The Story Without a Name stands out as a strange fantastic sort of novella, one that clasps you in its fist barely letting you breathe as you read it.
The book was written in 1882 by the French writer Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly. His writing reeks of a distinct taste, that only the French seem to possess.
The book was written in 1882 by the French writer Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly. His writing reeks of a distinct taste, that only the French seem to possess. The tale is set against the conservative backdrop in a provincial French town, enveloping a seemingly drab intriguing looking city squashed in by mountains that are almost only described as suffocating and never scenic.
The Story Without a Name revolves around a mother daughter-duo; Madame de Ferjol and her daughter Lasthenie. The two women are starkly contrasting characters; we are first told the account of Mademoiselle’s background- her aristocratic origins from Normandy, how she fell in love with the Baron, and how then, after she eloped to marry him, and he died.
The troubled mother-daughter duo in The Story Without a Name
In The Story Without a Name, Madame is said to have borne her grief quietly, staying in her husband’s home, and nurturing their daughter. However, pain doesn’t escape people particularly quickly and even in motherhood, she seems to view Lasthenie more as an extension or a remnant of her husband, than a girl who is her very own child. As Barbey d’Aurevilly says, even in motherhood, she is more wife than mother.
When her husband, the baron, dies, she ceases to think of herself: ‘He was the mirror in which she admired herself, and in losing him who had been to her the universe, she reconveyed the ardour of her love to her child‘.
Grief makes her cold, and turns her to religion, hardening her principles, turning them into the sole direction which she uses to steer her life. When her husband, the baron, dies, she ceases to think of herself: ‘He was the mirror in which she admired herself, and in losing him who had been to her the universe, she reconveyed the ardour of her love to her child‘.
Lasthenie on the other hand seems to almost be portrayed as a one dimensional character. She has no dialogue in The Story Without a Name, and instead we always see her looking fragile and pale, almost the definition of virginial, albeit whilst suffering, she seems to be pure and soft, and often the reader feels an irresistible urge to save her from her plight.
Religion clashing with humanity and womanhood in The Story Without a Name
Their life appears to be quiet and unexciting- drenched in gloom, swathed in prayer meetings, embroiled in mundane goings-on. The Story Without a Name is notable for its lush prose, atmospheric detail and revolves around themes of sin and redemption (although, spoiler alert, there is no reprieve) and Barbey d’Aurevilly oscillates between contrasting interests of diabolism, Catholicism, dandyism, religious scandal, extreme melodrama and even murder through his books. He seems to enjoy combining aggressive religion permeating into every thought and action that one carries out all through their lives.
Through Madame de Ferjol and her daughter’s relationship, Barbey explores complex mother-daughter dynamics, somewhat stemming from generational trauma and blind devotion to the seemingly blinding principles of faith.
Madame de Ferjol’s reactions to her daughters’ seemingly illegitimate pregnancy is vile; she scorns her, berates her, threatens her and for the reader, it seems like she is almost in the same room, unable to escape from the smothering snakeline sentences where all we see are the mothers’ continual attempts to extract the name of her child’s lover.
From Lasthenie herself, we get nothing- perhaps a symbol of the absolute lack of agency women had during the time. We see her physical appearance deteriorate, her lustre for life lack, but the reader is separated from the thoughts concocted in her head.
As Barbey d’Aurevilly says in The Story Without a Name, it almost seems astounding that such fragility could have stemmed from such force. Their relationship seems to be almost symbiotic, with both suckling on reasons to live from each other- Lasthenie from her mother, her mother from her daughter, both turning to prayer to express wishes that they are never conventionally permitted to voice.
The novella’s drama swirls the readers’ souls, swallowing them in a story of abuse, slander and vilification, with almost no room for redemption.
The Story Without a Name is bewildering and unnerving, and for his time, Barbey d’Aurvilly does a brilliant job in portraying the story of women.
The Story Without a Name is bewildering and unnerving, and for his time, Barbey d’Aurvilly does a brilliant job in portraying the story of women. Despite scarcely giving Lasthenie a voice, her actions reverberate the consequences of the book, and he uses the women in the book to critique the patriarchal view of society, internalised misogyny of the two women, hidden desires and religious oppressions of the duo.
The Story Without a Name is a scathing critique on how women too, imbibe patriarchal views, and suppressed by religious dogma instead of religious spiritualism.
It is to be noted, The Story Without a Name is almost out of print worldwide, with almost no copies available for perusal. The text has only recently been revived by Promenade Books, a miniscule independent bookstore, based in Hauz Khas Village, in New Delhi,
Promenade books
Promenade Books are a publisher and bookshop, reprinting lost and forgotten fiction from around the 1800- 1900s. The bookshop is somewhat run-down, but radiates culture with black shelves lining the white walls of the store, and several vinyl records on top, ranging from Kings of Leon’s When You See Yourself to The Lumineers’ debut album with fairly sought-after Marshall speakers.
Also adorning the store, are little trinkets presents given to the booksellers by customers; a beautiful sketch of the store, a note thanking the booksellers for making a passer-by happy and a little frog memento in spirit of their ‘froggie-points’, which are points given to a customer, per book bought, leading to the sixth book being free.
Promenade publishes world literature in English translations, including titles like Stendhal’s Love, Henri Barbusse’s Inferno, Leonid Andreyev’s The Red Laugh, Frederick Rolfe’s Hadrian The Seventh, Selected Essays by Arthur Schopanhauer, where Abhay Panwar, the owner, meticulously removed the philosophers’ regressive and backwards perspective on women, several Willa Cather titles, and soon to be published LM Montgomery’s The Story Girl.
The customers who enter the store, seem to be whisked in by some enchanting force. Someone looks with uncertainty at a vinyl, while someone else is lured to clutch onto a copy of Kate DiCamilllo’s The Tales of Despereaux.
The store is run by Abhay Panwar (22) and Sarthak Sharma (24), who are men of kind and generous spirit.
The store is run by Abhay Panwar (22) and Sarthak Sharma (24), who are men of kind and generous spirit. The bookshop thrives on the love visitors share for literature and music, and conversations surrounding artists of all sorts.
