Status Updates From Il delta di Venere

‘When she stormed and when her temperature rose, her husband was nowhere to be seen. He was like some bland sky looking down at her and waiting for her storm to spend itself.’

‘…instead of answering her as soon as he saw her hair grow electric, her face more vivid, her eyes like lightning…[Lilith’s husband] retired behind this wall of objective understanding, acceptance of her, just as one watched an animal in the zoo and smiles at his antics…It was this which left Lilith in a state of isolation—indeed, like a wild animal in an absolute desert.’
ouch….

‘He merely said my name twice, as if he thought it sufficiently beautiful to repeat.’

‘Poor Mafouka. Yes, when I was born they did not know how to name me. I was born in a small village in Russia. They thought I was a monster and should perhaps be destroyed, for my own sake. When I came to Paris I suffered less. I found I was a good artist.’

This would never be published today. First chapter: yikes…very French. Second chapter: makes a point about male sexuality and violence that probably shocked readers at the time but now feels like dark romance readers would goon to it.

‘Everything made him laugh. He gave one the feeling that the whole world was now shut out and only this sensual feast existed, that there would be no tomorrows, no meetings with anyone else—that there was only this room, this afternoon, this bed.’