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Audiobook edition · 6 h 14 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when the call of pleasure meets a monastery’s vows of silence and withdrawal?
Saturnin tells his own story, from humble beginnings to a post at the gate of a Carthusian monastery. In The Doorman of the Carthusians, memoir becomes a vehicle for frank desire and bold satire. His account brings bodily appetite into direct conflict with the rules meant to contain it.
First printed anonymously in 1741 and usually attributed to Jean-Charles Gervaise de Latouche, this French libertine novel takes aim at church life. Its central claim is blunt: desire belongs to nature, and no vow can erase it. Sold in secret, condemned, and seized, the book also opens a window onto the Enlightenment’s underground book trade.
What you’ll discover
- Saturnin in his own words Follow a low-born narrator who presents his life as he claims it happens.
- Pleasure against piety Explore the novel’s challenge to rules that seek to silence natural appetite.
- The cloister under scrutiny Encounter sharp satire directed at a strict order associated with silence and withdrawal.
- A scandalous literary history Discover a novel whose condemnation and seizure only add to its reputation.
- Desire without polite disguises Meet a frank treatment of sexuality that refuses to soften its anticlerical edge.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who enjoy bold eighteenth-century satire, sharp jokes at the clergy's expense, and frank narrators who talk straight to the reader. It also rewards anyone curious about the French libertine tradition.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A monk's son grows up in a gardener's cottage
- Suzon and Madame Dinville teach him two lessons
- Sister Monique's tale is told through Suzon
- A broken bed sends Saturnin to the priest's house
- A night of mistaken doors ends the village years
- The monastery is a school of greed and vice
- The prior shows him the secret house of women
- A confessional offers a cure and old faces return
- The book attacks hypocrisy and makes appetite a law
- A repentant old man tells the tale with a wink
Who’s who
- SaturninThe narrator, born to monks and raised by a gardener, who copies the example of his elders and learns what each pleasure costs.
- SuzonSaturnin's supposed sister, clever and curious, who tells him the convent tale and becomes the love he cannot forget.
- ToinetteThe gardener's wife and Saturnin's nurse, who serves the monks and keeps a close watch on the boy.
- Father PolycarpeThe monastery's business manager and a regular visitor to the cottage, who pays for the boy and is wary of what he sees.
- Madame DinvilleSuzon's godmother, a wealthy and worldly lady who takes the young Saturnin as her pupil.
- Sister MoniqueA convent novice who hates the cloister, tells her story to Suzon and later returns in a new guise.
- Father CasimirA satirical monk and bully who runs midnight suppers in the church organ loft and lives on his pupils' favours.
- GabrielleA woman of the hidden house inside the monastery who says she is Saturnin's mother and tells her own story.
Formats and delivery
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- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Der Pförtner der Kartäuser oder Die Memoiren des Saturnin in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Der Pförtner der Kartäuser oder Die Memoiren des Saturnin
by Jean-Charles Gervaise de Latouche · 1741
A boy peers through a cottage wall and decides that life among the monks looks appealing.
Medium level2–5 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What happens when a boy sees what monks really do behind their walls, and decides he wants the same life? That is the start of The Doorman of the Carthusians, or The Memoirs of Saturnin, a French novel by Jean-Charles Gervaise de Latouche.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A monk's son grows up in a gardener's cottage
Saturnin begins with a pious frame. His very next claim is that he is the child of the Celestine monks, and every father in the order boasted of a share in him.
He is placed with Ambroise, the gardener, whose wife Toinette becomes his nurse. Her own baby dies, so the monks quietly bury it and put their son in its place. Father Polycarpe, the order's business manager, visits often and pays for the boy's clothes.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1741
- Language
- Deutsch
- Reading time
- 4 h 0 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Gervaise de Latouche, Jean-Charles. The Doorman of the Carthusians, or The Memoirs of Saturnin. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-doorman-of-the-carthusians-or-the-memoirs-of-saturnin.
Gervaise de Latouche, J.-C. (2026). The doorman of the Carthusians, or the memoirs of Saturnin. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-doorman-of-the-carthusians-or-the-memoirs-of-saturnin (Original work published 1741)
Gervaise de Latouche, Jean-Charles. The Doorman of the Carthusians, or The Memoirs of Saturnin. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-doorman-of-the-carthusians-or-the-memoirs-of-saturnin.
@book{gervaisedelatouche2026doorman,
author = {Gervaise de Latouche, Jean-Charles},
title = {The Doorman of the Carthusians, or The Memoirs of Saturnin},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-doorman-of-the-carthusians-or-the-memoirs-of-saturnin},
note = {First published 1741}
}
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What is The Doorman of the Carthusians about?
It is the memoir of Saturnin, a monk's son who grows up in a gardener's cottage, joins the Celestine monks, and meets a string of hypocritical clergy, lovers and schemers before ending up as a doorkeeper.
Who wrote The Doorman of the Carthusians and when?
It is credited to Jean-Charles Gervaise de Latouche, who died in 1782, and it belongs to the eighteenth century. It circulated as anonymous memoirs, which was common for libertine fiction of that time.
Is The Doorman of the Carthusians a true story?
No. It is a satirical novel dressed up as a true confession. The narrator insists his tale is real, but the claim is part of the joke, and the characters are invented types.
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