La folie en tête

by Violette Leduc

In the second remarkable volume of her life story, Leduc paints a vibrant picture of the brilliant minds around her--and the dark passions and insecurities that drove her to write. National features, reviews planned.

Genres: Nonfiction, France, Memoir, Classics, Autobiography, Biography, Literature

602 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Violette Leduc was born in Arras, Pas de Calais, France, the illegitimate daughter of a servant girl, Berthe. In Valenciennes, the young Violette spent most of her childhood suffering from an ugly self-image and from her mother's hostility and overprotectiveness.

Her formal education, begun in 1913, was interrupted by World War I. After the war, she went to a boarding school, the Collège de Douai, where she experienced lesbian affairs with a classmate and a music instructor who was fired over the incident.

In 1926, Leduc moved to Paris and enrolled in the Lycée Racine. That same year, she failed her baccalaureate exam and began working as a telephone operator and secretary at Plon publishers.

In 1932 she met Maurice Sachs and Simone de Beauvoir, who encouraged her to write. Her first novel L'Asphyxie (In the Prison of Her Skin) was published by Albert Camus for Éditions Gallimard and earned her praise from Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Cocteau and Jean Genet.

Leduc's best-known book, the memoir La Bâtarde, was published in 1964. It nearly won the Prix Goncourt and quickly became a bestseller. She went on to write eight more books, including La Folie en tête (Mad in Pursuit), the second part of her literary autobiography.

Reviews

[Gila Gila]

An intimate diary left open on an unmade bed; Paris after the war, Simone de Beauvoir & Sartre urging her on, published by Camus, Leduc still sees herself as lesser in the literary crowd she whirls into, despite the beauty of her autobiographical writing. Particularly for women who have digested and spit up the knowledge that they can write, only to undermine themselves, swimming in self doubt instead of publicly spilled ink or digitized text: read Violette Leduc - and lay your head on the shoulder of a kindred spirit, who managed to publish 12 books despite herself.

[prisca💋]

ça m’a déchirée et inspirée comme jamais 💔❤️‍🔥

[Rafaela Kino]

makes my heart beat

[Iñaki]

Pro: la imprudencia con la que pone por escrito cada toxina mental que otra persona se reservaría.

Contra: página tras página, todo le viene mal, todo es un desgarrito, todas las peores palabras tienen su hueco salvo por las dos que desinflarían este hojaldre de agonía (a saber, "Bridget Jones").

[Colune]

comme toujours avec Violette Leduc j'y comprends pas grand chose et il faut que je m'accroche, mais il y a des passages emplis de grâce qui sont comme des récompenses de lecture, des petits bonbons de poésie que l'on découvre après avoir traversé des passages plus arides et dentelés. Un Chef d'oeuvre, comme tout ce qu'elle écrit.

[Jennifer Williams]

A book to be savored. This is lyrical, gorgeous writing. A diary of a true writer. Her heart on pages.

[Manon Buchweiller]

Une intéressante plongée dans la vie de Violette Leduc et des grands noms de la littérature du milieu du XXe

[Janet]

Not as good as La Batarde.

[Amélie]

« Février 1945. Paris a été libéré, moi je m'enchaîne ».