Aventures De L'esprit

by Natalie Clifford Barney

For her 1929 book Aventures de l'Esprit (Adventures of the Mind) Barney drew a social diagram which crowded the names of over a hundred people who had attended the salon into a rough map of the house, garden and Temple of Friendship. The first half of the book had reminiscences of 13 male writers she had known or met over the years and the second half had a chapter for each member of her Académie des Femmes. This gender-balanced structure was not carried through on the book's packaging, which listed eight of the male writers then added "... and some women."

Genres: Lesbian, Nonfiction, Memoir, France, Jewish, LGBT, Queer

278 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Natalie Clifford Barney (31 October 1876 – 2 February 1972) was an American expatriate who lived, wrote and hosted a literary salon in Paris. She was a noted poet, memoirist and epigrammatist.

Barney's salon was held at her home on Paris's Left Bank for more than 60 years and brought together writers and artists from around the world, including many leading figures in French literature along with American and British Modernists of the Lost Generation. She worked to promote writing by women and formed a "Women's Academy" in response to the all-male French Academy while also giving support and inspiration to male writers from Remy de Gourmont to Truman Capote.

She was openly lesbian and began publishing love poems to women under her own name as early as 1900, considering scandal as "the best way of getting rid of nuisances". In her writings she supported feminism, paganism and pacifism. She opposed monogamy and had many overlapping, long and short-term relationships, including an on-and-off romance with poet Renée Vivien and a 50-year relationship with painter Romaine Brooks. Her life and love affairs served as inspiration for many novels, ranging from the salacious French bestseller Sapphic Idyll to The Well of Loneliness, arguably the most famous lesbian novel of the 20th century.[3]

Reviews

[au · Rating 4 out of 5]

2nd read:

I loved the different "forms" of texts this book includes, with letters, excerpts from books, poems, etc. Reading the letters feels as if I'm intruding on a very private matter (though they all have a common theme- the men are on Natalie's feet). For example, Proust being a very sickly man and Pierre Louys preferring Natalie's works to Renee's. However, I found that even though I much more enjoy learning about the women in Natalie's life, that the portraits were not as well developed as the men's section. I get that the chapters on women were read out loud at her Fridays, but it just felt imbalanced compared to Natalie's portraits on the men (though we know, of course, which of the two Natalie preferred). She says in the preface to the second half of the book that though she only wishes "to imply, to suggest, to sketch" these women, having us appreciate their lives on their own. Still, that doesn't mean I don't want more from her writings!

I think it would be more difficult to enjoy this book if one doesn't know already of Natalie's life or the French literary circles, since she does throw a lot of names out (some for name dropping, honestly). She includes many literary references, including my new favorite quote by Mallarme- "A roll of the dice will never abolish chance."

The portraits in Souvenirs indiscrets were much better fleshed out (translation of some chapters in A Perilous Advantage: The Best of Natalie Clifford Barney). Example being the Renee Vivien chapter. She is quite mean in this Adventures portrait to Renee, essentially calling her "weak" for turning to Christianity and abandoning paganism in her death. Though I found another poet I like- Anna Wickham, who wrote on themes of motherhood and marriage. Overall, would recommend A Perilous Advantage: The Best of Natalie Clifford Barney more, since it has a diverse set of Natalie's writings. Still, as with any Natalie writing, it's a wonderfully witty and a handsome read!