Consent is not an easy book to read but it is one that definitely should be read, and read widely. Vanessa Springora is brutally direct and concise in the way she analyses her ‘relationship’ with a man who, essentially, stole her adolescence and got away with it because he was a member of the literary elite. It is a devastating unsettling story which will make any reader furious at the way it unfolds. Springora is immensely brave with her unglamorous honesty in a way that shows just how damaging abuse and manipulation truly is. She takes a no holds barred approach and Consent is all the more powerful for it. Painful, shocking, razor sharp and steely. Highly recommended.

A very strong read that will get you to take notice, reflect and take it all in.
A very interesting writing style.
Thank you to both NetGalley and publishers for gifting me this book

I loved this book so much that I now have my own copy -- and I used it extensively in my postgrad dissertation! A raw and unflinching look at the nature of sexual abuse, grooming and unequal power dynamics, Consent is surely not an easy book to read, but it is an important one. Perhaps more than just the abusers themselves, it sheds a light on the culture around them that allows their horrendous actions to take place and makes you ask questions about the extent of a role that permissiveness plays in the culture of sexual violence in our society.

A harrowing but empowering read. After everything that Vanessa has been through, writing a book and reliving the abuse must have been beyond hard. It's important for victims of abuse to be able to tell their stories and for the world to listen.

Though a translated book, it was easy to understand. I kept forgetting that it was translated. Highly recommended read, but be kind to yourself.

The one thing that stood out to me with this book was just how straight to the point the writing is. This adds to the brutal storyline and just how much Vanessa has been through in her life

Sometimes when a book is translated, things can get lost and misunderstood. But this is an exception.

It is an uncomfortable read in parts, but also carries a very important message

This book was not at all what I expected. Having read and enjoyed (if that is an appropriate term) Chanel Miller's Know My Name, I expected this to be an interesting tale of the authors experience being groomed by a much older famous French author and her account of her relationship with him. It was sold very much on the tag line of how everyone seemed to approve and go along with this relationship and the predatory paedophilic behaviour of the writer and often excused it under the pretext of art which fascinated me enough to apply for this ARC.

The book was deeply disturbing and unlike anything I had ever read before. As when I read My Dark Vanessa I was surprised to find that the central protagonist often seemed to pursue the abuser and in this case Springora in no way ever condemns this man or his actions nor are we given anything of a harrowing nature. Indeed she seems to be in love with this man even decades later and there is no evidence of mental scarring or the mental, emotional and physical abuse Springora must surely have felt other than a slight twinge of jealousy around his other inappropriate objects of desire..

As a result I was left with a deeply unsettling sense of horror and a feeling of disbelief that Springora does not appear from this book to have been negatively affected in anyway giving us little sense of why she wrote the book in the first place. Perhaps this is lost in translation but in the English version I was disturbed by the way this read as a love letter to an abusive peadophile,

Harrowing and important. Vanessa Springora brings a book that everyone should read. This book is so important right now and will make some think twice before they make comments on situations they don't understand.

It's a horrible world when this socially relevant book becomes a must read but I have to commend the author for sharing a story that might well begin to change the record.

Consent by Vanessa Springora is a memoir about her time as a real-life Lolita. Springora describes her life and her relationship with a celebrated writer in France and how as she has grown up she has realised that their relationship was not one based on mutual affection but one that was manipulated by an older man taking advantage of a younger girl. She looks at the power dynamics and how her innocence was lost to this. Springora also looks at the changing attitudes of the time and how something that happened to her wouldn't be seen as socially acceptable as it was perceived at the time (not completely accepted but far more so than in today's society).

Consent is part memoir part social commentary about relationships, society and power. Equally, it is about claiming back your own existence and taking your power back. It is only a short book but it is a powerful one.

Consent by Vanessa Springora is available now.

For more information regarding Vanessa Springora (@VSpringora) please visit her Twitter page.

For more information regarding 4th Estate (@4thEstateBooks) please visit www.4thestate.co.uk.

An absolutely gut-wrenching and harrowing memoir of the abuse that Vanessa endured at the hands of the somehow celebrated author Gabriel Matzneff. This was such a hard one to read but I am so glad Vanessa took the power back and rewrote her own story rather than the vile fiction GM has portrayed as truth for far too long.

