de Douai, she was introduced to what would become her first literary passions: the Russian classics, thenCocteau,Duhamel,Gide,Proust, andRimbaud.
In 1925, Leduc embarked on an affair with a supervisor at the Collège, Denise Hertgès, four years her senior.[2] The affair was later discovered, and Hertgès was dismissed from her job over the incident.[3]
In 1926, Leduc moved to Paris, along with her mother and stepfather, and enrolled in theLycée Racine. The same year, she failed her baccalaureate exam, and began working as a press cuttings clerk and secretary atPlon publishers, later becoming a writer of news pieces about their publications.[4] She continued to live with Hertgès for nine years in the suburbs of Paris. Violette's mother Berthe encouraged her homosexual relations, believing this would protect Violette from illegitimate pregnancy.[2]
In 1927, Violette met Jacques Mercier, seven years her senior, in a cinema. Despite her involvement with Hertgès, Mercier continuously pursued Violette. This love triangle is the basis of the plot ofRavages, wherein Violette is represented by the character Thérèse, Mercier by Marc, and Hertgès by Cécile. Violette's relationship with Hertgès ended in 1935. In 1939, Violette married Mercier.[5] Their marriage was unsuccessful, and they separated. During their separation, Violette discovered that she was pregnant, and almost lost her life during anabortion.[6]
In 1938, she metMaurice Sachs (future author ofLe Sabbat), and in 1942, he took Violette toNormandy, where she wrote the manuscript ofL'Asphyxie. During this time, Violette was also involved with trading on the black market, which allowed her to make a living.[2] In 1944, Violette sawSimone de Beauvoir, and in 1945, Violette gave Beauvoir a copy of the manuscript ofL'Asphyxie.[5] This interaction formed the basis of a friendship and mentorship between her and Beauvoir that lasted for the rest of her life. Her first novel,L'Asphyxie (In the Prison of Her Skin), was published byAlbert Camus for Éditions Gallimard, and earned her praise fromJean-Paul Sartre,Jean Cocteau, andJean Genet. Her friendship and love of Maurice Sachs is detailed in her autobiography,La Bâtarde.[7]
In 1955, Violette published her novelRavages with Gallimard, but the editor censored the first 150-page section of the book, which depicts Violette's sexual encounters anddefloration with her female classmate; Isabelle P. Gallimard censored this section by labelling it obscene.[8] The censored part was eventually published as a separate novella,Thérèse and Isabelle, in 1966. Another novel,Le Taxi, caused controversy because of its depiction ofincest between a brother and a sister. Critic Edith J. Benkov compared this novel with the work ofMarguerite Duras andNathalie Sarraute.[9]
Leduc's best-known book, thememoirLa Bâtarde, was published in 1964. It nearly won thePrix Goncourt, and quickly became a best-seller. She went on to write eight more books, includingLa Folie en tête (Mad in Pursuit), the second part of her literary autobiography.
In 1968,Radley Metzger made a film of Leduc's novelThérèse and Isabelle.[10] It is a commercial feature about adolescent lesbian love, starringEssy Persson andAnna Gael.
Leduc developedbreast cancer and died at the age of 65, after two operations. She was living atFaucon, Vaucluse, at the time of her death.[11]
Violette is a 2013 Frenchbiographicaldrama film about Leduc. It was written and directed byMartin Provost and shown in the Special Presentation section at the2013 Toronto International Film Festival.[12]
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