Belle de Jour is the story of Séverine Sérizy, a beautiful young housewife married to a successful doctor. Her life is pretty great, except she feels like she cannot fulfil her sexual affinity for masochistic desires with her husband. She gets a job as a prostitute under the pseudonym Belle de Jour, only working from two to five each week day, so she can return before her husband gets home. Her job gets her involved with a young gangster named Marcel who allows her to explore all her sexual fantasies. However this relationship of thrills becomes far too much and life gets complicated for Séverine.Most people will know the story of Belle de Jour as it also a classic piece of French cinema from 1967. Directed by Luis Buñuel and staring Catherine Deneuve, the film explores the exact same story in a richer and interesting way. Buñuel is a Spanish director who has worked on movies in Spain, Mexico and France; he is also acclaimed for his avant-garde surrealist style. I was blown away by this movie and I only saw the movie recently. The concepts of the movie kept swimming through my mind that I needed to read the book to find out more.What I have found is that the story in the novel is very similar but the surrealist nature of the movie was not there. I did however gain a few insights into the life of Séverine Sérizy that I never picked up on. There is some interesting observations to be made between the connection in literature and fetish, especially with sexual sadism and sexual abuse. This has been a common problem found in books like Fifty Shades of Grey and other novels that deal with BDSM. It is a little sad to think this trope steams all the way to 1928 and maybe further. I think French erotica is really interesting and it is weird to think this was written so long ago.If you have seen the movie Belle de Jour, then reading the book is not really beneficial. Joseph Kessel does not offer anything interesting and I think everything that made the movie great was all original content from the mind of Luis Buñuel. I plan to re-watch the film sometime so I can write a review of it. As for French erotica, I plan to read more and I am not sure what to read. I think might have to read The Story of O, but I am open to more suggestions.This review originally appeared on my blog; http://www.knowledgelost.org/literatu...
This is the original novella that became the movie, which features Catherine Deneuve. It seems there are a few other books with similar titles, so please be careful. This small book defies easy definition and categorization. Let's start with what this book is NOT about. The protagonist is not a bored housewife. She loves her husband very much. (At the time when the story starts, she is not physical with him, but that is only temporal -- they have loved each other dearly.) And it's not just sex with other men that she wants. There are plenty of sex in it, but if that were all she wanted, the ending doesn't make sense. And if you want to read about sex, you'd be better off reading other books -- there are many erotica and romances out there. Then what does she want? It is a freedom of sort. Here is the unsettling question: When you love your spouse, do all the desires that do not fit nicely in marriage disappear? Well . . . we wish. The sad thing about this protagonist is that she knows acting out is not the same with freedom. If she was stupid enough to confuse the two, the story would have been so shallow, and I won't be reviewing it. A rich housewife having a lot of sex while her husband is at work. Duh. Boring. As you read, you might feel tempted to write off what this book presents, saying things like, "She is sick. She needs therapy." or "The French are weird." You'd be safe that way. Surely, it has nothing to do with you, right? If, however, you prefer big, hard-to-answer questions to neat answers, this book is for you. I, for one, like huge questions -- it gives me hope that there are things I don't know yet. I read this in Japanese translation and have lost my copy. I'll get a hold of the English translation. I've also watched the movie. I don't like the way the movie ended -- I think the change was judgmental and made the story petty. The way the novella ends is much better -- chilling. Having said this, the movie is worth checking out; Catherine Deneuve is drop-dead gorgeous. Her acting is excellent, too -- it almost hurts to watch her.
Do You like book Belle De Jour (2007)?
Ecco un altro splendido racconto che non ha la diffusione che merita per "colpa" di una fama sbagliata.Ve lo dico subito: non c'è sesso. Non ho visto il film che ne è stato tratto, non so se lo guarderò ora che ho letto il romanzo, ma sappiamo poco o nulla dell'attività di prostituta di Severine.Apprendiamo invece perché una donna ricca, borghese, amata, ma afflitta da questa specie di spleen baudelairiano arrivi a crearsi una vita parallela pur di provare una qualche emozione. Severine è vuota, esiste come spettatrice di sè stessa. Adora il marito, ma sempre rimanendo in qualche modo distaccata: per esempio non ama far l'amore con lui, ma fa l'amore per lui, cioè si accontenta di renderlo contento, sentimentalmente e fisicamente. Poi, un giorno, un pettegolezzo le fa rendere conto che le uniche emozioni che sente sono quelle negative: l'umiliazione, per esempio. E così sceglie la prostituzione come via per provare tali emozioni. Purtroppo Severine non è l'unica alienata nel romanzo: diventa l'ossessione di un suo cliente e vive la sorpresa di fare l'amante del delinquente per un po', ma come ovvio prima o poi Severine e Bella di Giorno dovranno incontrarsi. Un comune amico la sorprende al lavoro e, d manipolatore qual è, minaccia di rivelare tutto al marito. Qui inizia, pur mantenendo sempre l'eleganza che contraddistingue tutte le pagine, il classico dramma: Severine chiede all'amante di impedire la rivelazione, ma qualcosa va storto: non sarà lo spione a soffrire, bensì il marito Pierre. E Severine finirà reclusa, per sua stessa scelta, eppure compiaciuta, perché anche nella tragedia riesce a vivere solo fingendosi martire.
—Roberta
The silence between them was thick with their defeat.Then she realized that this woman drawing nearer was her double, part of herself, and she wanted to detach herself from that reflection, to escape an act of possession she didn’t desire.It was as if every atom of energy had left her, sucked away by some insatiable mouth.All her senses were like limp leaves blowing in the wind.Pierre’s manner, his taste, his desire to please, all were poles apart from something in her that had to be beaten and subdued, mercilessly defeated, before her flesh could flame out.Extreme terror has in common with jealousy that the sufferer takes the slightest likelihood for certainty.
—A. Gulden
Restless, unhappy and bored in her marriage, a woman turns to a young lover. While the subject is prosaic, the treatment is not. Mr. Kessel has created a tour de force, a story told in dishonestly simple terms. Séverine does not turn from her husband out of hatred but out of spurned love. She wishes him to lean on her but he persistently refuses. Her love has no outlet and thus she becomes involved in a dangerous profession to appease it. Mr. Kessel has given us more than the portrait of an adulteress, more than a story about a foolish housewife. He has shown us a mirror to our darkest desires and wanton urges. His riveting story posits it is not enough to love. Love must be given, shared and somehow expressed; otherwise it becomes warped, sickly and deadly beyond imagining. Erotic, criminalistic and darkly seductive, Mr. Kessel’s 1960 novel of feminine power continues to resonate and disturb modern readers. Read it with a loved one—if you dare.
—Marsha
