The Unknown Soldier is another favorite of mine in Dimanche and Other Stories. Set during WWII following the German invasion of Belgium, the story takes place at a railway station in France, where two French soldiers, Claude and Francois who had come home for their sister’s wedding are waiting to return to the front. While […]

In The Devoted Friend, we have Roger Dange, a recent widow, and an esteemed singer visiting his late wife’s friend. We learn while Roger Dange was away performing in Mexico, his wife Florence met with an accident and succumbed to the injuries. Florence at the time had been staying with her childhood friend, Camille Cousin. At […]

Just like Hugo Grayer in The Onlooker, Monsieur Rose is an aloof, self-involved man. Sensing the impending war, Monsieur Rose had saved his wealth in time without suffering losses. However, unfortunately he had stayed in Paris until it’s too late to escape the city safely. So Monsieur Rose is about Rose’s exodus along with other […]

The Onlooker is the story of a prosperous gentleman fleeing Paris in advance of the German soldiers during WWII. The gentleman in question is Hugo Grayer. Hugo was born in the United States to a Scandinavian father and an Italian mother. But Hugo had become a citizen of Uruguay where he possessed a considerable fortune. […]

Now this is a story I did not understand! In The Spell, we are presented with a first-person narrative, and according to Persephone’s suggestion, the story is based on a Ukranian family Némirovsky used to visit when she was eight. The family Némirovsky visited with her aunt and nursemaid was a very hospitable one. Day […]

Another winner from the collection Dimanche and Other Stories! I usually enjoy epistolary works and Wife to Don Juan which takes the form of one lengthy letter written by Clémence on her deathbed is to be sent to “Mademoiselle” Monique. Clémence was once a chambermaid to Monique’s parents, but it has been years since Clémence left […]

In Fraternité, the main protagonist, Christian Rabinovitch is an old Jewish man. Although wealthy, he is a reserved man, and his wife’s death ten years ago has affected him profoundly. His marriage had brought him a “feeling of stability and peace in and around him,” and now without his wife as his anchor, he feels […]

In Flesh and Blood, the Demestres have a weekly family dinner every Sunday. These dinners are held at the widowed matriarch’s house, and attended by her three grown sons; Albert, Augustin, and Alain, their spouses; Sabine, Claire, and Alix, and her divorced daughter, Mariette. For their mother, Anna, these family dinners are a way to […]

It’s new year’s eve, and Christiane, an elegant, radiant woman of twenty-two is out at a ball with her mother, Madame Boehmer. Christiane has a good time at the ball, for she is a woman “who views the world as a mirror in which she sees only her own image, made lovelier by the interest […]

Dimanche and Other Stories is a book that I have been looking forward to reading as a part of my Irène Némirovsky Year-Long project. During her lifetime Némirovsky wrote over thirty short stories, and ten of her stories are included in Persephone Book #87. Dimanche, the title story, juxtaposes a mother and a daughter’s experiences […]