Author: Mihail Sebastian

Publisher: Other Press

ISBN: 978-1590519547

  A Personal Experience of Womankind

Despite the legal disclaimer this book is about as autobiographical as it can get. The author, Mihail Sebastian, from Romania, has made a very identifiable and intimate self-portrait of his main protagonist, Stefan Valeriu.

When the curtain goes up, we see Stefan, a young, medical student from Romania, who just having finished his medical examination in Paris, goes for a holiday to an Alpine resort. There, he encounters three women from differing backgrounds, who break through his approachment barriers and mark him indelibly for life. These women are called Renee, Marthe and Odette and form the subject for the first part of the book. Their story has been written in the third person.

Time goes on and Stefan is working in a Paris hospital. He has also found another girlfriend, through whom he gets introduced to a misshapen  but exceedingly docile girl called Emelie. Her love affair, with a visiting friend of Stefan’s from Romania, and its’ consequences, form the subject of his second book, written in the first person.

The next book in this series is by a woman called Maria, who is situated in Bucharest; Romania and presents her own version of her platonic relationship with Stefan.

The last book in this series, is about Arabela, with whom Stefan lived with for an extended period of time.This book is written by Stefan in the first person and communicates his deepest thoughts about the experience .

As the title suggests, this book is about the women, Stefan has known at an intimate level. In the first book,,the narrative is in the third person. This suggests that the experience of love with the concerned women was more of an act of consent, to fill a mutual need. This was so with Renee. With the other two, in this book, the interaction was more subtle and involved less physical activity, but still based on an honest  acknowledgement of mutual need.

In the second book, the focus is on Emelie and how a misshapen woman found love. This incident affected his perception of women and their innate resilience, which is why she finds mention in this book.

The third book  in this series is more detailed than the earlier two, for it pertains more to a mutual friend, Andreij, with whom Maria had had a longstanding affair. This book has been written by Maria, in the first person and deals with how she perceives Stefan’s love for her.

Book four is about Arabela and written in the first person. In this book, the above experiences are integrated. Here, he is writing in the first person and about a long term relationship. This has resulted in a very deep self exploration of himself and his true motives, in the same spirit as Maria’s declaration, but more positive in its’ nuance.

Altogether, this is a classic and naked portrayal of the fair sex as experienced by a man, at a time when technology was not all pervasive and men and women had to turn to each other  for leisure activities. Insights garnered from this book are still relevant to the modern lifestyle of today.

All in all, a great read. Highly recommended.