George Sand and Autobiography by Janet Hiddleston (review)

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Reviews 832 highly edueated milieu inhabited byallthree women?). However, irritating asthe style canbe,theaceount ofthese three colourful, passionate lives, andofthree attempts to createa selfthrough writing, is fascinating. Eachliveda longand eventful life during which sheuseda variety ofgenres togivevent topassionate enthusiasms andangers, thelatter provoked notleast bytheoppression ofhersex, atleastas itaXected thewriter. Eachdisplayed intelleetual curiosity anda lively desire tocommunicate andtobe heard.Letters (addressed inLeroyer's caseto Sand,Miehelet andFlaubert, whoallreplied), essays (Renoozwasthefounder of theanti-Darwinian Societe J%eosophique), short stories, diaries, fragments ofnovels, all poured from their pens, very few ofthese finding their wayinto print. Theynone thelessconstitute evidenee ofshared female preoceupations andoftheimportanee ofwriting towomen ofa eertain classatthis period. Intermittently, Smith Allen makes a casefor the presence here ofa pre-Cixousian ecriturefeminine andanimplicit critique ofphallogocentrism. Thisisnotwholly convineing ofwriters whoseem to haveemployed a largely conventional discourse, buttheeasefor 'traces offeminist eonseiousness' (p. I52) andfor eachwriter's difficult struggle for discursive agency ismueh more persuasive. UNIVERSITY OFLEEDS DIANA HOLMES George Sand and Autobiography. BYJANET HIDDLESTON. (Research Monographs in Freneh Studies, 5). Oxford: Legenda, European Humanities Researeh Centre. I999. I07 pp. Sand'sstoek stood markedly higher inherowncentury than ithasuntil relatively recently in thetwentieth. Yet HenryJames,by no meanstheleastof her international galaxy ofadmirers, wasopenly dismissive ofHistoire demavie, the autobiography towhich Sanddevoted herself onandoffbetween I 847andI 854. He characterized itas 'a nondescript performance, which hasneither thevalueof truth northeillusion offiction' (p.3),anditishard todisagree. Thereisnodoubt thatSandcouldanddidwrite badlyonoccasion (theundistinguished potboilers L'Orco andL'Uscoque date, after all,from exactly thesameperiod asSpiridion, oneof hermajor achievements) andthelateJanet Hiddleston is,attimes, oddly tentative inher claims for the work, almost (though perhaps notquite) asifshewere trying to convince herself that itisactually worth writing about. Themonograph reviews andanalyses Sand'spurpose(s) inwriting herautobiography , prior to assessing herdepiction ofthekeyrelationships inherlife, the tensions between her mother andher grandmother aswell asher feelings about and forherlargely absentfather (killed whenshewas onlyfour). Therefollows a consideration ofthestructure ofthetext, and ofthefeatures thatsupposedly distinguish malefrom female writing. A final chapter returns toandextends the vexed question oftheroleofgender, anda conclusion, inmany respects themost compelling section ofthebook,offiers a fascinating analysis ofcentraI image polarities oftheautobiography, Paris versus Nohant, theGarden ofEdenversus 'a room ofone'sown'.Yet,as Hiddleston admits, theHistoire demavie 'hasa certain hybrid quality' that 'still leavesSand'scontradictions, particularly those ofgender, largely unresolved' (p.92).Asa result, despite much perceptive analysis, noreal senseofthework as a coherent orunified wholeemerges. Partly, I think, this is because thetext is,frankly, such a ragbag. Partly, though, itsurely derives from the amount ofspacethatHiddleston devotes toreviewing andsummarizing recent critical approaches toSand.Someofthese arequitespectacularly daft: whatis somewhat irritating, though, isnotthe daftness itself somuch asthe way Hiddleston MLR,96.3,200I 833 cannever quite seemtosummon thecourage ofherconvictions tosayso.'What is therelevance ofsuchmodernist speculation tothewritings ofSandwholivedI50 years earlier?' (p.8I ), shegloomily inquires, butanswer comes there none. Thereis a degree ofcarelessness evident in theproof-reading, specifically in respect oftitles oftexts (LesReveries d'unpromeneur solitaire, 'Henri'instead ofHen7y Brulard, 'Rudolfstadt' instead ofRudolstadt) andnamesofcritics (Bozon-Scalzitti becomes'Bozon-Scalzetti' throughout, and bothLeslie Rabine and Avrom Fleishman aremisspelt inthe Bibliography). UNIVERSITY OF KENT ATCANTERBURY KELITH WREN Madame Bovaty Representations oftheMasculine. ByMARY ORR. (Romanticism and After inFrance, 3)Bern: Peter Lang. I999. 229 pp £23. Inthis bookMary Orrclaims to'demonstrate howMadame Bovaty hasmuch tosay aboutcontemporary preoccupations ingender theory, thecrisis ofmasculinity in late-twentieth-century Western consumer society, andaboutthecult ofyouth and fear ofageing inan increasingly technologized medico-centric world' (p. I5). In fact, themainfocus ofherwork lieselsewhere. Despite passing references to'the ongoing problems mencontinue tofacetoday', Orr'sanalysis isgrounded inthe models ofbehaviour setoutintheCode SNapoleon ofI804. Hercentral argument is that Madame Bovary canbereadasa microcosm oftheconstructions ofmasculinity laiddownbytheCode, andinclaiming that'thenovelprophetically heralds the crises maleidentity iscurrently confronting', sheoXers a suggestive andoriginal reading ofitsmalecharacters. Sheconsiders these under thebroadcategories of 'Fathers' and'Sons'.The'Fathers' (Rouaultpere, Bovarypere, M.Roger, Bournisien, Canivet, Lariviere, Guillaumin, Lheureux andHomais) areviewed astheembodimentofpatriarchal valuesthatare out of control, whilethe'Sons' (Justin, Rodolphe, LeonandCharles) areseenas demonstrating howgender is socially constructed, andas passing implicit judgement onthe'Fathers'. Theworkings of socialhierarchies ofclass,profession andsexcontribute further tothecomplex tensions that areshown toemerge from a novel which, Orrsuggests, stems from Flaubert's ownstruggle tomove beyond hisearlier literary failure. While the broad sweep ofOrr's argument isconvincing, some ofherassertions aredubious. Isitnot somewhat reductive toargue, for example, that 'ifthe aftermath ofEmma's funeral isfor anything itisfor theelucidation ofthewoeful lackinPatriarchy's training of mentocopewith bereavement andstrong maleemotional...