Les Impudents

FIRST EDITION (no large paper) of Marguerite Duras' first novel, rejected by Gallimard before being published by Plon.

"This first novel by Marguerite Duras has a history quite similar to what she would produce later. The story is primarily family-centered, with no displacement of the protagonists; everything is focused on the absent father's property, in the French countryside of Lot-et-Garonne. The main theme is family, a devouring family that swallows up individualities and creates violent tensions. The characters are torn apart by each other, boredom and idleness reign supreme, and questions about the emptiness of existence arise. These themes would later be revisited in most of the author's books." marguerite-duras