Manon Lescaut Research Articles

The Statics of the Threshold

The paper is a narratological study that problematizes the graphic or textual demarcation between the preface to the novel as a secondary text and the novel as a primary text. Methodologically, it draws on the study Thresholds (Seuils, 1987) and attempts to explain Genette’s structural and functional definition of prefaces, especially those that the French structuralist labels as pseudo-editorial, through more recent studies on the frame narrative (e.g. Abbot 2004, Fludernik 2009, Wolf 2006). On one hand, it outlines the possibilities of the above-mentioned structural categories coinciding, while on the other hand it points to the presence of an independent, broader fabula in both the preface and the frame narrative.In particular, it focuses on the problem of the functional image of certain prefaces in the Enlightenment novel, analysing the prefaces to Prévost’s Manon Lescaut and Marivaux’s The Life of Marianne, while taking Cervantes’s Don Quixote as a historical starting point. The chosen examples demonstrate how and why the boundary between the preface and the novel became blurred in the 18th century, a time when the novel as a narrative genre was articulated and established. One of the main, if not the only, functions of the pseudo-editorial preface, which is per definitionem fictional, is to create the impression of authenticity, with the preface-writer most often using the topos of a found manuscript. However, it turns out that its “dramatization” goes beyond the textual boundaries of the preface and continues in the novel itself, proving that the graphic image of the preface as a paratext no longer corresponds to its functional image.Even if we can trace a similar narrative strategy in both Baroque and Enlightenment novels, it is necessary to distinguish between the reasons for it application. Don Quixote is an example of artful, dynamic, “ingenious” composition and parodies the preface as a rhetorical convention. The fictional nature of the Enlightenment novel, however, inevitably rests on an impression of verisimilitude, and consequently the preface, the privileged place where these two characteristics meet, becomes a full-fledged literary component of the narrative work.

The Representation of Love in Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost

Abstract This work analyses the way in which the representation of love in the novel Manon Lescaut by Prévost highlights some important aspects that mark the perception of love in the eighteenth century. Following the literary tradition of Classicism, according to which passionate love is a source of evil and even of the protagonists’ death, in Prévost’s novel, the Chevalier Des Grieux’s passionate love arises from the concern of the Age of Enlightenment to emphasize the importance of individual identity, which implies the freedom and courage to decide on one’s own life, the refusal of one’s positioning in an inherited hierarchy, at the top of which there lies the paternal or divine authority. To illustrate this conviction, Prévost builds a love story in which the male character occupies the privileged place, and femininity does not represent strangeness or otherness but an artificial entity, one created from within the male figure to capture his departure from the original, paradisiacal state of moral perfection. Under these circumstances, the construction of the female character becomes a tribute to the literary tradition of the representation of charm and beauty as sources of the extreme degradation of the male character.

IL PASSERO SOLITARIO DI MONTALE: UN MERLO AZZURRO E UN FILO ROSSO

Starting from a verse from the Psalms and one of Petrarca’s sonnets, the figure of the lonely sparrow was reclaimed by many poets, who sometimes transform it into an example of pained solitude and other times into a champion of melodic song or, more rarely, an expression of the joy of life. The poem by Giacomo Leopardi, rightly famous for its beauty and depth, casts a shadow on all the works that came before it. Leopardi, who partially identifies with the lonely sparrow, imposes the stamp of his style upon its image, and as a consequence the later poets will rarely dare to contend with that subject. Montale returns to the image of the sparrow, in prose and in verse, but does not identify expressly with it, although he shows a measured empathy. In his prose works he criticises the commentators who have mistaken the protago- nist of Leopardi’s poem for a common sparrow, a bird characterised by its modest chirping and friendly nature, whereas it is in fact a bird of a different species, the blue rock thrush or monticola solitarius, fond of isolation and gifted with a melodious song, which reminds him of an aria from Manon Lescaut by Jules Massenet. Furthermore, Montale mentions the lonely sparrow in various poems, written from 1945 to nearly his death. In these verses the Ligurian poet reflects, among other things, on the wake that animals leave behind in the human spirit and especially on the remorse he feels having killed a lonely sparrow in his youth, during his summer stays in Cinque Terre.

How and why I fell into neuropathology.

I'm going to explain how and why I fell into the Department of Neuropathology at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital of Paris. I'd also like to sketch the history of French neuropathology in the years 1960-2010, as seen by a naive young student, and then by a practicing neuropathologist (often still very naive). As a matter of fact, although the history of neurosciences [1-2] and the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris [3-4] have been the subject of numerous publications, the history of neuropathology in this hospital has been rarely documented [5-6]. I spent more than forty years strolling along the alleys of La Salpêtrière, among its old pavilions, the Saint Louis chapel, the "Pavillon des folles", the courtyard of Manon Lescaut and the guard room. I worked full-time between the Escourolle laboratory, the "Amphithéâtre des morts" and the University. It has been a real pleasure to be part of this world. I would also like to offer young doctors in training and future neuropathologists some advice that might help them in the choice and development of their future careers.

L’argent du libertinage. Actes de la journée d’étude virtuelle du 31 juillet 2021 ed. par Éric Turcat

Reviewed by: L’argent du libertinage. Actes de la journée d’étude virtuelle du 31 juillet 2021 ed. par Éric Turcat Theresa Varney Kennedy Turcat, Éric, éd. L’argent du libertinage. Actes de la journée d’étude virtuelle du 31 juillet 2021. L’Harmattan, 2021. ISBN 978-2-343-2-4677-2. Pp. 188. This book is a fascinating collection of essays that examine the relationship between libertine culture and money over time. The first three essays, by Kathryn A. Hoffman, Alice Brown, and Claire Quaglia, show how aristocrats struck the right balance between lavish spending and prudent budgeting. Hoffman’s intriguing essay, “Le libertinage doré: la culture matérielle de l’inclination au XVIIe siècle,” broadens our understanding of the “honest” man or woman in the seventeenth century, and the kinds of expenses that propelled one’s social standing. Brown’s “L’avare de Molière: richesse et ascension sociale face au libertinage” explains how Molière’s play demonstrated that greed was incompatible with social advancement. Quaglia’s essay, “L’argent du libertinage dans Les mémoires de Brienne le Jeune,” shows how libertinism could go overboard—that the pursuit of pleasure could become obsessive and quickly lead to one’s downfall. Other contributions explore how bourgeois female libertinism affected eighteenth-century France. Julia Abramson undertakes a broad analysis of the protagonist’s relationship to the new economy in Marivaux’s Le paysan parvenu and Prévost’s Manon Lescaut. Éric Turcat’s essay, cleverly titled “Manon des ressources? Le roman de Prévost comme livre de raison,” debunks the idea that Manon is an excellent businesswoman by blaming her bankruptcy on her inability to effectively manage her resources and maintain a budget. By contrast, Denis Grélé depicts Fougeret de Montbron’s Margot la ravadeuse as a more successful heroine who reaches personal financial independence. That said, as the final essays show, money does not always lead to satisfaction. Encarnación Medina Arjona’s essay, “Zola ou le libertinage des Rougon sous le Second Empire,” warns how social corruption, materialism, and obsession with power and wealth can lead to sexual perversion. Similarly, Giovanni Dotoli’s piece on Léon Bloy shows how the author uses money as an allegory for the world’s tendency toward evil, and its need for God’s redemption. Covering a wide period, this collection of essays is a welcome addition to students and scholars of French literature. Each piece stands on its own and adds to our knowledge of early modern France. But the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Taken together, Turcat’s edited volume not only provides scintillating detail about libertine culture, it also delves into contemporary advice and admonishments about the limits and perils of that culture. The book should be equally praised for its thought-provoking analyses of the literature. Furthermore, it admirably engages a variety of sources. It alludes to some of the best-known authors and works (e.g., Molière’s L’avare and Prévost’s Manon Lescaut) as well as lesser known, yet still important, authors (e.g., Brienne le Jeune and Fougeret de Montbron). The book is both a series of stand-alone essays and a comprehensive contribution. It is both engaging and delightful. [End Page 275] Theresa Varney Kennedy Baylor University (TX) Copyright © 2022 American Association of Teachers of French

Le Willis: leggenda in un atto in due parti di Ferdinando Fontana by Giacomo Puccini, and: Le Villi: opera-ballo in due atti di Ferdinando Fontana by Giacomo Puccini

