Le roman libertin au XVIIIe siècle: une esthétique de la seduction by Dominique Hölzle (review)

Reviews 213 tourments sentimentaux ou moraux” in Georges de Peyrebrune (72); “égoïstes, axés sur leurs propres intérêts” in Thérèse Bentzon (66); and “[incapables de] construire, [de] créer une relation heureuse, [de] partager l’amour, [d’]assurer un mariage sain et satisfaisant” in Anna de Noailles (257), to cite just a few examples. While singling out individual essays is always challenging, particularly when they are all, as is the case here, of such high quality, those by Diana Holmes, Patrick Bergeron, France GrenaudierKlijn , and Brigitte Jandey merit special consideration. Holmes focuses on the depiction of husbands and lovers in works by Daniel Lesueur, underlining the fundamental incompatibility of marriage and “l’épanouissement sexuel et affectif des femmes” (104). Lesueur’s solution is to offer the possibility of extramarital love, which results in heroines who are, paradoxically, adulterous“anges de vertu”(98). Bergeron proposes that the central theme of Rachilde’s work is “une dégradation de l’amour, [...] une ‘déséducation’ sentimentale” (126) carried out “par la virilisation de la femme [...] et par la dévirilisation de l’homme” (127). The time to read Rachilde “sans rougir”— especially in this age of gay pride and of queer and gender studies—is, he contends, long overdue (131). Grenaudier-Klijn demonstrates that the Tinayrian male serves at once as a “faire-valoir à l’héroïne” and a participant in “la dimension didactique du récit” (136); she emphasizes Marcelle Tinayre’s talent for “seducing” female readers (making them want to read her) while“converting”them to her feminist views (138), in part by slipping subtle criticisms into her “portraits masculins volontiers archétypiques ” (152): “Non sans plaisir, elle fouille les clichés et se joue des stéréotypes de la masculinité, faisant ironiquement des super-mâles de faux héros” (153). Jandey offers a nuanced reading of Colette’s La vagabonde and its sequel, L’entrave, arguing for the superiority of the term hermaphrodism over the oft-used androgyny. Though heterosexual love can mean the loss of a woman’s identity, love based on “un rapport sain de camaraderie ‘hermaphrodite’” can survive (198). Other studies treat LouiseMarie Compain (Christine Klein-Lataud), Bentzon (Jean Anderson), Peyrebrune (Jean-Paul Socard),two other works by Tinayre (Élisabeth-Christine Muelsch),Rachilde and Colette (Nelly Sanchez),Delarue-Mardrus (Mélanie Collado),and Noailles (Vassiliki Lalagianni).A thought-provoking postface by NicholasWhite and a useful“Chronologie au féminin” draw this volume, as cohesive as it is wide-ranging, to a satisfying close. University of Arkansas Hope Christiansen Hölzle, Dominique. Le roman libertin au XVIIIe siècle: une esthétique de la séduction. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2012. ISBN 978-07294-1045-8. Pp. 285. £60. Hölzle traces the emergence of the roman mondain libertin in the eighteenth century as a distinct variant of littérature galante, itself the product of social and aesthetic transformations that occur over the course of the previous century.While he recognizes the difficulty in establishing absolute frontiers between the two—owing to shared thematic, social, and stylistic features—Hölzle signals several points of divergence. Whether expressed in theoretical writings or literary texts, galanterie implies successful integration into an aristocratic milieu (through assimilation of codes of behavior, participation in a common ethos, etc.) in which women set the tone; in contrast, although grounded in the same social context, libertine literature subverts the ideals of galanterie and privileges the male seducer’s perspective. Hölzle further distinguishes two types of roman mondain libertin: an initial iteration exemplified by Crébillon fils’s early works and a far more devastating variant that reaches its apex with Laclos’s Les liaisons dangereuses. For Hölzle, Prévost’s 1751 translation of Richardson’s Clarissa constitutes the crucial moment in this transformation, insofar as it marks the entrance of the roué in French libertine fiction. Other seducers, of course, predate Lovelace, but his methodical cruelty and choice of victim, Hölzle argues, distinguish Richardson’s libertine from continental predecessors like Crébillon fils’s Versac or Duclos’s Comte de ***. Henceforth, figures like Crébillon fils’s Alcibiade and Laclos’s Valmont dominate the...