This novel (in the form of a personal diary), first published in 1900, gave rise to two film adaptations: the first by Jean Renoir, in 1946, and the second by Luis Bunuel, in 1964, with Jeanne Moreau in the lead role. Mirbeau claims the diary really was written by a chambermaid, Miss Célestine R., who then gave him the manuscript to review. Fearing his editing might distort the distinctive flavour of this original text, the novelist at first refused. But according to him Célestine R., who was quite pretty, insisted and he eventually gave in, admitting he had been wrong. In adding a few touches to the manuscript, Mirbeau worries he might have altered its corrosive force and substituted mere literature for emotion and life. But this is not credible. Was he trying, by this subterfuge, to add an extra touch of authenticity, of real-life experience, or was he simply trying to justify his dislike of bourgeois society? He was already marked by his public sympathy for anarchist theories, and his notoriety allowed him to be outrageous. The Diary begins with a jest that gives an indication of how it was written. we learn that the narrator kept changing employers and could never settle anywhere, which makes her say: Can you believe how difficult masters are to serve nowadays! Through constant flashbacks, Célestine recalls adventures in previous homes and describes with salacious verve her memories of each employer, to all appearances respectable bourgeois but in fact vicious and perverted.
From the libidinous old man with a shoe fetish swooning at her knees to the arrogant aristocratic woman who orders her to sleep with her son, to the fashionable writer grotesquely nouveau riche, to the aging woman with her secret gigolos, it’s a gallery of desiccated puppets, resolutely unsympathetic. Pretty and intelligent, Célestine doesn’t have the soul of a slave but does obey her masters’ wishes with considerable flexibility. In her last job, Célestine encounters her destiny in the person of the unsettling gardener-coachman Joseph, whom she marries. When she leaves with him to open their own café in Cherbourg she is finally the boss…