Reviewed by: Le Willis: leggenda in un atto in due parti di Ferdinando Fontanaby Giacomo Puccini, and: Le Villi: opera-ballo in due atti di Ferdinando Fontanaby Giacomo Puccini Kunio Hara Giacomo Puccini. Le Willis: leggenda in un atto in due parti di Ferdinando Fontana. Edizione critica a cura di = Critical Edition edited by Martin Deasy. (Le opera di Giacomo Puccini, edizione critica = The Operas of Giacomo Puccini, critical edition, vol. I.a.) Milan: Ricordi, 2020. [Pref. by Gabriele Dotto in It. and Eng., p. vii–xiii; historical introd. and acknowledgments in It. and Eng., p. xv–xxx; sigla It. and Eng., p. xxxi; characters, p. xxxii; instruments, p. xxxiii; score, p. 1–236; sources in Eng., p. 237–41; crit. notes in Eng., p. 243–62. ISMN 979-0-041-39546-3; ISBN 978-88-8192-069-3. $262] Giacomo Puccini. Le Villi: opera-ballo in due atti di Ferdinando Fontana. Edizione critica a cura di = Critical Edition edited by Martin Deasy. (Le opera di Giacomo Puccini, edizione critica = The Operas of Giacomo Puccini, critical edition, vol. I.b.) Milan: Ricordi, 2020. [Pref. by Gabriele Dotto in It. and Eng., p. vii–xiii; historical introd. and acknowledgments in It. and Eng., p. xv–xxxiv; sigla It. and Eng., p. xxxv; characters, p. xxxvi; instruments, p. xxxvii; score, p. 1–333; appendices, p. 335–87; sources in Eng., p. 389–96; crit. notes in Eng., p. 397–425. ISMN 979-0-041-41755-4; ISBN 978-88-8192-068-6. $327.50.] In 2013 Casa Ricordi launched its Critical Edition of the Operas of Giacomo Puccini (OGP), under the general editorship of Gabriele Dotto, with the publication of Manon Lescautedited by Roger Parker. As Matthew Franke argues in his review of the edition in this journal, the publication marked the fruition of a long-awaited goal of multiple generations of Puccini scholars ("The First Volume in Ricordi's Puccini Edition," Notes72, no. 1 [2015]: 226–30). It seems fitting that the OGP's first publication would be Manon Lescaut, for even though it was his third opera, it was the work that established Puccini's international reputation as one of the leading composers of Italian opera of his day. Seven years later, in 2020, the publisher issued the first volume of the series in two parts, the critical edition of Puccini's first opera edited by Martin Deasy. The first part (I.a), Le Willis, restores Puccini's opera to its original one-act form as it was premiered in Milan in the spring of 1884; the second part (I.b), Le Villi, captures the final form of the two-act version of the same opera Puccini completed in late 1884 and continued to revise until 1889. The publication of multiple versions of the same operas is an exception for the series, at least according to the list of the entire series included in the "Preface" by Dotto. The only other opera that receives similar treatment is Madama Butterflywhich exists in two-act and three-act versions (I.a, p. xi). Deasy [End Page 599]himself justifies this arrangement by emphasizing the structural and aesthetic differences between the two versions of the opera (I.a, p. xxvii). This points to a particularly thorny issue that has historically bedeviled those attempting to create critical editions of Puccini's operas. Promotional material for the series on Ricordi's website summarizes the problem succinctly in this manner: "Puccini's ceaseless penchant for revision led to a quantity of simultaneously available, sometime overlapping 'versions' of text. As a further complication, 'performing materials' hired out to opera houses were kept updated with corrections that did not always find their way consistently into full and vocal scores offered to the general public" ("Giacomo Puccini—Critical Editions," Ricordi, Universal Music Publishing Group, https://www.ricordi.com/en-US/Critical-Editions/Puccini-Giacomo-Critical-Editions.aspx, [accessed 19 January 2022]). In previous decades, this abundance of materials has both been a source of productive scholarly engagement as well as frustration (see Linda Fairtile, "Giacomo Puccini's Operatic Revisions as Manifestations of His Compositional Priorities" [PhD diss., New York University, 1996]; Philip Gossett, "Some...

НОВЫЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ ТВОРЧЕСТВА А.-Ф. ПРЕВО

The review deals with a few recent studies on the writings by the Antoine François Prévost and pay special attention to his novels The History of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut (1731), The History of young Commander (1741), and The Dean of Killerine (1735-1740). The reviewed works clarify some features of the genre of memoir-novel, examine functions of the free indirect discourse, outline the evolution of the conception of The Dean of Killerine (1735-1740), analyze «prison» as a particular space, and follow transformations of characters’ images.

