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Когда приближается гроза
Au printemps de 1832, Flora, fille d'emigres, nee, elevee, mariee et devenue brutalement orpheline et veuve en Angleterre, arrive un beau jour a Jarnac pour y rouvrir Margelasse, le chateau de sa famille. Personne ne l'a apercue encore dans la region quand Me Nicolas Lomont, trente ans, notaire, met son cheval en route vers Margelasse. L'histoire commence. Au debut, c'est une tranquille histoire d'amour, puis vient le drame plein de bruit, de fureur, de passion.Le recit est tout entier rapporte par Nicolas, trente ans plus tard. Vieux, solitaire, peu porte a la litterature, il ne sait pas trop ce qui le pousse a saisir un cahier et tracer ces Si un lecteur decouvre un jour ces pages..., mais il continue. Me Lomont, bien qu'il decide plusieurs fois d'arreter, de jeter son manuscrit au feu, se prend au jeu. Il dira tout. Il se surprend meme a se griser de mots, a ressusciter d'une phrase ses amis morts, son ennemie disparue.
Autant que pour l'histoire elle-meme, violente, insolite, eperdue, on se passionne pour ce miracle qui transforme peu a peu chaque soir, quelques annees avant 1870, un vieux notaire de province en un ecrivain d'abord sage et classique, puis de plus en plus fougueux, debride, lyrique... en un mot romantique. Un livre a part dans l'univers de Sagan, proche de Stendhal ou Maupassant."
Autant que pour l'histoire elle-meme, violente, insolite, eperdue, on se passionne pour ce miracle qui transforme peu a peu chaque soir, quelques annees avant 1870, un vieux notaire de province en un ecrivain d'abord sage et classique, puis de plus en plus fougueux, debride, lyrique... en un mot romantique. Un livre a part dans l'univers de Sagan, proche de Stendhal ou Maupassant."
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1983
12 people are currently reading
173 people want to read
About the author
Françoise Sagan
251 books1,667 followersBorn Françoise Quoirez, Sagan grew up in a French Catholic, bourgeois family. She was an independent thinker and avid reader as a young girl, and upon failing her examinations for continuing at the Sorbonne, she became a writer.
She went to her family's home in the south of France and wrote her first novel, Bonjour Tristesse, at age 18. She submitted it to Editions Juillard in January 1954 and it was published that March. Later that year, She won the Prix des Critiques for Bonjour Tristesse.
She chose "Sagan" as her pen name because she liked the sound of it and also liked the reference to the Prince and Princesse de Sagan, 19th century Parisians, who are said to be the basis of some of Marcel Proust's characters.
She was known for her love of drinking, gambling, and fast driving. Her habit of driving fast was moderated after a serious car accident in 1957 involving her Aston Martin while she was living in Milly, France.
Sagan was twice married and divorced, and subsequently maintained several long-term lesbian relationships. First married in 1958 to Guy Schoeller, a publisher, they divorced in 1960, and she was then married to Robert James Westhoff, an American ceramicist and sculptor, from 1962 to 63. She had one son, Denis, from her second marriage.
She won the Prix de Monaco in 1984 in recognition of all of her work.
She went to her family's home in the south of France and wrote her first novel, Bonjour Tristesse, at age 18. She submitted it to Editions Juillard in January 1954 and it was published that March. Later that year, She won the Prix des Critiques for Bonjour Tristesse.
She chose "Sagan" as her pen name because she liked the sound of it and also liked the reference to the Prince and Princesse de Sagan, 19th century Parisians, who are said to be the basis of some of Marcel Proust's characters.
She was known for her love of drinking, gambling, and fast driving. Her habit of driving fast was moderated after a serious car accident in 1957 involving her Aston Martin while she was living in Milly, France.
Sagan was twice married and divorced, and subsequently maintained several long-term lesbian relationships. First married in 1958 to Guy Schoeller, a publisher, they divorced in 1960, and she was then married to Robert James Westhoff, an American ceramicist and sculptor, from 1962 to 63. She had one son, Denis, from her second marriage.
She won the Prix de Monaco in 1984 in recognition of all of her work.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
September 1, 2014
The story is very French. What does that mean? Love, lust, obsession, sex, violence, despair, death...emotions in their extreme. The narrator is a man writing about the only meaningful time in his life, at age 30. He wants to immortalize this time before he dies (he is an "old man" of 60), yet continually expresses ambiguity about writing it down at all. The story itself contains the above-mentioned descriptors and alludes to a tragic ending, so much so that, really, I could hardly put the book down, and read it rather quickly to discover the end.
