Name:

Princee Vora Ankita Verma

Class: FYBMM B Roll No: 116 115 Subject : Literature

French Lover, was translated from Bengali by Sreejata Guha.; Penguin, India; 2002; 293 Pages; (The Original "Phorashi Premik" Published in Bengali by Ananda Publishers, 2001) 1.Introduction to the author Taslima Nasrin born 25 August 1962 is a Bengali Bangladeshi ex-doctor turned author who has been living in exile since 1994. She rose to global fame by the end of the 20th century owing to her feminist views and her criticism of Islam in particular and of religion in general. Since fleeing Bangladesh in 1994 she has lived in many countries, and currently (June 2011) lives in New Delhi. She works to build support for secular humanism, freedom of thought, equality for women, and human rights by publishing, lecturing, and campaigning. Her novel LAJJA was one of her most controversial documentary writingWhich was then banned by Bangladeshi government in 1993 2.Introduction to novel. French Lover is the story of Nilanjana Mandal, a young Bengali woman who moves to Paris from Calcutta after her marriage with Kishanlal,a restaurant owner. His luxurious apartment seems like a gilded cage to Nilanjana ans she feels stifled within its friendliness confines. Nilanjana was she was treated as a housekeeper. She was bored of her marriage life as Kishanlal just used her as a sex object and even did not allow her to do any extra work rather than the hosehold work. She met a French Man named Benoir Dupont who was blonde and a handsome guy. Benoir helped Nilanjana in various ways by showing her the streets,the cafes and the art galleries of Paris.The door of a whole new world has been opened before her.They both were in a passionate and sexually liberating relationship and then she begins to have an inkling of her own desires.Benoir was a selfish man and his first priority was himself and not the woman he loved. Nilanjana realized it and ended their relationship.After going through all the emotional trauma in her life and her road to self-discovery has began now.

3. Brief summary of the text. There is a saying, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. For one who looks at the world with an eye looking for beauty can find beauty everywhere and in anything. The same is true for a person who looks for problems. Problems are everywhere and in everything.   Nilanjana (Nila), the protagonist of this book is one such person. Betrayed by the lover Sushant, the Calcutta girl accepted the proposal of a punjabi boy (Kishanlal ), a rich resturanter, to escape the shame and a broken heart.A modern girl, she wanted to explore Frances great history and culture.Kishanlal wanted a wife who was quiet ,obeyed him in everythng he said whereas Nila is not the one to take male superiority or ready to end her life in closed flats. She took up a job as a which is considered it a very meager job eventually breaking their relation in which differences sclaed to heights making it beyond repair . Her co-worker, Daniella gave shelter to her for some time but sooner Nila was used by her as an object of her lesbian pleasures.In the meantime, news form india arrives,her only real relative her mother is in serious condition now and Nila had to return to Calcutta. After her mothers death, Nila returned to France with the money her mother give to her with a dream of a French lover. She gets closer to the fellow passenger, Benoir.They develope a relation which is shown to be intensly passionate wherein in later nila realises for him he meant alot, even more then the women in his life. Nila begins to realise that he needs frm benior had also ended.She then gets accquited with a new friend named Morounis Vernesse.Sunil whom she thought as a brother rapedd her..Later on she gets back to Benoir, has a wonderful life until she realises she is expecting a baby. Thereon as something dawned upon her where she feels all men a skin hungry and emotions mean nothing. She deserts Benoir, while not realising the world has unintentionally done her the same.. 

4.Analysis. a)Identifying and Dealing with all the themes. Escape - Nilanjana wanted to escape from her husband's house because she was bounded with many restrictions and she was not allowed to explore herself. Love - Nilanjana's true love Sushanta had betrayed her and than she loved Benoir who was a false man. Hopelessness - She was hopeless when she was staying with her husband. Betrayal - she was betrayed by Sushanta. Isolation - the isolation of a soul Sense of self Survival - As she wasn't happy with her husband she was surviving with him. Individualism - She chose individualism and left her husband to fulfill her dreams. Deception - She felt that Benoir considered himself his first priority but the reality was he truly loved her. Alienation - creating emotional isolation

b) Characters.

