L'évadée

by Annie de Pene, Dominique Bréchemier (Preface), Colette (Contributor)

160 pages, Paperback

Published April 17, 2026

Reviews

[Pascale]

A lively and somewhat surprising story of feminine emancipation. Rosine Loisy arrives in Paris with very little money after a divorce caused by her adultery. We understand later that, after the divorce, Rosine left her lover for fear of feeling as trapped in her liaison as she had been in her marriage. As she needs to earn a living, she rashly accepts to give piano lessons even though she has never studied the instrument. Fortunately, she bonds with her young pupil and manages to fool the girl's parents. But her situation only improves when she meets a man of the Church, Abbé Croisset, who recommends her to a society hostess with literary ambitions. Rosine becomes Hélène Morand's secretary and, ever the quick study, she soon makes herself indispensable. Croisset also introduces her to a fashionable man of letters, Bernières, with whom Rosine falls in love almost immediately. Croisset, who is himself in love with Rosine, chooses to leave France rather than be an onlooker. Rosine refuses to become Bernières's lover, but doesn't want to blackmail him into marrying her either. Eventually, she finds out that Bernières has been in a serious relationship for 15 years, and when Bernières's mistress comes to plead her case, she decides to give up Bernières, because she doesn't want to buy her happiness at the expense of another woman. In fact, as Croisset intuited early on, what Rosine really wants from life is to be independent and, like Louisa May Alcott, to paddle her own canoe. Thank you to Les Plumées for this reprint!