Inspirational Quotes by Nathalie Sarraute (French Novelist)

Nathalie Sarraute (1900–99,) born Natalia Ilinichna Tcherniak, was a French novelist and essayist. Her novels broke with fictional realism, examining human behavior at its most secretive. She was the most extensively translated authors of the French post-World War II Nouveau Roman (“new novel” or “antinovel”) school.

Sarraute was born into the bourgeoisie in Ivanovno-Voznesenk, Russia. Her Jewish parents settled in France when she was a child. She was educated at the Sorbonne, Paris, graduating in arts and law. She then spent a year at Oxford (1922–23) and studied sociology in Berlin before establishing a Paris law practice.

Sarraute’s first book contained sketches on bourgeois life, Tropismes (1939; Tropisms, 1964.) She rejected traditional plot development and characterization to describe a world between the real and the imaginary.

Sarraute developed this style in later novels, including Portrait d’un inconnu (1948; Portrait of a Man Unknown, 1958,) Le Planetarium (1959; 1960,) Entre la vie et la mort (1968; Between Life and Death, 1969) and Ici (1995, ‘Here.’) She also wrote plays, Le Silence, suivi du Mensonge (1967; Silence and the Lie, 1969,) Isma, ou ce qui s’appelle rien (1970; Izzuma, 1980) and Elle est là (1978; It is There, 1980,) and influential essays on literary theory. Her autobiography is Enfance (1983; Childhood.)

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