Writing for Charity: Mme de Genlis and Thérésina

Writing for Charity:
Mme de Genlis and Thérésina
Malcolm Cook
O
n 5 May 1826, Mme de Genlis (Stéphanie Félicité, comtesse de
Genlis) wrote the following letter to a certain Clavarau in
Maestricht: “Vous devés me trouver bien ingrate monsieur mais j’ai eu
de telles occupations que je n’ai pu disposer d’un moment depuis
plus de six semaines. On vient dernièrement de me demander de
faire une nouvelle au profit d’une jeune personne de douze ans qui
a éprouvé les malheurs les plus extraordinaires et les plus touchants,
on ne pourroit trouver un sujet plus intéressant que son histoire que
j’intitule thérésina (c’est son nom) ou l’enfant de la providence cela
paroitra dans dix ou douze jours. vous me ferés grand plaisir de la
faire annoncer dans les papiers de maestrich, je vous le rendrai pour
le tombeau à présent je vais vous faire un aveu qui me coute: je ne pers
rien mais j’égare tout; j’ai donc eu le malheur d’égarer votre dernière
lettre et vos beaux vers du poëme et les vers charmants que vous avés
faits pour moi et dans lesquels vous voulés bien me comparer à deux
auteurs que j’aime particulièrement depuis ma plus tendre jeunesse;
ces vers m’ont tellement flatté [sic] qu’ils m’ont inspiré [sic] sur le
champ ceux que je vous envoye et que je ne puis que de confiance vous
donner pour in-promptu puisque je ne vous les offre qu’au bout de
six semaines, mais vous me connoissés si bien que vous serés persuadé
que je ne ments jamais sourtout pour me faire valoir.” She continues:
E I G H T E E N T H - C E N T U R Y F I C T I O N , Volume 17, Number 3, April 2005
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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION
Voici mon in-promptu:
au printemps de mes jours j’admirois la bruyère
et déjà je sentois le charme d’hamilton
je les aimai d’instinct et de réflexion
car jusqu’au bout de ma carrière
je conserve pour eux mon inclination
mais comment avés vous pu faire
pour deviner ainsi mes gouts, mon caractère
enfin mes jugemens et dans chaque saison?
combien je suis énorgueillie
de votre pénétration!
j’y trouve de la sympathie.
Ayés donc la bonté de me renvoyer tous les vers et ne soyés pas inquiet des autres
je suis sure de les retrouver agréés monsieur l’expression bien sincère de tous
les sentiments que je vous ai voués pour ma vie. Des maux de nerfs continuels
par ce temps froid et orageux m’empêchent absolument d’écrire un peu de suite
de ma main; mais dumoins je puis signer
D. ctesse de Genlis1
Mme de Genlis indeed published Thérésina, ou l’enfant de la Providence
in 1826.2 This relatively unknown text of the Genlis corpus is of
substantial interest, and, as I shall demonstrate in the following pages,
it provides a fascinating comparison with Bernardin de Saint-Pierre’s
novel Paul et Virginie, first published in 1788; Thérésina is, or at least it
becomes, a pedagogical novel that is, perhaps uniquely, also an act of
charity in itself; and it also portrays intimate details about the mistressservant relationship, providing some insight into the social status of
the demoiselle de compagnie . The depiction of this relationship leads to
other questions, including: is there any moral ambiguity in the
situation whereby a wealthy woman employs a young and poor woman
and educates her in order that she may fulfil this very role in life? The
text is divided into two distinct parts: the first (1–74) offers an
exciting, dramatic account of the shipwreck and survival of the young
eponymous heroine; the second (77–111) is a description of the type
1
2
This letter is in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (Artinian, Genlis) at the
University of Texas at Austin. I am most grateful to the Center for permission to reproduce
the letter. I take this opportunity to express my thanks to the two anonymous readers for
Eighteenth-Century Fiction. I have tried to take account of their many suggestive remarks and
am most grateful for their comments.
The text is described as a “nouvelle,” and the title page reads “écrite par Madame la
Comtesse de Genlis au profit de cette jeune personne, agée de douze ans.” The “nouvelle”
was published in Paris by Ladvocat, described as “Éditeur des Mémoires de Madame de
Genlis.”
WRITING FOR CHARITY
539
of education that Mme de Genlis believes would be ideal for a person
like Thérésina.3 There are, of course, similarities between this short
novel and the much longer and very successful Adèle et Théodore, ou
lettres sur l’éducation (1782). Thérésina is, then, both an exciting novel
and a treatise on education. Mme de Genlis also uses her considerable
talents and experience on this occasion to create a text designed to
produce charitable income for the unfortunate heroine of that text.
It is a novel that fictionalizes fact and whose fiction is intended to
benefit a living entity. There are two principal reasons for studying
this text: it is one of the last works of a prolific author whose influence
and stature were striking during her lifetime, and it is a text offering
insights into how a particular class of individuals might best be
educated for a life of service. Naturally, my study will follow the
structure of the text itself.
The “avertissement” reports that the text deals with a real person,
not a simple fictional heroine: “J’ai consenti, avec autant d’empressement que de plaisir, à prêter au récit du naufrage de l’intéressante
et jeune Thérésina G. Trapani les derniers accens d’une muse
défaillante. Je ne pouvois en faire un usage plus doux qu’en les
consacrant à l’innocence et au malheur!” This brief introduction is
enough to entice the reader, who will soon find a formula familiar to
readers of eighteenth-century fiction: “L’histoire étonnante que j’écris
semble faite exprès pour servir de développement à ces réflexions;
mais elle est, et dans tous ses détails, parfaitement conforme à la
vérité.”4 The novel is to be a story of human suffering, but it will also
offer hope and inspiration to those who believe in the divinity. The
novel will lead to the description of an ideal education for a particular
class of women, but it will also, by its moral tone and its belief in a
providential world, educate the reader.
Thérésina’s father was born in Sicily; he was educated with care and
proved to be an intelligent and responsive pupil. He was much
travelled, having visited Italy, Greece, France, Spain, and Africa,
including Egypt. He made good use of his travels and noted the
3
4
Mme de Genlis wrote a number of works on education, destined for various social classes.
For a list of such works and critical responses to them, see the excellent bibliography by
Marie-Emmanuelle Plagnol-Diéval, Madame de Genlis, Bibliographie des Ecrivains Français,
6 (Paris: Memini, 1996). Of particular interest, as Plagnol-Diéval points out, is the article by
A.L.P. Kempton, “Education and the Child in the Eighteenth Century,” SVEC 124 (1974),
299–362.
Mme de Genlis (Stéphanie Félicité, comtesse de Genlis), Thérésina, ou L’Enfant de la
Providence (Paris: Ladvocat, 1826), 3. References are to this edition.
540
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION
details of local customs and mores, and this knowledge would serve
him well in his future professional life. He settled in Algeria, and
there he met a young Italian woman, Gaëtana, whom he married. She
was born in 1793, and the date allows the author to make a gratuitous
critical allusion to France, “époque aussi désastreuse que mémorable
pour la France!” (7). The two are soon required to leave the country,
and they go to Mahon on the island of Minorca, getting married
18 August 1812. The historical precision here, and elsewhere, helps
convince us that this is no ordinary fiction. The couple are soon
expecting their first baby, and we are told of the wealth and success
of the marriage. Trapani (he is named after the town where he was
born) has all the qualities required of a successful businessman,
including knowledge of commerce and fluency in foreign languages.
We are presented with the picture of perfect happiness, but we sense
that this cannot last as the narrator intervenes: “Hélas, le bonheur sur
la terre est une illusion, et toute illusion, quand la vie se prolonge,
prépare des regrets et des peines, puisque le malheur dans la jeunesse
n’est jamais qu’une expérience anticipée!” (10). A baby is born and
named Thérésina. It is decided that Trapani will leave to establish a
business in Marseille, to be followed two or three months later by his
wife and child, who would bring with them the family possessions. The
early references to happiness and the manner in which the separation
is described leave little doubt that trouble lies ahead: “un trajet de
mer est toujours un peu inquiétant” (14). Trapani, separated from his
loved ones, becomes anxious and contemplative, and the novel
changes tone as the author starts to analyse the traveller’s emotions:
Ce n’est pas sans une profonde mélancolie qu’un être sensible peut contempler
l’immense étendue de la mer et celle de la voûte céleste qui semble n’être
appuyée que sur le cercle mobile de l’onde et des flots légérs et tumultueux! Ces
eaux brillantes et sans limites sont attrayantes et trompeuses comme les
promesses de l’ambition; on peut aussi comparer leur continuelle agitation à
celle de nos destinées. (15)
The hero’s uncertainty introduces a series of passages that are
remarkable for their energy and power: Mme de Genlis is inspired by
the tragic story she is recounting, and her inspiration leads to the
realization that one possible literary influence is indeed Bernardin de
Saint-Pierre’s Paul et Virginie. The sense of alienation experienced by
Trapani is exactly that which Bernardin describes in passages of his
novel, as he seeks to portray his hero’s misery at being separated from
WRITING FOR CHARITY
541
his lover by the sea.5 Trapani experiences the sense of isolation at sea,
deprived as he is of natural landmarks: “Nul doux souvenir ne se
retrace à sa mémoire; tout ce que la nature offre d’enchanteur a
disparu à ses regards; là, plus de vergers et de jardins délicieux, plus
de fleurs et de fruits, plus d’habitations somptueuses ou solitaires,
plus de forêts majestueuses” (16). Similarities are evident between the
two novels: both involve a storm followed by a shipwreck, and both
involve a lengthy separation. And, of course, both can be interpreted
as religious novels in which the educative message is paramount, in
spite of an apparent paradox that allows the innocent and virtuous
heroine to die.
Two voyages appear in Genlis’s novel. First, Trapani leaves alone to
go to Marseille, full of fear and anguish. While he arrives safely, the
sense of foreboding is already strong, and we can anticipate future
trouble at sea. Later, when his wife and child are about to embark,
they witness a touching scene at the quayside, that of a young sailor
named Simon receiving the blessing of his aged father, which moves
bystanders to tears. Such an episode, we feel, is bound to have some
significance. The best swimmer in the Spanish navy, Simon remarks
to Gaëtana that if they are in trouble he will save her. She replies that
if they are in trouble he must save her daughter. And this, as the
reader has surely guessed, is about to happen.
The wind suddenly changes direction and the sky clouds over.
Thunder and lightning ensue, and in a remarkable passage Mme de
Genlis shows the extent of her descriptive powers: “des éclairs
bleuâtres et livides sembloient déchirer en lambeaux le crêpe lugubre
qui privoit du jour, et ils donnoient à chaque minute des traits
éblouissants de lumière qui ne servoient qu’à faire entrevoir l’horreur
de ce spectacle menaçant [...] les matelots commencèrent à s’alarmer
et le témoignèrent; alors la terreur gagna tout l’équipage” (33). Not
unnaturally, a storm at sea frightens the sailors, and this is a feature
both of Bernardin’s novel and that of Mme de Genlis. In both novels
there is the possibility of being saved, or at least the suggestion of it.
Virginie, declining the offer of the sailor who says he can save her if
she will remove her clothes, stands statuesque in her final moments
with one hand on her heart and the other on her clothes, looking
5
See the passage that follows Virginie’s departure on the ship taking her to France: “Il le vit
à plus de dix lieues au large, comme un point noir au milieu de l’océan. Il resta une partie
du jour tout occupé à le considérer.” Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Paul et Virginie, ed. J.-M.
Racault (Paris: Livre de Poche Classique, 1999), 198. References are to this edition.
542
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION
upwards for salvation (240); Gaëtana kneels with her sister and points
her arms towards heaven as she invokes God. Then a sudden wave
overturns the ship, and Simon is just able to take the young baby from
her mother’s hands and save her. The mother dies, and the baby is
saved by the sailor—and, it is said very clearly, by Providence. A friend
of Gaëtana’s is given the task of looking after the baby when Simon
eventually manages to get her back to shore. And, just as in Paul et
Virginie, a token of love is found. In Bernardin’s novel, the token is the
portrait of Paul, which Virginie is still wearing at her death; in Genlis’s
novel, Thérésina is wearing a chain often worn by her mother, whose
friend, Mme Hargrave, “se promit bien de lui conserver soigneusement
ce précieux et dernier souvenir” (49, 50). As in Bernardin’s novel, the
token makes a further appearance when Trapani returns to the island
of Minorca to fetch his daughter: “Il frémit en voyant sur la poitrine la
chaîne de fer et le cœur de cristal que Gaëtana avoit constamment
portés depuis le jour de son mariage jusqu’à l’instant qui précéda sa
mort” (55). And the chain is taken from the daughter until she is of an
age to appreciate its true value (56).6
The misery and anguish of Paul in Bernardin’s novel is echoed
here: “le desespoir de Trapani fut inexprimable; on craignit d’abord
pour ses jours, ensuite pour ses facultés intellectuelles” (53).7 Eventually, Trapani takes his daughter to Marseille, and, after four years, they
return to his native Sicily only to be confronted by an earthquake. The
novel is leading to its conclusion. The father and daughter stay for two
and a half years in Palermo, then leave for Naples with the intention
of returning eventually to France. They experience a further
frightening storm at sea, and Thérésina, now nine years old, prays
fervently for their safety, which eventually they achieve, granted
perhaps by Providence.8 The pair finally arrive in Paris, and at this
moment, Mme de Genlis can conclude the first part of her account
6
7
8
I have argued elsewhere that the portrait of Paul in Bernardin’s novel has a religious significance. See Cook, “Paul et Virginie, a roman poétique,” Australian Journal of French Studies
24 (1987), 245–52. In Bernardin’s novel, the portrait appears in the scene where Virignie’s
body is discovered washed up on the shore: “Une de ses mains était sur ses habits, et l’autre,
qu’elle appuyait sur son cœur, était fortement fermée et roidie. J’en dégageai avec peine
une petite boîte: mais quelle fut ma surprise, lorsque je vis que c’était le portrait de Paul,
qu’elle lui avait promis de ne jamais demander tant qu’elle vivrait!” (243).
An equivalent passage in Bernardin’s novel follows the death of Virginie. Paul is described:
“Il était insensible à tout, ses regards étaient éteints, et il ne répondait rien à toutes les
questions qu’on pouvait lui faire” (248).
During the moments of extreme danger when Thérésina and her father are at sea, they
both pray for their salvation: “Trapani soupira, ce fut dans cette mémorable situation le
dernier hommage de sa foi” (66).
WRITING FOR CHARITY
543
and explain how she prepared a “plan d’éducation” for the girl for
the particular kind of life she was to lead. Mme de Genlis explains
that at the girl’s age she cannot be sure of following through all of
these plans and suggests that her children and pupils will carry on the
good work.
Before looking at the kind of education that Mme de Genlis
prepared for a young woman destined to a life of service, some initial
concluding remarks are necessary: a sense of historical truth reverberates throughout the text, and there is every reason to believe that
the account is, substantially, based on a true story. The manner of the
account, however, is similar to a text from a previous age, a novel that
was still very much in the public eye and that Mme de Genlis greatly
admired.9 Is it too much to suggest that Mme de Genlis allowed
herself distant imitations of a novel that she admired in her attempt
to embellish the tragic tale of a real heroine? For in the story of
Thérésina she saw, as did Bernardin, the educative potential of a
religious tale.
The second part of the text—it is no longer a novel at this stage—
offers a “plan d’éducation” for the young woman who has survived
against the odds. Again, a letter provides some context. On 9 July
1826, Mme de Genlis wrote to her friend Custine:
on vient de me dire que madame de custine est plus malade, je vous conjure
mon ami de me donner promptement de ses nouvelles, d’après ce que vous
m’aviés mandé10 j’espèroit [sic] que le seul voyage lui feroit du bien—excusés
moi mon ami de ne vous avoir pas écrit plutôt mais je suis à peine quitte des
embarras d’un déménagement l’une des plus ennuieuses choses que je
connaisse parcequ’elle fait perdre un temps énorme. Je suis dans un plus beau
quartier et je me flatte que vous contribueriés à m’en faire sentir l’avantage.
Songés que j’attens avec une bien vive impatience une petite lettre de vous. et
faites moi [one word illegible] des détails11 sur votre genre de vie, et sur vos
occupations, et surtout sur la santé de madame de custine. N’oubliés pas de me
mander quelle époque vous viendrés à paris.
9
10
11
See her letter to Bernardin, April–May 1788: “J’aime cette histoire à la folie, avec passion, je
ne saurais dire à quel excès […] . Quelles délicieuses descriptions, quel intérêt dans les plus
petits détails! C’est un morceau véritablement original et pour lequel j’aurai toujours une
prédilection toute particulière.” Monique Stern, “Lettres inédites de Madame de Genlis à
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre,” Miscellany/Mélanges, SVEC 169 (1977), 265–66.
The manuscript of the letter may be found in the library of the Taylor Institution in Oxford
(ms.F/ Genlis.3). The original word seems to have been “demandé,” but Mme de Genlis
corrects this by crossing out the “de.”
The word “détailles” is crossed out and “détails” added above the line—a blot of ink makes
the reading of this section quite difficult.
544
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION
x12
j’ai donné entièrement au profit de la plus intéressante petite naufragée une
nouvelle intitulée Thérésina ou l’enfant de la providence c’est bien exactement son
histoire mais cette histoire est merveilleuse, elle paroit depuis deux jours et elle
a un bien grand succès, x13 si vous aviés été ici vous en auriés acheté deux ou
trois exemplaires, au profit de cette pauvre petite que je vais prendre avec moi
quand elle sera tout-à-fait guérie de la contagion de la rougeole.
x14 adieu mon ami, ma santé est bonne malgré la chaleur excessive. Adieu vous
connaissés mes anciens sentimens, ils ne changerons [sic] jamais.
ce 9 juillet 1826.D. Ctesse de Genlis.
This letter and the letter to Clavarau cited above do not provide the
same information about the publication date, but we can judge from
the second letter that the nouvelle was available from July. What
becomes clear is that Mme de Genlis is now intending to take
Thérésina as her companion. It is important, therefore, that she be
well educated for that purpose.
In the “Avertissement sur le but de ce petit ouvrage” the author
writes: “On a beaucoup écrit sur l’éducation, cependant nous n’avons
rien sur le sujet dont il est ici question” (77). Mme de Genlis gives a
historical account of the way in which, in the eighteenth century, sons
and daughters of the rich and famous underwent different forms of
education according to their gender, making the particular point,
which she says she made previously in Adèle et Théodore, that the
custom was unjust and strange. Following the English and German
model, she says that there is now no distinction between the ways in
which “gouverneurs” or “gouvernantes” should be educated, and she
proposes that they should be “également bien élevés.” She adds,
On veut des demoiselles de compagnie qui puissent, au besoin, remplacer les
institutrices. On a dans les pays étrangers des idées parfaitement justes et même
touchantes sur ce que doivent être les demoiselles ou dames de compagnie;
lorsqu’on en prend une, on croit faire une sorte d’adoption, et l’on désire que
l’adoptée ait tout le dévouement que pourroit avoir une fille aînée de la maison.
(79–80)15
12
13
14
15
A manuscript cross is written at the beginning of this section, and two further crosses are
added below.
A further cross is inserted here.
This is the third and last inserted cross.
No doubt Mme de Genlis had not forgotten the scandal that she had caused by becoming
the “gouverneur” of the sons of the duc de Chartres. As the Biographie Universelle (Paris:
Gauthier Frères, 1834) puts it, “Cette étrange nouveauté n’obtint pas l’approbation
publique. Il paraît même que le vertueux Louis XVI n’y donna son assentiment que par la
WRITING FOR CHARITY
545
Mme de Genlis is describing a new social process, which was becoming
the norm and which was quite different from the custom that
prevailed in the previous century, prior to the Revolution. This view
of taking a demoiselle de compagnie as constituting a sort of adoption is
significant, coming from a woman who adopted, and saw to the
education of, some twenty children in the course of her life. The new
role is very much the one that prevails in the management of the
domestic economy, and it is important that the young charge should
be properly educated to undertake the new function. The young
woman is close to the family and needs to know:
tous les détails du ménage; elle doit surveiller les domestiques, s’informer
journellement du prix des denrées de tout genre et maintenir dans la maison,
autant qu’elle le peut, la propreté, l’ordre et l’économie; elle doit dans les petits
ou grands voyages et dans les accidens imprévus, savoir suppléer en beaucoup
de choses les femmes de chambre, les médecins, les chururgiens et les gardemalades; il faut qu’elle ait une écriture très lisible et une bonne orthographe, et
qu’elle sache bien lire tout haut, talent qui, même sans aucune espèce de
déclamation, exige plusieurs études sérieuses, indispensables. Il faut, enfin,
qu’elle ait toute l’adresse qui doit caractériser une femme, qu’elle sache coudre,
broder, etc. (81–82)
Clearly, the role reserved for such women is very demanding and
requires a range of skills that need to be carefully nurtured. The rest
of this novel is dedicated to this process as Mme de Genlis sketches
the type of education that a girl like Thérésina will require.
Thankfully, and this is the starting point, the pupil will not need to
be particularly musical. Given the pressure of time, the musical art is
one that others can provide for the household. Thérésina must learn
that she should always take the opportunity to improve herself, and
she might even learn practical skills from servants. These might
include the preparation of “tisanes, un lait de poule, un pot au feu, du
thé, du café, du chocolat etc.” (85). She might be allowed to improve
her musical skills in time, but this is not a priority.
It is important that she should be able to read well aloud, although
the choice of texts to be read may come as something of a surprise,
with the emphasis on dictionaries to ensure that the pupil is both
learning facts and learning how to pronounce the names of major
considération qu’il était peu probable que les futurs élèves de Mme de Genlis pussent
jamais s’asseoir sur le trône de France” (5:392). The “étrange nouveauté” was the fact that
the “gouverneur” was a woman, of course.
546
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION
historical figures and places. In order to learn how to read poetry
aloud, it is suggested that the pupil be asked to write poetry, with the
help of a dictionary of rhymes. Racine and La Fontaine both figure in
the required reading list as examples of good practice.
Mme de Genlis then tries to define the qualities required in a
demoiselle de compagnie. She must be patient, meticulous, totally discreet. She will be the link between the servants and their masters, a
task demanding tact and care. She must always appear to be relaxed
and calm, and she must never criticize her mistress behind her back.
She must never betray a secret. Her role is to assist the mistress of the
house as quietly, efficiently, and discreetly as possible. She will be
pious but without ostentation.
The final chapter of this short treatise on a particular kind of education defines the rules for maîtresses de pensions. Mme de Genlis starts
by suggesting that:
Il est bien à désirer qu’une inspection sévère du gouvernement soit
constamment exercée sur toutes les écoles d’éducation des jeunes personnes.
Dans toutes les maisons considérables de ce genre, et dont le prix des pensions
est au-dessus des moyens du peuple, il faudroit qu’il y eût: 1. une chapelle (si la
maison n’est pas à côté ou en face d’une église); 2. une petite salle de bains; 3.
que les logements des pensionnaires ne fussent ni des entre-sols, ni
immédiatement sous les toits; 4. qu’il y ait un jardin avec de l’ombrage; que la
maison soit en bon air et qu’elle n’ait point de plâtres neufs. (105–6)
The advice and guidelines given by Mme de Genlis may appear, at
first sight, to be somewhat eccentric. Yet what is happening in this
short text shows a changing mood and an evolving world of the
master-servant relationship. The demoiselle de compagnie inhabits a
world that is neither of the master/mistress nor of the servant. She
represents an educated and intelligent ally, the kind of figure who will
be present in wealthy households of the new century and who will
guarantee order and restraint, producing an environment in which
a wealthy middle class can prosper. The demoiselle de compagnie is a
figure who does not appear in any eighteenth-century novel with
which I am familiar. Clearly, this is a feature of post-revolutionary
society about which little seems to be known. Three texts of the first
half of the nineteenth century may help in this respect. For example,
in George Sand’s Le Marquis de Villemer, the young heroine is a woman
of poor but noble origin, who is obliged to seek the position of a
WRITING FOR CHARITY
547
demoiselle de compagnie in a wealthy household.16 Without going into
the plot details of this most readable text, suffice it to say that at a
particular moment in the plot the heroine, who dates her first letter
3 January 1845, asks her future employer what she will be expected to
do. The response is: “‘Causer d’abord et sur ce point me voilà satisfait.
Et puis il faut lire et faire un peu de musique’ […] . Elle comptait que
je serais un excellent secrétaire, et elle me congédia en me tendant
la main et en me disant de très bonnes paroles.”17 What Caroline finds
difficult is the status of her post. She is an active woman who would
like to do more, but her condition prohibits such activity:
Par-dessus le marché, il faut être oisive comme elle. J’ai essayé dans le
commencement de broder à ses côtés; j’ai vu bien vite que cela lui portait sur les
nerfs […] . Elle me pousse donc à la causerie et m’interpelle souvent pour me
forcer à montrer mon esprit, ce que je me garde bien de faire, car je ne m’en sens
pas du tout quand on me regarde et quand on m’écoute.18
The demoiselles de compagnie inhabit a space that exists between the
servants and the masters and mistresses of the house. As such, they are
vulnerable, of course, and Caroline is no exception.
Two other texts, both one-act plays, can further our understanding
of the nature of the post and the person. For example, Maria, ou la
Demoiselle de Compagnie, comédie en un acte et en vers, by F.P.A. Léger, was
first performed in 1817, and the text was published a year later.
Without going into plot intricacies, we can nevertheless extract from
this entertaining play a brief description of what is expected of a
demoiselle de compagnie. Maria’s father asks her what she has to do, and
she replies by saying that her role is to:
[...] étudier les goûts, l’humeur, le caractère
De celle qui surtout on doit chercher à plaire.
De prévenir ses vœux et ses moindres désirs,
De partager sa peine ainsi que ses plaisirs,
D’être à ses volontés aveuglement docile,
Quand les cœurs sont d’accord la tâche est bien facile.
Pour Madame, on dispose un concert aujourd’hui;
Demain par la lecture on charme son ennui;
Toujours à ses côtés, par goût, par habitude,
16
17
18
George Sand, Le Marquis de Villemer (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, n.d.). I am most grateful to
Margot Irvine, University of Toronto, for pointing out this reference.
Sand, 9–10.
Sand, 34.
548
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION
On la suit dans le monde ou dans la solitude.
Tantôt d’un entretien la douce intimité,
Des jours trop ressemblans, rompt l’uniformité.19
Maria is not expected to undertake any manual work—she is a companion who talks, reads, plays music, and acts as a constant available
support. A heroine named Louise, in La Demoiselle de Compagnie, comédie
vaudeville en un acte by Mazères, helpfully describes her daily routine:
Dès que madame sonne j’entre chez elle! C’est moi qui l’aide à sa toilette, parce
qu’elle dit que sa femme de chambre est maladroite; après déjeuner, je fais la
lecture à madame jusqu’à ce qu’elle s’endorme; je laisse passer un quart
d’heure, puis je me mets au piano; madame s’éveille et m’écoute; il vient des
visites, alors j’approche les fauteuils et je répète à madame ce qu’on lui dit, parce
qu’elle a l’oreille un peu dure […] . Quand il n’y a personne à diner, je mange
avec madame; quand il y a du monde on me sert dans ma chambre! Après diner,
quand nous ne sommes que nous, je fais le piquet de madame; je n’aime pas le
piquet, mais madame l’aime beaucoup! Seulement, elle se fâche quand elle a
mauvaus jeu! Mais je sais le moyen de lui donner de la bonne humeur: je triche
pour la faire gagner.20
This description is delivered with a sense of humour and a little
malice. Clearly Louise is not a servant and indeed is served. She has
learned how to humour her mistress and how to make her life easier
and more relaxed. She is a perceptive and intelligent woman who has
knowledge and skills; but she is not the mistress of the house, and she
never will be, unless, as sometimes happens, she is able to marry one
of the sons in the house and change her status. From the novel by
Sand and these two plays, we may derive the contemporary social
context of the demoiselle de compagnie.
Mme de Genlis’s Thérésina is very much a tale of two texts. The
dramatic fictionalized account of the heroine and her survival leads
to a matter-of-fact presentation of the world into which the young girl
is to evolve. As such, the tale offers a fascinating insight into a changing world—a world in which Mme de Genlis is not fully comfortable.
This is not her world of the aristocratic eighteenth century, a world
rocked by the events of the Revolution: this is the world of wealth and
finance, a world where people need to know their place in an evolving
society. The image of the world in Thérésina is starkly different from
19
20
F.P.A. Léger, Maria, ou la Demoiselle de Compagnie (Paris: Barba, 1818), B.L. 11738.h.11 (1).
Mazères, La Demoiselle de Compagnie, comédie vaudeville en un acte, représentée pour la première
fois, à Paris, sur le Théâtre de Madame, le 6 mai 1826, B.L. 11738.i.13 (3), p. 26. The text was
published in the same year in Paris by Quoy. Thérésina was published that same year too.
