Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Penguin Classics (1982), Paperback, 192 pages
Description
"This novel takes the life of a young girl forced by her parents to enter a convent as its subject matter and provides an insight into the effects of forced vocations"--Provided by publisher.
User reviews
LibraryThing member ocgreg34
"The Marquis de Croismare's reply, if he does reply, will serve as the opening lines of this tale."
With these first words, the tale of Suzanne Simonin, a young woman barely in her twenties, who wishes to leave a Paris convent. She describes to the Marquis through her various letters how she came to
Author Denis Diderot based this series of letters on an actual incident of 1758 that piqued the interest of his friend the Marquis de Croismare. Though the events in his novel are fictitious, they do paint a damning picture of church practices at the time. At the convent of Longchamp, Suzanne suffers because of her desire to leave: forced to wear a hair-shirt, given little to no food for days, all items stolen from her cell, the lock broken and non-repaired, other sisters entering her cell at all hours to keep her from sleeping so she would hopefully miss a prayer session thus deserving more ridicule and harsher penalties. When Suzanne is removed from Longchamp to another nunnery at Arpajon, she finds herself subjected to another (possible) side of convent life. The Reverend Mother takes a liking to Suzanne, turning her affections away from one of the other Sisters, and unsuccessfully attempts to seduce Suzanne.
For the most part, I empathized with Suzanne, all the trials she endured at Longchamp filling me with disgust at the Sisters' inhumanity. But the empathy began to lessen when she reached Arpajon. Diderot makes Suzanne play dumb to the advances of the Reverend Mother, but not once does he have her attempt to put a stop to it until her confessor from a nearby monastery describes how wicked such tastes are and the would go mad and foam at the mouth (which happens to the Reverend Mother). Only then does she put her foot down and avoid the Reverend Mother, treating her a mixture of pity and disgust. She could have stopped the seduction from escalating, but to me seemed very complicit with events, even to the point of encouraging them at times. It seemed to go against the strong character developed at Longchamp, when Suzanne withstood all the torments and harassment with grace and dignity.
Perhaps I'm more disappointed with Diderot's view on homosexuality as a psychological problem rather than with Suzanne's response to it, and I'm still trying to reconcile my modern day ideas with those of the 18th century.
With these first words, the tale of Suzanne Simonin, a young woman barely in her twenties, who wishes to leave a Paris convent. She describes to the Marquis through her various letters how she came to
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live in a nunnery thanks to her mother's attempts to hide her daughter's illegitimacy, how she feels little vocation for life as a nun, and worst of all, how the tortures and horrors she endured at the hands of a ruthless and egotistic Mother Superior served to strengthen her resolve to flee.Author Denis Diderot based this series of letters on an actual incident of 1758 that piqued the interest of his friend the Marquis de Croismare. Though the events in his novel are fictitious, they do paint a damning picture of church practices at the time. At the convent of Longchamp, Suzanne suffers because of her desire to leave: forced to wear a hair-shirt, given little to no food for days, all items stolen from her cell, the lock broken and non-repaired, other sisters entering her cell at all hours to keep her from sleeping so she would hopefully miss a prayer session thus deserving more ridicule and harsher penalties. When Suzanne is removed from Longchamp to another nunnery at Arpajon, she finds herself subjected to another (possible) side of convent life. The Reverend Mother takes a liking to Suzanne, turning her affections away from one of the other Sisters, and unsuccessfully attempts to seduce Suzanne.
For the most part, I empathized with Suzanne, all the trials she endured at Longchamp filling me with disgust at the Sisters' inhumanity. But the empathy began to lessen when she reached Arpajon. Diderot makes Suzanne play dumb to the advances of the Reverend Mother, but not once does he have her attempt to put a stop to it until her confessor from a nearby monastery describes how wicked such tastes are and the would go mad and foam at the mouth (which happens to the Reverend Mother). Only then does she put her foot down and avoid the Reverend Mother, treating her a mixture of pity and disgust. She could have stopped the seduction from escalating, but to me seemed very complicit with events, even to the point of encouraging them at times. It seemed to go against the strong character developed at Longchamp, when Suzanne withstood all the torments and harassment with grace and dignity.
Perhaps I'm more disappointed with Diderot's view on homosexuality as a psychological problem rather than with Suzanne's response to it, and I'm still trying to reconcile my modern day ideas with those of the 18th century.
