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Her Lover (Belle Du Seigneur)

by Albert Cohen, David Coward (Translator)

4.15 of 5 stars 4.15 · rating details · 608 ratings · 72 reviews

Handsome, worldly and intelligent, Solal holds a position of enviable power in 1930s Geneva. But as Under-Secretary-General of the League of Nations, he has become bitterly disillusioned by international affairs and the self-serving people who surround him. His one hope for redemption is through love - and he embarks on the audacious seduction of Ariane, the beautiful, day...more

Paperback, Penguin Modern Classics, 992 pages

Published November 3rd 2005 by Penguin Books Ltd (first published 1968)

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Oct 02, 2009 Manny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: french, strongly-recommended, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, why-not-call-it-poetry, older-men-younger-women

This is a great novel about romantic love; alternately, one could say that it's about what it's like to be a sex and love addict, since it doesn't portray romantic love very positively. The three main characters are Ariane, her husband Didi, and Solal, who later becomes Ariane's lover. The first third is mostly about the young married couple. Didi is one of the great idiots of literature, and everything he does sets Ariane's teeth on edge. She wishes every minute of the day that she hadn't marri...more

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Dec 01, 2012 [P] rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: bitchin

To my mind this is one of the finest love stories ever told, albeit one that considers all interaction between the sexes to be mere "baboonery."

We all do it. For the first six months of any relationship our partners are essentially spending time with an imposter. The you that they meet and spend time with in the beginning is the perfect form of you; the most polite, least irritable, most generous, best-looking, most affectionate, you.

This you has a whole store of anecdotes to share, anecdotes t...more To my mind this is one of the finest love stories ever told, albeit one that considers all interaction between the sexes to be mere "baboonery."

We all do it. For the first six months of any relationship our partners are essentially spending time with an imposter. The you that they meet and spend time with in the beginning is the perfect form of you; the most polite, least irritable, most generous, best-looking, most affectionate, you.

This you has a whole store of anecdotes to share, anecdotes that are already tried and tested on other men or women; you've worked on these anecdotes, moulded them, through trial and error, into nuggets of comedy gold. Moreover, this is a you who finds all his or her quirks charming, all his or her inane chatter interesting. Yes, one has [seemingly] inexhaustible supplies of patience when trying to find favour. There is, let's face it, more subtle subterfuge goes on in new relationships than is to be found in any le Carre novel.

Critic Michael Wood said of Belle du Seigneur that the prose is mawkish, but, according to a more reliable literary expert [me], he completely misses the point. It is a novel about first love, and first love is necessarily, triumphantly, ridiculous; not only that, but this is a novel concerned with the ridiculous first love of ridiculous people. Cohen was writing about appearances, about how when romantically interested in someone one creates an shiny, glittery, most alluring, facade to hide one's real self behind. The style of the prose mimics overwrought romantic literature, is archly, ironically, hiding its own dark underbelly behind sometimes flowery language.

The set-up of the story is that a bored and unsatisfied [and married] young woman called Ariane and a bored and unsatisfied [yet rich and successful] single man called Solal start an affair. Both are conceited, but charming, and appear to fall in love despite themselves. In the beginning things are wonderfully exciting for the couple. This is new ground for them, soft sensual ground, and the novel emotions they incite in each other provide them with a focus and endless hours of conversation. Furthermore, the illicit nature of their coupling, that they have a husband to dupe, creates a common bond, ties them to one another by a shared act of wrong-doing. This too, this wrong-doing, is also exciting of course.

However, once they strike out on their own, once she leaves her husband, the relationship begins to flounder. With no external diversions [her friends, his job], with no common cause [their secret love], no common enemy [Ariene's husband], they become inevitably bored with each other; and, also, with the loss of status that both suffer as a consequence of the affair they start to realize that love alone isn't enough to make a relationship work.

The dying of the spark, their weary acknowledgement of it, and subsequent attempts to reignite it, provide the funniest, most cynical, passages of the book. There is ranting enough [from Solal, mostly] in these passages to satisfy any Thomas Bernhard fan. Solal at one point even hits Ariane for, what he believes are, altruistic reasons. He can't bear to see her so devoid of passion, and if she can't passionately love him anymore then he would would rather she passionately hate him; passion, he thinks, being preferable to complacency. Of course, his plan doesn't work: she becomes scared, and he pities her. Pity, as we know, is only marginally less likely to fan the flames of desire than walking in on your woman bleaching her 'tache.

