Balzac: Le Curé de Tours by Geoff Woollen (review)

B o o k R ev iew s mother and children are allotted inferior status, Kelly attributes to industrialization (the reality beside the legality) the agent that separated men as producers from the women who reproduced. The most extreme and one of the most effective images portrayed of this divi­ sion occurs in Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet, in which the woman is but a “ commodity to be exchanged in an economic deal.” Kelly argues that this economic exclusion of women turns into their exclusion from language. The relationship between the feminine Charles and the masculine Eugénie undercuts a fixed gender economy. When her father dies, Eugénie in­ herits his money together with the phallic system he represents, and assumes the “ identity” of her autocratic patriarch. In Chapter Two, Kelly exposes the rhetoric of ideal femininity and its divisive effects, splitting woman from man and from herself. Chapter Three opens with Madame Bovary, whom Kelly sees as androgynous, having a woman’s body and exhibiting masculine behavior. Her focus on bisexuality in Rachilde’s Monsieur Vénus is particularly compel­ ling. She asserts that women’s gender identity and desire emerge in decadent oppositions to “ normal” (masculine) identity and desire. A decadent text like Monsieur Vénus fore­ grounds the reversal of sexuality—feminine men and masculine women who invert conven­ tional sexual affinities but often return to traditional gender relations in the end. In Balzac’s Séraphîta, however, it is impossible to distinguish the gender of the protagonist, as Séraphîta alternately exhibits feminine and masculine qualities, even masculinizing her name to Séraphîtus, in opposition to her female manifestations. Kelly opposes realist to decadent and fantastic texts. She argues that realist texts make women into a duplication of the male, only lacking a phallus. In realist texts, the woman is portrayed as always lacking some thing. Rather than suppressing aporia, the decadent text focuses on it, removing gender from the “ real” world to relocate it within language. Fan­ tastic texts, on the other hand, represent the boundaries between the sexes in such an ambiguous fashion that they cannot be found in the real. Be t t in a R o t e n b e r g University o f California, Berkeley G eoff Woollen. Ba l z a c : Le C u r é d e T o u r s . Glasgow: University of Glasgow French and German Publications, 1991. Pp. 68. This modest and compact study provides an excellent introduction to the reading of Balzac’s short novel. First published in 1988, Mr. Woollen’s book has been reprinted with minor alterations. As part of the series, “ Glasgow Introductory Guides to French Litera­ ture,” it is directed mainly to beginning students, but mature scholars will also find it worth while. It provides a useful account of the historical and physical setting, with emphasis on Church-State relations during the Restoration and the role of the Congrégation. Without this background the reader might not sufficiently understand Troubert’s power as it emerges in the narrative. Also, it is important to know that Mile Gam ard’s house is con­ fiscated Church property. The account of the social and historical background will surely facilitate the reading process. Le Curé de Tours is a fine example of the turbulence and drama provided by a seem­ ingly commonplace and dull provincial atmosphere. Balzac makes clear that some of the intensity and passion of life in Paris can also be found in a small town. The title points to the abbé Birotteau as the protagonist, but his child-like innocence and naiveté somewhat weaken his interest as a fictional character. He is no match for either Mile Gamard or Troubert, and ends isolated, abandoned and defeated. Mr. Woollen sees him as a “ tragic protagonist” (p. 41), but this view may do Birotteau too much honor. He lacks the mag­ nitude of a tragic hero. Melodrama rather than tragedy is the dominant tone. VOL. XXXI, NO. 3 95 L ’E s pr it C r éa te u r The analysis of characters and events is thoughtful and generally convincing; however, the, problem of genre is...