Irène Némirovsky (1903–1942)
Author of Suite Française
About the Author
Disambiguation Notice:
(yid) VIAF:66484425
(fre) BNF:12039492
(ita) ICCU:CFIV094404
Image credit: Irène Némirovsky vers 1917 à l'âge où elle commence à écrire
Works by Irène Némirovsky
The Prodigal Child / The Ball 2 copies
Le Maître Des Ames 1 copy
The Spell [short story] 1 copy
The Ball / The Enemy 1 copy
Taken 1 copy
The Perfect Summer 1 copy
متتالية فرنسية 1 copy
Associated Works
A Very French Christmas: The Greatest French Holiday Stories of All Time (2017) — Contributor — 33 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Némirovsky, Irène
- Legal name
- Némirovsky, Irène Lvovna
- Other names
- Epstein-Némirovsky, Irène
Nemirovskaya, Irina Lvovna
Немиpовська, Ірина Львiвна
Немировська, Ірен
Немиро́вськи, Іре́н
Немировская, Ирина Леоновна (show all 30)
Немировская, Ирина Леонидовна
Немировская, Ирина
Немировски, Ирен
Немировскаја, Ирина Љвовна
Нéмировскy, Ирèне
Νεμιρόφσκι, Ιρέν
內米洛夫斯基 依蕾娜
内米洛夫斯基 依蕾娜
ネミロフスキー イレーヌ
Nemyrovska, Iryna Leonodivna
Nemyrovska, Iryna
Nemirovskaïa, Irina Leonidovna
Nemirovskaïa, Irina
Nemirovskaia, Irina Leonidovna
Nemirovskaia, Irina Lvovna
Nemirovskaia, Irina
Nemirovszkaja, Irina Leonyidovna
Nemirovskaja, Irina Leonovna
Nemirovszkaja, Irina
Nemirovskaja, Irina
نيميروفسكي, إيرين
نمیروفسکی, ایرن
נמירובסקי, אירן
Նեմիրովսկայա, Իրինա - Birthdate
- 1903-02-11
- Date of death
- 1942-08-17
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Sorbonne University
- Occupations
- novelist
biographer
writer - Relationships
- Epstein, Denise (child)
Gille, Élisabeth (child) - Short biography
- Irène Némirovsky was brought up in St. Petersburg, Russia by a French governess, becoming completely fluent in the French language. She also learned to speak Yiddish, Finnish, Polish, and English. Following the Russian Revolution, the family lived for a year in Finland and then moved to Paris. Irène attended the Sorbonne and started writing fiction at about age 18. In 1926, she married Michel Epstein, a banker, with whom she had two daughters: Denise, born in 1929; and Élisabeth, born in 1937. In 1929, Irène published David Golder, her first novel, which was an immediate success and was adapted into a film in 1930. That same year, her novel Le Bal was published and became a play and a movie.
Today Irène Némirovsky is best-remembered for her unfinished book entitled Suite Française, two novellas written during the start of the German Occupation of France in World War II as it was happening. Despite having converted to Catholicism, Irène Némirovsky was arrested and deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz, where she died of typhus at 39 years of age. Her husband died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Their daughter Denise was able to keep the notebook containing the manuscript for Suite Française, but did not read it for 50 years, thinking it was her mother's private journal. However, in the late 1990s, she made arrangements to donate her mother's papers to a French archive and decided to examine the notebook. Upon discovering what it contained, she had it published in France, where it became a bestseller in 2004. - Cause of death
- typhus
- Nationality
- Russian Empire (birth)
France - Birthplace
- Kiev, Ukraine (formerly Russian Empire)
- Places of residence
- Saint Petersburg, Russia
Finland
Paris, Île-de-France, France
Burgundy, France
Issy-l'Evêque, France
Auschwitz, Poland - Place of death
- Auschwitz, Poland
Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Poland - Burial location
- Auschwitz, Poland
- Map Location
- Ukraine
Members
Discussions
WP:List of posthumous publications of Holocaust victims in Collaborative work (April 2012)
MAY Group Read: Suite Française (General Discussion) in The 11 in 11 Category Challenge (May 2011)
Reviews
Beautiful and heart-breaking, Suite Francaise demands a lot of its reader. Not because the novel—two linked novellas, really—is a very difficult work, nor because the prose is obscure, but because Némirovsky writes with such a clear-eyed, textured understanding and appreciation for the events unfolding around her in France in the opening years of the Second World War. There are disturbing incidents, but even more than that incidents which seem to go against the grain of what we think we show more know about WWII—what we imagine it must have been like to live under an occupying regime—and Némirovsky sketches out her characters with a very fine brush indeed.