Selfhood in the Early Finance Capitalism of Manon Lescaut

Abstract Prévost’s memoir-novel, L’Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut, engages with the challenges of deploying traditional modes of literary description (characterology and allegorization) in the nascent reign of finance capitalism. This article examines the interrelationship between abstraction and material existence in the early eighteenth-century French bestseller Manon Lescaut. By underscoring the ambivalences of class ideology via the context of financial revolution, I argue that Prévost experiments with a new moral economy of selfhood that grapples with, and perhaps ultimately loosens itself from, the strictures of ancien régime social identity.

A Poetics of Confusion: Casanova’s Histoire de ma vie as Bildungsroman

Casanova warns readers in the preface of the Histoire de ma vie: “I do not write a novel or the story of an illustrious person.” Casanova refuses to character ize the written story of his life as novel or memoir, and he borrows from the poetics of these two genres, which are situated at opposite ends of the social spectrum. Following the ups and downs of its author’s chequered career, the Histoire de ma vie embodies a poetics of confusion and merges competing literary models. One of these models is the Bildungsroman or “roman de formation” illustrated in ancien régime France by such works as Prévost’s Manon Lescaut (1731), Marivaux’s Le Paysan parvenu (1734), and Voltaire’s L’Ingénu (1767). Studying Casanova’s account of his two Parisian sojourns of 1750–52 and 1757–59, which he describes as “mes années d’apprentissage,” this article investigates the author’s borrowing and eventual undermining of Bildungsroman poetics.

Becoming a Francophile: A Half-Century Love Affair by Leonard Rosmarin

Reviewed by: Becoming a Francophile: A Half-Century Love Affair by Leonard Rosmarin Alice J. Strange Rosmarin, Leonard, Becoming a Francophile: A Half-Century Love Affair. Mosaic, 2019. ISBN 978-1-771614344. Pp. 241. In this memoir, a Canadian professor of French, retired from Brock University in Ontario, sets out to identify the forces that contribute to his identity as a Francophile. He spent extended periods in France as a student, director of a study abroad program, and visiting professor at Université de Perpignan. His descriptions of life in France are interesting but scarcely original. Conventional points are covered: first impressions, student life, French bureaucracy, housing issues, French friends, cultural sites, and, especially, his love of French history and literature. As an educator, he frequently compares French and Canadian educational institutions, illustrating his impressions with anecdotes. Unlike Canadian students, French university students like to present a challenging attitude toward a new professor. He enjoyed a sense of professional triumph when he gained their respect and became a popular professor. His command of French opened doors to friendships, often with teachers and administrators at his or his daughters' schools. He interacts with a privileged, educated segment of French society and rarely refers to larger social or political issues. French friends, whom he describes in detail, figure greatly in his positive memories. The most appealing sections of the work are his excursions into the Pyrénées-Orientales. This southeastern-most [End Page 250] department of France, nestled between the Mediterranean and the Spanish border, abounds in cultural interests. The French Catalan region is especially beautiful and rich in popular traditions. On the other hand, at several points in the text, Rosmarin abruptly switches his focus away from lived personal experience to insert basic historical facts and summaries of literary works with which he has a special connection. These digressions consist of information familiar to Francophile readers and seem at odds with his announced project. For example, he includes a digression on the life and achievements of Charles de Gaulle. At Versailles, he expounds on the life of Louis XIV. At a dramatic performance in Perpignan, he recounts in detail the plot of Corneille's Le Cid. In each case, these digressions disrupt the flow of his personal memories and seem detached from his undertaking. In addition, the Francophile reader may also feel startled when Rosmarin translates even the most basic French expressions into English. His concluding chapter is an analysis of love à la française, in the form of an academic discourse. Rather than refer to any personal experiences, he devotes the final chapter to an investigation of a French belief that passion and marriage are irreconcilable. To support this theory, Rosmarin summarizes La princesse de Clèves, Manon Lescaut, and Les liaisons dangereuses as examples of his view. Although the connection is not clear, the reader is left to assume that this belief contributes to his identity as a Francophile. Overall, this memoir seems intended for the author's family and associates, and readers unfamiliar with the basics of French language and culture. Some Francophile readers may enjoy comparing Rosmarin's experiences to their own, but they will find few original insights. Alice J. Strange Southeast Missouri State University, emerita Copyright © 2020 American Association of Teachers of French

