The Elegant Variation: BBC ON NEMIROVSKY

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January 31, 2005

BBC ON NEMIROVSKY

The BBC tells the tale of the publication of Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise, which posthumously won the Prix Renaudot. Nemirovsky, a French Jew, was killed at Auschwitz in 1942.

Slowly, she began to read and then transcribe her mother's tiny handwriting - in azure ink on frail onion-skin paper - and discovered it was not a diary but a novel: her mother's last, unsentimental account of a French village under occupation.

Suite Francaise will be available in the UK towards the end of 2005

A village not unlike Issy, in which the French bourgeoisie collaborate with the Nazis to save themselves, their houses, their precious dishes and cutlery.

Posted at 12:07 AM | Permalink

Comments

Cool link. I was going to add her name to your list from the Auschwitz rememberance post last week.

Posted by: MG | January 31, 2005 at 08:08 AM

I am a relative of Irene Nemirovsky (her mother and my great grandmother were sisters) and would be glad to get in touch with her daughters Denise and Elisabeth (I have a couple of photos of Irene and of the then little twins in my family photo archive)

Posted by: Anastasia Pavlovic | February 22, 2005 at 12:59 PM

i live in israel now, im really intereted in konwing more about my last name and relatives..

Posted by: yuval nemirovsky | March 20, 2005 at 03:54 AM

I am Jewish and live in England.
I think what Irene's daughter did was obviously 'Meant to be'.
I will buy the 'Suite Francais'when it's on sale here in the u.k.

Posted by: Gila Bengio | April 11, 2005 at 07:55 AM

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

January 31, 2005

BBC ON NEMIROVSKY

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

January 31, 2005

BBC ON NEMIROVSKY

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism