Marguerite Duras

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born

April 04, 1914 in Gia-Dinh, Viet Nam

died

March 03, 1996

genre

Literature & Fiction, Cinema

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Marguerite Donnadieu, better known as Marguerite Duras (pronounced [maʀgəʁit dyˈʁas] in French) (April 4, 1914 – March 3, 1996) was a French writer and film director.

She was born at Gia-Dinh, near Saigon, French Indochina (now Vietnam), after her parents responded to a campaign by the French government encouraging people to work in the colony.

Marguerite's father fell ill soon after their arrival, and returned to France, where he died. After his death, her mother, a teacher, remained in Indochina with her three children. The family lived in relative poverty after a bad investment in an isolated property and area of farmland in Cambodia(tête de pisse). The difficult life that the family experienced during this period was highly influential on...more Marguerite Donnadieu, better known as Marguerite Duras (pronounced [maʀgəʁit dyˈʁas] in French) (April 4, 1914 – March 3, 1996) was a French writer and film director.

She was born at Gia-Dinh, near Saigon, French Indochina (now Vietnam), after her parents responded to a campaign by the French government encouraging people to work in the colony.

Marguerite's father fell ill soon after their arrival, and returned to France, where he died. After his death, her mother, a teacher, remained in Indochina with her three children. The family lived in relative poverty after a bad investment in an isolated property and area of farmland in Cambodia(tête de pisse). The difficult life that the family experienced during this period was highly influential on Marguerite's later work.

At 17, Marguerite went to France, her parents' native country, where she began studying for a degree in mathematics. This she soon abandoned to concentrate on political sciences, and then law. After completing her studies, she became an active member of the PCF (the French Communist Party) and was engaged in the resistance.

In 1943 she changed her surname to "Duras" for Duras, the name of a village in the Lot-et-Garonne département, where her father's house was located.

She is the author of a great many novels, plays, films, interviews and short narratives, including her best-selling, apparently autobiographical work L'Amant (1984), translated into English as The Lover. This text won the Goncourt prize in 1984. The story of her adolescence also appears in three other forms: The Sea Wall, Eden Cinema and The North China Lover. A film version of The Lover, produced by Claude Berri, was released to great success in 1992.

Other major works include Moderato Cantabile, also made into a film of the same name, Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein, and her film India Song. She was also the screenwriter of the 1959 French film Hiroshima mon amour, which was directed by Alain Resnais.

Duras's early novels were fairly conventional in form (their 'romanticism' was criticised by fellow writer Raymond Queneau); however, with Moderato Cantabile she became more experimental, paring down her texts to give ever-increasing importance to what was not said. She was associated with the Nouveau roman French literary movement, although did not definitively belong to any group. Her films are also experimental in form, most eschewing synch sound, using voice over to allude to, rather than tell, a story over images whose relation to what is said may be more-or-less tangential.

Marguerite's adult life was somewhat difficult, despite her success as a writer, and she was known for her periods of alcoholism. She died in Paris, aged 82 from throat cancer and is interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse. Her tomb is marked simply 'MD'.

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Books by Marguerite Duras

Average rating: 3.79 · 13,944 ratings · 1,027 reviews · 114 distinct works

	The Lover by Marguerite Duras, Barbara Bray (Translator) 3.79 avg rating — 6,951 ratings — published 1984 — 67 editions	My rating:
	Hiroshima mon amour 3.93 avg rating — 897 ratings — published 1960 — 21 editions	My rating:
	The Ravishing of Lol Stein by Marguerite Duras, Richard Seever (Translator) 3.76 avg rating — 712 ratings — published 1964 — 16 editions	My rating:
	The Malady of Death by Marguerite Duras, Barbara Bray (Translator) 3.93 avg rating — 452 ratings — published 1986 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Moderato cantabile 3.53 avg rating — 682 ratings — published 1958 — 22 editions	My rating:
	The North China Lover: A Novel by Marguerite Duras, Leigh Hafrey (Translator) 3.89 avg rating — 537 ratings — published 1991 — 19 editions	My rating:
	The War by Marguerite Duras, Barbara Bray (Translator) 3.94 avg rating — 414 ratings — published 1985 — 20 editions	My rating:
	Blue Eyes, Black Hair by Marguerite Duras, Barbara Bray (Translator) 3.65 avg rating — 379 ratings — 15 editions	My rating:
	Four Novels: The Square, Moderato Cantabile, 10:30 on a Summer Night, The Afternoon of Mr. Andesmas by Marguerite Duras, Germaine Brée (Introduction), Sonia Pitt-Rivers (Translator) 3.96 avg rating — 199 ratings — published 1965 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Destroy, She Said by Marguerite Duras, Barbara Bray (Translator) 3.66 avg rating — 210 ratings — published 1969	My rating:

More books by Marguerite Duras…

Quotes by Marguerite Duras

“...as long as nothing happens between them, the memory is cursed with what hasn't happened.”
― Marguerite Duras, Blue Eyes, Black Hair

tags: lust , waiting

108 people liked it

“Very early in my life it was too late.”
― Marguerite Duras, The Lover

101 people liked it

“You have to be very fond of men. Very, very fond. You have to be very fond of them to love them. Otherwise they're simply unbearable.”
― Marguerite Duras

tags: love , men

83 people liked it

See all Marguerite Duras's quotes »

Polls

What should be our group read for September/October?

Winter's Tales by Karen Blixen

5 votes, 55.6%

The Ravishing of Lol Stein by Marguerite Duras

2 votes, 22.2%

The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen

1 vote, 11.1%

Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda

1 vote, 11.1%

I, Claudius by Robert Graves

0 votes, 0.0%

9 total votes

10 comments

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