Belle du Seigneur is a modern fairytale: it is light and frothy, yet dark and brooding, is funny yet harrowing, is overwrought yet gritty and realistic. Throughout it's 900+ pages it touches upon, and draws from the reader, a number of contrasting emotions, and is, in this way, a little bit like being in love for the first time. (less)

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Aug 04, 2011 Raphaël rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

ma déception est à la hauteur des éloges dont on m'a toujours abreuvé... et c'est bien parce qu'on me l'avait tant vanté que je suis allé jusqu'au bout, j'ai même relu le début, puis les fameux chapitres 35 et 36, pour être certain de ne rien rater, essayer de comprendre ce qui n'allait pas chez moi, mais rien n'y a fait...

Lecture globalement pénible, je n'ai pas du tout accroché au style, trop de répétitions, trop d'ellipses, trop de lyrisme... Les personnages sont caricaturaux. Toute l'histoir...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Christina added it · review of another edition

My heart is breaking.

Solal and Ariane are shown as supremely flawed beings throughout the story. She for her naive and selfish searching, and he for knowing better.

Their journey is at times comical, and the moments of levity are welcome in this otherwise dark novel. Solal's uncles and the Deume's offer a perfect glance into the backgrounds of Solal and Ariane...of what they ultimately escape.

Cohen does a masterful job of conveying the inner turmoil of the characters through a stream of consciou...more

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Jan 06, 2009 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was triply recommended to me, and by people whose literary tastes I don't always agree with, but very much respect. This book pretty much embodied that. The writing was masterful (and I only read the English translation- how fantastic the French must be!)- it was beautiful and maddening, it put you through the paces in a relentless, brutal, amazing way. And there were some fascinating insights about the fact that we all experience life in a deeply subjective way. And the side stories a...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Sandra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Una scrittura elegante, piena di virtuosismi verbali, con continui flussi di pensiero dei protagonisti che ne approfondiscono psicologicamente i caratteri e le personalità, rendendoceli immediatamente presenti e vicini.
Come in poche altre occasioni è capitato che la lettura di un libro abbia suscitato in me emozioni diverse.
All'inizio mi sono divertita, i personaggi vengono pennellati da Cohen con acuta ironia, sottolineandone i difetti, che sono i difetti della società bene ginevrina, che vive...more Una scrittura elegante, piena di virtuosismi verbali, con continui flussi di pensiero dei protagonisti che ne approfondiscono psicologicamente i caratteri e le personalità, rendendoceli immediatamente presenti e vicini.
Come in poche altre occasioni è capitato che la lettura di un libro abbia suscitato in me emozioni diverse.
All'inizio mi sono divertita, i personaggi vengono pennellati da Cohen con acuta ironia, sottolineandone i difetti, che sono i difetti della società bene ginevrina, che vive solo sull'apparenza senza la sostanza.
Poi la mia attenzione si è concentrata sull'evoluzione della Passione assoluta nata tra i protagonisti, "incatenati giorno e notte nella segreta di un grande amore", e sul come essi hanno scelto di alimentarla.Mi è venuto in mente il commento che ho scritto per "amore fatale" di McEwan, dove parlo di "amore autistico". Ebbene, nel caso di Solal e Ariane, proprio di "amore autistico" si può parlare. Nella solitudine e nell'isolamento l'amore non germoglia ma, al contrario, soffoca, muore, o meglio, si trasforma in qualcos'altro, che non è più passione, desiderio, ma diventa abitudine, noia e anche peggio.
Nella parte finale, la lettura è divenuta angosciante. Solitudine, tristezza, incomunicabilità...nelle pagine del libro queste sensazioni mi hanno travolto. Fino alla fine.
I temi emergenti dalle 800 pagine del libro sono tanti: il primo, cui ho accennato, è la critica alla società benpensante svizzera (e non solo), ipocrita e farisea, in contrapposizione alla condanna alla solitudine e alle umiliazioni, "che non insegnano le buone maniere", del popolo ebreo, sempre estraneo, sempre solitario, fuori dalla comunità.
Ho letto tra le righe l'influenza del pensiero di Freud, laddove Cohen, nel flusso di pensieri che sommerge il lettore come me non abituato a leggere pagine e pagine senza punteggiatura e apparentemente senza senso e legame alcuno tra i pensieri a volte interi a volte interrotti, parla del sentire del "conscio", rivestito di belle maniere e di doveri morali che impongono il rispetto delle forme, che ho avvicinato all'io freudiano, e "dell'inconscio", la sede degli istinti e delle pulsioni, l'es di cui Freud tanto ha scritto.
E soprattutto ho percepito durante la lettura aleggiare ovunque la compresenza di Amore e Morte, questi due opposti apparentemente inconciliabili, ma al contrario infine riconducibili verso un unico equilibrio finale: l'annullamento di sè, unica soluzione possibile. (less)

