Robert M. (shotokanchef) reviewed on + 813 more book reviews
This translation by Leonard Tancock is easy to read. Unlike many 18th century British novels that are somewhat stilted, the grammar has been brought to 20th century usage. This tale (ca 1760) of abuse in the Christian cloisters of France is allegedly based upon a real incident. It precedes, by nearly 35 years, the gothic tales of Lewis (The Monk {1794}) and Radcliffe (The Italian {1797}). Its theme of abuses within the Church is to be echoed by several other prominent French writers: Dumas, Hugo, Zola, et al. A young girl is forced into a convent and dictated to take religious orders by her parents. Why? She is the illegitimate fruit of collaboration of her mother and a one-night stand. At the first convent she refuses to take her vows. She is sent to another at which she is physically abused by the mother superior and all of the nuns (except one). She sues to annul her vows, loses and is transferred to another nunnery where she is treated as the sexual object of the mother superiors affections. From this she finally escapes with the aid of a young priest. He also has been forced into the vocation under similar circumstances. He assaults her sexually but is thwarted and she escapes to the drudgery of a life always in hiding. Given the recent exposure of abuses within the hierarchy of several of the Christian faiths, the novel is disturbing. Diderot manages to heap upon this poor girl almost every possible humiliation and abuse. Midway he makes a case denouncing the entire structure of the religious order and its intertwining with the laws of state.
