The Ravishing of Lol Stein is a haunting early novel by the author of The Lover. Lol Stein is a beautiful young woman, securely married, settled in a comfortable life—and a voyeur. Returning with her husband and children to the town where, years before, her fiancé had abandoned her for another woman, she is drawn inexorably to recreate that long-past tragedy. She arranges a rendezvous for her friend Tatiana and Tatiana’s lover. She arranges to spy on them. And then, she goes one step further . . .
“Brilliant . . . shoots vertical shafts down into the dark morass of human love.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“In The Ravishing of Lol Stein, Marguerite Duras writes brilliantly [and] strongly . . . The drama proceeds savagely, erotically, and . . . the Duras language and writing throughout the book shine like crystal.”
—Janet Flanner, The New Yorker
