La femme et les personnages féminins chez les Goncourt par Domenica De Falco (review)

Reviews 207 “la mort au monde” (219) remained asymptotic, even in the most fervent practices. Additional distractions came from the frequent illnesses and deaths in the community and from changes in political and historical circumstances, some of which receive epistolary documentation. Although faith is to be disembodied, the body remains present in the letters, mainly when illnesses strike. The focus on the body is two-edged: on the one hand, contemplating oneself is an infraction of conventual duty; on the other hand, sickness provides fertile terrain for humiliation and self-abnegation before God. Cousson painstakingly analyzes the pragmatics of this suspicion of self as the letters mobilize strategies for avoiding the pronoun “je” by using “on,” imperatives, impersonal expressions, and other grammatical alternatives to the first person. The most learned of the writers,Angélique de Saint-Jean frequently uses biblical intertexts to avoid subjectivity. She would become historiographer of Port-Royal in 1652, treading a fine line between using eloquence to defend the community and incurring the charge of rhetorical vanity. In addition to personal letters, the sisters also wrote narratives, including“Vies”and“Relations”explicitly destined for posterity. This study makes a substantial contribution to seventeenth-century French historical and literary studies by bringing this set of narratives, and the vast epistolary corpus that subtends them, clearly and compellingly to light. University of Iowa Roland Racevskis De Falco, Domenica. La femme et les personnages féminins chez les Goncourt. Paris: Champion, 2012. ISBN 978-2-7453-2389-7. Pp. 328. 80 a. Taking as her point of departure the infamous misogyny of Edmond and Jules Goncourt, De Falco examines the brothers’general characterization of women as well as specific traits depicted in their female protagonists. Her engaging analysis, focused on the body of women (“Corps”), their clothing and appearance (“Parures”), and their language (“Discours”), highlights in all three areas a certain “amoindrissement” or “effacement” (21) to which the Goncourts’ female characters ultimately submit. De Falco suggests that this threat of dematerialization lies at the center of the brothers’ view of women and serves as the foundation for their literary aesthetics. In the course of her exploration of these works, De Falco treats the reader to an extensive review of ideas in medicine, art, society, and culture during the nineteenth century, all of which puts into context the Goncourts’ portrayal of women. For example, the widely held notion that the female was by definition sick, imperfect, and unbalanced helps to make sense of the large number of physically and psychologically ill female protagonists in the brothers’ works. Moreover, the “théâtralisation” (127) of sick women on display before doctors, the description of the body of the prostitute as merchandise, and the “mise en spectacle” (126) of actresses and models all underscore the perception that women are fundamentally more“surface”than“profondeur”(127), and therefore are more prone than men to physical decay and moral degeneration. De Falco’s in-depth discussion of the cultural evolution of beauty and fashion clarifies the role that toilettes play in revealing the psychological, social, economic, and historical situations of the Goncourts’female characters.Whether their clothing impedes spiritual transcendence (as in Madame Gervaisais), provides emotional protection (Sœur Philomène), negates personal identity (La fille Élisa),or whether it appears thread-bare (Germinie Lacerteux), immaterial (Chérie), or even useless (Manette Salomon), the disappearing tenue of these protagonists mirrors the“volatilisation”(147) to which they eventually fall victim. Along similar lines, the incremental loss of language, both voluntary and involuntary, signals the incapacity of these characters to communicate, their inability to function in society, and in the end, their silencing. De Falco concludes this study of fictional women with a look at how the Goncourt brothers described a historical figure,Princesse Mathilde, the niece of Napoleon Bonaparte, in their nonfictional Journal. Although they considered her salon among the best of the century and certainly enjoyed the privilege of frequenting it, they clearly abhorred its descent into cultural “métissage” (286), which, for them, signaled an end to the golden era of salons that had begun in the eighteenth century. Those interested in Edmond and Jules Goncourt, or more broadly, in the literary undercurrents...