Show Less
LibraryThing member AlCracka
Ah...it's pretty good? It doesn't get into the hot girl-on-girl action 'til like halfway through the book, and then it's super not hot. If you're looking for hot 18th-century girl on girl action, you gotta go with Fanny Hill.
It's pleasant and enjoyable to read. I think one problem with The Nun is
So, yeah, there you go. Better evil clergy in The Monk; better lesbian sex in Fanny Hill. The Nun, you have a problem.
It's pleasant and enjoyable to read. I think one problem with The Nun is
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that I read it right after The Monk, which is way awesomer. If you're only going to read one blasphemous 18th-century lit book this ear, it has to be The Monk, and you can put that on your movie posters.So, yeah, there you go. Better evil clergy in The Monk; better lesbian sex in Fanny Hill. The Nun, you have a problem.
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LibraryThing member ocgreg34
"The Marquis de Croismare's reply, if he does reply, will serve as the opening lines of this tale."
With these first words, the tale of Suzanne Simonin, a young woman barely in her twenties, who wishes to leave a Paris convent. She describes to the Marquis through her various letters how she came to
Author Denis Diderot based this series of letters on an actual incident of 1758 that piqued the interest of his friend the Marquis de Croismare. Though the events in his novel are fictitious, they do paint a damning picture of church practices at the time. At the convent of Longchamp, Suzanne suffers because of her desire to leave: forced to wear a hair-shirt, given little to no food for days, all items stolen from her cell, the lock broken and non-repaired, other sisters entering her cell at all hours to keep her from sleeping so she would hopefully miss a prayer session thus deserving more ridicule and harsher penalties. When Suzanne is removed from Longchamp to another nunnery at Arpajon, she finds herself subjected to another (possible) side of convent life. The Reverend Mother takes a liking to Suzanne, turning her affections away from one of the other Sisters, and unsuccessfully attempts to seduce Suzanne.
For the most part, I empathized with Suzanne, all the trials she endured at Longchamp filling me with disgust at the Sisters' inhumanity. But the empathy began to lessen when she reached Arpajon. Diderot makes Suzanne play dumb to the advances of the Reverend Mother, but not once does he have her attempt to put a stop to it until her confessor from a nearby monastery describes how wicked such tastes are and the would go mad and foam at the mouth (which happens to the Reverend Mother). Only then does she put her foot down and avoid the Reverend Mother, treating her a mixture of pity and disgust. She could have stopped the seduction from escalating, but to me seemed very complicit with events, even to the point of encouraging them at times. It seemed to go against the strong character developed at Longchamp, when Suzanne withstood all the torments and harassment with grace and dignity.
Perhaps I'm more disappointed with Diderot's view on homosexuality as a psychological problem rather than with Suzanne's response to it, and I'm still trying to reconcile my modern day ideas with those of the 18th century.
With these first words, the tale of Suzanne Simonin, a young woman barely in her twenties, who wishes to leave a Paris convent. She describes to the Marquis through her various letters how she came to
Show More
live in a nunnery thanks to her mother's attempts to hide her daughter's illegitimacy, how she feels little vocation for life as a nun, and worst of all, how the tortures and horrors she endured at the hands of a ruthless and egotistic Mother Superior served to strengthen her resolve to flee.Author Denis Diderot based this series of letters on an actual incident of 1758 that piqued the interest of his friend the Marquis de Croismare. Though the events in his novel are fictitious, they do paint a damning picture of church practices at the time. At the convent of Longchamp, Suzanne suffers because of her desire to leave: forced to wear a hair-shirt, given little to no food for days, all items stolen from her cell, the lock broken and non-repaired, other sisters entering her cell at all hours to keep her from sleeping so she would hopefully miss a prayer session thus deserving more ridicule and harsher penalties. When Suzanne is removed from Longchamp to another nunnery at Arpajon, she finds herself subjected to another (possible) side of convent life. The Reverend Mother takes a liking to Suzanne, turning her affections away from one of the other Sisters, and unsuccessfully attempts to seduce Suzanne.
