Jacqueline Harpman

• Name — Jacqueline Harpman • Born — 5 July 1929 • Birthplace — Etterbeek, Brussels, Belgium • Died — 24 May 2012 • Place of death — Uccle, Belgium • Occupation — Writer, Psychoanalyst • Notable Works — Brève Arcadie (1959) La plage d'Ostende (1991) Moi qui n'ai pas connu les hommes (1995) Orlanda (1996) La Dormition des amants (2002) • Awards — Prix Victor-Rossel (1959) Prix Point de mire (1992) Prix Médicis (1996)

Jacqueline Harpman was born on 5 July 1929, in Etterbeek, Belgium, to Jeanne Honorez and Andries Harpman. The couple exported Belgian fabrics and lace to North African colonies and only settled in an apartment after Jacqueline's birth. She was the second daughter born to the couple. Her sister Andrée was nine years her senior. Her father was a Dutch-born Jew, so Harpman's family fled to Casablanca, Morocco when the Nazis invaded during World War II. Jacqueline was forbidden from attending the French High School due to her Jewish origins, so she continued her secondary studies at the Mets Sultan College in Casablanca. There, she met Mademoiselle Barthes, her French teacher, to whom she credits her love for the elegant language of the 18th and 19th centuries. Also while in Casablanca, Jacqueline had to listen to Jacques Doriot's hatred of the Jews. Her feelings during these moments inspired En quarantaine. The Harpmans did not return to Belgium until after the war ended in 1945. A large part of her paternal family was killed at Auschwitz. Back in Brussels in 1945, Jacqueline finished her secondary studies at the Lycée de Forest. Then, she began studying medicine at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). In 1948, she contracted tuberculosis and was admitted to the university sanatorium of Eupen, where she began writing an unpublished novel, Les Jeux Dangeureux. She was bed-ridden for two years in the sanatorium, before penicillin allowed her to resume her medical studies, which she continued without completing. In 1953, she married Flemish filmmaker Émile Degelin, with whom she collaborated on the writing and directing of several films. They divorced in 1962. In 1963 she married the architect and poet Pierre Puttemans, and on 19 August she gave birth to her first daughter, Marianne. On 18 May 1965, she gave birth to her second daughter, Toinon.

Jacqueline Harpman continued to write and practice psychoanalysis until her death on 24 May 2012 from cancer. She died peacefully at home, surrounded by her husband, her daughters, and her grandchildren. Harpman's two daughters and four grandchildren all contribute to preserving her legacy. Her daughters have, according to her wishes, deposited her archives at the Archives et Musée de la Littérature in Brussels where the archivists will reconstruct her writing desk. In 2014 and 2015, Emilie Guillaume, a young actress from Brussels, brought Joan of Arc to life in a show called Jeanne d'Arc au Troisième Degré (Joan of Arc in the Third Degree), which combined Jacqueline Harpman's text with a performance of theatre, circus, and martial arts. Jeannine Pâque, Harpman's biographer, was certain that she would have loved to see her text vibrate in this way.

Since the 2010s, Harpman's novels have been translated several times. Since 2020 in particular, Moi qui n'ai pas connu les hommes (I Who Have Never Known Men) has enjoyed renewed success, and as of February 2025, there have been 23 translations of this novel. Described as a "Gen Z The Handmaid's Tale", the novel gained significant traction in early 2025 on BookTok, TikTok's book reader community, after being republished in 2022. In 2024, over 100,000 copies were sold in the United States alone.

• L'Amour et l'Acacia (coll. Nouvelles, 1958) • Brève Arcadie (Julliard, 1959) prix Victor-Rossel • L'Apparition des esprits (Julliard, 1960) • Les Bons Sauvages (Julliard, 1966 and Labor, coll. Espace Nord, 79) • La Mémoire trouble (Gallimard, 1987) • La Fille démantelée (Stock, 1990) • La Plage d'Ostende (Stock, 1991 and Livre de Poche 9587) • La Lucarne (Stock, 1992) • Le Bonheur dans le crime (Stock, 1993) • Moi qui n'ai pas connu les hommes (Stock, 1995 and Livre de Poche 14093) • English translation by Ros Schwartz: as Mistress of Silence (Harvill, 1997) in the UK and as I Who Have Never Known Men (Seven Stories Press, 1997) in the U.S.; the latter title has been retained for all subsequent reissues (Avon Eos, 1998; Vintage, 2019; Transit Books, 2022) • Orlanda (Grasset, 1996 and Livre de Poche 14468) (prix Médicis) • English translation by Ros Schwartz: Orlanda (Harvill, 1999 in the UK and Seven Stories Press, 1999 in the U.S.) • L'Orage rompu (Grasset, 1998) • Dieu et moi (Mille et une nuits, 1999) • Récit de la dernière année (Grasset, 2000) • Le Véritable Amour (Ancrage, 2000) • La Vieille Dame et moi (Le Grand Miroir, 2001) • En quarantaine (Mille et une nuits, 2001) • Ève et autres nouvelles (Espace nord, 2001) • La Dormition des amants (Grasset, 2002) (prix du roman CF de Belgique) • Le Placard à balais (Le Grand Miroir, 2003) • Jusqu'au dernier jour de mes jours (Labor, 2004) • Le Temps est un rêve (Le Grand Miroir, 2004) • Le Passage des éphémères (Grasset, 2004) • La Forêt d'Ardenne (Le Grand Miroir, 2004) • En toute impunité (Grasset, 2005) • Du côté d'Ostende (Grasset, 2006) • Mes Œdipe (Le Grand Miroir, 2006) • Ce que Dominique n'a pas su (Grasset, 2007) • Écriture et Psychanalyse (Mardaga, 2011)