Influence Revisited: Irène Némirovsky's Creative Reading of English Literature

This article offers a comparative reading of Irène Némirovsky's fiction, drawing on approaches to national literary history that are sensitive to border crossings. Considering Némirovsky's engagement with English literature in the light of her broad interest in foreign literature, influence emerges as a multiple and creative interaction. The article examines the mediation of Némirovsky's reading of Tolstoy through E. M. Forster and Percy Lubbock and compares the depiction of the younger generation in novels by Némirovsky and Evelyn Waugh. It argues that interpreting Némirovsky's creative reading as literary hospitality is both ethically and aesthetically productive.