Name: Sharon

Reading: The Princess of Clèves, Madam de La Fayette

Why did you want to read this? I had re-read Marguerite Duras’s novel Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein, and that caused me to think of La Princesse de Clèves, perhaps the first psychological novel. I thought of the moments of ravishing encounters or encounters that ravish, that take place through the gaze: seen, unseen.

How did you record yourself? In my study, at my table, reading Nancy Mitford’s translation from the screen of my computer rather than reclining on a divan,  as my English (and French) copies either are in London or have been stolen from my library, by the window, two dogs at my feet, one cat on the divan, another in a basket, a third crossly prowling, with a number of failed attempts, so many, until I determined that I must simply press on regardless of errors in reading, the stutters, the inconsistencies of pronunciation, the misreadings.