In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviews 289 next chapter, “Mentir.” The boudoir at the beginning of Sarrasine uncovers, while at the same time covering up the origins of the Lanty fortune and the originary gender ambiguity that would prove fatal to Sarrasine. Rarely is desire consummated in this space of mendacity.As grown men enter the boudoir only to leave silenced and reduced to sons of a mother figure, the space is shown to be one haunted by the specter of incest. Not all males succumb to the dangers of the boudoir, however. Part of what distinguishes the triumvirate of (generally) successful Balzacian male protagonists— Eugène de Rastignac, Henri de Marsay, and le marquis de Ronquerolles—is their ability to wield their eloquence in this space so fraught with danger. As suitors of influential women, the boudoir, for them a space of conquest, serves to catapult them upward into brilliant public careers. The book’s final chapter, “Mourir,” exposes the boudoir to be, for many, a toxic space. There is, of course, the spectacular boudoir death scene of Paquita Valdes in La fille aux yeux d’or. More subtle, however, are other boudoir-related fatalities which are governed by the metaphor of poison. Richer takes us through a list of female characters who variously “jettent des ‘regards de vipère,’” “sifflent,”and“se tortillent”in the boudoir.A stylistic delight for the reader, this study provides a fascinating and novel exploration of a room that spells doom for many who frequent it. Making judicious, if eclectic, use of theory and Balzac criticism, this work is an important and welcome contribution to Balzac studies and a significant addition to literary criticism dealing with space/place in fiction. University of Maryland, College Park Carol Mossman Sagaert, Martine, et Peter Schnyder, éd. Actualités d’André Gide. Paris: Champion, 2012. ISBN 978-2-7453-2353-5. Pp. 337. 50 a. The twenty-four articles comprising this four-part volume were initially delivered as papers at a 2011 colloquium in Toulon and Hyères. They range in scope from historical to stylistic, from sociological to genetic, and aim, as the editors note, to shed light on Gide’s “actualité intemporelle,” or his “actualités” (9). Lise Forment, for example, rereads Gide in transhistorical dialog with authors of the seventeenth century; Gide is notable for the didacticism and subversion of his “regard critique singulier” (38), “à la fois intime et savant, sérieux et irrévérencieux” (46). If, for Stéphanie Bertrand, Gide’s Journal is unique by virtue of the role and special character that maxims play in it, for Martine Sagaert, his Journal is characterized by elasticity, the “esthétique gidienne de l’ajout”(229). Having traced the inspiration for two of Gide’s dramas, Le roi Candaule and Œdipe, Patrick Pollard points to the key role of sexual transgression in each. Building on economic studies of the author and interrogating the notion of value in Gide’s oeuvre, David Walker, for his part, draws attention to the overlooked meaning of exchange in L’immoraliste. Through her study of Le ramier, Justine Legrand furthermore posits that Gide is ahead of his time by anticipating both French Theory and Gender Studies, “en faisant du Queer non pas un tordu amoral, mais un homme soucieux de vivre selon ses besoins” (102). Alain Goulet presents a series of unpublished letters by authors he had contacted when writing his thesis; made public for the first time, these letters reveal the influence or lack of influence Gide had on these authors’ works back in 1975. Marie-Clotilde Rousseau bemoans the fact that Gide,“un des auteurs les plus modernes du XXe siècle,”surprisingly seems unknown to her French middle- and high-school students: “aucun de mes élèves n’a pu me dire qui était André Gide, à quel siècle il avait appartenu ou bien ce qu’il avait pu écrire” (180). Whereas across the Channel, Victoria Reid observes that in the current curricula of British universities Gide’s works still engender a wide variety of critical approaches and occupy an important place. Further from France, Frédéric Canovas notes that they tend in the United States to be read...

pdf

Share