First published 1986
Kitty Maule stands before her London university students, lecturing on Benjamin Constant's Adolphe, a tale of romantic failure from early French literature. Half French and half British, Kitty believes she can only become complete by erasing her French side and transforming into a proper Englishwoman. She focuses on pleasing the right people, convinced this will turn her into the magical being she dreams of becoming. The tragic French novel she teaches begins to dominate her existence, shaping her attempts to win a lover for herself. Kitty pursues logic and reason in her academic life, yet her actions spring from powerful emotions she keeps buried. Her internal struggle between intellectual control and suppressed feelings drives her toward choices that mirror the doomed romance in the very book she analyzes for her students.
Genres: fiction, romance, literary-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: London, France
Period: 20th-century
174 pages · Paperback · Contact