Marguerite Duras

Born

in Gia-Dinh, Viet Nam

April 04, 1914

Died

March 03, 1996

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Cinema, Nonfiction

Influences

Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre

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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 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 also wrote the screenplay for 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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Combine Editions
Marguerite Duras’s books

Average rating: 3.73 · 63,390 ratings · 4,656 reviews · 185 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Lover by Marguerite Duras, Barbara Bray (Translator) , Maxine Hong Kingston (Introduction) 3.75 avg rating — 31,578 ratings — published 1984 — 179 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hiroshima Mon Amour by Marguerite Duras, Caridad Martínez (Translator) 3.91 avg rating — 3,616 ratings — published 1959 — 45 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Moderato cantabile 3.52 avg rating — 3,420 ratings — published 1958 — 75 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ravishing of Lol Stein by Marguerite Duras, Richard Seever (Translator) 3.67 avg rating — 2,872 ratings — published 1964 — 50 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The North China Lover by Marguerite Duras, Leigh Hafrey (Translator) 3.89 avg rating — 2,130 ratings — published 1991 — 42 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Malady of Death by Marguerite Duras, Barbara Bray (Translator) 3.85 avg rating — 1,802 ratings — published 1982 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Blue Eyes, Black Hair by Marguerite Duras, Barbara Bray (Translator) 3.50 avg rating — 1,696 ratings — published 1986 — 34 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The War by Marguerite Duras, Barbara Bray (Translator) , قلسم روبین (Translator) 3.84 avg rating — 1,934 ratings — published 1985 — 61 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Writing 3.76 avg rating — 1,439 ratings — published 1993 — 32 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Sea Wall 3.78 avg rating — 1,758 ratings — published 1950 — 44 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Marguerite Duras…

Series by Marguerite Duras

The Lover (2 books)
by

Marguerite Duras,

Leigh Hafrey (Translator)

3.76 avg rating — 33,708 ratings

Quotes by Marguerite Duras

“Our mothers always remain the strangest, craziest people we've ever met.”
― Marguerite Duras

tags: mothers

3201 likes

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

633 likes

“...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

523 likes

See all Marguerite Duras's quotes »

Polls

What to read in March 2018?

Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks

9 votes, 36.0%

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

6 votes, 24.0%

April Lady by Georgette Heyer

2 votes, 8.0%

My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin

2 votes, 8.0%

The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer

2 votes, 8.0%

Moderato cantabile by Marguerite Duras

2 votes, 8.0%

The Open Door by Latifa Zayyat

2 votes, 8.0%

25 total votes

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