The Time-Space Dimension in mass and multifigure scenes of “Manon Lescaut” by G. Puccini

The Time-Space Dimension in mass and multifigure scenes of “Manon Lescaut” by G. Puccini

Денежные Liaisons Dangereuses в романе Ф.М. Достоевского «Игрок»

Денежные отношения героев играют в романе отнюдь не случайную роль, образуя не внешнюю канву, а внутреннюю динамику действия. Только правильное понимание характера этих отношений даёт ключ к интерпретации романа. Гипертекстуальность «Игрока» по отношению к «Отцу Горио» О. де Бальзака, «Даме с камелиями» А. Дюма-сына и «Манон Леско» А. Прево позволяет уточнить смысл некоторых «экономических узлов» романа. В свою очередь они дают возможность определить центральную сюжетную коллизию «Игрока». Проведённый анализ проясняет характер русского классического романа и прежде всего «пятикнижия» Достоевского как результат своего рода литературного скрещивания романа бальзаковского типа с романом В. Гюго, центральной темой которого оказывается «восстановление погибшего человека».

Re-forming Manon: A New History of Edith Wharton's 1901 Play, Manon Lescaut

Abstract Edith Wharton's unpublished Manon Lescaut, A Play in Five Acts, has been overlooked as a significant work in Wharton's early career. Reduced to the term “adaptation,” which diminishes its importance, Wharton, in fact, revised Abbé Prévost's treatment of the fallen woman stereotype as she explored literary and dramatic form. New materials from the Paul Kester Papers at the New York Public Library, period newspaper articles, letters from Walter Berry to Wharton, and a second copy of the manuscript itself offer a new history of this drama. Composed in 1900, the play almost made it to the New York stage starring Julia Marlowe after the actress Marie Tempest withdrew. But a fall 1900 dispute with Marlowe's manager, C. B. Dillingham, regarding Manon's moral character and the length of the play resulted in Wharton's defense of her creative choices in three letters and five pages of Notes. Additionally, letters by Walter Berry to Wharton discuss the possibility of replacing Marlowe with Olga Nethersole, the actress who was indicted on indecency charges for her performance in Clyde Fitch's Sapho. The context of Wharton's Manon Lescaut shows a playwright in charge of her craft, navigating the complicated theatrical world, and defending her creative vision.

Editor's Note

Editor's Note

Femme Fatale or Feminist Heroine? Interpreting Manon Lescaut

Since its initial publication (Amsterdam, 1731) as the seventh and final volume of the abbé Prévost’s Mémoires et aventures d’un homme de qualité qui s’est retiré du monde (1728–31), L’Histoire du chevalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut has inspired hundreds of critical reviews, studies, sequels, illustrations, and adaptations. Since the eighteenth century, critical and cultural interpretations have focused almost singularly on Manon, alternately casting her as a sympathetic catin, a femme fatale, or, more recently, a feminist heroine. In this essay, I will trace the history of these interpretations, which underscore both characteristics particular to the narrative itself as well as reveal something about individual readers and their times. Manon Lescaut is a compelling case study of a novel’s reception which entails questions of contextualization and (mis)reading, and ultimately makes an important contribution to current academic discussions about rethinking the Enlightenment and its legacies.

Ethnography and armchair visual artistry: Charles Nicolas Cochin’s illustrations of the Histoire générale des voyages

ABSTRACTFrom 1746 to 1759, the abbé Prévost produced the Histoire générale des voyages, a collection of voyages and travels, partially translated from the English collection A New General Collection of Voyages and Travels. Mostly known as the author of the novel Manon Lescaut (1731), Prévost was also recognised for his penmanship, his taste for travel adventures and for his scholarly translations of historical books. This article focuses on the involvement of French artist Charles-Nicolas Cochin in undertaking several images for the French collection. Cochin recycled the existing images from the English edition but also drew new illustrations for previously unillustrated portions of the text, renewing the text–image relationships at work. The comparison of both texts reveals cultural differences pertaining to the visual aesthetics of travel illustrations which, in turn, formed the basis for different representations of the faraway.

