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  • Versailles dans la littérature: mémoire et imaginaire aux XIXe et XXe siecles
  • Helen Abbott
Versailles dans la littérature: mémoire et imaginaire aux XIXe et XXe siecles. Études réunies et présentées par Véronique Léonard-Roques . Clermont-Ferrand, Presses universitaires Blaise Pascal, 2005. 431 pp. Pb €40.00.

The magnitude of Versailles as a monumental edifice gives an indication of the scale of the papers and studies collected together by Léonard-Roques, following a conference held in Versailles in March 2003. With twenty-five different contributors whose papers are organized into five different areas, and with a historical framework that spans two centuries, Versailles dans la littérature is a literary tour-de-force in its own right. Literary representations of Versailles are evaluated in texts as diverse as Chateaubriand and Henry James, although the primary corpus of authors considered are well-known French authors (such as Proust, Hugo, Gautier or the Goncourt brothers). Given the scale of the book, the expectation that this will be a comprehensive review of literary Versailles is, however, thwarted. The papers offer an eclectic though fascinating range of perspectives on architecture, politics, art, tourism, music and mythical idealism pertaining to Versailles. The spectre of the past — and particularly of Louis XIV — weighs heavily on Versailles' shoulders and the events of the 1789 Revolution or of 1871 cannot release themselves from this long-standing cultural and political tradition. The evaluation by Madelénat of reactions towards the proclamation of the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors on 18 January 1871 is remarkably similar to descriptions presented by Bajou of reactions to the 1789 Revolution: the people of the town of Versailles do not know how to respond to the dramatic political changes taking place because they strive to retain a sense of pride in Versailles as a glorious monument. As a consequence, literary texts elaborate a mythical fable which denatures the château's identity subsequent to its fall from political grace. The post-revolutionary emptiness of the château becomes filled with nostalgia (later fuelled by tourism and the establishment of the museum, notions which are evaluated in papers by Giacchetti or Pety) and Versailles takes on a set of metaphorical connotations as an abandoned ruin symbolizing past greatness. That Fix in her paper then takes up the issue of the disparaging stock phrase 'Mon mari est à Versailles' demonstrates that the metaphor of a forsaken Versailles takes on both positive and negative implications. The tantalizingly interesting and yet disappointingly sparse colour plates (of varying reproduction quality) which form the centre of the book illustrate Versailles' place not just within literature but also within art: further art forms are also addressed, including music (in Coste's paper) and dance (in Smoliarova's paper). By broadening the book's remit beyond literature in the strict sense, the book retains its quality of a smorgasbord. If there is one over-riding consensus within the varying representations of Versailles from the collection of papers offered, it is that Versailles remains as much a mythical building as it is a physical one, and it is ingrained on the French national psyche as a monument of troubled political identity.

Helen Abbott
King’S College London
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