Read this some time ago and enjoyed it. ( )

i was surprised I liked this book but I did. It was interesting to read about a life style so severe that the rich used to pawn off unwed daughters. ( )

Diderot is best known for his Encyclopedie and his philosophical arguments. This book is about a willful young girl who was placed in a nunnery. This story was originally a series of letters written by Diderot to the Marquis de Croismare, trying to get him to return to Paris from Normandy to help said convent escapee. Supposedly the novel was based on a true story. Suzanne, the young nun, is the narrator and quite unreliable. The entire novel is written from her viewpoint. She is represented as naive and innocent; which she is not. Too much time was spent on a Mother Superior/Suzanne lesbian liason, which to me, detracted from what could have been a better than average story. The essay that followed was mega-boring. 233 pages ( )

Ambientada en el siglo XVIII, la novela relata los apuros de Susana Simonin, una inteligente y sensible joven francesa de 16 años a la que sus padres obligan a entrar contra su voluntad en un convento católico. Al principio, los padres dicen a Susana que la envían al convento por razones financieras, afirmando que le resulta más barato hacerla monja que pagar una dote matrimonial. No obstante, ya en el convento, Susana averigua que en realidad la enviaron allí porque es hija ilegítima, fruto del adulterio de su madre. La madre cree que al enviarla al convento enmendará su pecado, y sacrifica a su hija en aras de su salvación.

Ilustración de la novela La religiosa de Denis Diderot. Edición de Giraud, 1797
En el convento, Susana sufre humillaciones, acoso y violencia por negarse a tomar los votos de la comunidad religiosa. Susana accede a entrar en la orden, pero las hermanas la condenan al aislamiento durante seis meses por su reticencia anterior. Al final, Susana entabla una gran amistad con la madre superiora, sor Moni, que se apiada de la angustiada Susana. En los días previos a su muerte, sor Moni conforta a Susana con plegarias y su comprensión del tormento que sufre la joven en el convento.

A sor Moni le sucede la hermana Cristina, que no siente la misma simpatía por Susana que su predecesora. De hecho, la nueva madre superiora la culpa de la muerte de sor Moni y de la agitación que sufre el convento bajo el nuevo liderazgo. La superiora somete a Susana a acoso mental y físico casi hasta la muerte.

Susana contacta a su abogado, Mr. Manouri, que consigue trasladar a Susana a otro convento. Susana pierde la batalla legal, aunque Manouri logra su traslado al convento de santa Eutropia, liberándola de la persecución de sor Cristina. En su nuevo convento, la madre superiora resulta ser una lesbiana que se enamora de Susana. La superiora intenta seducir a la joven, pero la inocencia y la castidad de Susana acaban por conducir a la madre superiora a la locura y a la muerte.

Susana se escapa de santa Eutropia con la ayuda de un sacerdote. Tras la huida, Susana vive con el temor de ser capturada y devuelta al convento, y espera la ayuda del marqués de Croismare

Man was born to live with his fellow human beings. Separate him, isolate him, his character will go bad, a thousand ridiculous affects will invade his heart, extravagant thoughts will germinate in his brain, like thorns in an uncultivated land.

Given the untimely arrival of our Arctic Vortex, it is fitting that The Nun shudders with a frozen despair. Bone chilling mornings are well suited for such guided tours of the dark side. Abandon your preconceptions of the Enlightenment and moral cautionary tales, Diderot's creation is terrifying. Apparently it was a practical joke used to trick a friend to return to Paris from the countryside. The novel takes the form of an escaped nun tracing her history in a lengthy letter about a series of convents, ones where the prevailing theme is obedience. One thinks of Martin Amis, "give some someone absolute control over another and thoughts soon turn to torture." Forget Sade or Huysmans, I was scared shitless by the novel's second Mother Superior: think Martha Stewart as Torquemada. ( )