La Bâtarde

Author: Violette Leduc

Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press (2023)

Nominated for the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Femina, La Bâtarde is an obsessive and revealing self-portrait of a remarkable woman humiliated by the circumstances of her birth and her physical appearance. La Bâtarde relates Violette Leduc’s long search for identity through a series of agonizing and passionate love affairs with both men and women. Upon first publication it was championed by Simeone de Beauvoir and earned Leduc comparisons to Jean Genet for the frank depiction of her sexual escapades and amoral behavior. A confession that contains portraits of several famous French authors, this book is more than just a scintillating memoir—like the work of Henry Miller, Leduc’s brilliant writing style and attention to language transform this autobiography into a work of art. This edition includes the original foreword by de Beauvoir and an introduction by Deborah Levy.