Two other stories came to mind as I read The Still Storm - Lolita, by Nabakov, for its self-absorbed, obsessed narrator, and Am I Insane, by Guy de Maupassant, for it's lust, jealousy and finally its violence. I also had a glimmer of Hop-Frog, by Edgar Allan Poe, for the spectacle-nature of the last scene. And also for the class distinction. Yes, I think in the end, this book is not so much about love as it is about class, and the blurring of class lines that inevitably did occur in the 19th century.
I know that calling something a "beach read," or a "weekend read," or a "summer read," is not a compliment. And yet - if I were to recommend something to a person requesting such a thing, it would be The Still Storm. It is short, but captivating, and sufficiently intelligent and thought-provoking to provide worthwhile entertainment that one needn't be ashamed of. I will undoubtedly read more by Sagan.
Two other stories came to mind as I read The Still Storm - Lolita, by Nabakov, for its self-absorbed, obsessed narrator, and Am I Insane, by Guy de Maupassant, for it's lust, jealousy and finally its violence. I also had a glimmer of Hop-Frog, by Edgar Allan Poe, for the spectacle-nature of the last scene. And also for the class distinction. Yes, I think in the end, this book is not so much about love as it is about class, and the blurring of class lines that inevitably did occur in the 19th century.
I know that calling something a "beach read," or a "weekend read," or a "summer read," is not a compliment. And yet - if I were to recommend something to a person requesting such a thing, it would be The Still Storm. It is short, but captivating, and sufficiently intelligent and thought-provoking to provide worthwhile entertainment that one needn't be ashamed of. I will undoubtedly read more by Sagan.
October 16, 2017
To date, I have read quite a few of Francoise Sagan's books. Like the majority of English speakers, I imagine, I began with her quiet masterpiece, Bonjour Tristesse, which was published when the author was just nineteen, and led her to become something of a literary sensation. I have since encountered such gems as A Certain Smile and her short story collection, Incidental Music. Each time I come across one of her books therefore, regardless of the invariable ugliness of the paperback copy, I will happily pick it up.
The Still Storm has been heralded 'Sagan's finest love story' by Elle, and The Guardian deems it 'serious, skilled and successful'. The rather short novel is set in Angouleme, in the French province of Aquitaine, where Flora de Margelasse, a young woman recently widowed, has arrived to reclaim her family estate. A local man named Nicholas Lomont, who works in the legal profession, narrates the whole. He immediately falls in love with Flora, but she is quite unable to return such feelings to him. When she falls in love with someone else, 'the son of a farm labourer, who shamelessly betrays her, the world of Nicholas Lomont and the provincial French bourgeoisie is shattered.'
Told in retrospect, Nicholas attempts to relay his memories of Flora: 'Writing and remembering, both, have dangerous and painful consequences... I continue to write for no reason and for no one's benefit. The scratching of this pen is an end in itself...'. He is honest, sometimes painfully so, of his experiences of loving Flora: 'Let us simply say that right from the start I was resigned to loving Flora; worse, I was proud to love her, proud in advance of all that she would bring upon me, including the cruellest unhappiness.' He goes on to recount her relationship with the young farmhand, Gildas.
The Still Storm begins in the following manner, which effectively sets the tone of the whole: 'If one day someone else should read these pages - if an author's blind vanity or some quirk of fate prevent me from destroying them - that reader should know that it is for my own recollection, and not for the entertainment of others, that I embark on this account of the summer of 1832 and the years that followed.' Sagan's style of writing, and the plot which she has woven, put me in mind of Daphne du Maurier throughout.
The French countryside has been vividly evoked, and the changing of the seasons depicted with such care: 'Despite the little, round, prancing clouds - pink, white, blue, and bright red in the west at sunset - the sky dominates the landscape. It seems to rest on our meadows, our churches, our little towns, lying heavily on our land and stretching to the horizon on all sides, day after day... The weather is of more importance here than elsewhere because the sky is closer and the sunshine more direct. The nights are darker, the winds wilder, and the heat and snow more still.' Sagan also has a real strength in demonstrating her characters, from their passions to their appearances. The final time in which Nicholas sees Flora, he writes: 'I remember her as I saw her then. She wore a dress of crumpled silk, and her superb profusion of blonde hair danced in the bright sunlight like an oriflamme captured from the enemy that was branded in derision over her face now white and sexless and ageless.'
