''Villa Amalia'' is a novel by the French author
Pascal Quignard
Pascal Quignard (; born 23 April 1948) is a French writer born in Verneuil-sur-Avre, Eure. In 2002 his novel ''Les Ombres errantes'' won the Prix Goncourt, France's top literary prize. ''Terrasse à Rome'' (Terrasse in Rome), received the Fren ...
. It was first published in 2006 by
Gallimard, and has appeared in their "folio" series as no. 4588. , it has been translated into
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
.
Plot
The middle-aged composer Ann Hidden has traced her partner of many years, Thomas, to the house where he is conducting an affair with a younger woman. At the scene she meets, for the first time since their adolescence, an old school friend from her childhood in
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
, Georges Roehl. She takes the decision to end her former life, and in the space of a few months she leaves her part-time job as a music editor, ends her relationship with Thomas, visits her mother (from whom she is estranged) in Brittany but is not reconciled to her, sells the house in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
that she has shared with Thomas, and asks Georges to create a place where she can live and compose in the grounds of his house near
Sens in
Burgundy, and leads him to believe that she will live there.
Georges is eager to re-establish a relationship with her, since he is mourning the death of his gay partner. However, once the sale of her Paris house has been finalised, she leaves without giving any indication of her destination, and after some travelling establishes herself on the
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
island of
Ischia
Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Roughly trapezoidal in shape, it measures approximately east to west ...
near
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
, eventually renting and renovating an old house on a headland. The house is called Villa Amalia and gives the book its name.
While on Ischia she begins an affair with a doctor called Leonhardt Radnitzky, who has recently divorced and has part-time custody of his four-year-old daughter Magdalena (Lena). She spends much of her time swimming in the sea, and on one occasion becomes exhausted and is rescued by a couple in a yacht, Charles and his much younger partner Juliette (also known as Giulia). They are on the point of splitting up, and eventually Ann and Giulia form a profound relationship and live together in the Villa Amalia, and Lena lives with them when Leonhardt's work means that he cannot look after her.
While Ann is out one day, and Giulia is asleep, Lena suffocates on a peanut. Giulia leaves and Ann's life disintegrates. Shortly afterwards, her mother dies; she returns to Brittany for the funeral, which is also attended by Thomas, by her father (a musician of
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
n
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
ish origin, who left the family when she was a child) and by her school friend Véri, who has maintained contact between Ann and her mother. Ann refuses to be reconciled with Thomas, is rejected by her father, and quarrels with Véri. She returns to Burgundy and lives with Georges though they have no sexual relationship; at the end of the book he dies, with the implication that he has been suffering from
AIDS though this is not stated.
Style
The style of the book reflects the bleakness of its plot. The writing is exceptionally sparse. The scene moves abruptly between different locations, and not all the shifts are represented in the summary above. Dialogue is typically brusque and characters take actions and either make no attempt to explain them or refuse to do so. The author himself renounced a career as a professional
cellist and it may be assumed that both the experience of renunciation and his knowledge of the world of professional music played a part in the formation of the book.
See also
*
''Villa Amalia'' (film)
Bibliography
*Quignard, P. (2006). ''Villa Amalia''. Paris: Gallimard.
{{Authority control
2006 French novels
Novels about composers
Novels by Pascal Quignard
Éditions Gallimard books