Le Bal by Irene Nemirovsky
Le Bal by Irene Nemirovsky
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EAN: 9780099493976
Format: Paperback
Published: 4 Oct 2007

Synopsis

Le Bal depicts the life of the Kampfs who, having recently gone up in the world thanks to luck with the stock decide to throw a ball in order to launch themselves into society. Their daughter Antoinette, who has just turned fourteen, dreams of attending. But Madame Kampf is resolved not to present her daughter, already so grown up, to her admirers. Instead, Antoinette is forced to sleep in the laundry room, as her bedroom is used as coatroom. In an unpremeditated fury of revolt and despair, Antoinette takes her revenge. It is swift and it is horrible. A cruel, funny and tender examination of class differences, of the dynamic between mother and daughter, Le Bal is ultimately dedicated to the torments of childhood.

Snow in Autumn pays homage to Némirovsky’s beloved Chekhov and chronicles the life of a devoted servant following her masters as they flee Revolutionary Moscow and emigrate to a life of hardship in Paris.

What the critics say

With its cool, understated prose and sharp psychological accuracy, this is perfect for a train journey -a reminder of what good writing can achieve in a very few words
- The Times

A cruel, sophisticated tale making the terrible beautiful without diminishing for one moment the horrors of displacement and war
- Guardian

Editor's Comments

Two lost masterpieces of French literature are gathered together in one volume for the first time

The Author

Irene Nemirovsky

Irene Nemirovsky

Irène Némirovsky was born in Kiev in 1903. The daughter of a wealthy banker, she received a French education. During the Bolshevik revolution, the Némirovskys fled first to Finland, then to Sweden, finally settling in France where Irene’s father reestablished himself. There, Irène studied literature and started publishing novels under a pseudonym. She married, had two daughters, and continued her prolific writing career. During the Nazi occupation, Irène and her family were forced to flee to a remote seaside village. There she continued to write and publish until her arrest by French gendarmes. She was deported to Auschwitz and, despite the tireless efforts of her publisher to have her released, she died there in 1942.