Irene Nemirovsky: The Misunderstanding

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Irene Nemirovsky - The Misunderstanding: Episode 1

Episode 1

Irene Nemirovsky - The Misunderstanding

BBC Radio 4 - Irene Nemirovsky - The Misunderstanding, Episode 1

Dramatisation of Irene Nemirovsky's (Suite Francaise) beautiful and beguiling debut novel.

4 Extra Debut. Scarred by war, Yves returns to the Spanish resort of his childhood. Here he meets beautiful, bored Denise. Stars Joseph Kloska.

Yves is a disappointed young man, scarred by the First World War. 

He returns to the Spanish resort where he spent blissful childhood holidays, and becomes infatuated by the beautiful, bored Denise, whose rich husband is away on business and Denise falls passionately in love with him. 

But their relationship is snagged by both personal and social thorns and back in Paris their love  is challenged by a mutual misunderstanding.  The story alternates from the perspective of the lovers.

Published in 1926, The Misunderstanding has been described as Irene Nemirovsky's Madame Bovary. In this early novel she examines the effects of an extra-marital affair. The story alternates from the perspective of the lovers so from the man to the woman.

It displays a kind of hidden regret that human beings are so imperfect. Real excoriating passionate emotion, expressed with truthful intensity and cool wit. Fire banked down with ice. It's a brilliant synthesis that illuminates the gaping fissures in the French class system wrought by the war and industrialisation.

Yves    ......    Joseph Kloska
Denise    ......    Sarah Smart
Francette    ......    Charlotte Sienna Lee
Jessaint    ......    Jake Ferretti
Waiter    ......    Evan Jones

Translated by Sandra Smith.

Dramatised in five parts by Lin Coghlan

Director:  Pauline Harris

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2019.

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Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Drama

Sarah Smart stars in this study of an extra-marital affair in post-World War One France.

An exploration of a series of disagreements in a couple's illicit relationship in post World War One France. Starring Sarah Smart.

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