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Les Impudents
« Maud ouvrit la fenêtre et la rumeur de la vallée emplit la chambre. Le soleil se couchait. Il laissait à sa suite de gros nuages qui s'aggloméraient et se précipitaient comme aveuglés vers un gouffre de clarté. Le "septième" où ils logeaient semblait être à une hauteur vertigineuse. On y découvrait un paysage sonore et profond qui se prolongeait jusqu'à la traînée sombre des collines de Sèvres. Entre cet horizon lointain, bourré d'usines, de faubourgs et l'appartement ouvert en plein ciel, l'air chargé d'une fine brume ressemblait, glauque et dense, à de l'eau.
Maud resta un moment à la fenêtre, les bras étendus sur la rampe du balcon, la tête penchée dans une attitude semblable à celle d'un enfant oisif. Mais son visage était pâle et meurtri par l'ennui.
Lorsqu'elle se retourna vers la chambre et qu'elle ferma la fenêtre le bruissement de la vallée cessa brusquement comme si elle avait fermé les vannes d'une rivière. »
Maud resta un moment à la fenêtre, les bras étendus sur la rampe du balcon, la tête penchée dans une attitude semblable à celle d'un enfant oisif. Mais son visage était pâle et meurtri par l'ennui.
Lorsqu'elle se retourna vers la chambre et qu'elle ferma la fenêtre le bruissement de la vallée cessa brusquement comme si elle avait fermé les vannes d'une rivière. »
252 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1943
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1891 people want to read
About the author
Marguerite Duras
396 books3,300 followersMarguerite Germaine Marie Donnadieu , known as Marguerite Duras, was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker. Her script for the film Hiroshima mon amour (1959) earned her a nomination for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
January 5, 2026
The rhythm is not yet there. Everything is embryonic. They are all there. Family. Family, subsidiary, addictive neurosis. The mother. The girl. Money. Order and social disorder. The mother/daughter relationship. The lover. Love. The impossibilities of love. The end of love. Absence. The lack. Places. The House. The confinement. That of the body, that of the spirit. Loneliness. The submission. Insubordination. Brothers. Earth. Brother. Father's absence. The son. The brothers. The water. The current sweeps away the bodies. River. This is the becoming of the river, which underlines the horizontality of nature. In places, the sentence escapes. No longer free. It starts with a rhythm like a sentence that suddenly stops alone, facing the sea. We discover the words of a young, applied, conscientious, almost schoolgirl author. Hostess, again, of his reader. Still cautious writing, but with excellent and assured movements. It's amazing. It was incredibly moving by the archaeology of her style, by the germination of her rhythm.
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July 25, 2024DNF @ 45%
Após mais de 30 anos a ler Marguerite Duras, umas das minhas autoras de culto, nunca pensei que viria a desistir de uma das suas obras, algumas das quais estranhíssimas, até chegar a “Os Insolentes”, que é precisamente a sua estreia.
O início, com a apresentação tensa dos membros desta família burguesa que se detestam, é promissor e reflexivo, mas a partir do momento em que eles se mudam para o campo, o enredo torna-se aborrecido, a escrita revela-se ainda muito incipiente, e as personagens – uma mãe, uma filha, dois filhos, em tons autobiográficos – parecem baratas tontas. A um quarto do livro, já não queria saber do destino das personagens, e isso é uma piores coisas que me pode acontecer numa leitura.
Mas sem ela, a família não existiria; sabia muito bem que cada um deles teria fugido dos outros, e para não voltar. Mãe daquele filho velho, daquela filha ingrata, certamente má, e daquele filho perverso. Mulher daquele homem que não se ia embora, porque, pensava ela, a comida era boa, e porque conseguira construir naquele solo movediço uma cidadela de indiferença.
Após mais de 30 anos a ler Marguerite Duras, umas das minhas autoras de culto, nunca pensei que viria a desistir de uma das suas obras, algumas das quais estranhíssimas, até chegar a “Os Insolentes”, que é precisamente a sua estreia.
O início, com a apresentação tensa dos membros desta família burguesa que se detestam, é promissor e reflexivo, mas a partir do momento em que eles se mudam para o campo, o enredo torna-se aborrecido, a escrita revela-se ainda muito incipiente, e as personagens – uma mãe, uma filha, dois filhos, em tons autobiográficos – parecem baratas tontas. A um quarto do livro, já não queria saber do destino das personagens, e isso é uma piores coisas que me pode acontecer numa leitura.
Mas sem ela, a família não existiria; sabia muito bem que cada um deles teria fugido dos outros, e para não voltar. Mãe daquele filho velho, daquela filha ingrata, certamente má, e daquele filho perverso. Mulher daquele homem que não se ia embora, porque, pensava ela, a comida era boa, e porque conseguira construir naquele solo movediço uma cidadela de indiferença.
February 19, 2021
"No one had ever been happy in her family."
A decaying, irreparable portrait of a bourgeois family, Duras' debut novel, The Impudent Ones, struggles with its initially wavering focus on its characters.
A daughter-in-law's death perturbs the Grant-Taneran family. The event prompts them to move to their residence in Uderan in the hopes that it will do Mrs Grant's bereaved but vile son, Jacques, some good. But the supposed bereaved Jacques seems to have other things in mind. He is determined to retain the Grant-Taneran's family status amidst their dwindling finances. He eagerly takes on the patriarchal role while their father, who stays on in their house in Paris, remains absent throughout the novel. From bullying his younger sister, neglected Maud, influencing their sycophant, younger brother, Henry, to manipulating their mother for money, it unfolds a remarkable, at times irritating, family drama under the gaze of the Uderan townspeople. With their mother always favouring and excusing Jacques' actions, he only becomes more confident in executing his wicked ways.
