Imprint
- Virago
- Virago
Fiction, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Historical fiction, Crosswords
From the award-winning author of STRANGER ON A TRAIN and SKATING TO ANTARTICA, a extraordinary novel based on a real story.
Marie de Gournay was eighteen when she read, and was overwhelmed by, the essays of the French philosopher Montaigne. She had to be revived with hellebore. When she finally met Montaigne, she stabbed herself with a hairpin until the blood ran in order to show her devotion. He made her his adopted daughter for the two months they knew each other. He died four years later, after which, though scorned by intellectuals, she became his editor.
Jenny Diski engages with this passionate and confused relationship between 'father and daughter', old writer/young acolyte, possible lovers, using both their voices. Much of their story is about absence of the people they love. In Jenny Diski's hands it becomes a fascinating tale.
Praise for Apology For The Woman Writing
-
** 'A compelling and complex tale . . . Diski's prose is elegant and visceral . . . Like all good historical fiction, APOLOGY FOR THE WOMAN WRITING not only illuminates an undeservedly little-known episode of literary history, it also demonstrates a rare subtlety and sense of moral ambiguity of restrained devotion transformed by the writer's incisive eye, into art - Josephine Balmer, THE TIMES
-
** 'Diski has cleverly adapted the historical sources to fashion an exceedingly literary novel... Diski's cool, modulated prose exhibits the moderation so prized by Montaigne, and Marie's fate offers a salutary warning to those of us who love books that the - Michael Arditti, INDEPENDENT
-
** '4 Stars. Diski never takes the easy or obvious approach and the result is a brilliantly witty and stylishly simple look at disappointment in love and life - Tania Ahsan, METRO
-
** 'Diski's understated method and her decision to observe rather than judge give the surface of this novel an even-handed authority . . . Diski's compelling, beautifully crisp fictional reconstruction of this bizarre and uncompromising woman's life serve - Patricia Duncker, OBSERVER
Find a book you’ll love, get our Word Up newsletter
.png?auto=compress&w=150&h=60&fit=crop&fm=jpg)
.png?auto=compress&w=150&h=60&fit=crop&fm=jpg)
Hachette Australia acknowledges and pays our respects to the past, present and future Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Our head office is located on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.