Eighteenth-Century Escape Tales: Between Fact and Fiction. Edited by Michael J. Mulryan and Denis D. Grélé.

This collection of five studies analyses narratives from three national contexts, with France as its principal focus. The first chapter asserts that the Cyclops episode in the Odyssey was the model for two accounts of escapes from the Bastille (those of the abbé de Bucquoy and of Jean-Henri Masers de Latude), and that of Casanova’s flight from the Piombi in Venice. It is followed by analyses of the biographies, intended for popular consumption, of the robbers Louis-Dominique Cartouche and John Sheppard in French and English respectively (Chapter 2), and of representations of the jewel thief, the comtesse de La Motte-Valois — another escapee from the Bastille — who would attempt to ingratiate herself with the Revolutionary cause from across the English Channel (Chapter 3). The last two contributions study prison as a refuge from immorality in the form of the novel (Manon Lescaut), and the theme of the escape from an ‘oppressive’ utopian society (Tyssot de Patot’s Les Voyages et avantures de Jaques Massé). An Introduction explores some of the commonalities in these diverse escape narratives, such as their potential to act as a ‘threat to the status quo’ (p. xix), or their role in the creation of a mythology surrounding individual prisoners or prisons (most obviously, the Bastille). There is no denying the interest of these varied narratives, and their capacity to reflect such aspects of eighteenth-century thought as the place of the individual in society, the ‘force’ of the passions (p. xvi), or even (in the account of Massé’s Voyages) the oppressive nature of organizing time itself. Two escapees also vividly illustrate how individuals attempted to reposition themselves for their own ends during the turmoil of the Revolution. La Motte-Valois, as Claire Trévien writes, was ultimately unable to ‘rebrand herself’ through her memoirs (p. 54), whereas Latude, after the storming of the Bastille, ‘wandered around the worksite, sharing his life story with whoever would listen to him’ before finding himself ‘paraded through the streets as a revolutionary hero’ (editors’ introduction, p. xxiv). Chapter 4 strikingly illustrates another facet of thinking about space in the Ancien Régime, with the Americas, as Rori Bloom writes, becoming a vertiginous ‘world without walls’ for the two central protagonists of Manon Lescaut (p. 67). This is quite a concise volume, and its overall conclusions are based on a relatively wide geographical range, and a comparatively limited number of case studies. The editors posit a wide-ranging transformation in thinking about imprisonment according to which ‘prison becomes the main punishment’ in itself, but one might expect more sustained critical engagement with, for example, the Foucauldian model (and which might nuance the idea, put forward in the closing lines, that ‘at the dawn of the nineteenth century’, ‘royal power’ was compelled to ‘[implement] better justice for all’, p. 84). There are several instances where greater attention to copy-editing might be wished for (for example, ‘tempting the feat’, p. 8; ‘receiving his last rights’ p. 37). Nonetheless, this book offers a range of new perspectives about the strategies employed by marginalized individuals to criticize society, and, when the occasion arose, to negotiate a new place for themselves within it.

The "Femme Fatale": A Literary and Cultural Version of Femicide

The figure of the femme fatale is understood as inviting her own murder. Supposedly, the cause of the violence done by a man in thrall to her, she is in fact the primary victim of this violence. In the French confessional narrative, the woman is always somehow at fault for the protagonist’s failure, whether by loving him too little or too much; she dies and he lives to tell the tale, recounting it to another man who listens and absolves. Thus, the heroine both dies again and is revived, to be contained — in both senses — in the text. Fictions from three centuries — Prévost’s Manon Lescaut (1753), Mérimée’s Carmen (1845), and Gide’s L’Immoraliste (1902) — will be compared for their representation of literary femicide. Almost a century later, the changed ending of Fatal Attraction (directed by Lyne in 1987) demonstrates the public’s clamor for the killing of a supposedly dangerous woman. A final section compares the significance of Princess Diana with these fictional instances of femicide: How did our love for her bring on her violent death?

