Emmanuelle Arsan - Emmanuelle - [eBook] {train_wreck}

Emmanuelle (1967). Ebook in PDF and plain text format. The PDF version includes images from the 1974 film of the same title. English language. ISBN 978-0-8021-0053-5

The Novel:

The novel Emmanuelle is truly a classic of the erotic genre. Officially published in 1967, drafts of the manuscript without an author's name were circulating as early as 1959. Successive editions later bore the pen name Emmanuelle Arsan, who was subsequently revealed to be Marayat Rollet-Andriane (née Marayat Bibidh). Though the novel was sometimes hinted to be a quasi-autobiography, it was later revealed that the actual author may have been her husband Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane. The novel was originally written in French; the version included in this post is the Lowell Bair translation into English.


About the Novel's Author:

Marayat Rollet-Andriane was born in 1932 in Bangkok, Thailand, into an aristocratic Siamese family closely connected to the Thai royal family; the family home was in the affluent Ekkamai District of the Thai capital. She was educated in Switzerland, at the extremely selective Institut Le Rosey boarding school, located in Rolle - a school offering bilingual English-French education to the offspring of the international elite! In 1948, 16-year-old Marayat first met her future husband, the 30-year-old French diplomat Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane, who was assigned to the French UNESCO mission in Bangkok.

During her life, Ms Arsan wrote numerous novels dealing with alternative lifestyles and 'open marriages': Emmanuelle (1967), Emmanuelle II aka L'antivierge (1974), Laure (1976), Nea (1978), Vanna (1979), Sainte Louve (1983) plus others. Many of her novels have been made into films. She also wrote screenplays for over 20 TV shows.

Using the screen name "Marayat Andriane", Arsan appeared in the film The Sand Pebbles (1966). It has been alleged that she had an affair with the film's star Steve McQueen. She also appeared in an episode of the American TV series The Big Valley ("Turn of a Card", 1967). Her only other film appearance, credited as Emmanuelle Arsan, was in Laure, which starred Annie Belle. For Laure Ms Arsan wrote both the novel and screenplay and appeared in a supporting role. This film was also released under an alternative title Forever Emmanuelle.


The Plot:

Emmanuelle tells the story of the young wife of a French diplomat who is assigned to Bangkok. She is lonely in Paris and decides to join her husband in Thailand. But her trip to the Orient becomes a journey of sexual discovery, during which she has a series of liaisons with both men and women. All of this is set against the lush tropical background of Thailand - the author's home. The novel Emmanuelle is purported to be an autobiography, but it was almost certainly inspired by Story of O which was published only a few years before. Emmanuelle reads like a toned-down version of O in that the heroine submits willingly to the tutelage of another person to gain greater sexual pleasure. The novel is written in the third person and the reader sees events entirely through the eyes of the sexually adventurous heroine


Ban that Book (and Ban that Film):

The 1967 novel prompted great outrage within the French government. French president Charles DeGaulle personally attempted to ban the book, while his successor in office, Georges Pompidou, tried to do the same with the 1974 Silvia Kristel film version of the story. *Fat* lot of good that did! Emmanuelle, the Sylvia Kristel film, is France's all time box-office record holder. The novel has been in continuous publication since 1967, translated into numerous languages and was also the basis for a graphic novel by artist Guido Crepax (please see other train_wreck post for the Guido Crepax' graphic novel).

To better understand the French government's concern, one should note that Ms Rollet-Andriane's husband Louis-Jacques was a member of the French diplomatic corps (later France's ambassador to UNESCO). The novel and subsequent film both had an interesting sense of reality - which may have prompted an interesting sense of angst among French government officials. Both Emmanuelle and Emmanuelle Joys are readily available on DVD. Universal Pictures has just released 1080p blu ray prints of Emmanuelle and Emmanuelle Joys - both are worth the price!

Governmental silliness aside, the novel Emmanuelle is a very good read. Enjoy!