Secret Keeping as Female Empowerment in Marcel Prévost’s Le jardin secret

Marcel Prevost, in Le jardin secret, narrates the story of Marthe, a woman who discovers that her husband, fifteen years her senior, is leading a double life. Her initial reaction is to hire a detective who can obtain proof of his adultery before her filing for divorce. The discovery of her husband’s infidelity leads her to an examination of her past that resurrects her former self; it forces her to acknowledge that she too has long engaged in secret-keeping. Prévost centers his novel, a first-person narrative skewed toward the confessional, on the theme of secrecy, showing it as an empowering force that affords the heroine agency.