Mademoiselle de Maupin (Gautier)

Overview

Mademoiselle de Maupin (1835) is the epistolary novel by Théophile Gautier (1811–1872) about the cross-dressing Madelaine de Maupin, who as "Théodore" attracts both d'Albert and Rosette. Its famous preface rejects utilitarian and moralising views of literature and became a manifesto of "l'art pour l'art" (Wikipedia FR, "Mademoiselle de Maupin (roman)"). It was a scandalous book in its day and is often described as one of the first French novels to treat androgyny.

Marie and this work

24 October 1876 (067.0297): from her grandfather's immense library (she is in Russia) she picks one precious volume, "j'ai soustrait 'Mlle de Maupin' par Th. Gautier", and mocks her reader's reaction ("Ho ! ho ! dites-vous"). She explains that she chose it both because of "l'impossibilité morale de me le procurer ailleurs" and to disgust herself with books.

9 October 1880 (090.0074): she rereads it, having read part of it in Russia in 1876 without liking it, because Gautier "est reconnu pour un énorme talent" and the book "pour un chef-d'œuvre, surtout la préface". Her verdict: the preface is very good, but "malgré toutes... ses nudités, le livre n'est pas amusant, certaines pages en sont simplement ennuyeuses". A marginal note says "fini, fini".

3 February 1881 (091.0063): she uses it as a metaphor for her own detachment about her feelings for the man she has just fallen for: it all happens outside her, "comme le héros de Mlle Maupin qui a Rosette de toutes les manières et qui ne peut jamais se persuader qu'elle est sa maîtresse" (the hero is d'Albert; see footnote 091.0063).

Identification note

The Russian reading is the one of 1876 (067.0297); paragraph 067.0074 does not mention the book.

References in Diary

Sources