La Femme devant le "tribunal masculin" dans trois romans des Lumières—Challe, Prévost, Cazotte (review)

Abstract

72 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION J.G. Rosso's important study, Etudes sur laféminité aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles [1984], is missing.) They will be of great use to readers of the French eighteenthcentury novel. In summary, Fein's book cannot be considered an important or significant contribution. It can be recommended, however, as an introduction to the study of women characters and their role in certain eighteenth-century French novels. Olga B. Cragg University of British Columbia Claudine Hunting. La Femme devant le "tribunal masculin" dans trois romans des Lumières—Challe, Prévost, Cazotte. Bern: Verlag Peter Lang AG (American University Studies), 1987. xix + 244pp. SFr56.25. Claudine Hunting has aptly chosen Challe's "Histoire de Monsieur des Frans et de Silvie," the sixth narrative in Les Illustres Françaises, Prévost's Manon Lescaut, and Cazotte's Le Diable amoureux to illustrate her thesis that women who either fail to respect the moral code imposed by a male hierarchy or who are blamed for their (perhaps falsely) perceived weaknesses or those of their male contemporaries, are depicted as primordially evil, as damned Eves, as adulteresses , as inconstant prostitutes, and even as devils. Male authors or narrators, however, do not wish to portray woman in this fashion and thus introduce the archetype of Mary Magdalen, the woman who tearfully accepts her guilt and who implores pity or pardon from the man at whose feet she kneels. The man, after overcoming his misogyny and anger, may then pardon his mistress; may actually take her place in a reversal of positions; and may reject the notion of woman as evil. This well-constructed thesis is neatly illustrated by the works chosen, and Hunting draws on a wealth of knowledge of the literature of the period and, to provide additional evidence, that of the Middle Ages as well. The author nicely explains that moral liberty did not really make freedom of choice available to women. In her conclusion she sets this argument against a backdrop of the novels and philosophical texts by Diderot, Laclos, and Voltaire. Madame de Merteuil, for example, in claiming the right of moral choice, apparently becomes a feminist heroine. This interpretation of Madame de Merteuil's role and of moral liberty challenges Henri Coulet's well-known explanation of Les Liaisons dangereuses in his Le Roman jusqu'à la Révolution, which treats Madame de Merteuil ironically, as a victim of her own fantasies and, indeed, as a libertine who becomes ensnared in her own trap. I question the assumption that author and narrator always share a point of view, which is also intended to be espoused by the reader. There is, for instance, a necessary divergence in points of view in Le Diable amoureux that enables REVIEWS 73 doubt about Biondetta's true identity to linger in the reader's mind. Manon Lescaut and "Silvie," moreover, are only small parts of larger works, but in Hunting's book they are considered in isolation. Her decision to study these works apart from the surrounding texts—in which the eighteenth-century reader would have known them—sadly limits her discussion. Within the framework of the study, chronology similarly presents a particular challenge both to author and reader. On the one hand, while closely related, the three works chosen illustrate a progression from evil temptress to devil in the image presented of woman. They also represent an increasing ambivalence on the part of the male characters in their relation to the heroine. On the other hand, this development does not seem to be matched by an evolution in the concept of choice for women. Women in the three selections are all the objects of fate and male perceptions, while the role played by Madame de Merteuil is that of subject. Moreover, because they do not fit this schema, Restii de la Bretonne's texts must be seen as fading anachronisms. While it is true that few people would later say that women should not learn to read, it is less evident that women would automatically become free subjects of novels in the nineteenth century. Professor Hunting wisely avoids the pitfall of attempting to reconcile the divergence between ideas and...