Marguerite Yourcenar: Coup de Grâce

[Libra]

(From Wiki)

Yourcenar was elected as the first female member of the Académie française, in 1980. One of the respected writers in French language, she published many novels, essays, and poems, as well as three volumes of memoirs.

Set in the Baltic Provinces in the aftermath of WWI,Coup de Grâce tells the story of an intimacy that grows between three young people hemmed in by civil war.Erick,a Prussian fighting with the White Russians against the Bolsheviks; Conrad,his best friend from childhood; and Sophie,whose unrequited love for Erick becomes an unbearable burden.

I found the story to be more about a complex relationship between Erick and Sophie in between a civil war.Conrad was mentioned but not as often as these two main characters.

Dealing with war,love,hate,and so much more,this book is a great read.

 

[saliotthomas]

Hard to summerize without revealing the end.
One of those book,short(little more than 100 pages) but full of meaning and where the final make one reconsider the all story,giving it even pore weight.
Perfectly mastered and with efficent and beautifull prose.
Conrad play the role of the friend and actually a bit the same frienship as in Ember with a different result but with the same ideal.
I like the presentation of Erik in the prologue,a cold man if there's one.
The story is also a huit-clos and the transition of feelings betwin characteres.It has something of a play, a game(of chess?) where Sophie chose the extreme way to win.

With this book Yourcenar became one of my favorite writer(even is she kept her prose in check for it to be more efficent) in the sense that i have now to read all i can find from her.A very great woman.Maybe the best French female writer of all times.(that i know of)

 

[Libra]

Hard to summerize without revealing the end.
One of those book,short(little more than 100 pages) but full of meaning and where the final make one reconsider the all story,giving it even pore weight.
Perfectly mastered and with efficent and beautifull prose.
Conrad play the role of the friend and actually a bit the same frienship as in Ember with a different result but with the same ideal.
I like the presentation of Erik in the prologue,a cold man if there's one.
The story is also a huit-clos and the transition of feelings betwin characteres.It has something of a play, a game(of chess?) where Sophie chose the extreme way to win.

With this book Yourcenar became one of my favorite writer(even is she kept her prose in check for it to be more efficent) in the sense that i have now to read all i can find from her.A very great woman.Maybe the best French female writer of all times.(that i know of)

I agree,very cold man,

Spoiler

but do you think it's because of the situation they were all surrounded by,take for instance when he slapped her,they were both at the door and I really thought for a second that he had a deep love for her after all,but then he contibued being cold and even calling her pathetic and it through me off again,a complex character .