Not only is the sustained abuse carried out by GM so horrific, the whole underlying back story and surrounding events whereby adults were not only aware of but almost celebrated his actions in the form of his "literature" is downright stomach-churning.

This book raises so many questions on the flaws of society and how people often just stand by and left horrific events develop and fester before their eyes.

A very tough read but worth it to give Vanessa Springora her voice to tell her truth.

TW for child sexual abuse.

A really powerful memoir. Just gut-wrenching! Vanessa is so brave to share this story.

Vanessa writes about the abuse she suffered age 14 from a famous author who was 30+ years her senior. In a truly abusive manner, she was convinced that it was a relationship, and something that was 'meant to be', when in fact she was coerced and manipulated.

I didn't realise it was originally in French, as the translation was so flawless beautiful. There is some level of detail of the sexual abuse within the book, which is written very well in a weird way, very lyrical almost bittersweet. It helps provide a context to what was happening, and how it was so damaging.

I can see the comparisons towards My Dark Vanessa. This though is within a French context, and a memoir whereas My Dark Vanessa is a novel (possibly with some incidents based in truth). But this really hit hard for the genuinely difficult journey the author goes through to tell her story.

A short read that considers the author’s relationship, age 14, with a renowned French author more than 35 years her senior. Technically she gave consent – but then who of us at age 14 don’t think we’re grown up. Age and distance often show us that we were in fact still children. What’s most distressing about this case was how lightly it was treated. The man in question was ‘free spirited’ artist who did not have to conform to social mores; her absent father was indifferent; and she herself was framed as a young coquette. It’s a searing look at the subject of informed consent and who is capable of giving it.

‘Why not ensnare the hunter in his own trap, ambush him within the pages of a book?’

As a young teenager, “V.” was groomed and sexually abused by the renowned author “G.M.” — and later discovers she is only one of many girls and boys subjected to his abuse.

V. is Springora herself, and a quick google reveals that G. is Gabriel Matzneff, in his 50s at the time. Given he later published his one-sided diaries recounting his “relationship” with Springora using her initials and enough personal details that she could be identified, it’s a delicious turning of the tables that she can now do the same to him.

This book is an attempt to exorcise the memories, and to finally refute the powerful man who took his victims’ silence for their consent.

What is sadly the most shocking element of the whole book is the fact that most of French society at the time seemed to turn a blind eye to this behaviour, explaining it away as a form of liberal sexual freedom that was somehow distinctively French. Despite the trauma she went through, Springora is able to give a remarkably clear-eyed analysis of how societal norms and in particular the weird carte blanche given to ~literature~ allowed an openly criminal, abusive man to get away with it all.

Such a powerful book & I hope many more will have a chance to read it.

Brilliant. A piercing and affecting memoir told in clear, elegant prose. Beautifully translated too.

A lot of things are troubling in this book, apart from Gabriel Matzneff:
- Springora’s parents, their personalities, sexual lives and child rearing,
- the nightly boy-girl ‘exploration of bodies and sensual pleasure’ by eight-year old kids,
acceptance and impunity of French social and literary circles for the illegal proclivities of a talented awarded well-connected successful author who controversially glamourised sex with children and actively showed up to events with them,
- the casualness with which sex started between a 50-year old and a 14-year old,
- the decades-long literary and physical fixation (and harassment) by the said 50-60-70-80 year old author (G. M.) to the 14-24-34-44-year old conquest / memory / relationship (Springora) and I assume others, and vice versa,
- his biographical works of fiction,
- the fact that no other teenage / underage girl has come forward in more than forty years to talk about Matzneff or tell their side of the story, if for nothing else, than money and fame (In 2020, NYT did an interview with another girl made ‘famous’ as the original of his ‘three great loves’ who unsuccessfully shopped for a publisher twenty years ago).
- the denouncement of French culture and society as an enabler of pedophiles and/ or old men desiring children,
- Springora's bravery and audacity to write it.

I also found myself wondering whether the author was wrong in identifying French culture as the problem, since it believes in non-suppression of all kinds of love, libertine seduction and acknowledgement of uninhibited female and male desires, and considers the resultant artistic expression as avant-garde. In a country like Pakistan, full of repressed or regressive expressions, unions of older man-girl child (or boy), exploitation by pedophiles, and accepting and brushing everything under the carpet or mud exists, as is blackmailing when expected rewards are not handed out by the aggressor. So culture, open or shut, is not the problem enabling such men and women. The problem is the attitude towards sex, power and victim’s status as an inconsequential being in the larger scheme of things, certainly careers of influential men. A culture can be open or shut and still be a cesspool of handlers and enablers of the aggressors.

Reading a bit on how year 2020 turned out for Matzneff, I felt a lot of hypocrisy going around after all this time. He was being hypocritically blamed for being on the wrong side of history today, having essentially made a career out of reliving his predatory sexual conquests and lauded for the fiction of it all for decades. It was obvious that he had crossed a line in getting ‘inspired’ from real life, and ‘embellishing the truth’ for written work, but no one filed a police report nor published a critique, and in fact the whole charade kept giving him girls and awards. Holding him responsible for his actions through censure (pay cut by the State) and investigations (criminal case by police), when the age of consent was not legally defined, (though sex with an under-15 was criminal), give a pass to an entire literati and consortium of parents who enabled his methods, usually willingly for their own advantage. What law would prosecute them? Should the girls be reprimanded for not coming forward sooner? Who can say 10 girls would not want to be on the cover of one of his books, if one did not? Why stop the publication of his revered morally corrupt books when they are already archived? And lastly, I wondered if this book would’ve gotten attention or taken seriously if it had been written by someone other than the current editor / director of Matzneff’s former publishing house. Would anyone have believed a woman who was unable to turn her life around, get a stable partner, have a child, have a great job and wanting to exorcise the past, not gain from it, decides on decoding the shameful madness of it all? I found the entire French-hood one big mess. I found myself criticizing a lot of things in the book, and I thought the criticism itself was also troubling.


Memorable (and troubling) lines:

a concert of congratulations

.....if I had been the one to push him to break the law for love......Love has no age limit. That was not the issue.

“No woman is capable of savouring the moment, it’s as though it’s in your genes. You’re all chronically unsatisfied, forever imprisoned by your hysteria.” - G. M.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this young girl were to end up having a more significant future in these diaries.” - G. M.

“V, G. is an artist, a great writer, and one day the world will recognize him as such. Or perhaps not, who knows? If you love him, you must accept who he is. G. will never change. It is an immense honor to have been chosen by him. Your role is to accompany him on the path of creation, and to bow to his impulses. I know he adores you. But too often, women do not understand an artist’s needs. Did you know that Tolstoy’s wife spent her days typing out the manuscripts that her husband wrote in longhand, tirelessly correcting every mistake? She was utterly self-sacrificing and self-effacing, which is precisely the kind of devotion that every artist’s wife owes the man she loves.” - Emil Cioran, philosopher, G.’s mentor
“But Emil, he never stops lying to me.”
“But literature is all about lying, my dear young friend. Didn’t you realize?”

My fear of abandonment was stronger than reason, and I persisted in believing that this abnormal situation made me interesting.

When I told my mother I had left G., she was momentarily struck dumb, then she said sadly, “Poor thing, are you sure? He adores you!”

Nothing excites these old men more than the thought of a completely depraved teenage girl.

I knew perfectly well I’d skipped a stage. I’d gone too fast, too early, with the wrong person.

How is it possible to acknowledge having been abused when it’s impossible to deny having consented, having felt desire, for the very adult who was so eager to take advantage of you?

G’s novels, in which I was supposedly the heroine, appeared in bookshops when I was between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five, at a rhythm that left me no respite. After that came the volume of his diaries covering the period of our relationship, including some letters I wrote when I was fourteen; two years later the paperback version of the same book; then a collection of breakup letters, including mine. That’s without counting all the newspaper articles and television interviews in which he reveled in saying my first name. Later there would be another volume of the contents of his little black notebooks, in which he returned almost obsessively to the subject of our separation......No one told me at the time that I could press charges, sue his publisher, that he didn’t have the right to publish my letters without my consent, nor to write about the sex life of someone who was a minor at the time of the relationship, making her recognizable, not just by the use of her first same, or initial of her last but with thousand little details..... With a stroke of his pen my history had been carefully wiped away, then revised and rewritten in black and white, and published in an edition of a thousand copies.....He had immortalized me, what could I possibly have to complain about?

