ABSTRACT
The structure of Honorine is that of an archetypal story within a story, whereby the internal narrator, and what little is known of him, is described by an extra-diegetic narrator before the text gives way to his first-person narrative. Just as an exchange of views on adultery was the trigger for Maurice's story — its ostensible aim to lay out in narrative form an example of female infidelity — so, within Maurice Halbwachs's narrative, Octave's confession follows a Parisian dinner-table discussion of adultery. Maurice's idealization of his employer is such that it blinds him to the reality of his character. When Maurice first discovers that Octave has been left by his wife, he is already so attached to him that he projects onto the promised narrative the most naively positive of interpretations. Honorine's testamentary letter to Maurice reveals her awareness of the alliance of husband, secretary and priest behind what the author is tempted to describe as a gang rape.