Meanwhile, the depressed and discouraged Maud looks on helplessly with their circumstances. By planning to marry her off to a man she doesn't love, her brother and mother use her family position to try saving the Grant-Taneran's place in the social class ladder. In her desperation, Maud readily clings to the first man who catches her eye. Perhaps, for a time, even her heart. She runs away and slips out several nights, mistaking the guise of escape as love and fastening herself with the deceitful promise of this escape—scandals be damned! Indeed, a part of the novel encourages her to take on vengeance against her brother. But even this turns out to be futile. Her confining circumstances is glaringly conspicuous after this attempt.
The Impudent Ones' tragically delineates women's lack of choices in an era where they expect to please men in their life at the expense of their individuality. In her unquenchable thirst for love and attention, she gives herself to someone she can't even have any meaningful conversations with; a call out to her parents' loveless relationship; an implication of her and her mother's own internalised sexism. Her days stretch into lasting unhappiness. The familial prison she escapes from puts her in a different prison.
Duras' prose meanders, with a pinch of elusiveness, here and there. A dull quality submerges some of its sentiments. Yet, whenever it clicks, it lucidly reveals the despairing dispositions of human nature. More so, the lengths people will do to keep their reputation polished despite its rusting corners. To think of it as a debut novel and a partly autobiographical sketch forgive its shortcomings. It highlights the distinct qualities that made Duras one of the most celebrated writers in the world. Do colour me gratified with The Impudent Ones; it also elbowed me to seek Duras' other writings. The Lover shall be next on the list.
Thank you, The New Press and Netgalley, for the advance copy.
A decaying, irreparable portrait of a bourgeois family, Duras' debut novel, The Impudent Ones, struggles with its initially wavering focus on its characters.
A daughter-in-law's death perturbs the Grant-Taneran family. The event prompts them to move to their residence in Uderan in the hopes that it will do Mrs Grant's bereaved but vile son, Jacques, some good. But the supposed bereaved Jacques seems to have other things in mind. He is determined to retain the Grant-Taneran's family status amidst their dwindling finances. He eagerly takes on the patriarchal role while their father, who stays on in their house in Paris, remains absent throughout the novel. From bullying his younger sister, neglected Maud, influencing their sycophant, younger brother, Henry, to manipulating their mother for money, it unfolds a remarkable, at times irritating, family drama under the gaze of the Uderan townspeople. With their mother always favouring and excusing Jacques' actions, he only becomes more confident in executing his wicked ways.
Meanwhile, the depressed and discouraged Maud looks on helplessly with their circumstances. By planning to marry her off to a man she doesn't love, her brother and mother use her family position to try saving the Grant-Taneran's place in the social class ladder. In her desperation, Maud readily clings to the first man who catches her eye. Perhaps, for a time, even her heart. She runs away and slips out several nights, mistaking the guise of escape as love and fastening herself with the deceitful promise of this escape—scandals be damned! Indeed, a part of the novel encourages her to take on vengeance against her brother. But even this turns out to be futile. Her confining circumstances is glaringly conspicuous after this attempt.
The Impudent Ones' tragically delineates women's lack of choices in an era where they expect to please men in their life at the expense of their individuality. In her unquenchable thirst for love and attention, she gives herself to someone she can't even have any meaningful conversations with; a call out to her parents' loveless relationship; an implication of her and her mother's own internalised sexism. Her days stretch into lasting unhappiness. The familial prison she escapes from puts her in a different prison.
Duras' prose meanders, with a pinch of elusiveness, here and there. A dull quality submerges some of its sentiments. Yet, whenever it clicks, it lucidly reveals the despairing dispositions of human nature. More so, the lengths people will do to keep their reputation polished despite its rusting corners. To think of it as a debut novel and a partly autobiographical sketch forgive its shortcomings. It highlights the distinct qualities that made Duras one of the most celebrated writers in the world. Do colour me gratified with The Impudent Ones; it also elbowed me to seek Duras' other writings. The Lover shall be next on the list.
Thank you, The New Press and Netgalley, for the advance copy.
March 2, 2021
February 2021 Reading Wrap-Up
I am honored to be able to read the first English translation of the debut novel of an acclaimed female author from an era where it was particularly hard for women to gain reputations as writers (at least, given the number of women featured in the chaotic age of the literary Western Canon).
The Impudent Ones centers on the daughter's journey to flee a poor and troubled family. As the translator notes, the story is somewhat based on Marguerite's upbringing, and includes themes and events that recur in later novels with more nuance and fluidity that one never expects from a debut novel. From my reading, the novel needs a biographical interpretation to be understood because the author omitted essential details. The father is an absent father figure, which is important to the dangerous family dynamic between her brother and mother, but weirdly, the father just disappears from the novel? From the beginning of part 2, the father just doesn't seem to exist and I don't seem to recall why he stopped being in the story, but from a biographical understanding, we know that Marguerite's father died at about this time in her youth if we presume Marguerite is the daughter of the brothers. This, and more, is revealed from the Translator's notes which account for 16% of this edition on Kindle are really interesting and essential to anyone interested in the ideas and themes of Marguerite Duras. It's amazing we only have this in English in 2021!!! This was certainly useful and well done for me, as someone who has never read Duras before.
This was tricky to read. Is it really psychologically complex, or just excessively vague? The translation is made even easier to read than the French original, which often has ambiguous character motives and changes of setting. Here are some, dare I say "errors", I'd say are in this debut novel that I predict wouldn't be so evident in Duras's later work:
1. The middle of the novel, Part 2, the family's relocation to the farm, is repeatedly described as boring by the characters. Maud, the protagonist, likes reading though she finds it boring. Reading about bored characters and boring settings is boring. This is one reason why there is a major lull in the importance of the middle of the story.
2. Many characters feign desire for people or things. There is a general lack of trust, self-awareness or desire by all characters, the story is quite invariably cold. Character motives and actions often don't align in a way that is understandable, and there's no clear indication this was intentional from the narrator.
