The Passion of Mademoiselle S.
A literary treasure: the recently discovered letters that chronicle the passionate affair of a young woman in Paris in 1928
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 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…