The edition which I read has been wonderfully translated from its original French by Christine Donougher, and was published in France in 1983, and English for the first time the year afterwards. The Still Storm is engaging from start to finish. Sagan's writing is rich, and has a beautiful clarity to it. There is undoubtedly a touch of the Gothic, and of overblown melodrama, but that makes it all the more fun to read. The Still Storm is a wise and contemplative novel, sometimes dark and surprising, which reflects upon both individuals and the wider society.
The Still Storm has been heralded 'Sagan's finest love story' by Elle, and The Guardian deems it 'serious, skilled and successful'. The rather short novel is set in Angouleme, in the French province of Aquitaine, where Flora de Margelasse, a young woman recently widowed, has arrived to reclaim her family estate. A local man named Nicholas Lomont, who works in the legal profession, narrates the whole. He immediately falls in love with Flora, but she is quite unable to return such feelings to him. When she falls in love with someone else, 'the son of a farm labourer, who shamelessly betrays her, the world of Nicholas Lomont and the provincial French bourgeoisie is shattered.'
Told in retrospect, Nicholas attempts to relay his memories of Flora: 'Writing and remembering, both, have dangerous and painful consequences... I continue to write for no reason and for no one's benefit. The scratching of this pen is an end in itself...'. He is honest, sometimes painfully so, of his experiences of loving Flora: 'Let us simply say that right from the start I was resigned to loving Flora; worse, I was proud to love her, proud in advance of all that she would bring upon me, including the cruellest unhappiness.' He goes on to recount her relationship with the young farmhand, Gildas.
The Still Storm begins in the following manner, which effectively sets the tone of the whole: 'If one day someone else should read these pages - if an author's blind vanity or some quirk of fate prevent me from destroying them - that reader should know that it is for my own recollection, and not for the entertainment of others, that I embark on this account of the summer of 1832 and the years that followed.' Sagan's style of writing, and the plot which she has woven, put me in mind of Daphne du Maurier throughout.
The French countryside has been vividly evoked, and the changing of the seasons depicted with such care: 'Despite the little, round, prancing clouds - pink, white, blue, and bright red in the west at sunset - the sky dominates the landscape. It seems to rest on our meadows, our churches, our little towns, lying heavily on our land and stretching to the horizon on all sides, day after day... The weather is of more importance here than elsewhere because the sky is closer and the sunshine more direct. The nights are darker, the winds wilder, and the heat and snow more still.' Sagan also has a real strength in demonstrating her characters, from their passions to their appearances. The final time in which Nicholas sees Flora, he writes: 'I remember her as I saw her then. She wore a dress of crumpled silk, and her superb profusion of blonde hair danced in the bright sunlight like an oriflamme captured from the enemy that was branded in derision over her face now white and sexless and ageless.'
The edition which I read has been wonderfully translated from its original French by Christine Donougher, and was published in France in 1983, and English for the first time the year afterwards. The Still Storm is engaging from start to finish. Sagan's writing is rich, and has a beautiful clarity to it. There is undoubtedly a touch of the Gothic, and of overblown melodrama, but that makes it all the more fun to read. The Still Storm is a wise and contemplative novel, sometimes dark and surprising, which reflects upon both individuals and the wider society.
September 9, 2021
Après "La chambre de Giovanni" de James Baldwin, je crois avoir eu ma dose de romans romantiques mélodramatiques à l'excès.
Comme on peut s'attendre d'un classique et d'une grande autrice, la plume est belle.
Cependant, cette oeuvre consacre 70% de son temps aux errances d'un narrateur franchement inintéressant et 30% sur l'histoire pourtant intéressante.
Qui plus est, je me questionne sur ces grands sentiments et ces grandes passions qui me semblent, à moi, exagérées (peut être par manque d'expérience): la grande passion du narrateur mis de côté, la folie de Flora et l'obsession des prétendants de Marthe qui, in fine, paraît être plus succube que femme, m'ont fait hausser les sourcils.
Finalement, je mentionnerai la manière dont les personnages sont présentés. Je ne veux pas parler de moralité mais je trouve quand même surprenant la façon dont l'adultère est présentée, que tout est mis sur le dos de Marthe etc. Je donne quand même le bénéfice du doute à l'autrice qui nous donnait peut être simplement une peinture on ne peut plus exacte de la manière de penser d'un chauvin de l'époque mais malgré tout, tout cela m'a bien irrité.
Je dirai que c'est là bel et bien un classique car il y en a énormément à tirer que ce soit en termes d'écriture ou de thèmes et contenu mais 2 étoiles pour le plaisir que j'ai pris à lire...
Comme on peut s'attendre d'un classique et d'une grande autrice, la plume est belle.
Cependant, cette oeuvre consacre 70% de son temps aux errances d'un narrateur franchement inintéressant et 30% sur l'histoire pourtant intéressante.