3. The narrator isn't neutral, and sometimes had debatably sexist undertones (for reasons unknown), for instance:
"Even though, in his cruel and thoughtless ways as a man, he might have killed her too,"
This is a description of people who both by their own convictions love each other. It seems strange that the narrator would suggest that a man at any time is capable of murder for no motive, even his wife. It might instead be admissible from the viewpoint of the daughter or mother in the novel — but let's think — it's the father who is passive and fades away, the younger brother is also agreeable and basically absent, and the brother's actions are all fairly predictable and 'out-in-the-open'. I find it then strange the disdainful fear the narrator would have against the unpredictable brutality of male characters, despite the more enigmatic natures of the mother and daughter on the men who (supposedly) love them? The blurred lines between who the narrator is and how close they are to understanding the characters is difficult to judge.
My personal interpretation of this story, while it may have been more of a biographical exercise than a narrative exploration, is that it shows that even after the death of the patriarch (the father), those next in the hierarchy of power (the mother and eldest sibling) are then put into conflict at a level that can be even more distressing to the younger siblings than a cruel father. And in Duras's own words, the role of the mother is to prioritize the most troubled child. There is some wisdom on family dynamics here, but it's hidden and enmeshed in a web of vague relationships that may forever remain unresolved without more nuanced analysis of this newly translated work! But at the level of reader enjoyment, I think it's most optimistically seen as a mediocre story, because (like most debut novels) it's much too personal and unbalanced a story to be strongly loved by anyone but the most diehard fan of Duras. Reading debut novels like this do provide deeper insights into the origin of intention and style that forms a reputable author, so it's perhaps more interesting as a character study and view on young writing ambition.
This is my 3rd advanced reader copy (ARC) review. This means I received this ebook for free, in exchange for this review by Netgalley. I'm not financially motivated, as I read library books, so I only read ARCs I actually think will be good enough for me to rate and review honestly.
I am honored to be able to read the first English translation of the debut novel of an acclaimed female author from an era where it was particularly hard for women to gain reputations as writers (at least, given the number of women featured in the chaotic age of the literary Western Canon).
The Impudent Ones centers on the daughter's journey to flee a poor and troubled family. As the translator notes, the story is somewhat based on Marguerite's upbringing, and includes themes and events that recur in later novels with more nuance and fluidity that one never expects from a debut novel. From my reading, the novel needs a biographical interpretation to be understood because the author omitted essential details. The father is an absent father figure, which is important to the dangerous family dynamic between her brother and mother, but weirdly, the father just disappears from the novel? From the beginning of part 2, the father just doesn't seem to exist and I don't seem to recall why he stopped being in the story, but from a biographical understanding, we know that Marguerite's father died at about this time in her youth if we presume Marguerite is the daughter of the brothers. This, and more, is revealed from the Translator's notes which account for 16% of this edition on Kindle are really interesting and essential to anyone interested in the ideas and themes of Marguerite Duras. It's amazing we only have this in English in 2021!!! This was certainly useful and well done for me, as someone who has never read Duras before.
This was tricky to read. Is it really psychologically complex, or just excessively vague? The translation is made even easier to read than the French original, which often has ambiguous character motives and changes of setting. Here are some, dare I say "errors", I'd say are in this debut novel that I predict wouldn't be so evident in Duras's later work:
1. The middle of the novel, Part 2, the family's relocation to the farm, is repeatedly described as boring by the characters. Maud, the protagonist, likes reading though she finds it boring. Reading about bored characters and boring settings is boring. This is one reason why there is a major lull in the importance of the middle of the story.
2. Many characters feign desire for people or things. There is a general lack of trust, self-awareness or desire by all characters, the story is quite invariably cold. Character motives and actions often don't align in a way that is understandable, and there's no clear indication this was intentional from the narrator.
3. The narrator isn't neutral, and sometimes had debatably sexist undertones (for reasons unknown), for instance:
"Even though, in his cruel and thoughtless ways as a man, he might have killed her too,"
This is a description of people who both by their own convictions love each other. It seems strange that the narrator would suggest that a man at any time is capable of murder for no motive, even his wife. It might instead be admissible from the viewpoint of the daughter or mother in the novel — but let's think — it's the father who is passive and fades away, the younger brother is also agreeable and basically absent, and the brother's actions are all fairly predictable and 'out-in-the-open'. I find it then strange the disdainful fear the narrator would have against the unpredictable brutality of male characters, despite the more enigmatic natures of the mother and daughter on the men who (supposedly) love them? The blurred lines between who the narrator is and how close they are to understanding the characters is difficult to judge.
My personal interpretation of this story, while it may have been more of a biographical exercise than a narrative exploration, is that it shows that even after the death of the patriarch (the father), those next in the hierarchy of power (the mother and eldest sibling) are then put into conflict at a level that can be even more distressing to the younger siblings than a cruel father. And in Duras's own words, the role of the mother is to prioritize the most troubled child. There is some wisdom on family dynamics here, but it's hidden and enmeshed in a web of vague relationships that may forever remain unresolved without more nuanced analysis of this newly translated work! But at the level of reader enjoyment, I think it's most optimistically seen as a mediocre story, because (like most debut novels) it's much too personal and unbalanced a story to be strongly loved by anyone but the most diehard fan of Duras. Reading debut novels like this do provide deeper insights into the origin of intention and style that forms a reputable author, so it's perhaps more interesting as a character study and view on young writing ambition.
June 21, 2021
3.5 stars. In one hand I really enjoyed it and it feelt like a 4 stars or more. Very lyrical and beautiful but could in the other hand feel rather tedious and to much for me. So I'll give it a 3.5 stars.
January 18, 2021
Marguerite Duras was a writer of fierce intelligence and observation who fictionalized elements of her life through her work, this being her first novel published in 1943. This however is its first appearance in English, and thanks to a wonderful translation, reads more contemporary than expected. Maud is a passionate 20 year old, trapped in a family of such extraordinary toxicity it beggars belief. Whether they are in their bourgeois apartment outside Paris or at their (failed) farm property in the southwest of France, there doesn't appear to be any affection that isn't baneful. Maud shares with her creator a family situation in which her mother rules the roost with a decidedly bias toward Maud's older brother who himself is as obnoxious as they come. Duras describes the rural life so explicitly, the reader can almost smell and hear it. Another description mentions that this is post-war France, but since it was written in 1941, that cannot be; however, there is no evidence of WWII in these pages.
