The Nun (Penguin Classics)

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Summary: Diderot Blasts the Church Hierarchy
Review: Denis Diderot (1713-1784) was a central figure in French intellectual circles in particular and in the Enlightenment in general. Diderot's crowning achievement was his role as editor of the "Encyclopedie," an important reference work completed in 1773. A contemporary of such seminal figures as Rousseau and Voltaire, Diderot contributed to his times philosophical treatises and dialogues often imbued with anti-religious themes. He also wrote plays, art criticism, and works of fiction. Diderot's works include "D'Alembert's Dream," "Rameau's Nephew," and this book, "The Nun." If this story concerning a young French girl's experiences and disdain for the convent is any indication, Diderot's other works would be well worth reading. "The Nun" is a brilliant and insightful effort that manages to be gripping while imparting the author's distaste for Church hierarchy and how an individual suffers under society's compulsory laws.

"The Nun" concerns Suzanne Simonin, a young, extraordinarily attractive French girl who, due to unfortunate family circumstances, finds herself caught up in a seemingly inescapable fate. Suzanne's family-mother, stepfather, and sisters-are all concerned with money and family duty. The family decides that the best option for Suzanne is to join a convent and live her life as a nun. Suzanne hates the idea, as she sees herself unfit and unwilling to give up her freedom for the rigors of religious life. Her family sees things differently, and after some dramatic fits and starts that find Suzanne making a public scene before taking her vows, she finally settles into a convent called Longchamps. The life of a nun is sheer drudgery, but Suzanne fulfills her duties and even sings in the choir while she plots to discover any possible avenue to get back home. For a time, Suzanne does discover some solace in the reverent figure of the mother superior, a devout persona who takes a distinct liking to Suzanne. After this woman dies, Suzanne's intensified efforts to leave enrage the new superior and the other nuns. What follows is a lengthy description of the indignities Suzanne suffers at the hands of her fellow nuns. They throw her in a dank cell, steal all of her accoutrements, scatter broken glass under her feet, and pronounce her a minion of Satan in an effort to force her to remain in the convent.

Suzanne soon escapes the barbarity of Longchamps when her lawyer, who is fighting for her release in civil court, manages to get her a transfer to another convent. At the new house, even more problems plague young Suzanne. The mother superior here turns out to have a distasteful peccadillo for a woman in such a position, and she targets Suzanne as a new conquest. Things continue to deteriorate for the young nun, and by the end of the story she is in a terrible position with no clear goals or hopes for the future. "The Nun" is indeed a depressing story full of moral quandaries and cynical observations about the Catholic Church's role in modern day society.

Diderot presents a picture of the convent houses as one of vicious human callousness and pettiness. He deftly deflates the image we all have of such places, namely places full of saintly figures in quiet reflection with God who benevolently sacrifice themselves in order to serve the needs of mankind. What we see instead is the reality that, like any other human enterprise, there exists the usual range of human emotions both good and bad. The problem comes about because Suzanne's place is a convent, and convents are supposed to be above such base emotions. Moreover, Diderot shows how convents can be even worse than other institutions because those who torment Suzanne easily fall back on God as an excuse for making contemptible accusations and as a justification for bad behavior. Who can argue with the will of God in such a matter? Surely those who serve a higher power know the best way to administer discipline to a woman who refuses to give herself fully to the calling. Not so, writes Diderot, and he makes you believe it through the force of his narrative and the realistic presentation of the characters. In short, even those who pursue the "religious life" suffer the same twists and turns found in every human endeavor.

Translator Leonard Tancock points out that "The Nun" emerged from a practical joke played on a faithful Catholic by Diderot and some of his salon friends. The gag was never meant to be malicious, and this shows up in Diderot's reworking of the joke into a story. Suzanne, as much as she despises the strictures of the convent, is in actuality a faithful Catholic. She prays fervently to God and carries out her duties in accordance with the laws of the convent. Suzanne's problems, and by extension Diderot's difficulty, is not with Catholic dogma but with hierarchy and the rigid laws created by imperfect humans which force people into unsuitable social roles.

At times humorous and scandalously shocking, "The Nun" is sure to raise an eyebrow or two in even our jaded times. Tancock seems to have done a great job translating this story into English, and he provides a good introduction explaining the background of the story with some of the key pluses and minuses of Diderot's tale. I am surprised there are so few reviews of this incredible story, as this tale is a must for lovers of French literature. Recommended for Francophiles and those who endured Catholic school.