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Jan 14, 2012 Lyv rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: francais, favourites, owned-london

Belle du Seigneur, c'est plus de mille pages décrivant l'histoire d'amour de Solal et Ariane
Solal est beau, intelligent, et a une excellente position. Toutes les femmes sont à ses pieds.
Ariane, issue d'une famille noble, est mariée à Adrien Deume, un employé administratif que l'on ne peut s'empêcher de mépriser au bout de quelques pages. Certain de la fidélité d'Ariane, seul l'avancement de sa carrière le préoccupe. Or, Solal est son supérieur hiérarchique ! Ce dernier usera de cette position po...more

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Dec 26, 2011 Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

You're a married guy. You have more than one college degree. You read voraciously--books, serious magazine articles, newspapers. You are one of the highly respected people in your profession. Whenever you speak your mind, your colleagues listen.

You have a wife. She barely got passed college. She watches TV every time that her favorite soap operas are on. She doesn't read books, or any of the serious stuffs you read, although she browses over fashion magazines every now and then.

Like normal coupl...more

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Oct 05, 2012 Nadia Ricin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Livre magique qui regorge de poésie, de sensibilité, d'amour. Il y a de nombreuses raisons de le lire, en premier lieu la belle et folle histoire d'amour de Solal et Ariane, trop libre et impossible, étouffée par la méchanceté du monde, dramatique.. L'auteur s'attarde dessus, un peu trop, comme pour noyer derrière des vers et une décadence de volupté une nostalgie de l'amour disparu. Car au moment du récit, s'élève dans une Europe embourgeoisée un antisémitisme politique virulent qui laisse devi...more

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May 05, 2012 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I first enquired about this novel at my local branch of Waterstone's bookshop, the assistant looked it up on his computer and told me that although it was available in paperback, it was quite expensive (more than £17). I bought it over the internet, and realised the reason. The novel is the size of a telephone directory.

I read an English translation of this story, which was originally written in French.

