Correspondance de Mme de Graffigny, XIV: 5 janvier 1754–31 décembre 1755. Lettres 2093–2303 ed. by Dorothy P. Arthur and D. W. Smith (review)

This volume of Mme de Graffigny’s remarkable letters to François ‘Panpan’ Devaux continues in some respects the pattern of the previous volume (see French Studies, 65 (2011), 390). With a vast circle of acquaintances (centrally, still from the court of her native Lorraine) and now a celebrated author, Graffigny in her little house in Paris is constantly beset with visitors, commissions, correspondence, and other demands. Age (she is turning sixty) and illnesses are taking their toll; attempts to improve her finances fail. She struggles to find time and peace, even in the mornings, to work on her much-revised ‘Greek’ comedy, the future Fille d’Aristide. She remains admirably energetic and courageous, but feels so hard-pressed that she considers leaving Paris (see especially pp. 255, 368–69, 385–86). We hear a little less than before about the cultural life of the capital — formal (theatre, opera, new publications, public occasions) or informal (events, scandals, controversies, satirical epigrams). Most notable perhaps is her penetrating analysis of Voltaire’s new play L’Orphelin de la Chine (which she cheerfully refers to as Gingis-Kam). Her summary of the plot ironizes its conventional absurdities, and she neatly encapsulates the play’s tone as ‘moins tragique que philosophique’ (p. 337). Subsequently, reading the text, she nails very well the weaknesses of Voltaire’s tragic style, which she considers to be full of ‘vers d’écoliers’ and ‘gonflé d’epitette et d’adjectif’ (p. 372). She registers, however, the sensational performance of the lead actress Clairon, innovatively ‘naturalistic’ in costume, movement, and speech (pp. 333–34, 351–53, 372). Several new books arouse her enthusiasm (see p. 360), including the Abbé Prevost’s version of Samuel Richardson’s Grandison (p. 401). News of the Lisbon earthquake, and of Franco-Britannic conflicts foreshadowing the Seven Years War, shock and distress her (pp. 318, 344, 381, 384). She hails as heroes men of purposive beneficence (Chamousset, the charming Maillebois: pp. 159, 240–41). She is enraged — just as we may be fascinated — by the almost unending complexities of negotiating a privileged-class marriage (pp. 232–337 passim). On this matter, as in general, the multitude of precise editorial notes in this volume maintain the admirable standards of the series, with the added benefit for the reader of more internal cross-references. The frontispiece reproduces in colour a recently identified oil painting of Graffigny (see p. 371 n. 10).

The other major element in these letters is Graffigny’s changing relation with their recipient. Her rooted habit of chastising the younger and timid Panpan has recently become more marked, even though (or perhaps because) it is now meeting resistance. Currently, the main issue on which she repeatedly berates her long-time confidant is his valetudinarianism. But beneath her diatribes is a genuine anxiety about his health, increased if he is for any reason out of contact. What she wants and insistently anticipates is another visit from him, which will confirm their unique intimacy. However, in the course of this volume she experiences instead two successive demotions. First, Panpan, having long evaded the issue, reveals that he will be coming not to be with her in Paris but with Mme de Boufflers in the entourage of Duke Stanislas visiting the French Court (see pp. 196 n. 11, and 202 passim). Fifteen months later she is expecting this time to receive him and Boufflers in Paris, but at the last moment he tells her (p. 394) that he will not come.