薇奥丽·赖朵丝

Violette Leduc (7 April 1907 – 28 May 1972) was a French writer.

Early life and education

She was born in Arras, Pas de Calais, France, on 7 April 1907. She was the illegitimate daughter of a servant girl, Berthe Leduc, and André Debaralle, the son of a rich Protestant family in Valenciennes, who refused to legitimize her. In Valenciennes, Violette spent most of her childhood suffering from poor self-esteem, exacerbated by her mother's hostility and excessive protectiveness. She developed tender friendships with her grandmother Fideline and her maternal aunt Laure. Her grandmother died when Leduc was a young child.

Her formal education began in 1913, but 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 her classmate "Isabelle P", which Leduc later adapted into the first part of her novel Ravages, and then the 1966 Thérèse et Isabelle. During her time at the Collège de Douai, she was introduced to what would become her first literary passions: the Russian classics, then Cocteau, Duhamel, Gide, Proust, and Rimbaud.

In 1925, Leduc embarked on an affair with a supervisor at the Collège, Denise Hertgès, four years her senior. The affair was later discovered, and Hertgès was dismissed from her job over the incident.

Career and personal life

In 1926, Leduc moved to Paris, along with her mother and stepfather, and enrolled in the Lycée Racine. The same year, she failed her baccalaureate exam, and began working as a press cuttings clerk and secretary at Plon publishers, later becoming a writer of news pieces about their publications. She continued to live with Hertgès for nine years in the suburbs of Paris. Violette's mother Berthe encouraged her homosexual relations, believing this would protect Violette from illegitimate pregnancy.

In 1927, Violette met Jacques Mercier, seven years her senior, in a cinema. Despite her involvement with Hertgès, Mercier continuously pursued Violette. This love triangle is the basis of the plot of Ravages, wherein Violette is represented by the character Thérèse, Mercier by Marc, and Hertgès by Cécile. Violette's relationship with Hertgès ended in 1935. In 1939, Violette married Mercier. Their marriage was unsuccessful, and they separated. During their separation, Violette discovered that she was pregnant, and almost lost her life during an abortion.

In 1938, she met Maurice Sachs (future author of Le Sabbat), and in 1942, he took Violette to Normandy, where she wrote the manuscript of L'Asphyxie. During this time, Violette was also involved with trading on the black market, which allowed her to make a living. In 1944, Violette saw Simone de Beauvoir, and in 1945, Violette gave Beauvoir a copy of the manuscript of L'Asphyxie. This interaction formed the basis of a friendship and mentorship between her and Beauvoir that lasted for the rest of her life. 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. Her friendship and love of Maurice Sachs is detailed in her autobiography, La Bâtarde.

In 1955, Violette published her novel Ravages with Gallimard, but the editor censored the first 150-page section of the book, which depicts Violette's sexual encounters and defloration with her female classmate; Isabelle P. Gallimard censored this section by labelling it obscene. The censored part was eventually published as a separate novella, Thérèse and Isabelle, in 1966. Another novel, Le Taxi, caused controversy because of its depiction of incest between a brother and a sister. Critic Edith J. Benkov compared this novel with the work of Marguerite Duras and Nathalie Sarraute.