In brief (and I emphasise, 'brief'), the story concerns the lives of an official at the L...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Laraemilie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Genève dans les années 1970. Un homme séduisant se déguise en vieillard juif et s’introduit chez Ariane Deume pour la séduire. Cet événement marque le début d’une relation hors du commun entre une femme mariée et le supérieur de son mari. Du mépris à la passion, nous suivrons la belle Ariane et son Seigneur Solal dans leur amour à travers l’Europe de l’avant-guerre.
Autour du couple d’amants gravitent d’autres personnages, tous aussi intéressants les uns que les autres. Nous avons la famille Deum...more Genève dans les années 1970. Un homme séduisant se déguise en vieillard juif et s’introduit chez Ariane Deume pour la séduire. Cet événement marque le début d’une relation hors du commun entre une femme mariée et le supérieur de son mari. Du mépris à la passion, nous suivrons la belle Ariane et son Seigneur Solal dans leur amour à travers l’Europe de l’avant-guerre.
Autour du couple d’amants gravitent d’autres personnages, tous aussi intéressants les uns que les autres. Nous avons la famille Deume, qu’Albert Cohen ne se prive pas de ridiculiser. Adrien, le mari d’Ariane, fonctionnaire au Palais des Nations, est l’exemple parfait de l’homme intéressé par rien d’autre que son ascension sociale. Pour lui, tout est basé sur les relations, l’importance des fréquentations et, surtout, sur l’apparence. Les scènes qui le concernent sont très comiques, toujours dans l’exagération et même les événements les plus sérieux basculent systématiquement dans le ridicule. Le fait qu’il vive dans la même maison que ses parents ajoute à cette impression et, par ce choix, l’auteur a en même temps l’opportunité de nous faire faire connaissance avec d’autres personnages – tout aussi divertissant : M. et Mme Deume.
Du côté de Solal, nous rencontrons les Valeureux, ses cousins, qui visitent Genève à plusieurs reprises. Les passages les concernant m’ont beaucoup plu car ils sont tout à fait inattendus. Débarquant tout droit de leur Céphalonie natale, ils sont complètement décalés par rapport aux diplomates et représentants de la ville. Ils ont une manière de parler et d’agir très différente de tous les autres personnages et mettent en place différents stratagèmes pour s’attirer les bonnes grâces de Solal – et bien sûr son argent.
Les variations de langage dont je viens de parler sont sans aucun doute l’intérêt principal de ce roman. Chaque personnage à sa propre manière de parler, son vocabulaire, ses expressions. On reconnaît immédiatement si c’est Ariane qui parle, Solal, les Valeureux, la famille Deume ou Mariette, leur domestique. Nous avons principalement affaire aux amants, qui s’enferment à plusieurs reprises dans des monologues intérieurs. Sur le modèle d’Ulysse de James Joyce, ces derniers ne sont la plupart du temps pas ponctués. Nous suivons ainsi le fil des pensées des personnages, ce qui nous donne de nombreuses informations sur leur caractère et leur personnalité. De plus, ce procédé nous permet de passer d’un point de vue à l’autre et nous aide ainsi à regarder les faits de plusieurs points de vue différents.
Certains de ces monologues sont toutefois relativement longs et difficiles à comprendre. Ajoutés à quelques longueurs dans le déroulement de l’intrigue et à la complexité de l’écriture – qui teinte toutefois magnifiquement de poésie cette œuvre – ils dissuaderont probablement plusieurs lecteurs.
Ces quelques difficultés dépassées, on aura alors tout le loisir apprécier une critique de la bourgeoisie et de son monde impitoyable, du snobisme et de la Société des Nations ainsi que, bien évidemment, l’analyse du thème principal du roman : la passion. On assistera à la séduction, qui se transformera en passion avant d’entamer sa décadence. Tout au long de ce chemin, on découvrira ainsi plusieurs facettes des personnages.
L’histoire est centrée sur les deux amants bien sûr, mais nous visitons en même temps Genève et, dans une Europe où l’antisémitisme prend de l’importance, nous découvrons la vie d’avant la première Guerre Mondiale.
Ce chef-d’œuvre de la littérature francophone du XXe siècle est à lire absolument pour quiconque apprécie les histoires d’amour - l'amour, étudié sous tous ses aspects - et les belles plumes, et qui n’a pas peur du grand nombre de page et de la complexité de certains chapitres.(less)

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Mar 26, 2009 Bieiris rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Pero, ¿cómo coño puede darle alguien cinco estrellas a este engendro pestilente? Un desperdicio de buena prosa puesta al servicio de personajes vomitivos. Una historia de amor, por llamar a esta pesadísima broma de alguna manera, que revuelve las tripas. ¿Y se trata de una obra maestra de la literatura francesa del XX? Ne me fais pas chier.

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Feb 14, 2013 William rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What is worse than a bad book? A 1110 page bad book...

I started "Belle du Seigneur" with high hopes. Geneva is my home town, so I believed it would be wonderful to have a great novel set there. Also, this book was published in the 1960s, a decade which (in my view) is already quite poor in good french literature. Cohen has written a number of books, so I hoped that if this was good, I would be able to discover a treasure of great french books.

But then I read it.

I understand now why nobody ever t...more What is worse than a bad book? A 1110 page bad book...

I started "Belle du Seigneur" with high hopes. Geneva is my home town, so I believed it would be wonderful to have a great novel set there. Also, this book was published in the 1960s, a decade which (in my view) is already quite poor in good french literature. Cohen has written a number of books, so I hoped that if this was good, I would be able to discover a treasure of great french books.

But then I read it.

I understand now why nobody ever talks about this book. I thought it might be because it was too long (notice that most people's favorite classics are always short). But no, it is just a very, very bad book.

Cohen is a poor writer, who has a teenage sense of poetry. Indeed, how many times did I almost throw the book through my flat each time he used and re-used the image of people being future bodies? Ok, fine, Solal is a nihilist, we get it, but pleeeeeeease stop using this simile about future corpses to show how meaningless our lives are... after the 50 first times, we really get the point. And it isn't that smart in the first place.