Qui plus est, je me questionne sur ces grands sentiments et ces grandes passions qui me semblent, à moi, exagérées (peut être par manque d'expérience): la grande passion du narrateur mis de côté, la folie de Flora et l'obsession des prétendants de Marthe qui, in fine, paraît être plus succube que femme, m'ont fait hausser les sourcils.
Finalement, je mentionnerai la manière dont les personnages sont présentés. Je ne veux pas parler de moralité mais je trouve quand même surprenant la façon dont l'adultère est présentée, que tout est mis sur le dos de Marthe etc. Je donne quand même le bénéfice du doute à l'autrice qui nous donnait peut être simplement une peinture on ne peut plus exacte de la manière de penser d'un chauvin de l'époque mais malgré tout, tout cela m'a bien irrité.
Je dirai que c'est là bel et bien un classique car il y en a énormément à tirer que ce soit en termes d'écriture ou de thèmes et contenu mais 2 étoiles pour le plaisir que j'ai pris à lire...
August 31, 2021
This is a pleasant enough vignette about unrequited love, tinged with a little frisson, je ne sais quoi and comment votre pere, but Francoise Sagan always suffered from the fact that she wrote a masterpiece as a teenager and was never really able to live up to the expectations created by her early work in her later life.
Would this book have seen the light of day if written by an unknown author? Probably not. It's a historical "romance" seen through the eyes of a doctor who falls hopelessly in love with a local aristocrat, who has in turn fallen in love with somebody else.
What entails is a comedy of manners, set in an alien time and landscape, and though the author tries hard to make universal observations on the nature of love, she seldom succeeds in rising above the cliched, sadly.
It's a diverting enough little read, but it's main benefit was it's brevity, and that's never a good thing in a book, really.....
Would this book have seen the light of day if written by an unknown author? Probably not. It's a historical "romance" seen through the eyes of a doctor who falls hopelessly in love with a local aristocrat, who has in turn fallen in love with somebody else.
What entails is a comedy of manners, set in an alien time and landscape, and though the author tries hard to make universal observations on the nature of love, she seldom succeeds in rising above the cliched, sadly.
It's a diverting enough little read, but it's main benefit was it's brevity, and that's never a good thing in a book, really.....
August 15, 2025
[3.75 ⭐️]
Wow. Where to even begin? At first I found Lomont to be quite annoying. Very “woe is me” because the woman that he loves doesn’t love him back. However, as the story progressed the more I started to like him. Lomont was still pitiful, but in a way I can digest. He genuinely did care for Flora, it wasn’t ever just purely for lust, it was genuinely love. He says, “I was no longer Lomont who wanted Flora de Margelasse. I was just someone who wanted another person to be happy, and nothing more. I wanted Flora to be happy - with Gildas, with anyone.” I respected him greatly for that sentiment. The ending though? Geez louise!
Wow. Where to even begin? At first I found Lomont to be quite annoying. Very “woe is me” because the woman that he loves doesn’t love him back. However, as the story progressed the more I started to like him. Lomont was still pitiful, but in a way I can digest. He genuinely did care for Flora, it wasn’t ever just purely for lust, it was genuinely love. He says, “I was no longer Lomont who wanted Flora de Margelasse. I was just someone who wanted another person to be happy, and nothing more. I wanted Flora to be happy - with Gildas, with anyone.” I respected him greatly for that sentiment. The ending though? Geez louise!
February 7, 2025
I've read Bonjour Tristesse (written when Sagan was but 18 years old) and A Certain Smile and enjoyed both, and this was yet another well-written novel whose pace never slackened. A 19th century novel of manners written by a 20th century author of prodigious output and talent, The Still Storm takes place mainly in Angoulême. Love, betrayal and chivalry are themes threaded through this short 180 page work. I found most interesting the changing attitudes toward the matters of the heart, mainly those of Lomont for Flora and Flora's for Gildas.
July 6, 2021
J'ai eu au départ beaucoup de mal à rentrer dans cette oeuvre de Françoise Sagan peut-être à cause de la narration et de l'atmosphère.... J'ai lu le premier tiers que j'ai laissé de côté pendant quelques semaines pour m'y remettre et finalement m'attacher à l'histoire. Je m'y suis beaucoup plus projetée, pourtant, j'ai toujours eu autant de mal à m'attacher aux personnages notamment au personnage principal
January 13, 2024
A tragic 19th century French romance, The Still Storm is told from the perspective of Nicholas Lamont, an elderly lawyer looking back on events that occured during the period of passionate disaster in which he obsessed over (what he perceived to be) the one true love of his life. This book examens post-Revolution social culture and its effects on social hierarchies and relationships, but it is far from dry; lust, vice, and duels, it is definitely an exciting read.