It's sadly an unfinished work, as the author was murdered in a Nazi concentration camp in 1942—the appendices provide some of her plans for the rest of the novel, as well as some heart-breaking letters for her husband written while he was searching for her after her arrest—and I think if Némirovsky had had the chance to finish the manuscript and to revise it, it would truly have been a masterpiece. Suite Francaise is still a very fine work as it stands—and though always unfinished, its prose has been given added power and poignancy by that very fact. show less
It's sadly an unfinished work, as the author was murdered in a Nazi concentration camp in 1942—the appendices provide some of her plans for the rest of the novel, as well as some heart-breaking letters for her husband written while he was searching for her after her arrest—and I think if Némirovsky had had the chance to finish the manuscript and to revise it, it would truly have been a masterpiece. Suite Francaise is still a very fine work as it stands—and though always unfinished, its prose has been given added power and poignancy by that very fact. show less
Némirovsky does it again. Another repugnant main character, who nonetheless raises our sympathy. Another example of stereotype reflecting reality. To begin with I was horrified, as I was supposed to be, by this creature who is utterly trapped by her fear of aging. She has nothing to live for other than the impossible task of preserving her physical beauty, life for her is literally no more than how other people see her. One wants to say, at least things aren't like that any more. But they show more are, of course.
At the extreme end, I know various extremely wealthy women whose fears are the same as Gladys's. They have retreated from public life as their looks fade. Some of them have husbands who have mistresses on the side, have sired children with them even. They are willing to put up with the humiliation of this, rather than lose the prestige of their positions. Gladys has more pride than this.
https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2016/01/22/jezebel-by-irene-nemirovs... show less
At the extreme end, I know various extremely wealthy women whose fears are the same as Gladys's. They have retreated from public life as their looks fade. Some of them have husbands who have mistresses on the side, have sired children with them even. They are willing to put up with the humiliation of this, rather than lose the prestige of their positions. Gladys has more pride than this.
https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2016/01/22/jezebel-by-irene-nemirovs... show less
Bonjour Tristesse
This unfinished work contain two of a planned sequence of five novels by Irène Némirovsky, a French writer of Ukrainian-Jewish origin who converted to Catholicism before WWII.
Unfinished because of Némirovsky was murdered by then Nazis in Auschwitz in 1942. Her daughter typed up the two novels from handwritten manuscripts and notes. It has since been translated into English and other languages.Obviously unfinished, Némirovsky’s light stil shines through.
This is a gem of show more a book. The first novel, “Storm in June” describes the flight of Parisians when Germany invaded in 1940. Scenes are reminiscent of the refugees in Prophet Song in that the refugees are white Europeans. However the imagery here is lighter, understated, concentrating on groups of people, and highlighting to class differences in the fleeing Parisians.
Some were wealthy, with family connections outside Paris. These had planned ahead, or felt comfortable enough to just show up at the châteaus of wealthy family or friends. Others had few possessions and had no destination, no means of transport as trains had stopped running and petrol/gas supplies , if they were lucky enough to have a car, were limited. The most terrifying part is not from the invaders, but from out-of-control poor French adolescents who murder a humble priest who has been caring for them. Here is an example Némirovsky showing her consciousness of class in French society. The humble priest is from a wealthy family, the boys who kill him are under-nourished san culottes
The second novel,”Dolce” has only tenuous connection with “Storm”. It’s obvious from writings in notebooks that these ties would be worked on and continued in the next three novels. Some of the notes were written in English. Possibly sixty years later by the daughter?
However I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the two novellas that survive. The style is consistent throughout.
“Storm” describes the German occupation of the French village of Bussy, a farming community in an idyllic setting. Here the Germans and French have ambiguous relationships with one another. Some French residents will not speak to the German soldiers they are forced to billet. Others have flings or affaires. Mostly the German troops are tolerated.
The two main characters are the German commander Bruno, and Lucile, a young French woman whose husband is a POW in Germany. The two have an almost affaire. Here the novel explores the deep and unbridgeable differences between the military Germans and the invaded French. For a fleeting time, four months, the two groups live in a fragile harmony with human decency ensuring a peaceful coexistence for most of the story.
