The Image (novel)

The Image (or in French "L'Image") is a classic 1956 sadomasochistic erotic novel, written by Catherine Robbe-Grillet[1] and published under the pseudonym of Jean de Berg by éditions de Minuit in 1956.

The Image
AuthorJean de Berg
Original titleL'Image
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
GenreErotic novel
PublisherGala (French version)
Grove Press (English version)
Publication date
1956 (Eng. trans. June 1966)
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)

It was made into a 1973 film, The Image, also known as The Punishment of Anne.[2]

Appraisals

Edmund White considered the novel "scandalous but eloquent...metaphysical".[3]

Susan Sontag placed the text among the very few (5) erotic novels she considered to have serious artistic weight.[4]

Theme

The Image is centred on a triangular relationship between the male narrator and two women, Anne and Claire. The narrator is puzzled by the meaning of their behavior throughout, gradually accumulating clues which only make full sense in the closing chapter, when Anne is revealed as the mirror image of the woman he actually loves, Claire.[5]

gollark: This is one of those "checker" things then?
gollark: Oh, cool.
gollark: That and the evil gender change goblins.
gollark: Because if you collect enough groups of dragons the probabilities are such that you're eventually likely to end up with one with only one gender?
gollark: I'm trying to trade for CB Xenowyrms: what stuff is generally considered to be worth that?

See also

References
  1. P. M. Cryle. Geometry in the Boudoir: Configurations of French Erotic Narrative. Cornell University Press (3 Jun 1994) ISBN 0-8014-2913-7
  2. Rotten Tomatoes review: The Image (1973)
  3. Edmund White, Arts and Letters (2006) p. 166
  4. Susan Sontag, 'The Pornographic Imagination', in Georges Bataille, Story of the Eye (2001) p. 84-6
  5. Susan Sontag, 'The Pornographic Imagination', in Georges Bataille, Story of the Eye (2001) p. 109-10


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