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The Obscene Madame D book cover
The Obscene Madame D
2025
First Published
3.75
Average Rating
79
Number of Pages
The Obscene Madame D is the electrifying masterpiece by one of modern Brazilian literature's most significant and controversial writers.At sixty years old, Hillé decides to abandon conventional life and devote the rest of her days to contemplation in a recess under the stairs. There, she is haunted by her perplexed, recently deceased lover, Ehud, who cannot understand her rejection of common sense, sex and a simple life in favour of vain metaphysical speculations.In a stream-of-consciousness monologue, Hillé speaks of her search for spiritual fulfilment from a space of dereliction. In thrilling prose that is part Joyce, part Lispector and part de Sade, Hilda Hilst takes us into the disorder and beauty of a mind restlessly testing its own limits.
Avg Rating
3.75
Number of Ratings
4
5 STARS
25%
4 STARS
50%
3 STARS
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2 STARS
25%
1 STARS
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Author

Hilda Hilst
Hilda Hilst
Author · 29 books

Hilda de Almeida Prado Hilst, more widely known as Hilda Hilst (Jaú, April 21, 1930–Campinas, February 4, 2004) was a Brazilian poet, playwright and novelist, whose fiction and poetry were generally based upon delicate intimacy and often insanity and supernatural events. Particularly her late works belong to the tradition of magic realism. In 1948 she enrolled the Law Course in Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de São Paulo(Largo São Francisco), finishing it in 1952. There she met her best friend, the writer Lygia Fagundes Telles. In 1966, Hilda moved to Casa do Sol (Sunhouse), a country seat next to Campinas, where she hosted a lot of writers and artists for several years. Living there, she dedicated all her time to literary creation. Hilda Hilst wrote for almost fifty years, and granted the most important Brazilian literary prizes.

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