A Woman’s Life (Cyclopedia of Literary Places)

At a glance:

Places Discussed

*Normandy. Largely agricultural region on western France’s Atlantic coast in which the novel’s fundamental settings—both literal and symbolic—are established in the opening chapter. In that chapter’s very first image, seventeen-year-old Jeanne Le Perthuis des Vauds looks out over rainy Rouen, a major city in Normandy. She has just left a convent after spending five years within its walls absorbing a proper education. She awaits her father, who will take her home to the country again.

Walls are one key motif that appears early in the novel—the...

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