After the pleasure comes the pain. The Sexual Life of Catherine M, Catherine Millet's analysis of the many forms and flavours of sexual pleasure, was internationally admired, and not just for its literary qualities. The audacity of a sex life well lived and thoroughly examined left readers wondering how she managed to pull it off while sustaining her relationship with life partner, writer Jacques Henric. 'I had love at home' she explained. 'I sought only pleasure in the world outside'.
Then one day she discovered a letter lying about the apartment, from which it became clear that Jacques was involved elsewhere. Jealousy details the crisis provoked by this discovery and her reaction to it. If The Sexual Life of Catherine M seemed to disregard emotion, Jealousy is its radical complement: the paradoxical confession of a libertine, who succumbs to the 'timeless and universal malady'.