Emilie Desvaux
Née en 1983 à Toulouse, Émilie Desvaux est l’auteur d’un premier roman paru chez Stock en 2011, À l’attention de la femme de ménage....
A L ATTENTION DE LA FEMME DE MENAGE
Auteur
Parution :
12/01/2011
Collection :
La Bleue
A NOTE FOR THE CLEANER
A beautiful country house, set in wooded gardens, all staircases and successions of elegantly furnished rooms. A house populated with memories, ghosts and daydreams. A house where two women live.
One was widowed a few months ago. She often likes to sit in the winter drawing room to read, silent and pensive. The other is Marie-Jeanne, a lively, disorganised and infinitely sensual young girl. She has no ties, she turned up one day to be taken care of… and never left.
The two women fell for each other straight away but, with the passing seasons, the widow has more and more trouble tolerating Marie-Jeanne, her long mysterious baths and her unconditional love; and she becomes increasingly cruel. Her dreams are infiltrated by the ghost of her hard harsh mother and her father who used to tell her the bewitching myth of the sirens. She gradually develops a longing to destroy this doomed love or to turn it into something else.
As a backdrop to the story of these two women, and almost inextricable from the house itself, the cleaner goes about her business like a shadow. She is the depository for their secrets, witness to their troubled affections and their peculiar metamorphosis.
Like a fairy tale, a legend or a baroque reverie, A Note for the Cleaner is an unusual first novel with bewitching images and language.
Born in Toulouse in 1983, Emilie Desvaux studies French literature. A Note for the Cleaner is her first novel.
A beautiful country house, set in wooded gardens, all staircases and successions of elegantly furnished rooms. A house populated with memories, ghosts and daydreams. A house where two women live.
One was widowed a few months ago. She often likes to sit in the winter drawing room to read, silent and pensive. The other is Marie-Jeanne, a lively, disorganised and infinitely sensual young girl. She has no ties, she turned up one day to be taken care of… and never left.
The two women fell for each other straight away but, with the passing seasons, the widow has more and more trouble tolerating Marie-Jeanne, her long mysterious baths and her unconditional love; and she becomes increasingly cruel. Her dreams are infiltrated by the ghost of her hard harsh mother and her father who used to tell her the bewitching myth of the sirens. She gradually develops a longing to destroy this doomed love or to turn it into something else.
As a backdrop to the story of these two women, and almost inextricable from the house itself, the cleaner goes about her business like a shadow. She is the depository for their secrets, witness to their troubled affections and their peculiar metamorphosis.
Like a fairy tale, a legend or a baroque reverie, A Note for the Cleaner is an unusual first novel with bewitching images and language.
Born in Toulouse in 1983, Emilie Desvaux studies French literature. A Note for the Cleaner is her first novel.
C’est une belle demeure de campagne, au milieu d’un parc arboré, pleine d’escaliers, d’enfilades de pièces et de mobilier élégant. C’est une maison peuplée de souvenirs, de fantômes et de rêveries où vivent deux femmes. L’une est veuve depuis quelques mois. Elle s’installe souvent dans le salon d’hiver, pour lire, silencieuse et pensive. L’autre, c’est Marie-Jeanne, une jeune fille vive et désordonnée, infiniment sensuelle. Sans attaches, elle a surgi un jour pour qu’on s’occupe d’elle et n’est jamais repartie.
Les deux femmes se sont éprises, mais, au fil de quelques saisons, la veuve supporte de moins en moins la présence de Marie-Jeanne, ses longs bains mystérieux, son amour inconditionnel, et se fait plus cruelle. Se glissent dans ses songes l’ombre de sa mère, dure et sèche, et celle de son père, qui lui racontait le mythe ensorcelant des sirènes. S’immisce en elle le désir de détruire cet amour finissant ou de le transformer en autre chose.
En arrière de l’histoire de ces femmes, et comme confondue avec la maison, la femme de ménage passe telle une ombre. Elle est la dépositaire de leurs secrets. Le témoin de leur amour trouble et de leur étrange métamorphose.
Semblable à un conte ou une légende, à une rêverie baroque, À l’attention de la femme de ménage est un premier roman singulier dont les images et la langue enchantent.
192 pages
Format :
135 x 215 mm
EAN :
9782234069459
Prix :
18.00 €