A few months later I discovered that G., had an official internet site that featured, in addition to a chronology of his life and work, photographs of some of his conquests, including two pictures of me at the age of fourteen, captioned with my initial V.....the site was registered not in G.’s name, but in that of a webmaster domiciled somewhere in Asia (‘he can’t be deemed owner of the content hosted by his dummy corporation, which is completely outside French jurisdiction. Legally, the site is the work of a fan.’....’If you haven’t got copies of the pictures, it will be hard to prove they’re of you.’)

The content (of his letters) had remained unchanged for thirty years. My continuing silence was a mystery. I must be consumed with a regret at the thought of having destroyed such a noble union....I was the guilty party of having brought to an end the most beautiful love story ever lived by a man and a teenage girl. Whatever I said, I belonged to him, and I always would, because, thanks to his books, our wild passion would never cease to light up the night.

“To judge a book, a painting, a sculpture, or a film, not for its beauty, or the power of its expression, but for its morality or supposed immorality, is a spectacularly stupid thing to do.” - G. M., Julien, recipient of Prix Renaudot

Today, I work in publishing, and I find it very hard to understand how some of the most renowned editors in the literary world could have published G.’s diaries, complete with first names, places, dates, and enough detail to make it possible at least for those who know them to identify his victims, without first having offered a minimum of hindsight in terms of the books’ content.

It seems that an artist is of a separate caste, a being with superior virtues granted the ultimate authorization, in return for which he is required only to create an original and subversive piece of work.....apart from artists, we have witnessed only Catholic priests being bestowed such a level of impunity. Does literature really excuse everything?

By setting his sights on young, lonely, vulnerable girls, whose parents either couldn’t cope or were actively negligent, G. knew that they would never threaten his reputation. And silence means consent.

This memoir was an absolute bombshell. This story follows the famous French writer Gabriel Matzneffs sexual abuse of 14 year old Vanessa Springora, the author of this memoir. This book made me visibly cringe at points and I was seething when reading about the liberal attitudes to adults relationships with minors in the 70s.? It was such a tragic story and it was hard to read about this insidious manipulation and sexual exploitation. It was heartbreaking to read about the detrimental effect of this abuse on Vanessa personally. The only saving grace in this story, is that Vanessa was strong enough to tell her story and exonerate her demons to move forward with life and love. I found the discussions on consent and the legality of minor/ adult relationships and emotional abuse and the grey areas around consent and rape very insightful and powerful in this book. This should be compulsory reading for every human being. Everyone needs to be educated on grooming, rape and abuse and this book tackles this topic with integrity and grace. Beautifully written and as impressive as Know My Name by Chanel Miller.

Thanks to the author Vanessa Springora, 4th Estate and NetGalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

A really powerful memoir.

Vanessa writes about the abuse she suffered age 14 from a 50 something year old man. In true abusive fashion, at the time she was convinced that it was a relationship, and something that was 'meant to be'.

The translation was really beautiful, especially the first 2/3rds of the book. That might be an odd thing to say give the subject matter, but it was a very lyrical translation.

There is some level of detail of the sexual abuse within the book, which surprisingly works well. It helps provide a context to what was happening, and how it was so damaging.

I also learnt much about the French background, and context. I hadn't for example realised so recently there had been a movement to get rid of the age of consent.

Comparisons to My Dark Vanessa will be made, which is understandable given they share subject matter. This though is within a French context, and a memoir whereas My Dark Vanessa is a novel (possibly with some incidents based in truth). Both should be read, but Consent somehow feels more original to me - perhaps because it occurred in a country in which I have a limited frame of reference.

You cannot talk of sexual assault without addressing the inherent power dynamic we operate in, Springora illustrates this so deftly in her memoir.

She regales 14 year old Vanessa, whose mother works in Parisian publishing, the high flying literary circles entrap young Vanessa with late-night dinner parties. There, she’s introduced to G, an infamous author, and thus love letters commence. Years of sexual abuse, grooming and emotional manipulation follow, documented here in hindsight, however we can see Springora’s past still haunts her present. G relentlessly followed her way into adulthood, stalking and threats, living through many painful realities, as his fame continued, as recent as 2013, his work was being recognised by the arts. His trial commences this autumn.

Her mother agreed? Approved? For this to make sense, the cultural context of France at the time must be understood, a revolution of ‘sexual freedom’ had passed through the May 1968 protests, a sense of modern France, with the aforementioned G, writing openly of his paedophilic endeavours as ‘sacred experiences’ that enlighten and ‘baptise’ boys as young as 8, in France and the Philippines, which also leans back to previous questions of today’s news on marginalised voiced and the forgotten tragedies of such reigns.

Such behaviour was approved of, if not bolstered his career, Springora recalls the 1990 television talk show where only 1 of the 4 guests challenges a statement of paedophilia laid bare by G. We can call it despicable now, and shame those who didn’t say more, but what happened to Epstein? To Andrew? This isn’t an exclusively French problem. It does feel, however, like an overwhelming male problem.

Thirty years ago, Vanessa Springora was the teenage muse of one of France’s most celebrated writers, a footnote in the narrative of an influential man. At the end of 2019, as women around the world began to speak out, Springora, now in her forties and the director of one of France’s leading publishing houses, decided to reclaim her own story.

Please be aware that this book contains a lot of things that may be a trigger, I would not recommend this if you have been through something similar or know someone and it can trigger distress. The author delivers the most heartbreaking and open account of her abuse and relationship with her abuser. The book discusses the abuse at great length and detail and is beyond heartbreaking and difficult to read. Praise is needed for this author and I thank you for speaking out.

I have always enjoyed reading a memoir and this particular one drew my attention as it seemed like it told an important story. Thank you to @HarperViaBooks and @VSpringora for this advanced copy of Consent in return for an honest review. Consent is out now and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

Vanessa Springora was a teenager thirty years ago and was the muse of one of France’s most celebrated writers. The attitudes, the culture and the unfortunate circumstances of Vanessa’s childhood allowed thirteen year old V to become sexually involved with this writer who was at the time, in his fifties.

This memoir could be seen as an exposé of the literary world as well as one of it’s writers who stole her adolescent years. She writes in devastating detail about how her life was impacted at the time and how he impacted her life through to adulthood.

General Thoughts 🤔

I knew that this wouldn’t be an easy book to read but I don’t think I was quite prepared for how shocked I would be by it. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for this author to open up like she has, but also to re-live what I imagine she would rather bury deep. On the other hand, I would guess that writing all of this down may have been quite therapeutic and it’s poetic that she chose to tell her story via words; the very thing that G attacked her with.

The world described in this memoir was so vivid to me as a reader. I could imagine the small circle of people all from a corner of Paris engulfed by literature. Writing was quite obviously king above all else. Morals, laws, people did not matter, as long as the writing was good. Being raised in that small circle could not have been easy and certainly living the life that V did must have been outrageously difficult.

Characters 👫👭👬

I hate to call this “characters” as this is a memoir, not a novel. These aren’t characters they are real people. But I would like to touch on my thoughts on a couple of those people.

Firstly, V’s mother. I have such admiration that V has managed to maintain a relationship with her mother after what she has been through. In my eyes her mother was complicit in what happened to V and in another place at another time, she would not have gotten away from this unscathed by the law.

Secondly, V. The bravery and courage it must have taken to write this book is insurmountable. At the age of thirteen, a girl’s emotional intelligence is not fully developed, her body is not fully developed yet V was thrust into a world where she was expected to behave and live like an adult. How conflicted she must have felt at that age; knowing that what was happening was wrong but being so absorbed in the world and being lavished with attention from someone so well thought of.

Writing Style ✍️

This book is written so beautifully. I could feel the emotion and the pain leaping out of the pages. There is no dramatisation because it is not required. I found the writing to be very straight to the point and direct and it almost made it even more harrowing to read.

Something that I didn’t consider until I had finished reading was the translation from French to English. I’m sure that completing that task without losing any of the beauty in the words was a difficult undertaking but I think it was done fantastically. There’s a part of me that wishes I could read French so I could read both and compare. The French language has always seemed to me to be far more beautiful than English.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖️

I found it quite hard to score this book because it’s someone’s very personal story. How can I put a score on that? So my scoring is very much based on the writing and the way in which V chose to tell the story of her life. I learnt a lot about how chauvinistic the literary world can be and how too many people are all too willing to turn a blind eye in the name of art. I applaud V and anyone else who goes against that old fashioned establishment and hits back with elegance and decorum like this memoir.

If you had questions after reading My Dark Vanessa, then Consent is the memoir to answer them. It’s a clear account of how victims of sexual abuse are manipulated and why they can’t just leave. Also a great discussion on why we hold some people to account and give others free rein and even celebrate them - despite glaring warning signs

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