Solal. Oh my god, Solal! I think Cohen's characters are all created out of his social anxieties. Solal is an outsider, not only is he Jewish, but he is neither a French or a Genevan Jew, he is Greek. He is not an aristocrat like Ariane, or a middle class bourgeois like the Deume family. Cohen must have put all his personal fantasies into Solal, he is rich, powerful and irresistible. But not only is he all that, but he doesn't care! He rants endlessly (it feels that way) on the first night spent with Ariane complaining that women only want powerful strong men, and that it isn't his fault if he is so perfect, and that Ariane wouldn't love him if he didn't have any front teeth (another annoying overused cliché). Just a self destructive narcissistic overgrown depressed teenager.. The whole book seems drowned in some kind of angry resentment against everything. This resentment is embodied in Solal, who is an anti-life figure, incapable of any kind of empathy or love. Indeed, when he hurts Ariane he hurts himself physically because he feels so bad, but it is a typically self centered attitude, because he doesnt ever change his attitude towards Ariane.

I think that because Albert Cohen actually looked up to any aristocracy (locally Genevan in this case), Ariane is the only positive character. As a middle class bourgeois himself he could only create an aristocrat he admired. The class he hates the most is the one Cohen wanted to escape from, an upwards moving bourgeois middle class. Adrien Deume and his mother are the perfect example of what Cohen hated the most, hence the pouring out of resentment which created such petty characters. This social prejudice appears also in the portrayal of the lower class characters, each time we get a description of popular french people for example he imitates (badly) their speech, and makes them dirty and vulgar.

A real waste of 1110 pages of my time.
(less)

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Jan 29, 2012 Asa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-books

I had two problems with this book: it was too long (800 pages) and I got frustrated at all the things the author didn't do, that he only mentioned or didn't get to at all. Cohen writes about this great passionate affair between Solal and Ariane, and to make things interesting it's Europe in the 1930s, Solal is Jewish and Ariane is married and Protestant. During the book Solas loses his job and his French citizenship because he wanted the League of Nations, that he worked for, to help the Jews in...more I had two problems with this book: it was too long (800 pages) and I got frustrated at all the things the author didn't do, that he only mentioned or didn't get to at all. Cohen writes about this great passionate affair between Solal and Ariane, and to make things interesting it's Europe in the 1930s, Solal is Jewish and Ariane is married and Protestant. During the book Solas loses his job and his French citizenship because he wanted the League of Nations, that he worked for, to help the Jews in Germany, and when Ariane leaves her husband he tries to kill himself, and she's shunned by her family and everyone she knew.

These things are only mentioned, sometimes long after they happened, because Solal and Ariane are trapped in this relationship where they can't leave each other and neither of them dares to show their true faces. Ariane is fixated on everything remaining beautiful and perfect, like it felt when they first fell in love, so the relationship is never allowed to really evolve and both of them do ridiculous things to keep up a facade. The feel of the book becomes claustrophobic, and the second half of the book details their attempts not to let the other know how bored they've become with each other, because they have no outside connections and nowhere to go. Solas tries to get his citizenship and his job back and fails, and never dares to tell Ariane what has happened and why they can't make friends with anyone. Ariane tries to entertain Solas with travels and romantic scenes and music and literature, which Solal only pretends to enjoy for her sake.

Both characters became very annoying after a while, but the one that I had the most problems with was Solal. He predicts how their affair is going to go from the start, and he sees how bored they've both become by the static nature of their relationship, but he never does anything to change it. He keeps this huge secret from Ariane, and then ridicules her by imagining how much happier she would be married to someone else and playing along with society's games when he's the one that made her leave her husband without giving her all the facts. Near the end, and I'm never quite sure how much is theatrics and how much he really feels, Araine confesses that she had a lover before him and Solal enacts these grand jealous scenes and tortures Ariane despite the fact that he's had a number of affairs both before and after her. He claims it's to keep her interested and that she subconsciously confessed to force him to these scenes, but then he makes a habit of reading her mind and predicting what she's going to say and feel. Solal also has a bad case of the Madonna/whore complex, where he feels that women are these higher creatures that shouldn't sully themselves with the animals that men are, and despises Ariane for wanting him to desire her and for dressing everything up to make this more romantic.

