In her only novel, the poet and playwright gives life to a young woman witnessing the departure of her lover with another woman. In 46 letters, she will share her fears, feelings and anxieties.
“I wanted to make a lively and sensitive woman experience, in the short space of twenty-four hours, all that love can inspire in terms of intoxication, trouble, above all jealousy.” Such is the ambition of the poet and playwright Constance de Salm (1767-1845), as she expresses it in the first letter of the epistolary Twenty-Four Hours of a Sensitive Woman. His only novel, dated 1824, depicts a young woman witnessing, during an evening, the departure in a carriage of her lover with another woman. A whole day follows where, without news of the man she loves, she will write 46 letters addressed to him (four others come from other recipients). She shares her fears, feelings and anxieties with him.
This short text really resonated with me. The theme of sensitivity, jealousy that borders on paranoia is timeless. The heroine opens up, expresses exacerbated feelings (sometimes it even becomes a bit parodic), while being extremely touching. Emotional dependence is poorly represented in the literature. Rare are those who venture to represent characters who are victims of this self-destructive poison. And yet, Constance de Salm rushes headlong and transports us into the vicious circle of turmoil: anxiety, nostalgia for the first moments, hope for an answer, disappointment, impatience, torment, denial, anger, sadness, despair… Some episodes – like that of the letter XXVII – could be transposed to our time (rummaging through someone’s letters today would be rummaging through his telephone).
The ending surprised me with an unexpected and amazing twist. The whole plot stems from this simple question: is this young woman right to worry about the outcome of the relationship with her lover? Feminine instinct or paranoia? The answer is not as predictable as you might think… Recommended for sensitive people, and those around them to better understand what is going on in their heads. And to discover a forgotten woman of letters, vocation of this collection “Work of matrimony”.