Product Description

'You can leave a forest, but you can never leave a cloister; you are free in the forest, but you are a slave in the cloister.'

Diderot's The Nun (La Religieuse) is the seemingly true story of a young girl forced by her parents to enter a convent and take holy orders. A novel mingling mysticism, madness, sadistic cruelty and nascent sexuality, it gives a scathing insight into the effects of forced vocations and the unnatural life of the convent. A succès de scandale at the end of the eighteenth century, it has attracted and unsettled readers ever since. For Diderot's
novel is not simply a story of a young girl with a bad habit; it is also a powerfully emblematic fable about oppression and intolerance.

This new translation includes Diderot's all-important prefatory material, which he placed, disconcertingly, at the end of the novel, and which turns what otherwise seems like an exercise in realism into what is now regarded as a masterpiece of proto-modernist fiction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #163263 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-14
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 234 pages

Times Literary Supplement, June 10, 2005
Goulbourne's excellent translation maintains the reader's involvement without sacrificing accuracy.

Catholic Herald, Friday 1, July 2005
Goulbourne's translation is accurate and scholarly. It is easy to read and follow. The explanatory notes are useful and straightforward.

Catholic Herald, Friday, 1 July, 2005
This translation serves admirably.

Customer Reviews

A Hard Hitting Novel
If you have heard of this book and its portrayal of lesbianism in a convent, you will be disappointed. This is not a sex story and has only very mild titillation.

Russell Goulbourne presents here a brilliant new translation of this powerful novel, and also provides a very illuminating introduction. If you are aware of the famous incident at Loudon you will have some idea of what went on in convents. This story is set at a later date, in the eighteenth century, and looks at the phenomenom of a practice quite prevalent then, especially in France. Families would place their children into monasterys or convents if they were illegitimate (as in this book), or couldn't provide suitable marriage dowries, amongst many other reasons. This resulted in what amounts to imprisonment for the rest of their lives of innocent people.

Suzanne, the heroine of our novel is eventually forced into becoming a nun, amongst persecution, bullying, and humiliation. Around her she sees madness, abuse of power and despair, eventually contemplating suicide herself. When she is moved to another convent she encounters lesbianism and sexual jealousy.

This novel is a very powerful portrayal of what was happening in those times and looks at intolerence and oppression, subjects that are still of concern in these days. It is quite easy to see why this was a bestseller in its day, and why it still enthralls readers today.