September 6, 2019
Read this books in my teens years ago. In english it is called: "The Still Storm". In Danish: "I stormens stilhed". I read the Danish version back then. I would not start with this one, but instead "Bonjour tristesse". If you like that one, you will probably enjoy Sagan's other works. She has a distinct narrative pattern, trying to make the reader reflect upon reading.
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January 18, 2019A perfect companion on a winter weekend. Not quite 'Chateaubriand in Love' but almost...? Nearly...? Approximately...? Regardless, the difference between the narrator's propriety and Martha's power of disruption is very well done. The translation, so far as I am able to judge, is excellent.
December 29, 2017
Un orage immobile (1983)
Lampante caso di personaggio (Marthe) che ce l'ha d'oro
Lampante caso di personaggio (Marthe) che ce l'ha d'oro
August 5, 2018
Some things don't age well...
October 12, 2022
3.5 ⭐️
J’aime tant Françoise Sagan.
J’aime tant Françoise Sagan.
January 18, 2024
Pretty cool book, just wish that half of it wasn't Nicholas being depressed
June 14, 2024
A sad romance novel, perfect for feeling that "what could have been" feeling on cold day.
December 3, 2024
it's well written but i hated every character here
February 21, 2025
Lại thêm 1 bản dịch tệ nữa
February 22, 2025
"Un orage immobile" est un roman épistolaire, façon "Lettre d'une inconnue" de Zweig, pour le côté tourmenté et amour impossible. Le narrateur, Nicolas Lomont, un vieux notaire, y raconte l'histoire de son amour pour Flora, une noble dont le charme frais et pétillant...mais dont les sentiments sont purement platoniques. Flora m'a beaucoup rappelée Roxane dans Cyrano de Bergerac: une jeune femme sage et romantique, férue de poésie et de grandes envolées lyriques... mais au final fragile et naïve. Alors, entre en scène Marthe,qui est l'extrême opposé de Flora: sensuelle et séductrice, elle voue un mépris royal aux "bonnes manières" et la bourgeoisie. Une force de caractère qui détonne dans la France de 1830! Et Lomont assiste, impuissant, aux ravages de la passion engendrée par ce Don Juan au féminin. Deux femmes; deux caractères opposés. Flora, la blonde diaphane et fragile. Marthe, la brune flamboyante et solide. Une belle lecture sensuelle, lyrique et bucolique. Mais aussi tragique. La fin m'a totalement prise de court ! Une bien belle surprise que ce roman !
May 21, 2017
Tuli mieleen, että kirjailija yritti epätoivoisesti tavoittaa kertomansa aikakauden polveilevan ja monilauseisten virkkeiden kirjoitustyyliä, mutta päätyi vain kuolettavan tylsään ja turhanpäiväiseen monimutkaiseen jaaritteluun, jossa virkettä ei aina päässyt loppuun ennenkö oli jo kadottanut sen alun pointin. Jossain ennen puolta väliä aloinkin lukea hyvin pikaisesti silmäilemällä, välillä hidastaen ja keskittyen edes hitusen mielenkiintoisempiin kohtiin. (Joita valitettavasti oli hyvin vähän.) Kieli on kaikinpuolin kelvotonta ja tarinasta en saanut kyllä mitään irti. Mikä oli Marthan motiivi??
January 4, 2017
Je reprends ma lecture des œuvres de Françoise Sagan avec ce roman qui démarre lentement, très lentement, presque trop lentement, et qui finit heureusement bien mieux qu'il ne commence. Bien mieux, dans le sens où le récit devient enfin intéressant.
February 11, 2012
Historia de pasión y triángulos amorosos, todo está cubierto por un estado de melancolía y romanticismo. Una reflexión sobre el amor por una autora que de veras vivió lo que quiso y como quiso.
August 19, 2013
decevant, ennuyant, rien a avoir avec les autres Francoise Sagan. En tout, il n'y a que 20 pages d'intrigue interressante , et encore, la fin est bien decevante.
October 21, 2015
Когда инфернальная привлекательность Марты достигает пика, рассказываемая история перестает быть реальной, при этом её (истории) очарование не исчезает.
February 23, 2019
La revolución industrial, época de grandes cambios está ausente en el relato, pero flota en todo momento en la historia y la revolución de las ideas, ambas revoluciones van incidiendo e influyendo en la intimidad pueblerina de una villa alejada de París.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews