Reading

Thematic Tag: Reading

This thematic tag collects diary paragraphs where Marie discusses books she is reading, literary opinions, authors, and her engagement with written texts. With 718 references across the diary, reading is one of the most pervasive themes in Marie's life, rivaling fashion, social life, and art in frequency. Marie was a voracious, multilingual, and fiercely opinionated reader whose literary judgments reveal both her intellectual ambition and her temperament. She read in at least five languages (French, Russian, English, Italian, and some Latin), consuming everything from classical antiquity to the latest naturalist novels, from political journalism to the Bible.

Overview: Reading as Self-Education and Cultural Participation

Marie Bashkirtseff was largely self-educated through reading. While she had tutors and governesses, her intellectual formation came primarily from her own reading program --- one that was remarkably ambitious for a young woman of her era. She read Homer's Iliad at fourteen, Plutarch's Lives at sixteen, and was consuming Zola, Balzac, Flaubert, Taine, and Renan by her early twenties. She read systematically: "Je lis cinq livres à la fois, la Sainte Bible, Napoléon, l'Histoire de Monaco et un roman de Dumas" (Carnet 031, 15 April 1875).

Reading served Marie in multiple ways: as intellectual nourishment, as escapism ("Dumas et les cigarettes" were her twin consolations during emotional crises), as ammunition for social performance (she loved displaying her erudition in conversation), and as a framework for understanding her own life. She constantly measured herself and others against literary characters and historical figures, and her diary style itself is deeply literary --- allusive, dramatic, and self-consciously crafted for future readers.

In the preface she wrote shortly before her death, Marie explicitly positioned her diary within the literary world: "C'est très intéressant comme document humain. Demandez à M. Zola, et même à M. de Goncourt et même à Maupassant" (Carnet 000). The invocation of these three naturalist masters was not idle name-dropping; she had read all of them and understood exactly what a document humain was --- a term coined by Edmond de Goncourt and championed by Zola.

Literary Culture in the 1870s--1880s

Marie's reading years (1873--1884) coincided with one of the richest periods in French literary history. The dominant literary movement was Naturalism, pioneered by Émile Zola with his massive Les Rougon-Macquart cycle (1871--1893), which applied quasi-scientific methods to the novel. The movement consolidated in 1877 when young writers including Guy de Maupassant organized a dinner honoring Zola, Flaubert, and Edmond de Goncourt; their collective anthology Les Soirées de Médan (1880) served as a manifesto. Marie was reading Zola's novels as they appeared and recognized his genius early: "La littérature me fera perdre la tête. Je lis Zola, entier. C'est un géant" (Carnet 104, 6 May 1884).

Meanwhile, Victor Hugo --- still alive until 1885 --- remained an overwhelming presence. Marie witnessed his 79th birthday celebration in February 1881, standing in the crowd before his house as he sent kisses from the window and banners dipped before him: "C'est tout ce qu'on peut voir de plus grand et de plus touchant" (Carnet 091, 27 February 1881). She revered him as "immortel" and "poète suprême" while maintaining a critical eye: "Je ne veux pas qu'on pense que j'admire son flot de bêtises qui se mélange par-ci par-là aux choses divines" (Carnet 106, 13 September 1884).

The novel was the dominant literary form, and its primary distribution channel in earlier decades had been the roman-feuilleton --- serialized fiction published in daily newspapers. Authors like Alexandre Dumas (père) had built enormous readerships through this format, and Marie consumed his work with an appetite she herself found slightly embarrassing: "Fi ! Non, écoutez, il m'est bien permis de lire Dumas puisque je lis les livres les plus ennuyeux de l'antiquité grecque et latine" (Carnet 059, 6 May 1876). Books were available through bookshops (Marie bought books at Visconti's in Nice and at Parisian booksellers), circulating libraries and cabinets de lecture, and personal collections --- she bought her brother Paul's Dumas, Hugo, and Walter Scott for sixty francs when he left for Russia, noting that importing books into Russia required them to pass through a comité de censure (Carnet 030, 30 March 1875).

The literary marketplace was lively and international. French readers had access to English novels in both English and translation; Russian literature was beginning to penetrate French consciousness (Marie was ahead of the curve, reading Tolstoy before the Revue des Deux Mondes dedicated a study to him); and Italian literature circulated among the cosmopolitan upper classes. Literary reviews and criticism appeared in newspapers like Le Figaro, Le Gaulois, and specialized publications like the Revue des Deux Mondes.

Women and Reading in the 19th Century

Reading was a gendered activity in 19th-century France. Studies of reading culture attest that women read more novels while men read more newspapers and essays; women read for pleasure while men sought primarily to be informed. Female literacy rates in France reached approximately 57% by 1866, and the liseuse (woman reader) became a significant subject in French painting of the 1870s--1890s, subjected to unprecedented levels of pictorial innovation. Images of women readers articulated concerns about the impact of female literacy on family life while, in many cases, challenging conventions of gendered reading.

Certain books were considered unsuitable for young women. Marie was aware of these prohibitions and sometimes defied them: at thirteen, she secretly read Arsène Houssaye's Les Courtisanes du monde, a book explicitly forbidden to her, justifying herself with the author's own words: "toute femme qui le lira est une femme sensée" (Carnet 007, 21 July 1873). By her twenties, she wore her transgressive reading as a badge: she was "une vraie jeune fille... tout en ayant lu Zola et Flaubert et tout" who would "ne dira jamais un mot qui ne doit pas être dit" (Carnet 105, 30 July 1884). Her reading of Zola's Pot-Bouille ("quelle immondice!"), Maupassant (whom she called a "pornographe"), and Dumas fils's Le Roman d'une femme ("des choses plus révoltantes et plus odieuses") shows she read widely in territory considered inappropriate for unmarried women and formed her own moral judgments independent of social convention.

Marie's Reading List

French Literature

Alexandre Dumas (père) --- Marie's most consumed author across her teenage years. She read Les Trois Mousquetaires, Vingt Ans après, Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, La Dame de Monsoreau, La Dame aux Perles, Napoléon, and many others. She defended him passionately: "Je ne sais vraiment pourquoi on méprise Dumas, est-ce parce qu'on le lit avec intérêt et plaisir ? Que demande-t-on à un romancier ? D'amuser" (Carnet 031, 8 April 1875). She compared him favorably to Livy: "Aimez-vous comme moi Tite-Live ? Je le trouve aussi intéressant qu'Alexandre Dumas. Ne riez pas de la comparaison... vous autres pédants et fichus-ignorants" (Carnet 067, 8--11 December 1876). Dumas served her both as entertainment and as emotional anesthesia: "Je lis Dumas et fume vingt cigarettes de suite et puis me lève tout hébétée et stupide, alors je ne souffre pas" (Carnet 060, 16 May 1876).

Alexandre Dumas (fils) --- Read with less enthusiasm. She found Le Roman d'une femme "révoltant" and "odieux" (Carnet 083, 9 January 1879) but acknowledged him as someone she had "adoré d'admiration" (Carnet 104, 18 April 1884).

Émile Zola --- Marie's great literary passion of her final years. She read Son Excellence Eugène Rougon, Nana, Pot-Bouille, La Joie de vivre, and his complete works and critical essays. Her admiration was boundless: "Je lis et j'adore Zola, ses critiques et ses études sont des choses tout à fait admirables et j'en suis amoureuse folle" (Carnet 104, 9 May 1884). And characteristically hyperbolic: "J'aime Zola avec respect, terreur et sans espoir, comme un Dieu" (Carnet 104, 9 May 1884). She recognized both his genius and his limitations, comparing him with Tolstoy and noting that Zola dwells excessively on sex while Tolstoy "parle de tout et n'évite rien et pourtant ces choses-là ne dominent pas" (Carnet 105, 13 July 1884). In her final months she dreamed of literary glory alongside him: "Disparaissez Dumas, Zola, tous. C'est moi qui arrive" (Carnet 104, 27 April 1884).

Victor Hugo --- Read Hernani (at the theater), Han d'Islande, Les Châtiments, L'Histoire d'un crime, Ruy Blas, and other works. Found him "antipathique" as a poet at fifteen (Carnet 043, 20 September 1875) but later recognized his genius: "C'est vrai, Hugo est un génie" and "c'est beau, c'est sublime... c'est humain, c'est naturel" (Carnet 090, 25 October 1880). In her final diary entry she rhapsodized: "Ô immortel Victor Hugo. Ô poète suprême" while maintaining: "mes admirations ne sont pas aveugles" (Carnet 106, 13 September 1884).

Honoré de Balzac --- Deeply admired. "Lisez Balzac, chacun a senti comme lui mais qui a su l'écrire ?" (Carnet 080, 24 May 1878). Listed among authors who "ne m'ennuient jamais" (Carnet 090, 9 October 1880). She kept Balzac volumes on her studio bookshelf alongside Dumas, Byron, Montaigne, Rabelais, and Homer (Carnet 096, 18 September 1882).

George Sand --- Marie's most consistently negative literary judgment. She read Indiana, La Petite Fadette, Valentine, Le Dernier Amour, and saw Le Marquis de Villemer at the Comédie-Française. Her verdict was devastating: "Mais que voit-on dans Georges Sand ? Un roman joliment écrit ? Oui, après ? Eh bien ses romans m'ennuient" (Carnet 090, 9 October 1880). She dismissed Sand's socialism as sentimental: "La comtesse amoureuse de son valet et des dissertations là-dessus ! Voilà le talent de Georges Sand" (Carnet 090, 9 October 1880).

Alphonse Daudet --- Read Le Nabab, Les Rois en exil, Sapho, and other works. Appreciated for his observational precision: "J'aime mieux Daudet dans les modernes, il écrit des romans mais semés d'observations justes, de choses vraies, senties. On vit là-dedans" (Carnet 090, 9 October 1880). But she found Sapho ("du Daudet dont le style m'énerve") less compelling than Zola (Carnet 104, 22 June 1884).

Guy de Maupassant --- Read his stories and novels, but her relationship was complicated by a real correspondence with the writer in 1884. She initiated contact anonymously, and his responses ranged from charming to shocking. She admired his talent but found him insufficient: "Il a du talent mais pas assez pour que je l'adore" (Carnet 104, 14 May 1884). She dismissed him harshly as "le pornographe Maupassant qui n'a que ça dans son répertoire" (Carnet 105, 13 July 1884) and "ce taureau de Maupassant" --- comparing the difference between Zola and Maupassant to that between Bastien-Lepage and lesser painters who merely imitated him (Carnet 103, 11 April 1884).

Gustave Flaubert --- Referenced several times. A Paris fiacre reminded her of the famous cab ride in Madame Bovary (Carnet 089, 14 July 1880). She quoted his aphorism about human stupidity being "infinie" (Carnet 105, 13 July 1884) and compared her own artistic fate to his: "faut-il dire comme Flaubert que je n'entrevois qu'une suite de feuilles de papier à nourrir, c'est-à-dire de toiles à barbouiller ?" (Carnet 103, 12 March 1884).

Alfred de Musset --- Listed among authors who "ne m'ennuient jamais" (Carnet 090, 9 October 1880). Someone challenged Marie that one could not love both Zola and Musset; she disagreed (Carnet 089, 6 September 1880).

Arsène Houssaye --- Read Les Courtisanes du monde (secretly, at thirteen), Mademoiselle de La Vallière, and other works on Louis XIV's court. "J'adore le style de A. Houssaye, je puis le lire, le relire sans jamais m'en lasser" (Carnet 015, 16 January 1874). Found him "monotone" but compulsive: "il se lit à vapeur" (Carnet 016, 1 February 1874).

Sully Prudhomme --- Read in 1884. Found his philosophical subtlety congenial: "les idées très subtiles de Sully-Prudhomme me plaisent infiniment. Et il y a chez lui un côté très élevé, presque abstrait, très fin, très quintessencié, qui s'accorde parfaitement avec ma façon de sentir" (Carnet 104, 1 June 1884).

Alphonse de Lamartine --- Read Jocelyn on a train journey in June 1877. "C'est beau, c'est tendre, c'est poétique, c'est doux et ce n'est jamais ridicule" (Carnet 072, 21 June 1877). Kept a Lamartine volume as a traveling companion.

Théophile Gautier --- Found him "antipathique" though grudgingly respected his vigor. She was pleased to discover that Zola shared her judgment (Carnet 104, 1 June 1884).

Jean-Jacques Rousseau --- Read La Nouvelle Héloïse (found it disgusting at the first pages) and Émile ("quelques bonnes idées mais beaucoup de dissertations inutiles et propres à dégoûter de tout"). Her dismissal of 18th-century writers was categorical: "Les écrivains du XVIIIe siècle me dégoûtent" (Carnet 059, 3 May 1876).

Sainte-Beuve --- Read Les Femmes célèbres and his biographical essays, including his study of Mary Stuart. Used as reference for historical women.

Historical and Intellectual Works --- Ernest Renan (read his complete works in 1884), Hippolyte Taine (La Révolution --- preferred to Michelet: "Michelet est nuageux et cotonneux"), Jules Michelet (read but found inferior to Taine). Also Le Siècle de Louis XIV (Voltaire) and various historical works on Napoleon, Monaco, and Edward III.

Classical Literature

Marie had a genuine passion for the ancients, unusual in a young woman of her milieu. Homer was read with deep feeling: "aucun drame moderne, aucun roman, aucune comédie à sensation, de Dumas ou de Georges Sand, ne m'a laissé un souvenir aussi net et une impression aussi profonde... que la description de la prise de Troie" (Carnet 073, 18 August 1877). Plutarch was "mon bon ami" and "mon gentil Plutarque" --- she read his Lives, his Moralia, and argued with his reasoning: "Que Plutarque me permette de lui dire qu'à force de raisonner, il déraisonne" (Carnet 055, 3 March 1876). Livy she found as gripping as Dumas. She also read Plato, Xenophon, Virgil (visited his tomb near Naples), and Cicero, and enjoyed displaying her classical knowledge: "pourvu qu'on me parle Homère, Cicéron, Virgile etc. je suis contente et radieuse surtout quand on m'entend parler ainsi" (Carnet 034, 9 June 1875).

English Literature

Marie read extensively in English. Shakespeare --- read comedies and referenced him throughout the diary, calling him "éternellement vrai" (Carnet 103, 29 March 1884). She quoted Hamlet's "That is the question" in English at fourteen. She kept Shakespeare among her traveling books. Byron --- purchased his complete works in Nice (October 1874); initially mocked him but later understood: "Je me moquais de Byron, à présent je le comprends" (Carnet 053, 30 January 1876). Her grandfather had been a "byronien" in the Pushkin-Lermontov generation. Walter Scott --- owned his works but found him slow: "le vénérable Walter Scott est toujours le même et la feuille au milieu du livre ne s'avance pas" (Carnet 028, 11 January 1875). Mrs. Henry Wood --- read Mrs Haliburton's Troubles at fourteen (April 1873), one of the earliest reading references in the diary. Bulwer-Lytton --- read The Last Days of Pompeii and The Last of the Barons. Dickens --- included among English novels packed for travel, along with Wilkie Collins: "une quantité de romans anglais de Bulwer, de Collins et de Dickens" (Carnet 062, 3 July 1876). Also read Nickleby (Carnet 016). Ouida (Marie Louise de la Ramée) --- read Ariadne with enormous emotional impact, returning to it repeatedly over several years. "Un livre qui est fait pour émouvoir au suprême degré; j'ai été sur le point de le relire vingt fois depuis trois ans" (Carnet 096, 28 August 1882). Oliver Goldsmith --- his selected works listed among her early reading (Carnet 006, 12 July 1873).

Italian Literature

Marie read Italian fluently --- "je ne parle pas mal la langue de Dante" (Carnet 027, 27 November 1874). Dante --- she recited cantos from memory, used Dantean imagery constantly (the sospesi of Limbo, the damned of Hell), and kept a "tout petit Dante" among her essential traveling books. Ariosto --- read Orlando Furioso in Italian (Carnet 051, January 1876); discussed Ariosto with Italian admirers in Rome. Massimo d'Azeglio --- Niccolò de' Lapi was read aloud to her by the Italian companion Sabatini. Manzoni --- referenced in the context of Verdi's Requiem in his memory (Carnet 020, 8 June 1874).

Russian Literature

Marie's relationship with Russian literature was inflected by her complicated identity as a Russian exile who lived primarily in French. Her grandfather had been "le contemporain de Lermontoff, Pouchkine etc." and a "byronien, poète, militaire lettré" (Carnet 000). Gogol --- she translated his descriptions of Rome from Russian and was moved to tears: "cette photographie vivante de Rome m'excite trop" (Carnet 067, 10 November 1876). She praised "le grand, l'immortel Gogol" for his descriptions of Russian provincial life (Carnet 102, 24 December 1883). Tolstoy --- read War and Peace ("la Paix et la guerre du Comte Tolstoï") and was "frappée au point de m'écrier: mais c'est comme Zola !" She was proud when the Revue des Deux Mondes dedicated a study to "notre Tolstoï" and "mon cœur de Russe en bondit d'allégresse" (Carnet 105, 13 July 1884). She ranked him as Zola's equal: "Zola est grand et le comte Tolstoï est grand" (ibid.).

Other Works

Cervantes --- bought Don Quichotte in Nice, October 1874. Rabelais and Montaigne --- kept on her studio bookshelf. The Bible --- read the Old and New Testaments, "Les Femmes de la Bible", and the Evangile, sometimes alongside decidedly secular reading: "Ne trouvant pas le livre saint j'ai lu Dumas, ce n'est pas la même chose" (Carnet 060, 19 May 1876). Encyclopedias and dictionaries --- the Encyclopédie, Bouillet's biographical dictionary, and her "quatre gros dictionnaires rouges" were essential companions.

Marie's Literary Opinions

Marie's literary judgments are among the most vivid passages in the diary. She read with total engagement and formed opinions with characteristic confidence:

On what makes a great writer: "Tandis que Balzac, les deux Dumas, Zola, Daudet, Musset ne m'ennuient jamais. Victor Hugo dans sa prose la plus romantiquement folle dans 'Han d'Islande' n'est jamais fatigant. On sent le génie" (Carnet 090, 9 October 1880). For Marie, the test of genius was that a writer could never bore the reader.

On rereading: "Je ne sais si l'intérêt que je prends aux livres... tient à la manière dont c'est écrit ou au choix de cette époque... dans tous les cas je trouve un charme singulier dans ces romans et je les relis plusieurs fois avec plaisir, et je jouis peut-être plus qu'à la première fois, car alors l'impatience et la curiosité piquée me faisaient plutôt avaler que lire" (Carnet 059, 6 May 1876).

On 18th-century writers: Total rejection. "Les écrivains du XVIIIe siècle me dégoûtent" (Carnet 059, 3 May 1876). She found Rousseau's Nouvelle Héloïse disgusting and his Émile tedious.

On the ancients vs. the moderns: A revealing ambivalence. "Quant aux Anciens je m'endors aux premières pages, mais si j'ai la force de surmonter cette première impression je ne puis m'arracher du livre et cela m'est arrivé bien des fois" (Carnet 059, 3 May 1876). And: "je ne trouve rien d'aussi amusant que les romans de Dumas et les œuvres du vieux Plutarque" --- she refused to segregate popular entertainment from classical learning.

On the relationship between art and literature: In her final year, Marie saw literature and painting as parallel pursuits. She compared Zola to Bastien-Lepage and lesser novelists to imitators who "croient le suivre en peignant des paysannes et des gueux immondes" (Carnet 103, 11 April 1884). She dreamed of conquering both: "Vraiment la littérature m'envahit à un point !" (Carnet 104, 27 April 1884).

Reading in Multiple Languages

Marie's multilingual reading was exceptional even among the cosmopolitan upper classes of her era. She read:

- French --- her primary literary language, used for the vast majority of her reading from novels to newspapers to philosophy
- English --- read Mrs. Henry Wood, Bulwer-Lytton, Dickens, Collins, Ouida, Shakespeare, Byron, Goldsmith, and the Morning Post and Swiss Times newspapers; her diary switches to English for quotations and occasional entire passages
- Italian --- read Dante, Ariosto, and d'Azeglio in the original; recited Italian poetry from memory; discussed Italian literature with Italian companions
- Russian --- read Gogol and translated his prose; read Russian newspapers; knew Pushkin and Lermontov (at minimum through family tradition)
- Latin --- studied Latin with tutors; read classical authors (Homer, Plutarch, Virgil, Livy, Plato, Xenophon) likely in French translation but with reference to originals; used Latin phrases and quotes throughout the diary

Newspapers and Periodicals

Marie was an avid reader of the press, which served both her political education and her social surveillance:

- Le Pays --- Bonapartist newspaper where Paul de Cassagnac published his political articles; Marie followed his journalism before meeting him in person in 1876
- Le Figaro --- read regularly; Maman read it aloud to her annoyance: "Maman m'interrompt chaque minute en me lisant 'Le Figaro'" (Carnet 020, 4 June 1874); she followed Zola's articles there
- Le Gaulois --- followed literary and society news
- Morning Post --- English newspaper; Marie subscribed specifically to track news of the Duke of Hamilton after his marriage
- Swiss Times --- English-language paper read in Nice; provided lists of foreign visitors
- La Saison --- Nice society journal
- Galignani's Messenger --- English-language Paris paper; source of the devastating news of Hamilton's engagement and marriage
- La Vie mondaine --- society review
- Le Derby --- sporting paper where she found Hamilton's name among horse racing results
- L'Événement --- followed literary criticism (e.g., articles on Maupassant)
- Revue des Deux Mondes --- serious intellectual review; she noted their 1884 study of Tolstoy
- Russian newspapers --- read for family and political news from Russia

Reading Practices

Private Reading

Marie's primary mode of reading was private and intense. She read in bed, on trains, in her room, on balconies, and in gardens. She read compulsively --- "Je subis les livres de Dumas comme tous les fous de mon âge, et ces volumes changent tous les jours sur ma table" (Carnet 028, 11 January 1875). She read multiple books simultaneously. She traveled with a personal library: "Mon nécessaire, mes cahiers, la mandoline, quelques bons gros livres, ma chancellerie et mes portraits... Ce que j'aime le plus ce sont mes quatre gros dictionnaires rouges, mon Tite-Live gros vert, un tout petit Dante, un Lamartine moyen" (Carnet 074, 23 August 1877). Her studio bookshelf contained "des Balzac, des Dumas père, Paul et Virginie, Ruy Blas, Byron, Montaigne, Rabelais, Dante, Ariadne d'Ouida, Homère, l'Evangile etc." --- books to reach for "dans les moments tristes ou de paresse" (Carnet 096, 18 September 1882).

Reading Aloud

Reading aloud was a common practice in 19th-century households and salons. In Marie's family, companions read to her (the Italian companion Sabatini read d'Azeglio's Niccolò de' Lapi); she read Napoleon to her father: "Le soir je lis Napoléon de Dumas à papa" (Carnet 031, 8 April 1875); and she read newspaper articles aloud to family members. Marie also read the Duke of Hamilton's marriage announcement aloud to Dina and the princess, performing composure while devastated (Carnet 013, 9 December 1873). Reading aloud served as both entertainment and social bonding in the Bashkirtseff household.

Books as Material Objects

Marie's diary reveals the material culture of books in the 1870s. She bought books at bookshops (Visconti in Nice, Parisian booksellers); she subscribed to newspapers; she purchased her brother's departing library. She was aware of Russian censorship: importing books required passing them through a comité de censure, "une affaire de deux mois et d'une infinité d'embarras" (Carnet 030, 30 March 1875). She chose which books to take on journeys carefully, packing "l'Encyclopédie, un volume de Platon, Dante, Ariosto, Shakespeare, puis une quantité de romans anglais" (Carnet 062, 3 July 1876).

Significance

Marie's reading shaped her self-understanding and her ambitions. She measured herself against literary heroines and historical figures, drew political opinions from journalism, and found in books both consolation and provocation. Her literary judgments are characteristically sharp and confident --- she reads as she paints, with intensity and strong opinions. She was aware of the literary movements of her time, positioned her own diary within them (the document humain), and in her final year attempted to enter the literary world directly through her correspondence with Maupassant and her admiration of Zola. Her reading life reveals a mind that was encyclopedic in its appetites, independent in its judgments, and utterly serious in its engagement with literature as a means of understanding the world.

Usage Notes

Tag `[#Reading]` should be applied to paragraphs where Marie:
- Discusses books she is reading or has read
- Offers literary opinions or criticism
- Mentions specific authors or works
- Describes reading practices (reading aloud, buying books, choosing travel books)
- Reads newspapers or periodicals for content (not merely mentions of a newspaper as a prop)
- Discusses literature or the literary world more broadly
- Uses literary references or allusions to frame her own experience