Irene Nemirovsky

by Weiss, Jonathan M.

• ISBN13: 9780804754811
• ISBN10: 0804754810
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-09-07
• Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr

Summary

On July 13, 1942, French gendarmes arrested Irene Nemirovsky in southern Burgundy. She was deported to Auschwitz where she died on August 19. Who was this woman, author of more than a dozen popular novels and more than thirty short stories, whose posthumous novel,Suite Francaise, won France's prestigious Renaudot prize in 2004? Born in Russia to wealthy parents, Irene Nemirovsky immigrated to Paris in 1919. Although she was Jewish, she consorted with authors and politicians on the extreme right, some of whom were openly anti-Semitic. She was sure that these friends would protect her from deportation after the Nazis invaded France. Instead, they abandoned her. Yet she never lost faith in France, even after she was refused French nationality. In this fascinating biography, Jonathan Weiss analyzes the discrepancy between Nemirovsky's real and imagined identities, and explores a literary work that revisits in a unique way Jewish identity, exile, betrayal, and the solidarity of a persecuted people.

Author Biography

Jonathan Weiss is Professor of French Language and Literature at Colby College. In 1996, he met Irène Némirovsky's two daughters. With their help, he was able to consult all the documents that their mother had passed on to them. This biography is the result of that research and of close textual analysis of Némirovsky's literary work.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vi
Preface	viii
Introduction	1	(6)
1 From Kiev to Paris	7	(16)
2 The Promised Land	23	(20)
3 David Golder	43	(20)
4 Profession: Woman of Letters	63	(12)
5 The Writer's Craft	75	(16)
6 The Temptation of Christianity and the Persistence of Judaism	91	(16)
7 Issy-L'Évêque	107	(34)
8 "What is this country doing to me?"	141	(14)
9 "Irène gone today"	155	(14)
Conclusion	169	(6)
Notes	175	(23)
Bibiography of Irène Némirovsky's Works	198