À propos de la parution en anglais (U.S.) de « Amants féminins ou la Troisième » de Natalie Barney

The works of Natalie Clifford Barney, an American who lived in Paris and wrote in French, are little known, and her 1926 autobiographical novel Amants féminins was published for the first time only in 2013. Woman Lovers, or The Third Woman is the first English translation.

A scholarly introduction by Melanie C. Hawthorne and a translator’s essay by Chelsea Ray place this work in the context of modernism and evolving gender definitions while detailing Barney’s biography. These introductory materials are revealing and absorbing in their own right, if a little dry in their academic tone. The novel, however, leaps energetically to life.

Barney’s protagonist N., who stands in for the author, believes in love among women as an ideal of pleasure and friendship. « Friendship is simply love without pleasure ! » she declares. « Love is heavy for two to carry, and happiness is monotonous. » With a new lover, M., she establishes an « association » by which the two women will comfort those in romantic distress by sharing their affections. When she brings such a woman into her relationship with M., however, N. is unexpectedly left out, jealous and hurt.

Barney is perhaps best known for her aphorisms, and she uses such pithy fragments as well as screenplay-style dialogue, mock journal entries, a combination of first- and third-person perspectives and even drawings to tell her story. Woman Lovers, while brief, is thus a noteworthy and historically significant piece of experimental literature, queer theory and a captivating roman à clef all at once. —Julia Jenkins, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Discover : This is an autobiographical, sprightly 1926 novel of a Belle Époque lesbian love triangle, written in French by an American and appearing in English for the first time.WOMEN LOVERS OR THE THIRD WOMAN

Compte rendu dans SHELFAWARENESS BOOKREVIEW Juin 2016Retour ligne automatique
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Friday, July 29, 2016 | Volume 1 | Issue 528

FictionRetour ligne automatique
Woman Lovers, or The Third WomanRetour ligne automatique
by Natalie Clifford Barney and Chelsea Ray, editor, trans. by Chelsea Chelsea Ray