January 29, 2021
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
𝐌𝐚𝐮𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭, 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐲.
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘖𝘯𝘦𝘴 is about Maud’s fall from grace, while her scoundrel of a brother seems to make a mess of the family, it is mostly her morals and shame that seem to matter. Which, of course, for those times was the norm. It is evident in the writing that it is the author’s debut novel, as there were times it dragged along. There are meaty bits to chew on, but I struggled to finish this. The Taneran family sees trouble brewing when Jacques, Maud’s brother, and his wife begin to have money troubles. “He was always in need of cash”, a reckless spender, and a terrible gambler, using friends and family alike for his shady affairs. A rich wife is no use, her wealth draining with his impulses. An accident occurs and the weeping brother has more fuel to play the victim and skillfully use his mother’s emotions to his advantage. Maud both feels sorrow and disgust for him, well aware of his manipulations and their doting mother’s enabling acts. In fact, the mother enjoys the neediness and saving her handsome, wayward son. Forty years of age and as needy as a child, burning with a hunger to live the life of a rich bourgeois, always at the expense and pain of others.
She wonders why she keeps her adult children around, not including the youngest from her second marriage, who doesn’t share much of a spotlight in this story. Maud herself wonders why she remains, but the pull of her family is strong. The Grant-Tanerans’, made up of her brother, half brother, step father and mother always remain a unit, even though they might not all show emotional displays as freely as the dramatic Jacques. Taneran is happy to be present and yet removed at the same time, absconding to his room where he can fine peace yet content to hear his little family moving about the house. He can’t help but be aware of Jacques and his infuriating weak nature but isn’t himself brave enough to do anything about it. It’s no surprise he doesn’t join them when they leave for Uderan.
Jacques is the creator of his own misfortune and he expects his family to clean up his every disaster, which creates tension and resentment between he and his sister Maud. They venture to their place at Uderan, located in an unpopulated region of France, Upper Quercy, a location for religion and wine growing during prewar days. The house is uninhabitable, hence as luck would have it their neighbor’s home is their only viable option. The Pecresse’s ancestors were once tenant farmers, now wealthy through good luck and hard work they own much of the land. Their son John, still a bachelor, is where his mother’s hopes remain and her ambitions.
An idea is germinating within Mrs. Pecresse mind, one that has her eyeing the Taneran’s land. Maud is just the thing! The perfect choice for her son, the chance to realize her dreams of attaining everything she wants and it doesn’t hurt that she is beautiful in the bargain. Of course, such calculations don’t bode well for anyone. Maud decides to stay in her family’s home embracing her freedom, while the rest of the clan remains at the Pecresse house. Her mother shows ‘incredible leniency’ by allowing it. Then there is George Durieux, a man from Bordeaux who holidays on land he bought near Semoic. Maud feels he is indifferent to her, yet she and her brother look forward to his visits. George may be the man to pull her out of her habitual solitude, boredom. Her passions awaken.
It’s a place of rumors, this countryside that is lazy for some and a place of hardwork for others. Passion, love, hate, indifference…. it’s scandalous what Maud gets up to, and soon she feels herself drifting further from her family and all their disorder.
There are a lot of empty, lethargic days. Maud is at times indifferent and the next minute hungry for something. Parts of the novel are engaging but may not be everyone’s glass of wine. It’s a debut, not quite as interesting as the author’s later novels but has it’s place in time.
Publication Date: March 9, 2021
The New Press
𝐌𝐚𝐮𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭, 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐲.
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘖𝘯𝘦𝘴 is about Maud’s fall from grace, while her scoundrel of a brother seems to make a mess of the family, it is mostly her morals and shame that seem to matter. Which, of course, for those times was the norm. It is evident in the writing that it is the author’s debut novel, as there were times it dragged along. There are meaty bits to chew on, but I struggled to finish this. The Taneran family sees trouble brewing when Jacques, Maud’s brother, and his wife begin to have money troubles. “He was always in need of cash”, a reckless spender, and a terrible gambler, using friends and family alike for his shady affairs. A rich wife is no use, her wealth draining with his impulses. An accident occurs and the weeping brother has more fuel to play the victim and skillfully use his mother’s emotions to his advantage. Maud both feels sorrow and disgust for him, well aware of his manipulations and their doting mother’s enabling acts. In fact, the mother enjoys the neediness and saving her handsome, wayward son. Forty years of age and as needy as a child, burning with a hunger to live the life of a rich bourgeois, always at the expense and pain of others.
She wonders why she keeps her adult children around, not including the youngest from her second marriage, who doesn’t share much of a spotlight in this story. Maud herself wonders why she remains, but the pull of her family is strong. The Grant-Tanerans’, made up of her brother, half brother, step father and mother always remain a unit, even though they might not all show emotional displays as freely as the dramatic Jacques. Taneran is happy to be present and yet removed at the same time, absconding to his room where he can fine peace yet content to hear his little family moving about the house. He can’t help but be aware of Jacques and his infuriating weak nature but isn’t himself brave enough to do anything about it. It’s no surprise he doesn’t join them when they leave for Uderan.
Jacques is the creator of his own misfortune and he expects his family to clean up his every disaster, which creates tension and resentment between he and his sister Maud. They venture to their place at Uderan, located in an unpopulated region of France, Upper Quercy, a location for religion and wine growing during prewar days. The house is uninhabitable, hence as luck would have it their neighbor’s home is their only viable option. The Pecresse’s ancestors were once tenant farmers, now wealthy through good luck and hard work they own much of the land. Their son John, still a bachelor, is where his mother’s hopes remain and her ambitions.
