question about a translation and use of dont vs de laquelle

I am trying to translate an awkward phrase from a play:

"A most degrading experience from which no young girl easily recovers"

the translation need not be comfortable or colloquial as I think the author may have meant it to be a bit awkward, but would either of these two be reasonable?

(note: I don't like to use "degradante" but the author wants the french to "sound" like the english to the non-french adressee, so I guess I need to leave it.)

Une expérience très dégradante dont une jeune femme ne se remet pas facilement.

Une expérience très dégradante de laquelle une jeune femme ne se remet pas facilement (this is the translation provided by the author - but, it sounds strange to me.)

?? thanks so much for any help

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Permalink Reply by lauris on April 12, 2011 at 9:40am

I think both translations are correct (but not sure) but I would rather use the first one, it seems more natural to me

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Permalink Reply by Florent on April 12, 2011 at 9:52am

Both are correct but the second is more "difficult" than the first (i'm french).

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Permalink Reply by Erwan on April 12, 2011 at 4:05pm

You can also say "Une expérience très dégradante dont aucune jeune femme ne se remet facilement".
As Lauris and Florent, your first phrase seems more natural to me too than the second one.

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on April 12, 2011 at 4:17pm

So long it's referring to an actual "thing", then dont and duquel/de laquelle are essentially synonyms. However, one restriction is that at least some speakers nowadays avoid using dont to indicate a location of origin. So they wouldn't say, for example:

??J'ai vu la maison dont il vient de sortir.

So, it's a subtle point, but if the author wants to attribute a "spatial" value to something, then one way of doing it is to use duquel/de laquelle (or d'où) rather than dont. I don't know if that's what the author intended here.