Again Némirovsky shows the class differences that permeate French society. The rich exploit and despise the poor farmers who are the livelihood of the village. Two upper middle-class women joke about how they could eat crow soup but would despise the poor who would stoop so low as to devour it. The village mayor and his wife are without conscience when they fraternize with the Germans, whitest the poor do so of necessity or love.
With Bruno and Lucile, the would-be lovers, and an “‘incident” involving a local and the Germans, we move into page-turner territory. And it is here an alliance of sorts is made between the French rich and poor. Being French can after all, when push comes to shove, trump wealth.
I didn’t want this book to finish, and in the closing passages I was in tears when, knowing of the author’s fate, I read her parting words of hope for the future of the people she had created in these short works.
Highly recommended. show less
This unfinished work contain two of a planned sequence of five novels by Irène Némirovsky, a French writer of Ukrainian-Jewish origin who converted to Catholicism before WWII.
Unfinished because of Némirovsky was murdered by then Nazis in Auschwitz in 1942. Her daughter typed up the two novels from handwritten manuscripts and notes. It has since been translated into English and other languages.Obviously unfinished, Némirovsky’s light stil shines through.
This is a gem of show more a book. The first novel, “Storm in June” describes the flight of Parisians when Germany invaded in 1940. Scenes are reminiscent of the refugees in Prophet Song in that the refugees are white Europeans. However the imagery here is lighter, understated, concentrating on groups of people, and highlighting to class differences in the fleeing Parisians.
Some were wealthy, with family connections outside Paris. These had planned ahead, or felt comfortable enough to just show up at the châteaus of wealthy family or friends. Others had few possessions and had no destination, no means of transport as trains had stopped running and petrol/gas supplies , if they were lucky enough to have a car, were limited. The most terrifying part is not from the invaders, but from out-of-control poor French adolescents who murder a humble priest who has been caring for them. Here is an example Némirovsky showing her consciousness of class in French society. The humble priest is from a wealthy family, the boys who kill him are under-nourished san culottes
The second novel,”Dolce” has only tenuous connection with “Storm”. It’s obvious from writings in notebooks that these ties would be worked on and continued in the next three novels. Some of the notes were written in English. Possibly sixty years later by the daughter?
However I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the two novellas that survive. The style is consistent throughout.
“Storm” describes the German occupation of the French village of Bussy, a farming community in an idyllic setting. Here the Germans and French have ambiguous relationships with one another. Some French residents will not speak to the German soldiers they are forced to billet. Others have flings or affaires. Mostly the German troops are tolerated.
The two main characters are the German commander Bruno, and Lucile, a young French woman whose husband is a POW in Germany. The two have an almost affaire. Here the novel explores the deep and unbridgeable differences between the military Germans and the invaded French. For a fleeting time, four months, the two groups live in a fragile harmony with human decency ensuring a peaceful coexistence for most of the story.
Again Némirovsky shows the class differences that permeate French society. The rich exploit and despise the poor farmers who are the livelihood of the village. Two upper middle-class women joke about how they could eat crow soup but would despise the poor who would stoop so low as to devour it. The village mayor and his wife are without conscience when they fraternize with the Germans, whitest the poor do so of necessity or love.
With Bruno and Lucile, the would-be lovers, and an “‘incident” involving a local and the Germans, we move into page-turner territory. And it is here an alliance of sorts is made between the French rich and poor. Being French can after all, when push comes to shove, trump wealth.
I didn’t want this book to finish, and in the closing passages I was in tears when, knowing of the author’s fate, I read her parting words of hope for the future of the people she had created in these short works.
Highly recommended. show less
Summary: Suite Française is the first two novellas from an unfinished five-novella work - unfinished because Irène Némirovsky, a French Jew, was captured by the Germans in 1942 and sent to Auschwitz, where she died a month later. The first novella, Storm in June, follows the fates of the refugees who are forced to flee from the German advance on Paris in June 1940. The story follows several groups - an upper-middle class family, a priest sheparding a group of orphans and delinquents, a show more writer and his mistress, and a couple of working-class bank employees - as they are forced to abandon their lives and possessions, and make their way towards the illusion of safety while basic transportation and infrastructure is being bombed by the Germans. The second novella, Dolce, centers around the small town of Bussy during the period of German occupation. German officers are being quartered in French homes, what scarce supplies there are have been requisitioned, and although the occupation may seem benign and even peaceful on a personal level, there are bitter tensions roiling under the surface.