An idea is germinating within Mrs. Pecresse mind, one that has her eyeing the Taneran’s land. Maud is just the thing! The perfect choice for her son, the chance to realize her dreams of attaining everything she wants and it doesn’t hurt that she is beautiful in the bargain. Of course, such calculations don’t bode well for anyone. Maud decides to stay in her family’s home embracing her freedom, while the rest of the clan remains at the Pecresse house. Her mother shows ‘incredible leniency’ by allowing it. Then there is George Durieux, a man from Bordeaux who holidays on land he bought near Semoic. Maud feels he is indifferent to her, yet she and her brother look forward to his visits. George may be the man to pull her out of her habitual solitude, boredom. Her passions awaken.
It’s a place of rumors, this countryside that is lazy for some and a place of hardwork for others. Passion, love, hate, indifference…. it’s scandalous what Maud gets up to, and soon she feels herself drifting further from her family and all their disorder.
There are a lot of empty, lethargic days. Maud is at times indifferent and the next minute hungry for something. Parts of the novel are engaging but may not be everyone’s glass of wine. It’s a debut, not quite as interesting as the author’s later novels but has it’s place in time.
Publication Date: March 9, 2021
The New Press
January 5, 2022
Through this book, I learned that just because something was written by a French woman does not mean that I will enjoy it. This was perhaps the most tedious thing I’ve ever read. I’m sure it was intended to be profound but it utterly failed at communicating that profundity, to me at least. I much preferred The Ravishing of Lol Stein, although that one perturbed me too — but I’m willing to guess that Duras is one of those writers who got way better over time. Stay tuned for my formal review of this.
November 2, 2023
This was Marguerite Duras’s debut novel. It was only translated into English in 2021, though it was first published in 1943. The publishing history is quite a tale. Duras wrote the book in 1941 and submitted it to Gallimard, the major French publishing house both then and now. They declined the manuscript though Raymond Queneau was a reader there and found it good. He later became a great friend of Marguerite. Finally another house, Plon, published the novel in 1943.
Marguerite was strongly influenced by Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, also by George Sand and Zola, 19th century writers. She wrote the book in that style thinking it was what was required for a literary novel. The rest of her novels have more of her unique voice but The Impudent Ones was, like most of her novels, taken from the experiences of her life: the unsettled existence in Indochina, her domineering mother, her brothers both bad and beloved, and her search for her own personality amid all of that.
For many years the author disclaimed this first book but near the end of her life she agreed to allow Gallimard to republish it in French in 1992.
I have now read 10 of Duras’s novels and have come to love her writing. At first I read them all out of order and now am filling in the ones I missed. Her themes of troubled family life, an almost crazy mother, a cruel and dissolute brother, and the awakening of her female characters as they come of age, are all evident in this first novel. Her sensitive and vibrant descriptions of the natural world are enough to put the reader right in the story’s location in a French village. The inner turmoil of her main character feels so real that I seemed to going through it with her.
I found The Impudent Ones to be as wonderful as all the others I have read. Though she hued so closely to those earlier writers, her unique qualities as a novelist come through entirely.
Marguerite was strongly influenced by Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, also by George Sand and Zola, 19th century writers. She wrote the book in that style thinking it was what was required for a literary novel. The rest of her novels have more of her unique voice but The Impudent Ones was, like most of her novels, taken from the experiences of her life: the unsettled existence in Indochina, her domineering mother, her brothers both bad and beloved, and her search for her own personality amid all of that.
For many years the author disclaimed this first book but near the end of her life she agreed to allow Gallimard to republish it in French in 1992.
I have now read 10 of Duras’s novels and have come to love her writing. At first I read them all out of order and now am filling in the ones I missed. Her themes of troubled family life, an almost crazy mother, a cruel and dissolute brother, and the awakening of her female characters as they come of age, are all evident in this first novel. Her sensitive and vibrant descriptions of the natural world are enough to put the reader right in the story’s location in a French village. The inner turmoil of her main character feels so real that I seemed to going through it with her.
I found The Impudent Ones to be as wonderful as all the others I have read. Though she hued so closely to those earlier writers, her unique qualities as a novelist come through entirely.
March 12, 2021
Marguerite Duras is perhaps best known for her novel The Lover, which I have on my to-read list but haven't yet read. (someday!) When I was offered the chance to review The Impudent Ones, which has been newly translated into English, I figured this could be my intro to Duras.
Set in France in the first half of the 20th century, the novel explores social standings and expectations, reputation and consequences. At the center of the story is a family with two young adults, Maud and her brother. Maud is coming of age and eager for love. There is a lot of talk about marriage and a proper match. Maud makes some choices that wind up with her being in a less than ideal situation.
I wanted to connect more with this novel but it was missing a bit of an oomph factor for me that perhaps Duras acquired in her later works. I definitely still plan on reading Duras' previously translated works because I did enjoy her writing style. I can see why Elena Ferrante is compared to her.
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy!
Set in France in the first half of the 20th century, the novel explores social standings and expectations, reputation and consequences. At the center of the story is a family with two young adults, Maud and her brother. Maud is coming of age and eager for love. There is a lot of talk about marriage and a proper match. Maud makes some choices that wind up with her being in a less than ideal situation.
I wanted to connect more with this novel but it was missing a bit of an oomph factor for me that perhaps Duras acquired in her later works. I definitely still plan on reading Duras' previously translated works because I did enjoy her writing style. I can see why Elena Ferrante is compared to her.
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy!
December 31, 2017
3 estrelas não por ser um mau livro mas sim porque há um termo de comparação com aquilo que a escritora/autora se tornaria. Aqui, muito à descoberta de si; no futuro (notório em India Song), muito à descoberta de um alienar do ser sobre si próprio.
August 28, 2023
We all start somewhere, and here be that there place of starting. Yep.
Lots’o plot lines; geographically diverse; numberless speaking characters of no purpose; the tapping of the bourgeoise’s subarctic emotional vein of pyroclastic abrasion and cutting edges: Yep: A debut novel.
New axiom: if the songwriter has their whole life to write their debut and 2 years to write their second album, does the novelist spend the rest of their career ‘unwriting’ their debut, an unlearning and undoing of all that accumulated, smothering nazz?
