A 90-year-old female writer, she recounts a particular day in March 1924, on Mother’s Day. At the time, she was 24 years old and a maid in the English aristocracy.
On Sunday, March 30, 1924, maids and housemaids were given the day off. This was to allow them to honor their mothers on this day. The action takes place in the countryside. A young man from the family is soon to be married; he has a meeting with his fiancée. His two brothers died somewhere in France during the First World War.
The old writer reminisces about this day. She is the mistress of the future groom. They are both naked, making love in the huge empty house. Paul eventually leaves to join his betrothed. He is late, and he lets her wander through the house, explore it; he is no longer there, and Jane, still naked, explores and discovers the house.
She knows that this is the last time, the last time anyway, except that she is mistaken about the reason. The old writer clearly recalls the scene, the bedroom, Paul naked, the stained sheets; she also feels tainted, as the seed flows. She has kept everything in memory.
This novel, a sort of closed setting, centers primarily on this room where a little boy, a teenager, and today a man lived and grew up — it is the unity of place, time, and action for this novel. She remembers but cannot say anything at the time, certainly not, maybe later; that is the beauty of this book, a hymn to love, to life, even if— but for that, one must read the novel to understand.
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Thierry Jan