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Summary: One of the most honest books written.
Review: Denis Diderot has left us with a masterpiece of literature in The Nun. It's a surprise it isn't taught in schools, but then perhaps a lot of people would protest. The story is about Suzanne, a darling girl with a lot of spirit and smarts. While her two sisters are given wonderful dowries, she's left to become a nun...by force. It's not so much that her parents are poor as she's a disgrace, though it takes a bit before she finds out why. While the book is an excellent argument against religious institutions, I find it's more an argument about the absurd ways that people define religion in their lives. After all, though Diderot paints marriage as a preferable thing, that is an institution as well, if a girl isn't choosing it for the desire to spend company with her partner and is instead doing it for money and freedom from a nunnery. Plenty of women just went in the other direction. The mother in this story is unforgivable, as well as the father. What you will love about the book, however, is not the painful experiences Suzanne must endure, but her strong and resolved spirit...which for any of us...would seem like a breath of fresh air...to look into the head of such a determined and wonderful soul.

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Summary: An ode to freedom
Review: Diderot writes exquisitely of a nun who was forced into the convent by her family, and who desires nothing but to be given her freedom, and a job. As she tries to struggle out her situation, she encounters sadistic, lesbian and generally corrupt Mothers Superior, who alternatively adore or loathe her. By the time she is twenty, the nun makes an escape with an equally unhappy monk. And for the rest, you should read yourself. Like Candide, this book is a real pageturner and easy to read, while stealthily making a very Enlightenment statement about freedom for freedom's sake, and individual human rights. This book will speak to anyone who have ever struggled for anything, and to anyone who believes in Enlightenment ideas about humanity.

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Summary: THE CRYING NUN
Review: Strangely enough, The Nun started out as a practical joke in 1760. A particularly pious and kind friend of Diderot's, named the Marquis de Croismare, had retired from Parisian life to his country estate and his friends really started to miss his presence. So they hatched a plot to force him to come back to the city. Two years previously, the Marquis had become involved with the case of a real-life nun who wished to renounce her vows and get out of her convent. The Marquis was one among many enlightened patrons who tried to help her, but in the end the nun never got out of the convent.

Diderot, hoping to play on this previous incident, made up an imaginary nun named Suzanne Simonin who wished to renounce her vows after being forced to take vows by her parents. Through forged letters sent through an intermediary, Diderot played this woman's tragedy up in an effort to get the Marquis to come back to Paris. It did not succeed and Diderot was forced to kill off the fake nun through his correspondance to end the joke. It turns out that the idea of the suffering Suzanne had taken such hold of Diderot that he decided to write an entire novel about her life.

The Nun by Denis Diderot purports to be the memoirs of one Suzanne Simonin, a young and beautiful former nun who is writing to the Marquis de Croismare in order to obtain financial aid and employment. Suzanne was forced to become a nun by her parents, particulary her mother. The reason is that Suzanne was born of an affair that her mother had on the side, not by her husband. While the husband hasn't said anything outright about it, you can tell that he's almost 100% sure that Suzanne isn't his child. Suzanne's sisters are more than happy for Suzanne to go because it means they won't have to split their parent's estate even further when they die. Suzanne's mother even tells her daughter that Suzanne's becoming a nun will make up for her sins and allow her mother to go to Heaven. If she refuses, she will probably suffer damnation.

After trying to get out of her promise Suzanne ends up at a convent run by a very kind nun, and is able to tolerate the days as they go by. After the Superior dies, Sister Sainte-Christine takes over and Suzanne's fortunes become bleaker. You see, things like religion run very well, until someone starts rocking the boat. Everyone knows that Suzanne doesn't want to be there and when she becomes rebellious, she becomes the convent pariah and suffers tremendous mental tortures as the Superior tries to make her conform to her idea of purity.

The theme of the book is that you don't have to be particularly religious to be a good person. I mean, these people in the book spend all their time trying to make Suzanne a pious nun but she is ALREADY a good person. When her Superior tries to bust a move on her in the bed, she has no idea that she is being seduced. It's almost like she is a child even though she's 20 years old.

Diderot is complaining about this notion that young women and men have been forced into the religious life, regardless of their own wishes. There's nothing wrong with choosing that path, if you are suited to it. As you can tell from the recent Catholic Church scandal in America, some people join the clergy for the wrong, even sinister, reasons. Witness the third Superior that Suzanne is almost seduced by, who preys on the young nuns of her convent, taking them to her bed and dropping them after her lust wears off. Diderot thinks that immoral acts will occur when humans are put in situations that deny their natural desires, whether it be for freedom or sex.