Fucking inheritances, heavy lies the crown.
Lots’o plot lines; geographically diverse; numberless speaking characters of no purpose; the tapping of the bourgeoise’s subarctic emotional vein of pyroclastic abrasion and cutting edges: Yep: A debut novel.
New axiom: if the songwriter has their whole life to write their debut and 2 years to write their second album, does the novelist spend the rest of their career ‘unwriting’ their debut, an unlearning and undoing of all that accumulated, smothering nazz?
Fucking inheritances, heavy lies the crown.
October 14, 2025
not nearly sufficiently perverse. but there is something there, I suppose
Read
March 14, 2021Here’s my review on NPR Books. https://www.npr.org/2021/03/14/976529...
April 15, 2021
It's always fascinating to read the first novel of a celebrated writer. Like happy families, first novels are first novels in all the same way. This one is uneven, with strangely rendered characters. According to essays accompanying the book, Duras would go on to use the subject of a family that forgives and elevates a manipulative son and marginalizes a daughter, who engages in questionable activities that even further degrade her status. This novel sets up Duras' lifelong themes.
But the great joy of a first novel is often the revelation of a writer's strengths. Duras writes in a way that reveals the glory in everyday nature -- the kind you may not pay attention to because it is the setting for boredom and strife. Duras has her characters notice the sky, birds, shadows, and the sound of rivers while they await some shoe to drop.
But the great joy of a first novel is often the revelation of a writer's strengths. Duras writes in a way that reveals the glory in everyday nature -- the kind you may not pay attention to because it is the setting for boredom and strife. Duras has her characters notice the sky, birds, shadows, and the sound of rivers while they await some shoe to drop.
March 18, 2021
This was Marguerite Duras’ first novel, published in 1943, republished in 1992 and now for the first time in an English translation, 2021. Many commentators have said how it’s really not very good, and is only a pale shadow of the books Duras went on to write during her long writing career, and even she herself, later in life, didn’t think it was very good. Certainly it has its faults, the main one being a certain incoherency in the plot at times. That said I don’t think it’s as bad as many reviewers have claimed. Although rather lacklustre in tone, I found it a reasonably compelling narrative with some interesting characters who are explored with insight and acute observation. It’s the story of the Taneran family – ineffectual father, domineering mother, wastrel older son, confused and needy daughter and bland younger son – who live in a strange sort of co-dependency, not liking each other but seemingly unable to do without each other. The mother is fixated on Jacques, the eldest, who can do no wrong in her eyes, but whose dissolute character has brought the family to the edge of ruin. The family retreat from Paris to their land in the south-west of France to try to recoup some money, but matters go awry there too. All the characters are passive and seem to let events overtake them and their inability to connect with each other is especially hard on daughter Maud, who is so desperate for love. It’s a semi-autobiographical tale, which adds authenticity and poignancy. Both setting and subject matter reflect Duras’ own life, and the themes that come to dominate her later writing are clearly in evidence here: dysfunctional families, alienation, disconnection, affairs, betrayal, illicit love and a mother’s obsessive love for an unworthy son. The descriptive passages are finely written, and the hopeless and despairing atmosphere expertly maintained throughout. I really quite enjoyed it and don’t feel it deserves so much criticism. A very useful and informative afterword aids the reader’s understanding and appreciation.
April 27, 2021
It's difficult to rate the work of a great author like Marguerite Duras, and it is even more difficult not to compare it to her excellent novels, like The Lover.
The story is pretty slow-paced but beautifully written. The prose contains captivating descriptions of surroundings and nature. In The Impudent Ones, Duras depicts family relationships and conflicts in a bourgeois family, and inside this novel, there are romances, gossip, and scandals. It is partly autobiographical, partly a work of fiction. This novel is a real treat for literary fiction fans, and I would recommend it to that type of reader.
Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read this! All opinions are my own.
The story is pretty slow-paced but beautifully written. The prose contains captivating descriptions of surroundings and nature. In The Impudent Ones, Duras depicts family relationships and conflicts in a bourgeois family, and inside this novel, there are romances, gossip, and scandals. It is partly autobiographical, partly a work of fiction. This novel is a real treat for literary fiction fans, and I would recommend it to that type of reader.
Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read this! All opinions are my own.
March 17, 2021
Duras’s 1943 debut, in translation for the first time, is not perfect by any means.... but I definitely saw many moments of her later brilliance (‘The Lover’ being one of my all time favorites).....
It’s all here.... the writing is lovely, the family is toxic, the love affair illicit, and the setting captured beautifully. So glad I had a chance to read the early work of this fabulous writer...
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity.
It’s all here.... the writing is lovely, the family is toxic, the love affair illicit, and the setting captured beautifully. So glad I had a chance to read the early work of this fabulous writer...
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity.
August 19, 2024
Brilliant. Mournful. Beautiful. Doomed.
Kelsey L. Hakett's translator's afterword said everything I wanted to say, so if you were to read this book I highly recommend checking out the afterword as well.
Kelsey L. Hakett's translator's afterword said everything I wanted to say, so if you were to read this book I highly recommend checking out the afterword as well.
April 20, 2021
Rejection, family ties, the search for identity and to be loved by another ... this small novel packs a lot of emotion. I can see how these themes are carried over in her later work The Lover.
July 9, 2024
I love Marguerite Duras but it’s apparent this was an earlier work. She’s still finding her voice
April 23, 2022
Ugh this book.
3.5 stars.
Tho the writing itself is done well, the plotline & characters are extremely frustrating. The characters are so contradicting & things go back & forth in ways that make no sense.
It was Duras first novel. So perhaps that is why it’s not great.
I did get The Glass Menagerie vibes, but despite my love for that work it didn’t make this one more enjoyable.
It’s worth it, to get a more authentic view of the time period since so many modern books are written nowadays about those times.
It’s also not like most other books. So if you’re looking for different, this could be it.
