Femmes by Mihail Sebastian

 Femmes

by Mihail Sebastian, published by Editions de L'Herne is a passionate book on a lot of different Femmes and a man: the alter ego of the author. When I started to read Femmes Stefan appeared immediately like a sorta of Casanova; a man in grade to open the heart of every single woman; and the most differentiated one, because a latin-lover can't resist to any single women.

Some of them had virginal touches, other ones pretty navigated or busy in other relationships, where not married: Stefan won't find any kind of difficulty to conquer them all, seeing in every woman the fragility that would have later permitted him to become the favorite one. 

Different will be to stay in the existence of a woman for a conqueror. 

Oh, sometimes it happenes that women fell sick becoming consumed because of him, but to Stefan to conquer means also the satisfaction of having added someone else in his numerous conquests: sure there have been other cases in which very young girls preferred him for starting their sexual existence, without, after that, to be desperate when they left him. These short tales, in different shades, reports some of the stories lived by this avatar of the author.

I didn't like the story of Emilie, but in that case the love-story is pretty sad. The latest one, Arabella is spectacularly sophisticated with, at the end, for our hero, a new...loss.

The book is written elegantly, it is plenty of fascination, with that light erotism that keeps the story more intriguing, refined descriptions of people, places, situations. The adventures experienced by Stefan are located in several cities and places: Paris, but also Bucharest and Wien, South France and many other places. 

Michail Sebastian was a factotum of the word: he was in fact a journalist, writer, in love for journaling. Roumain writer, he is one of the most eminent one in the panorama of the XX century in his country.  "Juif, romains and danubien" as he classified himself, fought against the nazi-fascism, experiencing a lot of drama during his existence: his death has been also remarkably sad.

Femmes will add a touch of light in your life, and will entertain you.

I highly recommend you Femmes. Great reading during a vacation!

I thank L'Editions de L'Herne for the physical copy of the book.

Anna Maria Polidori