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Title: The Nun by Denis Diderot, Leonard W. Tancock ISBN: 0-14-044300-2 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: November, 1977 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: An ode to freedom
Comment: Diderot writes exquisitely of a nun who was forced into the convent by her family, and who desires nothing but to be given her freedom, and a job. As she tries to struggle out her situation, she encounters sadistic, lesbian and generally corrupt Mothers Superior, who alternatively adore or loathe her. By the time she is twenty, the nun makes an escape with an equally unhappy monk. And for the rest, you should read yourself. Like Candide, this book is a real pageturner and easy to read, while stealthily making a very Enlightenment statement about freedom for freedom's sake, and individual human rights. This book will speak to anyone who have ever struggled for anything, and to anyone who believes in Enlightenment ideas about humanity.
Rating: 5
Summary: Diderot Blasts the Church Hierarchy
Comment: Denis Diderot (1713-1784) was a central figure in French intellectual circles in particular and in the Enlightenment in general. Diderot's crowning achievement was his role as editor of the "Encyclopedie," an important reference work completed in 1773. A contemporary of such seminal figures as Rousseau and Voltaire, Diderot contributed to his times philosophical treatises and dialogues often imbued with anti-religious themes. He also wrote plays, art criticism, and works of fiction. Diderot's works include "D'Alembert's Dream," "Rameau's Nephew," and this book, "The Nun." If this story concerning a young French girl's experiences and disdain for the convent is any indication, Diderot's other works would be well worth reading. "The Nun" is a brilliant and insightful effort that manages to be gripping while imparting the author's distaste for Church hierarchy and how an individual suffers under society's compulsory laws.
"The Nun" concerns Suzanne Simonin, a young, extraordinarily attractive French girl who, due to unfortunate family circumstances, finds herself caught up in a seemingly inescapable fate. Suzanne's family-mother, stepfather, and sisters-are all concerned with money and family duty. The family decides that the best option for Suzanne is to join a convent and live her life as a nun. Suzanne hates the idea, as she sees herself unfit and unwilling to give up her freedom for the rigors of religious life. Her family sees things differently, and after some dramatic fits and starts that find Suzanne making a public scene before taking her vows, she finally settles into a convent called Longchamps. The life of a nun is sheer drudgery, but Suzanne fulfills her duties and even sings in the choir while she plots to discover any possible avenue to get back home. For a time, Suzanne does discover some solace in the reverent figure of the mother superior, a devout persona who takes a distinct liking to Suzanne. After this woman dies, Suzanne's intensified efforts to leave enrage the new superior and the other nuns. What follows is a lengthy description of the indignities Suzanne suffers at the hands of her fellow nuns. They throw her in a dank cell, steal all of her accoutrements, scatter broken glass under her feet, and pronounce her a minion of Satan in an effort to force her to remain in the convent.
Suzanne soon escapes the barbarity of Longchamps when her lawyer, who is fighting for her release in civil court, manages to get her a transfer to another convent. At the new house, even more problems plague young Suzanne. The mother superior here turns out to have a distasteful peccadillo for a woman in such a position, and she targets Suzanne as a new conquest. Things continue to deteriorate for the young nun, and by the end of the story she is in a terrible position with no clear goals or hopes for the future. "The Nun" is indeed a depressing story full of moral quandaries and cynical observations about the Catholic Church's role in modern day society.
Diderot presents a picture of the convent houses as one of vicious human callousness and pettiness. He deftly deflates the image we all have of such places, namely places full of saintly figures in quiet reflection with God who benevolently sacrifice themselves in order to serve the needs of mankind. What we see instead is the reality that, like any other human enterprise, there exists the usual range of human emotions both good and bad. The problem comes about because Suzanne's place is a convent, and convents are supposed to be above such base emotions. Moreover, Diderot shows how convents can be even worse than other institutions because those who torment Suzanne easily fall back on God as an excuse for making contemptible accusations and as a justification for bad behavior. Who can argue with the will of God in such a matter? Surely those who serve a higher power know the best way to administer discipline to a woman who refuses to give herself fully to the calling. Not so, writes Diderot, and he makes you believe it through the force of his narrative and the realistic presentation of the characters. In short, even those who pursue the "religious life" suffer the same twists and turns found in every human endeavor.
Translator Leonard Tancock points out that "The Nun" emerged from a practical joke played on a faithful Catholic by Diderot and some of his salon friends. The gag was never meant to be malicious, and this shows up in Diderot's reworking of the joke into a story. Suzanne, as much as she despises the strictures of the convent, is in actuality a faithful Catholic. She prays fervently to God and carries out her duties in accordance with the laws of the convent. Suzanne's problems, and by extension Diderot's difficulty, is not with Catholic dogma but with hierarchy and the rigid laws created by imperfect humans which force people into unsuitable social roles.
At times humorous and scandalously shocking, "The Nun" is sure to raise an eyebrow or two in even our jaded times. Tancock seems to have done a great job translating this story into English, and he provides a good introduction explaining the background of the story with some of the key pluses and minuses of Diderot's tale. I am surprised there are so few reviews of this incredible story, as this tale is a must for lovers of French literature. Recommended for Francophiles and those who endured Catholic school.
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the most honest books written.
Comment: Denis Diderot has left us with a masterpiece of literature in The Nun. It's a surprise it isn't taught in schools, but then perhaps a lot of people would protest. The story is about Suzanne, a darling girl with a lot of spirit and smarts. While her two sisters are given wonderful dowries, she's left to become a nun...by force. It's not so much that her parents are poor as she's a disgrace, though it takes a bit before she finds out why. While the book is an excellent argument against religious institutions, I find it's more an argument about the absurd ways that people define religion in their lives. After all, though Diderot paints marriage as a preferable thing, that is an institution as well, if a girl isn't choosing it for the desire to spend company with her partner and is instead doing it for money and freedom from a nunnery. Plenty of women just went in the other direction. The mother in this story is unforgivable, as well as the father. What you will love about the book, however, is not the painful experiences Suzanne must endure, but her strong and resolved spirit...which for any of us...would seem like a breath of fresh air...to look into the head of such a determined and wonderful soul.
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Title: Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Oxford World's Classics) by Choderlos De Laclos, Douglas Parmee, Pierre Ambroise Francois Choderl Laclos ISBN: 0192838679 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: March, 1999 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Jacques the Fatalist and His Master (OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSICS) by Denis Diderot, David Coward ISBN: 0192838741 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Rameau's Nephew and D'Alembert's Dream (Penguin Classics) by Denis Diderot, Leonard Tancock ISBN: 0140441735 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1976 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Penguin Classics) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, J.M. Cohen ISBN: 014044033X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: August, 1953 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Princess of Cleves by Madame De Lafayette, Nancy Mitford, Madame De La Fayette ISBN: 0811210707 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: January, 1994 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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