Women
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
A gorgeous, tender modern classic about the complexities of love, with an introduction from the Booker-winning author John Banville
Stefan Valeriu, a young Romanian student, holidays alone in the Alps, where he soon becomes entangled in romantic relationships with three different women who pass through his guesthouse. We follow Stefan after his return to Paris as he reflects on the women in his life, at times playing the lover, and at others observing shrewdly from the periphery.
Women's four interlinked stories offer nuanced and deeply moving portraits of romantic relationships in all their complexity, from unrequited love and passionate affairs to tepid marriages of convenience. In light, elegant prose, Mihail Sebastian, widely regarded as the greatest Romanian writer of the 20th century, explores longing, otherness, empathy, and regret.
'His prose is like something Chekov might have written - the same modesty, candour, and subtleness of observation' Arthur Miller
'I love Sebastian's courage, his lightness, and his wit' John Banville
'Sebastian belongs in the pantheon of classic authors' New Statesman
'A minor masterpiece of voice, mood and emotion' Irish Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This skeletal novel in stories from Sebastian (For Two Thousand Years), originally published in 1933, comprises four pieces that follow the sensual and romantic adventures of Stefan Valeriu. Stefan, a young Romanian man recently out of medical school, is introduced in "Ren e, Marthe, and Odette," in which Stefan vacations alone at a resort in the French Alps. There, he meets Ren e Rey, the lustful wife of a Tunisian plantation owner; Marthe Bonneau, an elegant older woman on vacation with her son; and Odette Mignon, a quick-witted 18-year-old recent high school graduate who's also on vacation alone. Stefan falls in love with each, and each leaves him and the resort behind for their normal lives. Sebastian's observations of the complex physical and emotional details of romantic intrigue are perceptive and affectionate: "They don't need to struggle to find each other in the dark, don't lose each other, don't speak: the harmony is that of two stalks, growing, entwined." Even so, the work suffers from inconsistency, and the final three tales, all concerning love affairs in Paris, read like sketches in comparison to the opening story. Stefan, meanwhile, remains frustratingly elusive and mysterious beyond his desire for a series of women. Despite the unpolished feel, these concise stories, when at their best, showcase Sebastian's a brilliant eye for emotional detail.
