1954: La Hollandaise volante

by | Updated on 18/10/2024 | Published on 04/05/1954 | 1953-1961 Time to learn to live, 2.1 Bibliographies, Science fiction

Broadcast by Radio-Lille.

Probably lost, so we can only speculate on this Flying Dutchwoman.

The Flying Dutchman is the archetype of ghost ships, prominently featured in the tales and legends passed down and still passed down to seafarers. It represents the fatal omen to not cross on one’s voyage, because it is a boat whose crew has been cursed and condemned to wander on the waves for eternity.

It is therefore most certainly a maritime tale that Françoise proposed, like Le Gabier de Surcouf 4 years later. Note that the Dutchman has become a Dutchwoman, and it’s a safe bet that she made a captain of a pirate or corsair; it is even quite possible that the entire crew was female. A curse on the men who crossed their path! (Vincent)

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1954: Une pomme rouge : mon cœur

by | Updated on 18/10/2024 | Published on 04/05/1954 | 1953-1961 Time to learn to live, 2.1 Bibliographies, Poetry

Paris, Pierre Seghers (coll. Poésie 54 n°374), 15 pages.

Titled with a verse by Nazim Hickmet and dedicated to Henri Lefèbvre, nine poems in three sections. The first on love, its struggles and its sufferings, the second in memory of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (four years later, Françoise will choose “Julius” as a middle name for her son). The last section, Trois poèmes pour mon Parti (Françoise was then a member of the Communist Party), contains a long poem in memory of her father to tell him what she owes him for her communist commitment. (Vincent)

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1953: Atalante délivrée

by | Updated on 18/10/2024 | Published on 04/05/1953 | 1953-1961 Time to learn to live, 2.1 Bibliographies, Miscellaneous novels

Probably a lost work, we can only speculate as to its content. In this book, published two years after Le Complexe de Diane, we will certainly be dealing with the Greek heroine Atalanta, educated by Artemis after being abandoned by her father. She is reputed to have lived in ancient Greece, initially refusing marriage and indulging in extraordinary feats. She was the only woman to join the Argonauts to conquer the Golden Fleece alongside Jason.

We find the Atalante who could only be overtaken in the race by Hippomène’s deception evoked in Le Complexe de Diane, where Françoise expresses her attachment to this figure of the free woman. No wonder she wanted to prolong the relationship. (Vincent)

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1953 : Les Yeux du paradis

by | Updated on 20/01/2026 | Published on 20/01/1953 | 1953-1961 Time to learn to live, 2.1 Bibliographies, Science fiction

Toulouse, Julia Printing House, January 20, 1953, 28 pages, 120 copies

An eighteen-page fantasy tale based on a screenplay by Jean Lakanal, with the remaining ten pages devoted to titles, flyleaves, quotations, etc. The plot is of only moderate interest, vacillating between various influences (Poe, Nerval, etc.) to superficially address a few metaphysical questions.

Françoise, whose writing seems constrained, attempts to make this herbal tea palatable with a few pretty metaphors and other devices, but since she herself is not convinced, I doubt that the reader will be either…

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1952: Ivelle

by | Updated on 18/10/2024 | Published on 04/05/1952 | 1933-1952 Fuckin' youth, 2.1 Bibliographies, Miscellaneous novels

Julliard, 272 pages.

Ivelle is the story of a young girl of today. An ardent, restless soul, thirsting for justice… She believes she has discovered a kind of superman in Yvon, who sees himself as the founder of a new philosophy… She follows him to Paris, to the circles of Saint-Germain-des-Prés… She soon finds herself embroiled, along with her master, in a resounding murder case. (extracts from the 4th cover)

Apart from the murder story, you don’t have to be Sherlock Homes to guess that this novel is based on Françoise’s background: Yvon, wouldn’t you be Jean-Charles Pichon, the author of obscure interpretations on the history of myths? (Vincent)

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