It does a good job of upsetting one over gender double standards & makes you think about how many of those hold up today.
I received access to the audiobook on NetGalley to review. The narration is well done. It’s slow, but speeding it up helps.
There is an insightful analysis at the end of it that helps things to make more sense.
Unless this type of book is something you’d love or you love the author, I’d skip this.
3.5 stars.
Tho the writing itself is done well, the plotline & characters are extremely frustrating. The characters are so contradicting & things go back & forth in ways that make no sense.
It was Duras first novel. So perhaps that is why it’s not great.
I did get The Glass Menagerie vibes, but despite my love for that work it didn’t make this one more enjoyable.
It’s worth it, to get a more authentic view of the time period since so many modern books are written nowadays about those times.
It’s also not like most other books. So if you’re looking for different, this could be it.
It does a good job of upsetting one over gender double standards & makes you think about how many of those hold up today.
I received access to the audiobook on NetGalley to review. The narration is well done. It’s slow, but speeding it up helps.
There is an insightful analysis at the end of it that helps things to make more sense.
Unless this type of book is something you’d love or you love the author, I’d skip this.
March 20, 2024
Já li muito de Marguerite, e agora quis ler tudo por ordem cronológica. Surge, então, "Os Insolentes", o seu primeiro livro publicado. Diferente do que já tinha lido dela e, ainda assim, igual. A procura, através da escrita, de um entendimento, talvez. Um escrutínio dos familiares, através das personagens, através do distanciamento (mesmo que perto) entre escritora e personagens. E os elementos que se mantém ao longo de toda a sua obra estão também aqui já. Fantástico, Marguerite!
January 19, 2021
Notably the only one of Duras' novels to not be published in English, 2021 will change all that. Here we have a work in translation, a novel about French nobles and how the previously unsought Maud becomes a person of interest in a pre war love triangle.
My first thought was that this was like the Netflix special -Bridgerton - except set in France. This did not bode well.
This book is about an aristocratic family and their fiscal difficulties. Jacques is a total scab always begging for money and then blowing it all and having to ask for more. Maud looks out the window a lot. At their summer residence, John the farmer pursues Maud and so does another man and I had totally lost interest by this point.
It was the accounts of how author Marguerite Duras rose to stardom with her erotic debut The Lover that piqued my interest in this book. The Lover won the Prix Goncourt but unfortunately the writing wasn't strong enough to sustain me.
My first thought was that this was like the Netflix special -Bridgerton - except set in France. This did not bode well.
This book is about an aristocratic family and their fiscal difficulties. Jacques is a total scab always begging for money and then blowing it all and having to ask for more. Maud looks out the window a lot. At their summer residence, John the farmer pursues Maud and so does another man and I had totally lost interest by this point.
It was the accounts of how author Marguerite Duras rose to stardom with her erotic debut The Lover that piqued my interest in this book. The Lover won the Prix Goncourt but unfortunately the writing wasn't strong enough to sustain me.
May 1, 2021
Marguerite Duras nous offre ici une fresque familiale souvent cruelle. On peine au début à suivre les personnages nombreux jusqu'à la focalisation bienvenue sur le personnage de Maud. Le roman souffre parfois de quelques longueurs mais reste agréable à lire. On suit (tardivement) Maud, unique fille d'une famille "recomposée", victime, comme le reste de sa famille, de l'égoïsme de son frère aîné et de strategies maritales douteuses, qui se découvre finalement amoureuse. Son histoire sentimentale est centrale sans l'être et c'est peut-être le plus dommage.
March 28, 2021
I am only withholding a fifth star from this review because this is not a book I would put into anyone's hand. It is on the cusp, so let's make it an odd 4.5 star rating.
This drama, detailing a summer of anguish a bourgeoisie family endures at their dilapidated villa, is an easy page-turner. The secrets this family keep and wield against one another are elemental in some respects, and could be exchanged between members of any dysfunctional household. In others, we are invited to witness the effect that wealth, or, the perception of wealth, has on the outcome of harrowing scandals.
"The Impudent Ones," is a subtle work of well restrained beauty and animosity. All of Duras' characters exude disdain, grace and delight with the slightest gesture and seemingly unremarkable exchange. The quality of Duras' writing is so refined that you find yourself reading through and empathizing with a portrayal of fleeting feelings you've previously felt, but never had the words to describe. Her characters are so magnificently developed that your opinion of them is natural, to the point of being involuntary. The characters you love and hate are equally complicated and worthy of attention., and they all demand it by deploying their most sly manipulations.
This drama, detailing a summer of anguish a bourgeoisie family endures at their dilapidated villa, is an easy page-turner. The secrets this family keep and wield against one another are elemental in some respects, and could be exchanged between members of any dysfunctional household. In others, we are invited to witness the effect that wealth, or, the perception of wealth, has on the outcome of harrowing scandals.
"The Impudent Ones," is a subtle work of well restrained beauty and animosity. All of Duras' characters exude disdain, grace and delight with the slightest gesture and seemingly unremarkable exchange. The quality of Duras' writing is so refined that you find yourself reading through and empathizing with a portrayal of fleeting feelings you've previously felt, but never had the words to describe. Her characters are so magnificently developed that your opinion of them is natural, to the point of being involuntary. The characters you love and hate are equally complicated and worthy of attention., and they all demand it by deploying their most sly manipulations.
July 16, 2013
Durante buena parte del relato Duras hace contrastar la sensualidad y la benevolencia de los paisajes los viñedos de Burdeos con el hastío que aplasta a sus personajes, miembros de una família que han sido retratados sin apenas benevolencia. Tanto los egoístas como los que se sacrifican por los demás están vitalmente estancados. Claro que, conociendo los antecedentes personales de la propia Duras, eso no debería extrañar demasiado. Jacques, el hermano caradura, bien podría ser un trasunto de su propio hermano, quien sistemáticamente la maltrataba.
