France is shaken by a sexual relationship between a 14-year-old girl and a 50-year-old writer

Literary circles in France are excited about a new book likely to be published early next year. The author of the book is Vanessa Springora, who runs a French publishing house. She accused French author Gabriel Matzneff, 83, of child abuse in his book. The book has stirred controversy over the attitudes of the French elite and the literary world towards pedophiles. The Guardian has reported that the French author is now 83 years old and has denied the charges.

Seduction
Vanessa Springora is now 47 years old.

She is writing about events that took place many decades ago when she was only 14 years old. She claims in her book that Gabriel Matzneff “groomed” her when she was a minor. Her book “Le Consentement” will be published next week. Attention to the book has become more pronounced since allegations against Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood film producer, surfaced in 2017.

Vanessa is very candid in her book, making it clear that there was no coercion involved. She goes on to add that she cannot deny that she gave her consent to a man who was 36 years her senior.

She goes on to say that the entire episode needs to be seen in its proper perspective, as she was only 14 and her parents were going through a difficult divorce when Gabriel Matzneff filed for her. He would be waiting for her at the school gate and then he would take her to a hotel. Before that, he followed her around and wrote her letters. According to the writer, Matzneff would take her to a hotel to mislead the authorities, since there were doubts about her relationship with a young woman.

The book
The book is not an autobiography, but the whole story is presented in the form of a novel. She doesn’t say the name of the writer, she just refers to him by his initials GM. However, there is no doubt that she is referring to the writer Matzneff, who is now 83 years old. The Telegraph reported that Matzneff won many prestigious awards during his writing career, although he acknowledged having relationships with minors, including young children in the Philippines.

The writer’s influence is evident as the entire literary world overlooked his actions. Matzneff had publicly stated on French television many times that he was attracted to girls and adolescents. He had discussed his relationship with girls older than 15, since in France the age of consent is 15. This was probably why Matzell was careful to mention that the girls who came into his life were all older than that.

Matzell’s attitude can be gauged by the fact that he wrote an open letter calling for the release of three men who were in pretrial detention and accused of having relationships with 13- and 14-year-old boys.

At that time, even famous writers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simon de Beauvoir supported this action.

Matzel
Matzell has expressed “sadness” over the book’s content. She feels the writer’s goal is to belittle his work and damage his reputation. The fact is that the French literary world at that time did not consider it immoral to have a relationship with adolescents and therefore such relationships were not talked about much. Bernard Pivot, who was a celebrated critic and journalist at the time, has stated that times have changed and what was then moral is now considered taboo.

An example is that of S. Marin, who is now the Prime Minister of Finland and the changing morality has accepted that she can be a leader even if she has a child out of wedlock.