Discovered in 2008 by the bookseller Christian Olliet, this previously unknown text, entitled ‘Caprice’, was immediately identified by specialists as being the work of Marguerite Duras. It was first published anonymously in 1944 by Nicéa as part of its collection "Visages de femmes". The link was established when the name and address of the publisher, written on the page of a notebook dating from the Second World War, was found in the novelist’s archives at the Institut Mémoires de l’Edition Contemporaine. This romantic novel, published in a popular collection, reveals a hidden depth and undeniable Durasian traits which confirm that it belongs to “these novels… written to buy butter, cigarette and coffee on the black market”, evoked in Outside by Duras (1984). 

[This exceptional reading has been authorised by Jean Mascolo, Duras’ assignee, to whom we express our gratitude]