El cuadro representado es el de unas relaciones hace tiempo quedaron agotadas y que sin embargo no se rompen o por cobardía o por costumbre. Una situación que se podría alargar en el tiempo idefinidamente de no ser por la irrupción de varios personajes ajenos a ese clan familiar, que, sin ellos proponérselo, desestabilizarán el precario equilibrio. Duras cocina con una prosa sobria pero bien sazonada, el único problema es que, por una parte, da la sensación que cocina a fuego demasiado lento y, por otra, que todo lo cocina demasiado tiempo y al final la novela se le quema un poco.
Desde luego no es una gran novela pero dan ganas de continuar leyendo obras de la autora. Será cuestión de ver, pues, en qué mejora con la edad.
El cuadro representado es el de unas relaciones hace tiempo quedaron agotadas y que sin embargo no se rompen o por cobardía o por costumbre. Una situación que se podría alargar en el tiempo idefinidamente de no ser por la irrupción de varios personajes ajenos a ese clan familiar, que, sin ellos proponérselo, desestabilizarán el precario equilibrio. Duras cocina con una prosa sobria pero bien sazonada, el único problema es que, por una parte, da la sensación que cocina a fuego demasiado lento y, por otra, que todo lo cocina demasiado tiempo y al final la novela se le quema un poco.
Desde luego no es una gran novela pero dan ganas de continuar leyendo obras de la autora. Será cuestión de ver, pues, en qué mejora con la edad.
January 12, 2021
The Impudent Ones is a saga of the Taneran family that starts off with a bit of intrigue. They are a family held in high regard in relation to status but in fact everything seems to be in a state of constant precariousness for them. There are parts where you feel as if you’re trudging through but the worthwhile bits are quite something. The prose regarding the French countryside and the inner workings of the farms and backstory of the families that run the farms and vineyards were appreciated.
There are definite items that have been dropped and you’re left to piece what’s happened or didn’t happen and just accept it as is.
While there were parts that I enjoyed this is 2 1/2 stars for me.
This was provided to me for review by The New Press and Net Galley. Thank you very much to The New Press and Net Galley.
There are definite items that have been dropped and you’re left to piece what’s happened or didn’t happen and just accept it as is.
While there were parts that I enjoyed this is 2 1/2 stars for me.
This was provided to me for review by The New Press and Net Galley. Thank you very much to The New Press and Net Galley.
March 16, 2019
Le premier roman de Duras qui préfigure son chef-d'oeuvre, Un barrage contre le Pacifique : on y retrouve l'amour de la terre natale paternelle et la dynamique familiale malsaine.
February 27, 2021
The Impudent Ones by Marguerite Duras, translated by Kelsey L. Haskett
(ARC from NetGalley and TheNewPress – please put the translator’s name in the book description. That person is the reason there is a book to promote and should be recognised.)
I had never heard of Marguerite Duras before (should I have?) she wrote a lot of books but this was her first and until now hasn’t been translated into English, unlike many of the others.
I requested this as I’m always glad to see books translated (I’m a translator) and made accessible to more readers. It’s one of the reasons that people who don’t speak French (me) haven’t heard of her; translated (into English) books rarely get as much fanfare as English language books and although more accessible don’t often become widespread.
Anyway, all that aside, this book was Dull (capitalisation intended).
To borrow a line from the book description The Impudent Ones ‘introduces Duras’s classic themes of familial conflict, illicit romance, and scandal in the sleepy suburbs and southwest provinces of postwar France.’ And that is it. Romance and scandal in the country (you can guess what the scandal is). Judging by the interminable extra content at the end (translator’s note and essay on the novel by Jean Vallier) there wasn’t much need to translate this book as it sounds like all her books have the same story and are semi-autobiographical.
Good translation? This is never an easy question. To really judge you need to compare it to the original and have an idea of what the translator intended. However, I wasn’t keen on the style and word choices in some parts – personally I prefer a more readable, natural sounding text. ‘He was masticating his food… it made a bizarre, irritating noise.’ Why not chewing? And why does chewing sound bizarre and not just strange or odd? Other instances were more successful: ‘the subtle, slightly salted savor of the shower.’ It is always incredibly satisfying to be able to achieve alliteration like that in a translation.
I’m disappointed to rate this book so low but I really didn’t enjoy the writing or the story and I couldn’t wait for it to end.
Thank you Netgalley and The New Press for the ARC.
(ARC from NetGalley and TheNewPress – please put the translator’s name in the book description. That person is the reason there is a book to promote and should be recognised.)
I had never heard of Marguerite Duras before (should I have?) she wrote a lot of books but this was her first and until now hasn’t been translated into English, unlike many of the others.
I requested this as I’m always glad to see books translated (I’m a translator) and made accessible to more readers. It’s one of the reasons that people who don’t speak French (me) haven’t heard of her; translated (into English) books rarely get as much fanfare as English language books and although more accessible don’t often become widespread.
Anyway, all that aside, this book was Dull (capitalisation intended).
To borrow a line from the book description The Impudent Ones ‘introduces Duras’s classic themes of familial conflict, illicit romance, and scandal in the sleepy suburbs and southwest provinces of postwar France.’ And that is it. Romance and scandal in the country (you can guess what the scandal is). Judging by the interminable extra content at the end (translator’s note and essay on the novel by Jean Vallier) there wasn’t much need to translate this book as it sounds like all her books have the same story and are semi-autobiographical.
Good translation? This is never an easy question. To really judge you need to compare it to the original and have an idea of what the translator intended. However, I wasn’t keen on the style and word choices in some parts – personally I prefer a more readable, natural sounding text. ‘He was masticating his food… it made a bizarre, irritating noise.’ Why not chewing? And why does chewing sound bizarre and not just strange or odd? Other instances were more successful: ‘the subtle, slightly salted savor of the shower.’ It is always incredibly satisfying to be able to achieve alliteration like that in a translation.
I’m disappointed to rate this book so low but I really didn’t enjoy the writing or the story and I couldn’t wait for it to end.
Thank you Netgalley and The New Press for the ARC.
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