Ariane isn't perfect, she's a spoiled woman of good family, she doesn't deal well with things being less than perfect, and she runs away and abandons everyone without considering the consequences when Solal beckons, but I still feel sorry for her because it always feels to me that Solal is pulling her strings while she's kept in the dark.

Despite all of these problems, I enjoyed parts of the book - the author was very good about describing the kind of feeling you get when you're first in love, how nothing that isn't connected to the person you love feels real, how anticipation is almost better than the real thing, and the stupid things you do and say while in this state of mind. There are also interesting things in the second half of the book, where Solal from time to time has to face the rising antisemitism that is everywhere around him, and that he's somewhat protected from because he's rich and because he doesn't look or dress like a stereotypical Jew. It's still in isolation though, because he never makes any attempt to connect with either his family or any other Jewish people. All in all, an interesting book in parts.(less)

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Aug 04, 2011 Benjamincottin is currently reading it · review of another edition

pour moi ca fait parti des "livres exploits"....horrible à lire, il ne se passe rien, histoire ....euh yen a t il une vraiment ? j'ai lu 500 pages environ, tout cela raconte l'organisation d'un diner où l'invité de marque, ne vient même pas....waouhhhhh

apres c'est sur une fois arrivé à la fin on est content de se dire que c'est enfin terminé et de le mettre en avant dans la vitrine, manière de faire" regardez j'ai lu ce livre il est énorme !!! non non très agréable à lire on ne le sent pas passe...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Petja rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Наричан "най-добрият любовен роман на 20-век". Съвсем заслужено! Само предупреждавам - това е съсипващо четиво. И то не толкова на емоционална основа, колкото с всеобхватното, дълбинно, детайлно описание на връзката, грубо до невъзможност често, дълбаещо, предвещаващо катастрофи. Читателят минава от най-светлите небеса до ада и то бавно.

И внимание - при обем от около 1000 страници, трябва да бъдете подготвени да преодолеете ужасната скука на първите 300. Ако не бях предупредена, нямаше да успея...more

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Jun 17, 2010 Julia Hendrix rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Julia by: Madame Cui

Dans le doute, s'abstenir, le mieux étant l'ennemi du bien -p.108

Il y pensait sans cesse, n'osait pas -p.138

c'est le grand baiser noir battant l'aile -p.209

les hommes ont des mamelles petites qui ne servent à rien pourtant complètes avec mamelons celles des femmes sont bien plus belles ils nous imitent mais c'est raté tandis que nous on ne leur a rien emprunté tout est à nous -p.215

tout le terrible attirail d'une faible femme invincible -p.255

Enfin, un peu de vie avant beaucoup de mort! -p.273

il...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Lavinia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After the first chapter I thought I will never make it through the 1100 pages. But when at the end of those 1100 pages I was sorry it was ending, I realized I really enjoyed this book. Besides the core of the book, the love as a feeling (as crazyness, I would say), there are a few themes that are being touched and detailed to a certain extent: the nazy opression of jewish people and samples of tragedies this produces (Solal is a sort of representative of his people), the professional incompetenc...more

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Aug 10, 2011 Lolo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

J'ai trouvé beaucoup d'idées intéressantes et de sujets développés avec brio dans ce roman ; j'en ai aussi aimé le style, riche, et variable selon les contextes et les personnages. En revanche, j'ai trouvé l'ensemble du livre un tout petit peu long quand même, et j'ai achoppé sur une petite centaine de pages (vers la fin), un peu trop chargée de prosélytisme mêlé à une forme de racisme (comme une réponse au racisme des Allemands avant la guerre).

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Feb 21, 2013 Marie Bouteille rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Un livre-claque ! D'une plume superbe, Albert Cohen imagine la suite et la réalité de ces passions que l'on lit dans les romans d'amour. Beaucoup d'humour dans les petits et gros travers des héros, parsemé d'instant tragiques réels ou prophétiques dans la vie des personnages qui croisent le chemin du couple. Il décrit également l'arrivée de l'antisémitisme et la vie des Juifs d'Europe et des personnes impliquées dans la SDN. La description des journées d'un fonctionnaire à la SDN est d'ailleurs...more

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Nov 14, 2010 Prospero rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: letteratura, straniera, lingua, francese

Un capolavoro che, sullo di un'umanità che si appresta a commettere le più atroci nefandezze, fa sorridere grazie ai personaggi descritti in modo superbo ma riesce anche a far piangere d'amore.

