Diary of a chambermaid (novel)

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Diary of a maid of honor , Wiener Verlag, 1901
Octave Mirbeau, Celestine

Diary of a Chambermaid (Le journal d'une femme de chambre) is a published in 1900 by Fritz friend in Vienna Publishing laid satirical novel by Octave Mirbeau . With this moral novel Mirbeau established his European reputation.

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Octave Mirbeau takes us into the world of servants in fin de siècle France at the time of the Dreyfus affair . Célestine, the narrator, serves as a maid in the upper-class home of the Lanlaire family in Normandy and observes very closely; what Célestine experiences in a perverse atmosphere throws a harsh light on the gentlemen. It condemns the servitude and servitude of modern times and exposes the negative side of the bourgeoisie. In the end, the chambermaid succeeds in advancing into the middle class by marrying the sadistic and anti-Semitic gardener Joseph, although she suspects that he raped and killed a child:

“Joseph controls me like a demon. I wouldn't shrink from anything he orders me to do, not even a crime ... "

In this pessimistic novel, Mirbeau denounces the depraved upper class and the mendacious facade of French society.

A year after the French first edition, the first German translation appeared in 1901 under the title Diary of a Chamber Maid .

Quote

  • “It is said that slavery has been abolished. What a mockery! And the servants, what are they if not slaves? Slaves in fact, with everything that slavery implies in terms of low sentiments, corruption, rebellious feelings generated by hatred ... "

Film adaptations

The novel has already been filmed several times:

Current book edition

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