 | Violette Nozière: A Story of Murder in 1930s Paris Subjects: Nozière Violette 1915–1966; Women murderers -- France -- Paris -- Biography; Murder -- France -- Paris -- Case studies; Women -- France -- Paris -- Social conditions -- 20th century; Paris (France) -- Social conditions -- 20th century; An academic history with a pulpy noir heart, Maza's account of Violette Noziere, who at age 19 poisoned her parents and whose case captured Paris's imagination, is also the story of a socially unsettled interwar France. Maza, a professor of history at Northwestern (The Myth of the French Bourgeoisie: An Essay on the Social Imaginary, 1750-1850), uses the Noziere affair to examine social mobility; working-class Paris neighborhoods like the Nozieres'; department-store fashion that allowed an upwardly aspiring girl like Violette to dress fashionably; crime journalism; surrealism (Andre Breton sympathized with Violette during her trial). Yet the story of the depressed, angry Violette-whose father likely molested her, and whose "drama-prone, overbearing" mother survived the poisoning to become her daughter's most vocal opponent-keeps the book beating in time. Reminiscent of the O.J. Simpson trial, the Noziere affair reflected the anxieties of its society: the horror of parricide paired with later accusations of incest presented a "troubling ambiguity" that the public struggled to disentangle. Fluently written and thoroughly researched, Maza contains "a whole constellation of contemporary experience" in the wrenching story of the Nozieres. Photos. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. Maza Sarah : Sarah Maza is Jane Long Professor of Arts and Sciences and Professor of History at Northwestern University. She is the author of many books including award winners Private Lives and Public Affairs: The Causes Célèbres of Prerevolutionary France (UC Press) and The Myth of the French Bourgeoisie: An Essay on the Social Imaginary, 1750-1850 . |
