Cycnos | Numéros | Volume 15.2 - Irlande - Exils

Résumé :

In the 1920s, Mary Lavelle, a young Irish woman goes to Spain in the Areavaga family to escape from a sense of confinement and explore the world as a freelance. Unlike the other governesses in the town of Altorno who are real exiles, Mary surrenders emotionally to Spain ; she takes in every new experience, whether it be attending corridas, travelling across the country, or falling in love with Juanito, a young married Spaniard. Both have had a Jansenistic education and the love scenes are punctuated with statements on sin though they also have quasi mystic overtones. This is not surprising since Kate O’Brien’s cast of mind had something akin to the land of Saint Teresa whose spirituality underlies the whole novel. Since divorce is possible neither in Spain nor in Ireland, Mary’s only solution is to be an exile in her own country where she will go on with “her errand of keeping alive”;.

Date de publication : 2008-07-09