Coping with freedom : reflections on ephemeral happiness / Chantal Thomas ; translated by Andrea L. Secara.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thomas, Chantal, 1945-

Standardized Title:

Comment supporter sa liberté. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Conduct of life.

Liberty.

Physical Description:

150 pages ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Algora Pub., 2001.

Summary:

Single, and loving it! In this approachable essay on personal freedom without guilt, Chantal Thomas alternates between self-examination and investigations into love, travel and living arrangements. Drawing on immediate experience and literary and historical references. she shares the lyrical pleasure that can come from sitting alone in a cafe, living in a room of one's own, or simply not having children. She evokes Sade and Casanova, Thoreau and Sartre, existentialism and feminism, crafting a personal philosophy that goes beyond the most essential "self-help" theories. Her precious volume gives homage to independence - to its insolence, its power of detachment, its quality of otherness.

Contents:

Going On Strike 19

Don't answer 24

"Just one more moment, Mister Executioner!" 34

The education of Chateaubriand 37

Just Passing Through 43

Pure desolation: the single woman, according to Michelet 43

In a maid's room 52

Staying out late 58

Turn on the light, and close the curtains 67

No children 74

Ways of Traveling 87

Walking

and walking away 88

Writing and traveling: Flaubert in the Orient 101

Seeing, touching: Rimbaud's escape 110

Intrepid voyager: Isabelle Eberhardt 117

The nothingness of tourism 121

Neither traveler, nor tourist: the adventurer 132

A Question Of Style 143.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

OCLC:

46642124