"Quelle sorte de lien pouvons-nous donc établir entre nous?": The Epistolary Friendship of Claire de Duras and Rosalie de Constant

Claire de Duras and Rosalie de Constant maintained a long and rewarding friendship from 1 805 until Duras's death in 1 828. This friendship was somewhat remarkable, as it overcame differences in age, social standing, culture and geographical distance. How did these two very different women, who saw each other only twice in their lives, remain friends? Duras's letters ponder this very question, exploring the paradox that while the correspondence unites her and Constant, it may also misrepresent them to one another. The letters may have created a construct ofeach correspondent and thus the entire relationship might be nothingbut a fiction. Duras epitomized the problematic in 1 8 12 when she wrote to Constant, "Quelle sorte de lien pouvons-nous donc établir entre nous?" By allowing this question to guide us through Duras's letters to Constant, we see that it was the very interrogatory and self-analytical nature ofthe correspondence itself that sustained this unlikely friendship.