... de Staël's own life, for all its social and moneyed privilege, all its Romantic razzamatazz, has deep tragic elements of frustration and brooding loss. Much of this is prophesied in her earlier and now little-read novel Delphine (1802), whose heroine does indeed commit suicide. Far too long to appeal to modern readers, it nevertheless contains many haunting self-contained fragments, such as the five-page tale subtitled "The Reasons Why Léontine de Ternan Decided to Become a Nun." This opens:
I was once a very beautiful woman, and I am now fifty years old. These two absolutely ordinary facts have been the cause of everything I have ever felt in life.
Jaysus, Frank. I'll be 49 tomorrow...this was not the excerpt I wanted to read tonight and certainly not 366 days from now!
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, Susan. You don't look a day past 30 - and that is not flattery.
ReplyDeleteI found your blog in a random search on "Why Leontine de Ternan" as I too was struck by the line in your quote from NYRB--true in the stone ages, true in 1802, and true in 2009. Just think of the variations:
ReplyDeleteI was once a smallish teenage bookworm and I am now 60 years old, unemployed and possibly unemployable due to the young lions. These two absolutely ordinary facts have been the cause of everything I have ever felt.