Reading by the Gold and Black Clock; Or, the Recasting of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's Paul et Virginie

Reading by the Gold and Black Clock; Or, the Recasting of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's Paul et Virginie1 Catherine Labio Chromo, dessus de pendule, image d'Epinal, roman à l'eau de rose un tantinet ridicule, tels étaient les qualificatifs les moins désobligeants que nous appliquions, nous, lesjeunes, entre 1900 et 1920, à Paul et Virginie.—Pierre Trahard5 Paul et Virginie, initially published in 1788 as an appendix to die tiiird edition ofBernardin de Saint-Pierre's Études dela nature, tells die extravagandy popular tale ofa small Utopian matriarchy situated on die Ile de France (now Mauritius Island) and comprising two women (Mme de la Tour and Marguerite), dieir respective children (Virginie and Paul), and two slaves (Domingue and Marie). When Virginie reaches puberty and begins to fall in love with Paul, Mme de la Tour sends her daughter to live in France widi a relative. The diversionary ploy fails in every respect. Anxious to leave Europe, Virginie sails home in the middle of the hurricane season and is shipwrecked near die island shores. She spurns die entreaties of a 1 Earlier versions of this article were presented at die Ninth International Congress on the Enlightenment in Münster, Germany (July 1995) and at die thirty-firstAnnual Meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies in Philadelphia, PA (April 2000). I am grateful to the participants who commented on the paper, particularly Philip Robinson and William Ray. I have benefited agreat deal from die reports ofMalcolm Cook and two odier (anonymous) readers, as well as from the suggestions and comments ofAnn Gaylin, Amy Hungerford, Pericles Lewis, and Elliott Visconsi. 2 Pierre Trahard, "Introduction," inJacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Paulet Virginie (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 1964), p. i. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION, Volume 16, Number 4,JuIy 2004 672 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION sailorwho respectfully begs her to remove her clothes diat she might swim to safety and elects instead to die widiin sight ofdie colony. The petite société does not survive her. By tale's end, all six principal characters have lost dieir lives. In 1802, a monumental gold and black mantel clock (see figure 1) representingascene fromPaula Vnginiev/as ordered from bronze caster and engraverPierre-PhilippeThomire (1751-1843), who laterbecame Napoleon's appointed supplier. According to its former owner and curator of die Musée François Duesberg in Mons, Belgium, die clock was meantas agiftfrom diepremierconsulto Bernardin de Saint-Pierre.3 The claim is farfrom implausible. The celebrated authorwas won over to Napoleon's cause in 1802, after having been showered widi gifts, honours, and compliments by Bonaparte and his brothersJoseph and Louis since die end ofdie Italian campaign.4 Flawlessly crafted, Thomire's clock is a perfect example ofso-called pendules au sauvage, collectors' items ofdeep gold and patinated bronze made between 1795 and 1815, which are fashionable all over again, fetching upwards ofUS$300,000 at auction.5 Their appeal springs, in part, from the unsurpassed quality ofdie workmanship, which involved the collaboration ofup to ten different craftsmen, and from die striking contrastbetween the matte orglazed bronze and die gilding. The latter was obtained byheating the bronze and covering itwith a blend ofgold and mercury. While die mercuryevaporated, die molten gold penetrated dirough the pores ofthe hot bronze. This extremely harmful process, banned in 1815, would be repeated up to four times before chiselling could begin. This phase was entrusted to some ofdie great bronziersoï die time: Thomire, ofcourse, erstwhile protégé ofMarie-Antoinette, but S The Musée François Duesberg (opened September 1994) is devoted to die decorative arts and houses Thomire's clock. See De noiret d'or, pendules "au bonsauvage": collection M. etMme François Duesberg, the catalogue of the De noir et d'or exhibit held in 1993 at die Bellevue Museum in Brussels, Belgium, for more information on diis and othergold and black clocks (Brussels: Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire, 1993). Also see French Clocks the World Over, 5th ed. (Paris: Tardy, 1981), 2:242-49; a photograph ofdie Paula Vtrgwwclock now in the Musée François Duesberg is included on p. 249, where it is incorrectly described as "Two Negro bearers carrying two goddesses." 4...