The Lover by Marguerite Duras and Simple Passion by Annie Erneaux are feminist novels, written by French women who live in a patriarchal world, but write in the way that the choose subverting patriarchy. However, one could say that patriarchy is represented throughout both novels: both of the protagonists are women who have love affairs that are illicit and both play with the conventions of the novel. What is more interesting is how the two authors subvert patriarchy: both protagonists are speaking autobiographically self-referentially as writers rather than tempering their story through an uninvolved narrator—at least most of the time: Duras’ narrator switches back and forth between first and third person narration. Both authors/narrators are not concerned about the judgment of others even if they do acknowledge it, and both have no regrets about subverting the patriarchal norms. In those places where the subversion occurs, the patriarchal nature of society is made quite obvious and both protagonists are able to claim their position as members of society equal in attitude to their male counterparts.