While helping a friend clear out an old apartment in Paris, diplomat Jean-Yves Berthault came upon a leather portfolio that contained a collection of handwritten letters. After reading the
first one, Berthault realized that he had stumbled upon an extraordinary correspondence—a charged and passionate epistolary love affair that brought to mind the French erotic classics The Story
of O, Justine, and Delta of Venus. He began to piece together clues. The letters were from Simone, a well-to-do, unmarried Parisian woman, to her younger, married lover Charles. Written between
1928 and 1930, they tell the story of an illicit love affair that describes a sexual awakening for both lovers. As the affair intensifies, Simone becomes obsessed with Charles, even as he
begins to grow more distant. As her hunger grows, she pushes him beyond all boundaries into dangerous and forbidden realms, in an effort to keep him enthralled. With each broken taboo, Charles
submits—until their last fateful encounter.
The Passion of Mademoiselle S. is an erotic tour de force. In language that is by turns elegant, impassioned, and surprisingly graphic, these love letters are a portrait of a sexual and
psychological obsession. Berthault’s notes on the period add dimension and context to the correspondence. But it is the voice of Simone—that of a passionate, vulnerable, and curiously modern
woman—that comes through most vibrantly and echoes down the centuries.
