The Lover by Marguerite Duras (Book Analysis)

This practical and insightful reading guide offers a complete summary and analysis of The Lover by Marguerite Duras. It provides a thorough exploration of the book’s plot, characters and main themes, as well as an examination of Duras’ style and her approach to autobiographical fiction. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time.

This clear and detailed 24-page reading guide is structured as follows:

• Biography of Marguerite Duras
• Presentation of The Lover
• Summary of The Lover
• Character study
  • The narrator
  • The Chinese man
  • The mother
  • The older brother
  • The younger brother, Paulo
  • Hélène Lagonelle
• Analysis of The Lover
  • Close in style to the New Novel
  • A writing of the self
  • A coming-of-age novel

About The Lover

The Lover is an autobiographical novel which tells the story of a teenage girl living in French Indochina (where Duras was born) and her encounter with a wealthy young Chinese man. Ultimately, their relationship is doomed because of the disapproval of the girl’s family, the opposition of the man’s father and the strict conventions of colonial society.

The Lover was first published in 1984 and was a major critical and commercial success: it won France’s prestigious Prix Goncourt, and has sold almost three million copies and been translated into over 40 languages.

About Marguerite Duras

Marguerite Duras was a French writer, dramatist and filmmaker, and is now recognized as one of the most original and influential novelists of the 20^th century. In particular, her books stand out for their pared-down style, the use of recurring characters and their focus on the fundamental themes of memory, forgetting, writing and destruction. Duras’ other well-known novels include The Sea Wall, Moderato Cantabile and The Ravishing of Lol Stein. She also wrote and directed several films, employing a radical and highly personal style.