The Sentimental Theater of the French Revolution by Cecilia Feilla (review)

Rousseau est l’auteur d’une théorie moderne de la fiction” (339). Farrugia is certainly on to something here, but there is a disconnect between his phenomenological approach and his historical thesis. Modern compared to whom or to what? In the absence of any comparison with other writers or thought-systems, it is hard to know what to make of this claim. Did no one before Rousseau ever give fiction existential reality? Another difficulty is that the book never deals with the mistrust of fictions that also pervades Rousseau’s works. How does one distinguish veracious fictions from mendacious ones? And is it really true that only veracious fictions help one be happy? To borrow terms from Starobinski, there is a lot here about la transparence but not enough about l’obstacle. University of California, Los Angeles Patrick Coleman Feilla, Cecilia. The Sentimental Theater of the French Revolution. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2013. ISBN 978-0-226-16058-0. Pp. 258. $99.95. This insightful, articulate study illustrates the impact that theatrical esthetics had upon the French Revolution’s overarching goal of transforming society. Drawing upon statistical data of Parisian theater repertories, performance studies, affect theory, and the forms and functions of sentimentality, Feilla showcases the literary vitality of a largely forgotten body of plays and theatrical writings that transformed Enlightenment ideals into nineteenth-century paradigms. Equating the terms “sentimental” and “sentimentality”with a set of artistic practices aimed at eliciting humankind’s capacity for what was then termed “sensibility” (what we today might call responsiveness to others), Feilla contends that the “Revolutionary decade is characterized less by the infiltration of the political into all areas of public and private life, as has been the common wisdom, than by the externalization of private affective forms and conventions into public discourse and performance” (15). Through case studies of four plays by Beaumarchais, Sedaine, Chénier, and Marsollier des Vivetières, chapter 1 shows how the bestselling sentimental plays of the Revolution kept alive the ideal of an inclusive social order where all, especially those excluded from direct political participation (such as women, children, foreigners, and the poor) could find common ground. Chapter 2 probes the ways in which Diderot’s and Jacques-Louis David’s theories of tableau—a visual snapshot capturing a moment of pathos in order to engage the reader’s or viewer’s sympathy—framed political engagement in affective terms. Chapter 3 explores the power that Collot d’Herbois’s La famille patriote, the Fête de la Fédération of 1790, and reenactments of Revolutionary events had to forge emotional ties between the individual and the state. Through examination of the controversy ignited in Paris in 1793 by François de Neufchâteau’s sentimental comedy Paméla ou la vertu récompensée (1788), chapter 4 demonstrates how the perception of civic virtue came to depend on conventions of performance and performativity. Chapter 5 reveals 268 FRENCH REVIEW 88.4 Reviews 269 how staging of Voltaire’s Brutus privileged Brutus’s suffering as a father over his virtue as a citizen, thereby giving political leadership a sentimental orientation. The final chapter, centered on changes in acting technique, argues that Garrick’s and Talma’s abandonment of classical declamation in favor of more natural gestures, postures, and diction not only paved the way for the emergence of melodrama in the theater but also, and perhaps more importantly,embodied the values so esteemed by the Revolutionaries as the basis for moral, political, and social regeneration. The Sentimental Theater models scholarship on its highest plane; it is incisively conceived, clearly documented, finely analyzed, and highly readable. It concludes with an extensive bibliography and a substantial index; these could have been supplemented by a conclusion evoking some of the more long-term ramifications of sentimental theater. This, however, is but a minor regret,inspired by the excellence of Feilla’s original,enlightening,and thoroughly convincing perspective on a transitional period of literary and political history. Smith College (MA) Mary Ellen Birkett Freadman, Anne. The Livres-Souvenirs of Colette: Genre and the Telling of Time. London: Legenda, 2012. ISBN 9-781-906540-93-7. Pp. xii +178. $75. If just...