La littérature au prisme de l’économie: argent et roman en France au XIXe siècle éd. par Francesco Spandri

Reviews 269 principe échappe le plus souvent à l’auteur lui-même” (65). This endeavor inevitably bears the mark of an author’s point of view and, according to Bourdieu, encompasses the entire history of the field of literature (67). As for the reception of literary works, a sociological approach seeks to go beyond a quantitative approach by providing an appreciation of the various modes of appropriation and interpretation to which works are subjected over time. Needless to say, a “sociologie de la lecture” proves eminently daunting in its realization. Moreover, it is a task whose complexity has only grown as a result of the international circulation of literature and literary theory. New fields, such as the sociology of translation and the sociology of transnational modes of appropriation are emerging. In concluding her concise, dense, and most valuable survey Sapiro notes that“si de nombreuses pistes de recherche ont été ouvertes, il reste beaucoup à faire” (108), thus stating what has become both obvious and challenging in the area of her investigations. Ohio State University Karlis Racevskis Spandri, Francesco, éd. La littérature au prisme de l’économie: argent et roman en France au XIXe siècle. Paris: Garnier, 2014. ISBN 978-2-8124-2981-1. Pp. 400. 49 a. This important collection, comprised of an introduction and eighteen essays, sees the novelistic imaginary and monetary logic as intertwining worlds, producing a reflection on money in its triple nature of formal principle, thematic network, and cultural object.Adhesion to economic theories and Marxist criticism can only provide an approximation of what the truth of money in literature might be. We must return to the inaugural moments of the novel’s constitution, the eighteenth century, and reexamine texts like Le paysan parvenu and Manon Lescaut, in order to discover the avenues later explored by novelists in the century of the industrial revolution and triumphant capitalism.After Spandri’s historical introduction, five essays treat matters of form. Pierluigi Pellini analyses economic topoi in the Rougon-Macquart, in comparison with models in Balzac and Dickens. Jean-Joseph Goux, Éric Bordas, and Susi Pietri study Balzac, the first establishing links between the omniscience of money and the omniscient narrator, the next examining the various registers of the financial lexicon, and the latter looking at how various contemporaries like Henry James and Hugo von Hoffmannsthal understood the Comédie humaine. Christophe Reffait asks what representations of states of matter in Jules Verne’s tales have to say about money and its circulation. The next section treats financial themes and contains two more essays on Balzac, Fabrice Wilhelm analyzing the unique figure of the prodigal father, and Paolo Tortonese studying the intricate relationships between interest, self-love, and motivation. Yves Ansel shows how attitudes about money and privilege in Stendhal betray certain aristocratic prejudices, François Vanoosthuyse demonstrates the consolatory function of the popular novel in his essay on ideological issues in the Comte de Monte-Cristo, and Agnese Silvestri shows how, in George Sand, the future is open to those who use their wealth to prepare a more equal future. Luca Pietromarchi asks the extent to which the Flaubertian description of human relations obeys the dynamics of commerce and finance. Karen Haddad and Pierre Glaudes examine the abstract nature of money, the former seeing it as something that vanishes in Dostoyevsky, the latter understanding it as a source of deep spiritual anxiety in Léon Bloy. Valerio Cordiner studies the realistic fresco of industrials and bankers of the Third Republic in the virtuosic writings of Maurice Barrès. The final section sees money as a cultural object.Annamaria Lessara examines the paradoxical relationships between bourgeois ideology and dandyism in Chateaubriand, Stendhal, Balzac, and Baudelaire.Maria Luisa Maniscalco analyses the contribution that Alexis de Tocqueville made in creating the sub-discipline of the sociology of money. Carole ChristenLecuyer uses the example of savings banks, founded in 1818, to show how propaganda literature and novels employed pedagogies of money to resolve social questions. Finally, François Vatin demonstrates how the works of Eugène Buret (1811–43), known as a social investigator of poverty, cannot be disassociated from his literary Romanticism. This motley, enjoyable collection provides an invaluable...

The Visual Journey of Manon Lescaut: Emblematic Tendencies and Artistic Innovation

AbstractThe visual corpus of Manon Lescaut is a rich and complex ensemble. In this article I discuss five prevalent and distinct tendencies in the illustration of Prévost's novel, looking at iconographic series that are highly original and/or particularly intriguing in the interpretation they propose of this canonical text. I have chosen examples from five time periods (the Directory, the Romantic era, the Belle Epoque, the inter‐war years and the 1950s) and two geographic regions (France and America). I focus on book illustration as a receptacle for artistic creativity, a site for the reception of the text and a locus for strategic marketing.