Marie-Claire

Marguerite Audoux

Autobiographical novel. When her mother dies, little Marie-Claire, aged five, is placed in public care, brutally separated from her sister and an alcoholic father. A closed world, this orphanage is run by austere nuns. Marie-Claire often takes refuge in the bosom of Sister Marie-Aimée, the warm-voiced teacher. For her protégée, the latter dreams of a beautiful destiny and as soon as Marie-Claire has made her first communion, she offers her a job as a shop girl for Miss Maximilienne, the priest's sister. The mother superior, out of jealousy, decides otherwise: "You will be a shepherdess, mademoiselle." She therefore finds herself at the Villevieille farm in Sologne, and learns her new trade, helped by old Bibiche and the cowherd. Thanks to the compassion of the farmers Sylvain and Pauline, the beauties of nature and the discovery of Telemachus in the depths of the attic, Marie-Claire finds a form of serenity until a new rupture: the death of Sylvain brings new owners to the farm. Having become the servant of Mrs. Alphonse, a cold and manic woman, Marie-Claire falls back into absolute disarray...