The French writer Claude Arnet’s Ariane, A Russian Girl, might almost be a women’s novel, and might appeal to fans of Colette. The smart, whimsical Ariane is reminiscent of Colette’s Claudine, the heroine of a quartet of French novels, the relevant two being Claudine at School and Claudine in Paris.
Ariane is more sophisticated than Claudine, a country girl; she lives in a provincial city with her aunt, a free thinker, and spends her leisure hanging out at the Hotel de Londres. Ariane is attractive, brilliant, and charming, pursued by men and boys, whom she withers with a look if bored. Her friends assume that she is sexually experienced, but her main source of information is her guardian, Aunt Varvara, a former doctor who confides in Ariane about her philosophy of serial monogamy: she has had 18 lovers. The secret of happiness is not to fall in love.
Varvara could be the protagonist of her own Colette novel. Anet devotes a fascinating chapter to Varvara, a woman who is joyful and beautiful until she falls in love at 40 for the first time. The handsome 50-year-old doctor soon drops her and inappropriately turns his attention to Ariane. (His daughter is in Ariane’s class at school.) Varvara is devastated, and though Ariane seldom shows emotion, her resolve to control her sexual relationships is rooted both in the sexist society and her knowledge of her aunt’s experiences.
Education is another hurdle for women in the early 20th century. Ariane’s father refuses to finance her university education, insisting that it is a woman’s place to get married, etc. Ariane angrily decides to pay her own way to the University of Moscow by any means. She arranges to visit a rich admirer twice a week for an hour of talk in return for tuition money.
And now we move from “Ariane at School” to “Ariane in Moscow.”
Is the university enough for Ariane? The whole novel has prepared us for love. One night at the theater she meets Constantin Michel, a charming businessman who arrives late for Boris Godunov. They discuss actors during the intermission: she is critical of a charismatic actor she went out with until she decided he was mediocre.
The two are having such a good time that they are reluctant to part after the play. They laughingly negotiate what to do next, but Ariane has control.
He proposed a supper. Absolutely no way. He wanted to take a coach. She opposed it. She was determined to return on foot, even though she lived in the Sadovaya, a half hour from the center of town. So there they were, stumbling through the mud and melted snow. The holes in the pavement… legitimized the offer – not refused – of an arm.
They have fun and are intellectually and sexually well-matched, but they struggle for control in the relationship.
And yet there are also contradictions in Ariane’s story. She talks animatedly about past lovers, but the first time they make love she weirdly insists that he allow her to lie there like a corpse. We are astonished, but then there is blood on the bed, which Constantin believes is his own. And once we decode her character, we are sympathetic to Ariane. We crossed our fingers for a happy ending.
And that is why this is a women’s novel. The suspense of romance!