The Female Mentor in Crébillon's Les Égarements du cœur et de l'esprit

The Female Mentor in Crébillon's Les Egarements du cœur et de Vesprit Katherine Deimling Crébillon's LesÉgarements du cœuret de l'espritprovides a textbook example ofwhatJean Rousset has called the "double registre" ofthe memoir novel:1 an older and wiser narrator relates the story of his younger, naïve self. The "I" is split into two different personae, hero and narrator, separated by time. In Crébillon's novel, the gap between the two is strikingly wide. While the narrator writes with a tone ofworld-weary assurance, his younger self—eternally undecided and awkward—demonstrates litde capacity for development. As Crébillon never completed the novel, the transition from point A to point B is not documented. This impossible divide between hero and narrator can be seen as the essential condition for Crébillon's reflection on education and selfdevelopment . Since the two Meilcours exist at opposite poles of naïveté and experience—with no clear padi between diem—any linear notion ofcharacter development is removed from the novel. Not the product but the process of education—with all its hesitations and uncertainties—makes up Meilcour's story. As a tabula rasa, the hero is ripe for manipulation or indoctrination; in this way, attention is turned towards his mentors and die content oftheir teaching. Despite the ambitious three-part structure that Crébillon announces in his 1 Jean Rousset, "Marivaux ou Ia structure du double registre," Formeetsignification (Paris: Corti, 1964), pp. 45-64. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION, Volume 16, Number I.October 2003 14 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION preface, the unfinished novel takes place during a mere two weeks. The long-term moral and intellectual trajectory is narrowed to focus on key figures in the hero's introduction to society. Meilcour's education takes place on two levels. At its most basic, it is an introduction to the amorous code ofaristocratic society, which the hero completely misunderstands. The more fundamental question concerns Meilcour's choice ofa mentorwho will influence his conception ofthe world and his place in it. Versac, who presents a model of rakish behaviour accompanied by an exposition of libertine theory, takes a particular interest in Meilcour's education. A self-declared pedagogue, Versac would seem to control the educational project in the novel, and his flamboyance and dogmatism have been a focus of critical attention. Yet Mme de Lursay, whom the narrator presents for much ofthe novel as a self-interested seductress, is not merely a sexual initiator or an object of desire but a mentor in her own right. While recent critics have drawn attention to the importance ofher role,2 she has not been viewed as a pedagogue with real knowledge to impart. Mme de Lursay, not Versac, provides a model of self-development most appropriate for the young hero, although he seems unable to perceive its usefulness. Mme de Lursay's expression ofa philosophy of the self is essential to an interpretation of error and education in Crébillon's novel, and her philosophy suggests that women play a more meaningful role in libertine fiction than critics have frequently assumed. Mme de Lursay's Theory of the Self When the young Meilcour sets his sights on Mme de Lursay, his mother's friend, her reserved and prudish image intimidates him. He fails again and again to recognize her obvious interest in him, and her attempts to facilitate his declaration of love meet with failure. The hero's illusions are shattered when the libertine Versac paints a scornful portrait ofMme de Lursay as a scheming hypocrite who has had innumerable lovers. Shocked, the young hero suddenly feels nothing but contempt for the woman whom he formerly respected. See, for example, Catherine Cusset, "Madame de Lursay, orVanity," No Tomorrow: TheEthics ofPleasurein tlieFrench EnliglilenmenI (Charlottesville: University Press ofVirginia, 1999). This book is an English translation and expanded version of Ij:s Romanciers du plaisir (Paris: Champion, 1998). THE FEMALE MENTOR 15 At the end ofdie novel, however, when he attempts to humiliate her by confronting her with Versac's gossip, she turns the tables on him, defending her behaviour, blaming him for their misunderstandings, and seducing him herself. In the course of this...