For the most part, I empathized with Suzanne, all the trials she endured at Longchamp filling me with disgust at the Sisters' inhumanity. But the empathy began to lessen when she reached Arpajon. Diderot makes Suzanne play dumb to the advances of the Reverend Mother, but not once does he have her attempt to put a stop to it until her confessor from a nearby monastery describes how wicked such tastes are and the would go mad and foam at the mouth (which happens to the Reverend Mother). Only then does she put her foot down and avoid the Reverend Mother, treating her a mixture of pity and disgust. She could have stopped the seduction from escalating, but to me seemed very complicit with events, even to the point of encouraging them at times. It seemed to go against the strong character developed at Longchamp, when Suzanne withstood all the torments and harassment with grace and dignity.
Perhaps I'm more disappointed with Diderot's view on homosexuality as a psychological problem rather than with Suzanne's response to it, and I'm still trying to reconcile my modern day ideas with those of the 18th century.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Miss-Owl
Reading this book is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Don't get me wrong - it's not entirely excruciating: in fact, the emotive vividness of the translation was singularly impressive - but Suzanne's feelings of helplessness and entrapment are so inescapably evoked that you can't help but
After being forced to choose a C16th, 17th or 18th course for my honours in English a while back I chose the most recent - the C18th, being something of a modernist; and, of course, hated it as a result. It says a lot for this little book that it's done a lot to reconcile me to an entire century! For this book is inimitably C18th style in its attitudes to women and religious paradigms, yet also, ineluctably universal: the outrageous injustice of Suzanne's treatment at the convent in Longchamp in particular speaks of the misery of bullying everywhere, reminding me of Margaret Atwood's "Cat's Eye", or the 2007 Belgian film "Ben X" directed by Nick Balthazar. Over and over again, human misery is shown to result at the hands of other humans - and that, amongst other reasons, is what makes "The Nun" so depressing to me, and at the same time so inescapably real.
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be moved by the sheer vulnerability & utter lack of options for women deprived of family or any means of support in the eighteenth century. Yes, things could be worse, but if we withhold sympathy until we find the worst-case scenario then very few of us could escape unscathed.After being forced to choose a C16th, 17th or 18th course for my honours in English a while back I chose the most recent - the C18th, being something of a modernist; and, of course, hated it as a result. It says a lot for this little book that it's done a lot to reconcile me to an entire century! For this book is inimitably C18th style in its attitudes to women and religious paradigms, yet also, ineluctably universal: the outrageous injustice of Suzanne's treatment at the convent in Longchamp in particular speaks of the misery of bullying everywhere, reminding me of Margaret Atwood's "Cat's Eye", or the 2007 Belgian film "Ben X" directed by Nick Balthazar. Over and over again, human misery is shown to result at the hands of other humans - and that, amongst other reasons, is what makes "The Nun" so depressing to me, and at the same time so inescapably real.
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LibraryThing member Lucy_Skywalker
The wicked librarian refused to lend it to me, so I had to ask my mother to borrow. Actually I wanted to read it because she mentioned some funny story about a nun who was caught with her priest lover and hurriedly put his underwear on her head instead of her veil. Of course there was no such story
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in this book, but later I read it in a collection titled Peasant Decameron. Shame on me, this is my most vivid memory about the book. I should really re-read it, but somehow never have the mood, it was rather depressing. Show Less
LibraryThing member jonfaith
Man was born to live with his fellow human beings. Separate him, isolate him, his character will go bad, a thousand ridiculous affects will invade his heart, extravagant thoughts will germinate in his brain, like thorns in an uncultivated land.
Given the untimely arrival of our Arctic Vortex, it is
Given the untimely arrival of our Arctic Vortex, it is
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fitting that The Nun shudders with a frozen despair. Bone chilling mornings are well suited for such guided tours of the dark side. Abandon your preconceptions of the Enlightenment and moral cautionary tales, Diderot's creation is terrifying. Apparently it was a practical joke used to trick a friend to return to Paris from the countryside. The novel takes the form of an escaped nun tracing her history in a lengthy letter about a series of convents, ones where the prevailing theme is obedience. One thinks of Martin Amis, "give some someone absolute control over another and thoughts soon turn to torture." Forget Sade or Huysmans, I was scared shitless by the novel's second Mother Superior: think Martha Stewart as Torquemada. Show Less
LibraryThing member autumnesf
i was surprised I liked this book but I did. It was interesting to read about a life style so severe that the rich used to pawn off unwed daughters.
Subjects
Language
Original language
French
Original publication date
1796
Physical description
192 p.; 5.22 inches
ISBN
0140443002 / 9780140443004
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