"I first read this book when I was 12 or 13, and very curious to know more about romantic love . . . Other books I read around this time were Madame Bovary by Flaubert & The Awakening by Kate Chopin. I was a tomboy as a child, and the heroines of these books fascinated me, they were feminine, sexual, strong, sometimes cruel and selfish, they made an impression on me as a young woman."