The Long Absence
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Summary
Editor's review
As an editor, I believe the value of The Long Absence lies in its extreme literary density and emotional tension. With her signature plain, repetitive, staccato language, Duras lays out immense pain calmly. There is no fierce accusation, only the almost suffocating absence and waiting that permeate everyday scenes. It explores not only war trauma (the stripping of memory and the ruin of the body) but also an eternal predicament in human relationships: how do we confirm the person we love? When shared memories disappear, can love still hold fast? Thérèse's efforts are both a search for her husband and a doomed ritual against time and forgetting.
Reading this book requires setting aside expectations of conventional narrative and plot progression and instead immersing yourself in the atmosphere Duras creates, the rhythm of her language, and the unspoken abysses within her characters. It is a cold mirror reflecting the most fragile and the most resilient parts of intimacy. For readers who wish to understand Duras's literary world more deeply, or who are interested in exploring themes of memory, trauma, and existence, this is a spare and powerful work that cannot be overlooked.
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in Marguerite Duras's literary style who wish to go beyond The Lover and discover more of her work.
- Literary lovers who prefer introspection, psychological depth, and existential themes and can appreciate spare, repetitive, rhythmical language.
- Readers with a research or reading interest in postwar European literature, especially works exploring war trauma and memory.
- Readers interested in the interplay between literature and film who wish to read the original text of a classic film that won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking strong plot, fast pacing, and a clear resolution.
- Readers who find densely psychological, oppressively atmospheric texts impatient or uncomfortable.
Reading tips
- Read in a relatively quiet environment where you can concentrate, so as to better catch the subtle rhythms and emotional blanks in Duras's language.
- Try combining the reading with a viewing of the 1961 film of the same name, to see directly how the text becomes image and to experience the different expressive powers of the two media.
- While reading, pay attention to the role of "silence," "repetition," and "everyday gestures" in the text; they are the key vehicles through which Duras expresses immense emotion.
About the publisher
Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 前言
- 正文一
- 正文二
FAQ
How does The Long Absence differ from Duras's more famous The Lover?
What exactly does the "long absence" in the novel refer to?
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About the author
Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter and film director, born Marguerite Donnadieu in Gia Định, French Indochina, and died in Paris in 1996. She first gained recognition with The Sea Wall in 1950 and achieved international fame with her screenplay for Hiroshima mon amour in 1959; in 1984 her novel The Lover won the Prix Goncourt. Her writing often explores colonial upbringing, love and desire, memory and loss, in a spare, musical prose. The collection holds 58 of her works, including novels, plays and essays, commonly classified under foreign literature and classics, and she is regarded as a major figure in the French New Novel and feminist writing.
Chen Jingliang is an author about whom limited public information is available, with four works currently known. These titles span several fields: they include foreign-literature translations and classics such as Hiroshima: The Marguerite Duras Collection 4 and The Long Farewell, as well as a practical programming and design book, Network Operating Systems: Windows Server 2012 R2 Configuration and Management (2nd Edition). The existing bibliography suggests that Chen's interests in writing and compilation are not confined to a single category, moving between literary reading and computer technology while also accommodating popular tastes such as modern romance. Because the author's dates of birth and death, nationality, and educational background are not clearly recorded, biographical details are difficult to trace, and readers can learn about Chen's areas of focus mainly through the works themselves. This cross-genre editorial practice gives the titles relevance for both literary readers and technical audiences.
