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Anne, jeune veuve de trente-quatre ans après un court mariage, mène une vie paisible. Un jour, alors qu'elle se promène dans le jardin du Luxembourg, elle croise un homme accompagné d'un enfant. Dans cet homme, elle croit reconnaître Paul, qu'elle a aimé passionnément douze ans plus tôt.
Anne va tout mettre en œuvre pour le retrouver. Elle interrogera ceux qui l'ont connu, suivra sa trace en Belgique, interrompra la liaison confortable avec Philippe, rompant avec « l'ordre, la sécurité et le poids de la tradition », se replongeant dans un passé qu'elle idéalise peut-être.
Mais peut-on reprendre une histoire d'amour après tant d’années ? Est-ce vraiment Paul qu'elle a cru reconnaître, ou est-ce déjà une autre aventure ?
La grande helléniste, disparue en 2010, nous offre un roman d’amour plein de finesse.
Valérie Marin la Meslée, Le Point .
Cette quête amoureuse, écrite en 1966, garde toute sa fraîcheur.
Mohammed Aissaoui, Le Figaro littéraire .
Anne va tout mettre en œuvre pour le retrouver. Elle interrogera ceux qui l'ont connu, suivra sa trace en Belgique, interrompra la liaison confortable avec Philippe, rompant avec « l'ordre, la sécurité et le poids de la tradition », se replongeant dans un passé qu'elle idéalise peut-être.
Mais peut-on reprendre une histoire d'amour après tant d’années ? Est-ce vraiment Paul qu'elle a cru reconnaître, ou est-ce déjà une autre aventure ?
La grande helléniste, disparue en 2010, nous offre un roman d’amour plein de finesse.
Valérie Marin la Meslée, Le Point .
Cette quête amoureuse, écrite en 1966, garde toute sa fraîcheur.
Mohammed Aissaoui, Le Figaro littéraire .
256 pages, Pocket Book
First published March 1, 2013
1 person is currently reading
About the author
Jacqueline de Romilly
93 books38 followersJacqueline Worms de Romilly (March 26, 1913-December 18, 2010) was a French philologist, Classical scholar and writer of fiction of Jewish ancestry.
Born in Chartres, Eure-et-Loir, she studied at the lycée Molière, where she was the winner of the Concours général de latin and took the second prize in Greek in 1930. She then prepared for the École Normale Supérieure at the lycée Louis-le-Grand. She entered ENS Ulm in the class of 1933. She then passed the agrégation of Classics in 1936, and became a doctor of letters in 1947.
After having taught for some time in a school, she became a professor first at the University of Lille and subsequently at the Sorbonne (from 1957 to 1973). She was then elevated to the chair of Greek and the development of moral and political thought at the Collège de France — the first woman nominated to this prestigious institution. In 1988, she was the second woman (after Marguerite Yourcenar) to enter the Académie française, being elected to Chair #7, previously occupied by André Roussin. In 1995, she obtained Greek nationality and in 2000 was nominated Ambassador of Hellenism by the Greek government.
She was at one time president of the Association Guillaume Budé, and remains the honorary president of that institution.
Born in Chartres, Eure-et-Loir, she studied at the lycée Molière, where she was the winner of the Concours général de latin and took the second prize in Greek in 1930. She then prepared for the École Normale Supérieure at the lycée Louis-le-Grand. She entered ENS Ulm in the class of 1933. She then passed the agrégation of Classics in 1936, and became a doctor of letters in 1947.
After having taught for some time in a school, she became a professor first at the University of Lille and subsequently at the Sorbonne (from 1957 to 1973). She was then elevated to the chair of Greek and the development of moral and political thought at the Collège de France — the first woman nominated to this prestigious institution. In 1988, she was the second woman (after Marguerite Yourcenar) to enter the Académie française, being elected to Chair #7, previously occupied by André Roussin. In 1995, she obtained Greek nationality and in 2000 was nominated Ambassador of Hellenism by the Greek government.
She was at one time president of the Association Guillaume Budé, and remains the honorary president of that institution.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 21, 2018
Anne, a 34 year old widow with a married lover and a job as a translator, bumps into her first lover Paul in the Luxembourg gardens. Or at least, she bumps into a guy who reminds her so much of Paul that she suddenly moves heaven and earth to pick up the trail of this man, whom she had left quite abruptly after an inconclusive romance. While making phone calls and even an improvised trip to Brussels, where Paul had a job at some point, Anne reviews the past and confronts a number of uncomfortable truths about her aborted relationship with Paul: how she never really cared to know about his politics or his friends, how she resented him not proposing to her, how she kept hoping against all hope that he'd suddenly turn into the steady, boring husband her parents had in mind for her. So while her obsession with finding Paul again and starting where they left off is more than a little pathetic, the emotional journey it takes her on yields new insights into her failings and limitations. Eventually she meets the stranger who triggered the whole thing, and who turns out to be a slightly pedantic but rather charming librarian. Will Anne be able to make do with what this man is offering, instead of pining for her idealized lost love? This is no masterpiece but a good deal better than Romilly's insufferable memoir about her mother. Romilly proves rather adept at psychological analysis and this slightly sentimental tale isn't as full of clichés as I initially feared it might be.
May 5, 2017
J'ai failli adorer ce livre. Il me parle énormément. Tout ce que j'aime dans la vie. Le jardin du Luxembourg. Une non rencontre. Une vague ressemblance qui réveille le passé et l'imagination qui fait le reste. Elle aurait pu broder sur mille pages sans parvenir à ses fins sans que je me lasse. Je conseillerai probablement jamais ce livre à personne, le romantisme ça emmerde tout le monde mais perso ça me parle. Et chaque fois que je retire mes lunettes dans le métro, j'peux me servir d'une vague ressemblance pour partir dans un délire d'imagination. On croise plus facilement des fantômes du passé lorsqu'on est myope. Ce qui m'a un peu refroidi, c'est le dernier chapitre. Mon côté maso-niais aurait voulu une fin plus romantique ou carrément tragique, pas cette acceptation adulte du réel. Et en même, j'ai envie de la féliciter de pas être tombé dans le pathos total.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews