The Obscene Madame D by Hilda Hilst
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Pushkin Classics

Release Date: May 27, 2025

This strange novella features a lot of stream-of-consciousness exchanges between the lead and her common-law spouse / lover. Hille, the protagonist, is a woman who’s decided to withdraw from her normal life and live a celibate, hermetic existence in a recess under the stairs of the home she shares with Ehud (her lover / long-time partner.)

It is a thought-provoking and philosophical work and will be most of interest to readers who like such books. On the other hand, it isn’t likely to have much appeal for readers of commercial fiction. It’s not story-driven and isn’t even deeply character-driven. [Except in the sense of showing thought processes that encourage the reader to drill down into the character’s psyche.] This book has been placed in the genre of (and titled as) erotica (or even pornography,) but I would say that it is much less accurately defined as such than other works of that category, including Hilst’s “Letters from a Seducer.” This isn’t to say the book doesn’t use graphic language or mention past sexual activity, but it’s not erotic at the core. It’s not shy about sex or “vulgar language” by any means, but it is a book about a woman who has given up sex along with other activities of ordinary life.

Ultimately, I’d recommend this book for readers of psychological and philosophical literary fiction. It is not intensely readable as a story and is not intensely erotic as erotica, but it does keep a curious person wondering about the motives and future of Hille.

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