Belle de Jour

This psychological novel, published in 1928, is set in Paris. The central character, Séverine Sérizy, is the wife of Pierre, a successful doctor. On first appearance they are happily married and very much in love. From the very beginning of the novel, however, we understand that Séverine is haunted by a random act of sexual abuse by a visiting handyman at the age of eight. This causes her to pursue a daytime profession as a prostitute in a brothel as she seeks to re-experience the violent event of her childhood. This might easily be regarded as a perversion but it is often reported that child abuse has deep psychological impact on victims when they reach adulthood. At the brothel she becomes the favourite of Marcel, a drug lord, and her life becomes increasingly dangerous through this connection to the criminal underworld. Meantime she attempts to keep her domestic life separate from her life as her alter ego, Belle de Jour. The novel was adapted into a 1967 film starring Catherine Deneuve.

The author, Joseph Kessel (born 10 February 1898), though born in Argentina, spent much of his early childhood in the Russian city of Orenburg. His Litvak (Lithuanian Jew) family moved to France in 1908. The author was educated in schools in Nice and Paris. He volunteered in 1917 for military service, serving first in the artillery and then as an observer in Squadron 39 of the French air force. After the war he worked as a foreign correspondent. His first novel was published in 1923 and his third novel, The Captives, won the prestigious Grand Prix du roman de l'Academie française in 1927. During the Second World War he worked as a war correspondent before resuming his flying career in the Resistance.

When Séverine becomes involved with Marcel, she comes into the sphere of crime boss, Hippolyte, a Syrian. He explains to Séverine how much he owes Marcel:
“Maybe I better tell you how it is. See Marcel’s a guy once saved Hippolyte’s life. Get that straight. That’s more than if he were my son, I mean.”
Similarly many debts of loyalty were forged on the battlefield when a soldier saved a comrade’s life.