The Telling of the Act: Sexuality as Narrative in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century France by Peter Cryle (review)

Abstract

MLR, 98.4, 2003 989 found at La Brede by Henri Barckhausen at the beginning of the twentieth century, with a note by Prosper, son ofJoseph-Cyrille, made in 1828, saying that Charles-Louis had burnt many of the notes and that, after his death, the remainder had been re? turned to La Brede in 1825. The Catalogue and the note were published in volume 111 of the Masson edition ofthe (Euvres (3 vols; Paris: Nagel, 1950-55). The editors have not been able to trace the originals and rely therefore on the published versions, reproduced on pp. 276-80 of the present volume. L'Atelier de Montesquieu concentrates on those notes included in BM 2506, cartons v-vm, which can be explicitly identified in the Catalogue. Some of these are identified below: Carton v is entitled 'Materiaux de dissertation qui n'ont pu entrer dans L'Esprit des lois\ The present volume reproduces eight dossiers, all of interest, particularly dossier 5 concerning colonies, and dossier 12 concerning Roman and French law. Carton vi, dossier 1, consists of pieces variees, and dossier 4 consists of material on various aspects of usury. Carton vii, dossier 15, Geographie ancienne, considers the location of countries and seas in the ancient world; dossier 3 is about disputes and wars between individu? als or private armies. Dossier 14 is of considerable interest as it contains material concerning the development of judicial procedures in early modern France and supplements books 28 and 30 of L'Esprit, completed in haste under pressure of publication deadlines. Carton viii, dossier 9, Des grenierspublics, contains reflections on means to promote food production and avoid famines. Dossier 10, Du Commerce is an interesting supplement to book 20 of L'Esprit des lois. The introduction by the editors is an invaluable guide to the contents of this very varied miscellany. They name a number of other Montesquieu specialists to whom thanks are due, in particular the late Louis Desgraves, who completed in less than four years what they call ie travail colossal' of compiling an inventory of thefonds de la Brede and arranging for its publication. Kingston-on-Thames Iris Cox The Telling of theAct: Sexuality as Narrative in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century France. By Peter Cryle. London: Associated University Presses. 2001. 434 pp. ?38. ISBN 0-87413-748-9. Peter Cryle's major study of the topoi and metaphors of erotic fiction in pre- and post-Revolutionary France represents an important new contribution to critical writ? ing on this most neglected of genres. Cryle's fine hermeneutical analysis ofthe detail of language is matched by his impressively wide acquaintance with numerous erotic texts of his chosen period. His stated aims are essentially twofold: 'to contribute to the history of sexuality, focusing on representations of desire, pleasure and gender' (p. 11), but also, and more controversially, to critique the universalizing tendencies of psychoanalysis and sexology on the basis of Foucault's theory of the historical rel? ativity of discourses on sex. Cryle divides his study into three sections, 'Beginnings', 'The Middle', and 'Finishing', somewhat confusingly allocating chapters on climax and orgasm to 'The Middle'. The three chapters of 'Beginnings' provide detailed and fascinating accounts of the shifts in representation from 1750 to 1900 of furniture, flesh and blood, and aphrodisiacs, while the four chapters ofthe second section argue convincingly that nineteenth-century erotic fiction gradually elaborated a poetics of intensity.Of these, the chapters on utterance and ellipsis are particularly interesting, if 990 Reviews at times unnecessarily tendentious. The final part of the book addresses the difficulty of closure that nineteenth-century erotic novels share with many more modern narra? tives, although in the case ofthe former,the problem is sexual as well as narratorial. In insisting that 'people and their desires are not everywhere the same' (p. 48), Cryle is probably preaching to the converted ifhis intended readership is his fellow scholars, and indeed, this study does appear to be aimed less at the uninitiated than at a critical community that can be assumed to have read Foucault and broadly accepted his the? ories of discourse. Yet, accusations of loose interpretation and anachronistic readings levelled at other critics give the book...