Claire Duras, Olivier

Stacie Allan (University of Bristol)

Ed. by Nigel Harkness, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1822

Places

France (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

In 1825, Claire de Duras wrote to Rosalie de Constant (cousin of Benjamin) that she had finished another novel. Reflecting the secrecy so central to the plot, Duras does not dare reveal its subject. Instead, she describes the topic as “un défi, un sujet qu’on prétendait ne pouvoir être traité” [a challenge, a subject that was considered to be untreatable] (Pailhès, 462), and provides only its title: Olivier ou le Secret. Despite Duras’s own discretion, the novella’s taboo subject – commonly thought to be impotency – was leaked from her salon, where she read her works aloud. Two outsiders to upper-class intellectual society, Henri de Latouche and Stendhal, saw this piece of leaked information as an opportunity …

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1785 words

Citation: Allan, Stacie. "Olivier". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 November 2015 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=32189, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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