Mistress of Britain

The English Lover

* A trial without a judge, three chilling monologues * Killing a person requires a motive; killing life does not. * Everyone may, on some dark night, brush past the desire to kill. * Open this book, and you will enter a territory that cannot be illuminated by reason. * If I were you, I'd listen. Please listen to me. "The English Mistress" tells the story of a woman, Claire, who murders her deaf and mute cousin, Marie-Thérèse, who has been doing her housework for years. Claire dismembers the body and throws the pieces from a viaduct into a speeding train. The case itself is horrifying enough, but what truly makes one gasp is not the gory details, but a long trial that delves into the abyss of human nature. The book is composed of three conversations from beginning to end: an unidentified interrogator (possibly a psychologist or a writer) speaks successively with a café owner, the victim's brother-in-law (i.e., the murderer's husband), and the murderer herself, Claire Lannes. These three conversations painstakingly peel back the layers, like three mirrors reflecting different facets of the same gruesome case. [Editor's Recommendation]: [Classic reborn, shining in your hands] Marguerite Duras' series of works are launched for the first time as portable pocket editions, reinterpreting French literary elegance with minimalist aesthetics. ★ Marguerite Duras is an internationally renowned modern French writer with a wide readership. Starting from her autobiographical writings, she created a large number of novels, essays, plays, and film works. She is a classic author who has entered the public eye and an influential film artist worldwide. France's "Bibliothèque de la Pléiade" published her complete works, signifying her entry into the "literary pantheon" as an immortal representative. Her plays have entered the classic repertoire of the Comédie-Française, and her novels have even become required reading for French secondary school examinations. With her unique artistic style and refreshing narrative approach, Duras constructed a milestone in modern narrative art. As the famous French writer Alain Robbe-Grillet said: "Marguerite Duras harbors a subversive power in her narratives." ★ There is no hatred, no crime of passion, no property dispute. Claire herself cannot explain why she did it; she simply, on a sleepless night, looked at her sleeping cousin "like a large piece of meat that couldn't hear" and raised the knife. Duras completely abandons the omniscient narrator found in traditional novels, with no scene descriptions, no psychological monologues, and even the interrogator's identity is not revealed. We can only piece together the truth behind the case through the characters' fragmented words, silences, evasions, and contradictions in their conversations. The narrative structure of "The English Mistress" itself is a bold literary experiment.

2026-04-30

上海译文出版社

243

9787580702166