This exquisite, exuberant, X-rated novel (Mirabella), set in feudal Japan, tells the story of a concubine who hires a stable boy to whisper erotic stories from behind a screen while she entertains her master, a samurai general.
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Motherhood is fundamental in debates concerning French individual and national identity. While France's obsession with its falling population led to a long-standing glorification of the 'mere au foyer', motherhood has also been a highly contentious issue for French feminists. In this interdisciplinary study, Fell examines twentieth-century women's writing in the light of contemporaneous debates about women's reproductive function. Through close textual readings of the work of Simone de Beauvoir, Violette Leduc and Annie Ernaux, she uncovers fascinating tensions at the heart of women's...