First published 1998
Margaret Nathan has already conquered the literary world with her bestselling biography. Now she turns her attention to a completely different project: an explicit 18th-century manuscript that demands translation and interpretation. The salacious text proves more powerful than she anticipated. What begins as scholarly work becomes personal obsession. The manuscript's raw sensuality infiltrates her thoughts and reshapes her daily existence. Margaret finds herself pulled deeper into the world of the anonymous author, driven to uncover not just the meaning of the words but something more elusive. Her academic distance collapses as the boundary between research and lived experience dissolves. The search transforms from intellectual exercise into desperate quest for authentic feeling and understanding that has been missing from her own carefully constructed life.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, adult-fiction, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: academic-research, blurred-boundaries, personal-obsession
Period: 18th-century
Paperback · Dtv