Abstract
This essay reveals the affinity between Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's novel Paul et Virginie (1788) and Le Sueur's version of the opera (1794) by reading them in light of the eighteenth-century French interest in natural history. Bernardin's novel was first published as part of his 1784 Études de la nature. I identify naturalist and aspiring composer Lacépède's 1785 Poétique de la musique, which influenced Le Sueur's 1787 Exposé d'une musique, as the missing link between the novel and the opera. Both author and composer investigate the relationship between nature, sentiment, melancholy and music in their theoretical writings, giving advice to young artists that they apply in their fictive works. The opera should therefore be considered not a flawed adaptation of the novel but rather a musical rendition of their shared theoretical convictions.
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