1.Nilanjana Mandal-Protagonist SHE is a modern women, who comes to France after getting married..She is here to find her french love.a very confused character ,all rebellious, confused, non-practical and pessimist all along. 2.Kishanlal- Nilas husband He was tall,black,slouchy and dominating person who wants his wife to stay back at home only as a dedicated houswife who has no connection with the outside world. He treated her as a typical Indian wife and was over to independent. 3.SushantaHe was Nilas ex-lover,the reason she ran away from calcutta. Not much is said about his charcater except that he is a cowardly fellow who ditched Nila. 4.AnirbanHe is the protagonist father who is potrayed as a very unpleseant character. He did not suceed as a father neither as a husband. He ditched his wife for a mistress and did not bother about her even when she was dying 5. MolinaShe is Nilanjans mother. Monila was potrayed as a very dutiful and loving mother who cared alot for her daughter Nila. She had saved for her daughter money which should her attachment towards Nila. 6.Sunil and ChaitaliThey are introduced as Kishanlal's friends.A very helpful set of friends who remained Nilas friends for really long and helped her during her hardships. 7.Odil,Traiq Ismail,Babu Gogibi,Rajesh Sharma and Sanal- These are the friends of Kishanlal. 8.Mojammel- He was a waiter at Kishanlals restaurant Taj-Mahal. He helped Nila to join a working place.

9.Danielle- She was the co-worker of Nila. She also used Nila to fullfill her lesbian pleasures. 10. Catherine and Nicole-They were Nilas other co-worker. She had studied Indology and here good friends with Danielle. 11. Nikhil- He is Nilas younger brother. He is very notorious and always used to tease Nila with something or the other but was equally an understanding person too. 13.Maria,Michelle and Rita- Nicoles friends who were invited in her party. 15. Ramkiran,Manjusha and ChitraThey are the servants at Nilas house in Calcutta. 17. Mithu,Poltu,Mithu and Sadhan DasThese are the family members of Nila in Calcutta who came to meet Nila when she came back to Calcutta. 18. MoniqueHe was Nicoles friend. He was very lively and a vigorous person. 20. BenoirFirstly he was a co-passenger of Nila. Later they fell in love with each other and also had a beautiful relation which ended becauseof Nila's pessimistic approach towards men. 21. GabriellaShe was the other co-passenger. She spoke to Nila everything about her life.Who personified the theory that life is to be enjoyed come what may 22. Natalie and MorounisThey were Nilas new friends. 24. PascaleShe was Benoirs wife. He ditched her because he falls in love with Nila. 

5. View point The novel is written from a third person's view point. Here a separate narrator is the one who tells us whole of the story. He potrays the protagonist and other characters by spelling out their feelings wide open leaving the reader to have assumptions about how the character exactily is.  9. Style and language of the work. Taslima is basically a very feminist writer who with her power of words intends to change the way world sterotypes women and undermine her powers.She is not a contemplative thinker, she does not theorise; her writings are refreshingly free from poststructuralist/postmodernist jargon. She does not have any academic pretension. Truth, she knows, is simple and direct. And that is her power. Her every word, it seems, is born out of her intense experience.   That is why, one can see her poetry, essays and novels being read and appreciated by a wide spectrum of people; from a school girl to a housewife to a university professor.She potrays womens faced problems their misery and suffering, their hopes and aspirations, she through her writings rallies against atrocities faced by women. A powerfull and revolutionary writer i must say.

 10. Personal point of view. I must admit that I find her writing style quite unique. She definitely makes a better writer than a physician. Personally I believe Taslima has at certain points in her book gone overboard with exaggerating few parts, which could happily written in brief ,which am sure would in no way affect the novelThough at the same point I would like to appreciate her eye for such minute details. At certain places it does give you a feeling of practically being a part of the scene, witnessing the events, something i very much admire.The protagonist though was all rebellious, confused, non-practical and pessimist all along. At the end of the episode the author doesnt placed the protagonist in any better position.The author permits her protagonist to fail miserably. That is the plus and the minus of the book . A final chapter is missing.   11. Conclusion The story has amazing potential and inspite of having a great plot somehow this book didnt work for me. I still cant put a finger of what exactly I didnt like in the book, may be it was the fact Nilanjana was really too confused and uncertain, a character I certainly couldnt relate too. Also the fact that she was out to discover her sexuality makes it acceptable to have certain steamy scenes in the book but somehow I thought it was a tad over done at places At times almost felt like a raunchy soft porn book!!!. Or may be it was the fact the characters in the book were really stereo typed not even one man is good, all of them portrayed skin seeking hungry wolves and the women as alba naaris who just have to go thru the torture in a man dominated world

12. Bibliography

Authors name : Nasrin Taslima Name of the text: French Lover Place of publication: Delhi Publisher: Penguin Books; 2002.
http://monikamanchanda.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/the-french-lover/ http://www.taslimanasrin.com/frenchlovers