Eccentricity and the Cultural Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Paris by Miranda Gill

Abstract

ii6o Reviews interest, though, are the introduction of a scientist demon, whose skills transform Hell into a much more entertaining and inviting place than dull, unchanging Paradise, and Parnys interpretation of the knowledge given by the forbidden fruit. For this is no less than the discovery of sexual urges and pleasure, a discovery which not only makes aman of the first man, but also makes him and Eve realize that the Fall has its compensations. Swansea University Derek Connon Eccentricity and the Cultural Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Paris. By Miranda Gill. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2009. xi+328 pp. ?55. ISBN 978-0-19-954328-1. This innovative study explores the varied manifestations of eccentricity in Parisian life between the July Monarchy and thefin de siecle. As the author reminds us in her introduction, eccentricity implies behaviour divergent from the norms of a given centre or centricity' (p. 1), which in nineteenth-century France were those determined primarily by bourgeois society. In contrast to the English notion of the eccentric as a harmless oddity, French perceptions of eccentricity during this period were deeply ambivalent, and sometimes contradictory. As the country struggled to contain the aftershocks of the 1789 Revolution, itsupper and middle classes viewed difference as a threat (to religion, morality, and convention), while simultaneously admiring thosewho dared to assert their individuality. Eschewing a strictlychronological approach, Miranda Gill examines four spheres of Parisian life inwhich this dichotomy was most visible and engagingly problematic. Following an introductory chapter which traces the origins of eccentricity in French cultural discourse, the firstpart of the book deals with fashion, and the status ofwomen as both leaders and victims of sartorial desire. For many women in polite society, the 'never-closing eye' (p. 50) of public opinion could readily humiliate those who departed from the subtle elegance prescribed by etiquette manuals and physiolo gies'. Others, however, embraced fashion as ameans of reclaiming the freedom of expression denied them elsewhere in social and political life. While continuing to draw on an impressive range of sources, the focus of thevolume turns subsequently to the Parisian underworld, with its criminals and circus freaks offering a disturb ing image of themarginal, monstrous, and bizarre. The milieu of the fairground, in particular, is revealed as a distillation of post-1848 attitudes towards eccentricity, its one-limbed dancers and saltimbanques inducing a mixture of fascination and disgust inwriters such as Jules Valles, who brought them through the curtains of the fairground booth and into the domain ofbiographical literature. With seamless co herence leading into the finalpart of her discussion, Gill shows thatby 1830 artistic interest inmonstrosity already had a counterpoint inmedicine, with Etienne Geof froySaint-Hilaire's founding of the discipline of teratology, and the exploration of physical deformities which, in the second half of the century,would be stigmatized as a reflection of national decline. In each of these chapters, Gill has prepared her material with meticulous care. Her writing brims with factual detail and analytical MLR, 105.4, 2010 1161 insight,while under-discussed categories of eccentric, especially the lionne and fe male dandy, are returned firmlyto the critical foreground. An epilogue more than hints at the tantalizing possibility of further research in awider European context, with Dostoevsky's The Idiot (1869) employed as one example of the tension between eccentricity,mischief, and madness in nineteenth-century Russian fiction. Some important works relevant to these subjects (most notably Shoshana Felman's La Folie et la chose litteraire (Paris: Seuil, 1978)) do not appear in the bibliography of secondary literature. Itwould be churlish to complain about suchminor omissions, however, given that this book will serve as an invaluable reference for students, scholars, and all those interested in nineteenth-century French cultural studies. University of Birmingham Andrew Watts Correspondance generate (1824-1890). By Edouard Charton. Vol. 1:1824-1859; vol. 11:1860-1890. Ed. byMarie-Laure Aurenche. Paris: Champion. 2008. xlvii+2309 pp. ISBN 978-2-7453-1670-7 (vol. 1); 978-2-7453-1794-0 (vol. 11). Letters were the social cement of the nineteenth century. This massive compilation of 1573 letters has been assembled from an impressive range of archives and private papers by Marie-Laure Aurenche, author of...