Jules Michelet: Historian as Critic of French Literature by John R. Williams (review)

Book Reviews Elizabeth J. MacArthur. E x t r a v a g a n t N a r r a t iv e s . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990. Pp. 389. $29.95. Elizabeth MacArthur’s study of real and fictional correspondences from the late seven­ teenth and early eighteenth centuries sheds light on the peculiar penchant of the epistolary form for metonymy, openness and desire, as opposed to metaphor, closure and meaning. She proposes the term “ extravagant” for such texts outside the bounds of traditional nar­ rative form and resistant to traditional theories of narrative. In the first of her three chapters MacArthur explores the functioning of female desire in the Lettres Portugaises. Mariane attempts to (re-)write the narrative of, thereby re-creating, the relationship with the lover who has abandoned her. Analysis of the text and its recep­ tion uncovers both the text’s openness and the resistance on the part of critical theory to metonymy; critics impose a closed structure and a hidden meaning on the Lettres. The pre­ dominance of metonymy in the epistolary form, and its similarity to real correspondence, runs counter to the accepted definition of literary texts as closed and fictional. In her second chapter MacArthur turns to the real correspondence of Madame du Deffand and Horace Walpole. She treats the letters as literary texts in which du Deffand and Walpole interact as fictional characters. The epistolary form afforded a great deal of freedom to du Deffand, allowing her to create a textual life, and to rewrite the narrative of the relationship with Walpole, outside of the conventional bounds of narrative form and free from the strictures of society. Du Deffand writes a metonymical life story in which she subverts male authority, and mirrors the text’s movement as it “ subverts stable authorita­ tive systems of meaning.” The final chapter, and the most difficult one, is devoted to La Nouvelle Heloise, ou Julie. Rousseau’s text is a battleground for the forces of metaphor and metonymy, which struggle to control and shape the narrative. Interestingly enough, at this point, MacArthur’s own text begins to show signs of the same conflict. Yet any attempt to render intelligible the workings of Rousseau’s text must also take into account the destabilizing forces (such as Julie’s uncontrollable desire for St-Preux, and the editor’s ambiguous rela­ tion to the text), that undermine the text and our reading of it. The book closes with a short Conclusion, whereas MacArthur comments upon the dif­ ficulty and the appropriateness of finding an ending for a study of “ nonclosural dynam­ ics,” that valorizes metonymy under the guise of movement, desire, openness, ambiguity and extravagance. This authoritative scholarly accomplishment paves the way for new readings of epistolary novels, and their precursors, works that until now have received low marks for their lack of closure, organization and unity. B a r b a r a L . M e r r y The University o f Mississippi John R. Williams. J u l e s M ic h e l e t : H is t o r ia n a s C r it ic o f F r e n c h L it e r a t u r e . Bir­ mingham, A L : Summa Publications, Inc., 1987. Pp. ix + 105. $18.95. Professor Williams deliberately limits his handy survey to Michelet’s observations on French literature from the Middle Ages through the eighteenth century as expressed in his Histoire de France. The exposition is brief, quotations minimal but to the point, and the 112 W in t e r 1990 Book Reviews documentation, in footnotes and bibliography, accurate and virtually complete. Two appendices follow the five chapters: (1) literary references from Michelet’s geographical and anthropological overview, the Tableau de la France; (2) most interesting observations from the historian’s correspondence and private Journal on such contemporaries as Ben­ jamin Constant, Mme de Staël, Lamartine, George Sand, Hugo, and of course his favorite poet, Béranger. The study compares Michelet’s ideological views with received opinions of literary his­ tory: “ His judgments illustrate a highly personal manipulation of history and myth in order to...