Review: Most, if not all, of the books I've read about war, focus around a hero, or at least a protagonist who does something heroic. On the battlefield, in the resistance, fighting the Nazis, saving the Jews; most books are about ordinary people rising above themselves in times of crisis to do something extraordinary. Suite Française is not that book at all. It's about ordinary people, behaving as ordinary people do - mean, selfish, petty, obsessed with class and status, confusing personal and nationalistic feelings, spiteful, resigned - people going about the business of surviving and living. And, while we all might want to think that we'd be one of the heroes in a time of crisis, the characters of Suite Française are too starkly, nakedly human for us not to have an immediate (and frequently unpleasant) sense of recognition and identification with them. This is also an atypical World War II book in that it is strangely apolitical, and does not mention Jews or the Holocaust at all (especially strange given that the author was Jewish). The Germans are depicted as mostly young, polite, and sensitive men, missing their homes and families, and doing their best behave well, even while being part of an occupying army. The focus is not on the war itself - no mention of motives, political or tactical manuevers, or strategy is made - but rather on the effect of the war on civilians and ordinary French people.
The writing is also dissimilar to many books I've read; it's narrated from a third-person omniscient that frequently jumps points of view, and will occasionally tell a scene from the perspective of the cat, or a nameless eavesdropping girl, or a stranger on the street. Némirovsky handles this shifting perspective better than most authors; however, if I let my attention wander at all, I would frequently lose the thread of the story for a minute or two before I could figure out how and why the scene had shifted. Other than that, the writing was smooth and rich, filled with descriptive metaphors and details that gave an instant feel for both setting and tone. Both narrators did a fine job with their piece, although neither was particularly stand-out, and I'm unclear as to why two narrators were needed for the two different sections. Also, the audiobook does not include the outline for subsequent sections and Némirovsky's correspondence that is included in most print versions. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: Not a particularly pleasant or uplifting read, but it paints a vivid picture of France under German occupation, and gives a perspective on World War II that I hadn't encountered before; for that, as well as for the richly textured writing, this book deserves the attention that's been paid to it, and is worth the read. show less
Review: Most, if not all, of the books I've read about war, focus around a hero, or at least a protagonist who does something heroic. On the battlefield, in the resistance, fighting the Nazis, saving the Jews; most books are about ordinary people rising above themselves in times of crisis to do something extraordinary. Suite Française is not that book at all. It's about ordinary people, behaving as ordinary people do - mean, selfish, petty, obsessed with class and status, confusing personal and nationalistic feelings, spiteful, resigned - people going about the business of surviving and living. And, while we all might want to think that we'd be one of the heroes in a time of crisis, the characters of Suite Française are too starkly, nakedly human for us not to have an immediate (and frequently unpleasant) sense of recognition and identification with them. This is also an atypical World War II book in that it is strangely apolitical, and does not mention Jews or the Holocaust at all (especially strange given that the author was Jewish). The Germans are depicted as mostly young, polite, and sensitive men, missing their homes and families, and doing their best behave well, even while being part of an occupying army. The focus is not on the war itself - no mention of motives, political or tactical manuevers, or strategy is made - but rather on the effect of the war on civilians and ordinary French people.
The writing is also dissimilar to many books I've read; it's narrated from a third-person omniscient that frequently jumps points of view, and will occasionally tell a scene from the perspective of the cat, or a nameless eavesdropping girl, or a stranger on the street. Némirovsky handles this shifting perspective better than most authors; however, if I let my attention wander at all, I would frequently lose the thread of the story for a minute or two before I could figure out how and why the scene had shifted. Other than that, the writing was smooth and rich, filled with descriptive metaphors and details that gave an instant feel for both setting and tone. Both narrators did a fine job with their piece, although neither was particularly stand-out, and I'm unclear as to why two narrators were needed for the two different sections. Also, the audiobook does not include the outline for subsequent sections and Némirovsky's correspondence that is included in most print versions. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: Not a particularly pleasant or uplifting read, but it paints a vivid picture of France under German occupation, and gives a perspective on World War II that I hadn't encountered before; for that, as well as for the richly textured writing, this book deserves the attention that's been paid to it, and is worth the read. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 75
- Also by
- 9
- Members
- 16,981
- Popularity
- #1,309
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 647
- ISBNs
- 620
- Languages
- 25
- Favorited
- 39
