Belle du Seigneur: A Novel - Hardcover

Cohen, Albert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 067082187X ISBN 13: 9780670821877

Publisher: Viking Adult, 1996

Synopsis

First published in 1968, a satirical study of middle-class manners, set against the backdrop of 1930s Geneva, focuses on Solal, a Mediterranean Jew disillusioned by his work as Under-Secretary General of the League of Nations, as he uses a love affair to search for the Absolute.

About this title

Review:

First published in Paris in 1968, Belle du Seigneur is considered the masterpiece of Albert Cohen, a Jew who served the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, who became Israel's first Prime Minister, and worked for the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees after World War II. This tortuous love story revolves around an adulterous affair between Sola, the ostentatious son of the Chief Rabbi of Cephalonia and Ariane d'Auble, a beautiful, blonde, Protestant aristocrat. Threatened by impending war and the growing anti-Semitism of Europe in the mid-1930s, the two struggle to keep passion alive. While Ariane molds herself into the perfection of femininity, Sola takes on a bitter cruelty that translates into revenge against the ostracism of himself and his people.

About the Author:

David Coward is a translator from French, whose translations include works by authors such as Alexandre Dumas,Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, and the Marquis de Sade.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Adult
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 067082187X
• ISBN 13: 9780670821877
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 992