Stupendi gli espedienti letterari utilizzati per permettere al lettore una conoscenza più profonda e intima dei personaggi.

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Jan 02, 2013 Annemie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oktober 2012: Ongeveer 30 jaar geleden gelezen in een vertaalde versie ( Nederlands )
Vond het een prachtig boek. Echt een aanrader. Herneem het nu in de oorspronkelijke versie (Frans). Benieuwd of ik het nog even goed vind. Het begin alleszins wat worstelen. Maar ik bijt door.

December 2012: Intussen is het boek gelezen (1110 pagina's). Het is literatuur met een grote L, bij wijlen cynimse met een grote C, humor met een grote H en soms hatelijke passages met een grote H. Vooral de laatste reflexi...more

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Aug 04, 2009 Dr Zoule added it · review of another edition

Shelves: milestones

I remember reading this book during my long hours of duty at the military hospital. I remember feeling on edge as I was approaching the end. I remember isolating myself on the Colonel's secretary office to read the last pages undisturbed. I remember being devastated by the tragic beauty of the book.

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May 02, 2013 Pascaline Pédron rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Peut-être mon livre préféré d'Albert Cohen, ma première découverte de cet auteur. Le texte le plus abouti, stylistiquement parlant, d'Albert Cohen. Une langue généreuse, volubile, chatoyante. Un héros mystérieux et séduisant. Une description troublante & perçante des mécanismes de la passion amoureuse... un livret qui finalement est très loin de l'image que certains peuvent en avoir d'une belle histoire d'amour.

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Jun 21, 2012 LaFleurBleue rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-excl-romance, literary-prize, keepers

Un classique qui se déguste à chaque page et se dévore sans que l'on s'en rende compte.
Beaucoup d'humour et de recul, à la fois dans la description de la relation amoureuse et dans celle du monde bureaucratique administratif des institutions internationales.

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Nov 23, 2012 Camille rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, romans, 20e-siècle

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 08, 2009 Lucie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A masterpiece : passion, pride, despair, vanity, faith... it's about all that.
A tragedy under the mask of a comedy, unless it is the other way round.
But above all, the gift of Albert Cohen, that turns this terrific book into a magic, poetic, epic tale.

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Jan 31, 2009 Alya rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: emotions

I read the original version in French. I cannot decide whether I liked it or not. It got on my nerves, there were a lot of insinuations from the author that I did not agree with, but I still think about the book and not anymore in a bad way.

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Mar 14, 2009 Maakaari rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

to be honest, I didn't finish it. but I love what i've read eg the half of it. as always, Cohen is a master with details. the description of the typical working day of the Geneve bureaucrat is hilarious

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Jul 28, 2011 Estelle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

L'un des meilleurs romans français du 20ème siècle.

Un chef d'oeuvre de la littérature française.

Le chapitre 36 est probablement la perfection littéraire.

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About Albert Cohen

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Born Abraham Albert Cohen in Corfu, Greece, in 1895, as part of an important Sephardic Jewish community on the island. Albert’s parents, who owned a soap factory, moved to Marseille, France when he was a child. Albert Cohen discusses this period in his novel Le livre de ma mère (The Book of my Mother). He studie...more

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Quotes from Her Lover

“Un soir qu'ils étaient couchés l'un près de l'autre, comme elle lui demandait d'inventer un poème qui commencerait par je connais un beau pays, il s'exécuta sur-le-champ. Je connais un beau pays Il est de l'or et d'églantine Tout le monde s'y sourit Ah quelle aventure fine Les tigres y sont poltrons Les agneaux ont fière mine À tous les vieux vagabonds Ariane donne des tartines. Alors, elle lui baisa le la main, et il eut honte de cette admiration.” — 9 people liked it

“Elle avait tout aimé de Marseille, la bruyante rue Longue-des-Capucins aux victuailles étalées et criées, la halle aux poissons et ses gaillardes fortes en gueule, la rue de Rome, la rue Saint-Férréol, la Canebière, le Vieux-Port, les étroites rues patibulaires et cordiales où circulaient dangereusement, déhanchés, des messieurs félins et grêlés de variole.” — 2 people liked it

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Her Lover (Belle Du Seigneur)

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