WRITING FOR CHARITY
549
the world Mme de Genlis described in Adèle et Théodore (1782). Both
contain similar elements with a final emphasis on education, but the
identity of the educated changed as the demands of society had been
transformed by social and industrial revolution and by constraints and
expectations of a new age. In 1782, Mme de Genlis published the
novel Adèle et Théodore for the first time. 21 It continued to be
republished regularly over the next forty years, a testimony to the
author’s popularity during her lifetime. Thérésina is of a different
order. It is a short dramatic text composed of two very different parts,
brought together by the changing world in which the heroine herself
is found. The naufragée survives to become the demoiselle de compagnie
of the author. And the author uses her heroine as a pretext to define
a new kind of education in keeping with the world in which the fictional heroine finds herself. Charity is a constant theme in the novels
of Mme de Genlis—in this very late work, the text itself has become
the charitable act—as the proceeds will go towards supporting the real
person who emerges from an account that appears to be too unlikely
to be true, reading more like fiction than fact. Mme de Genlis claimed
in her correspondence and in the subtitle of the nouvelle itself that the
text was written for the benefit of the unfortunate orphan, but we
wonder, given the nature of the education that Thérésina was to
undergo, whether the educator and author did not have an ulterior
motive for this apparent act of charity. In Violet Wyndham’s
biography of Mme de Genlis, it is claimed that, “appalled at the
thought of the little time left to her, Félicité determined to try and
expiate her sins by unselfish actions. Hence her decision to adopt a
little orphan girl who had lost her parents in a shipwreck” (not strictly
true, of course): “In five or six days I will take my little Thérésina ... her
arrival will cause a great change in my life. I will house her, feed her
and educate her to my dying day and every moment of my existence
there will be sweet and touching interest of a good action to be done.
So you see, my dear Anatole [de Montesquiou, her grandson and
heir], that you should be grateful for the time that I still give to her.”22
In another letter to Anatole de Montesquiou, Genlis wrote: “Outre le
21
22
It should be noted that from Adèle et Théodore of 1782 to Thérésina of 1826, the desire to
educate children was a passion and preoccupation of the author. For example, see her
Manuel de la jeune femme, guide complet de la maîtresse de maison contenant tout ce qu’il est
nécessaire de savoir pour diriger avec méthode, agrément et économie, l’intérieur d’un ménage (Paris:
Béchet, 1829), 356.
Violet Wyndham, Mme de Genlis, A Biography (London: André Deutsch, 1958), 267.
550
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION
plaisir de faire une bonne action, il me fallait absolument un
dénouement pour ma nouvelle, il ne fallait pas que cette enfant de la
Providence restât délaissée.”23 Indeed, the moral of the nouvelle
depends very much on the nature of the conclusion, as Bernardin
realized in the conclusion to his earlier novel. This conclusion gives
Thérésina a status in reality that the fictional presentation could not
have led us to expect. Thérésina has survived the various ordeals in
order to lead a settled life. And as the author realized, much beyond
the life of the young heroine was to undergo radical change as a result
of the events recounted here. In this short but dramatic text, Mme de
Genlis has found a means to present a moral tale that underlines the
belief in a providential world by intertwining the poetic aspects of a
fictional world with the real world of a changing society. A fascinating
fictionalized account that seems to owe a debt of inspiration to a
novelist much admired by Genlis, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, offers the
charm of a short dramatic text and, simultaneously, a suggestion of a
new, emerging social order. Thérésina would be educated to become
a demoiselle de compagnie, and Mme de Genlis describes the picture of
an ideal, which would become the norm in the evolving society of the
nineteenth century. In Bernardin’s novel, Virginie dies, leaving her
survivors and the readers with a sense of tragic loss. Thérésina survives
her many trials to live a life of servitude, and we are prompted to ask
which conclusion is the more educative, which conclusion will have the
greater effect on its readers. The last words belong, perhaps, to
Bernardin, writing in the “avis” to the 1789 edition of Paul et Virginie :
“il est dangereux de n’offrir à la vertu d’autre perspective sur la terre
que le bonheur, et […] il faut apprendre aux hommes non seulement
à vivre, mais encore à mourir” (110). Mme de Genlis certainly admired
Bernardin’s novel, but the conclusion to her nouvelle seeks to achieve
something quite different.
University of Exeter
23
G. de Broglie, Madame de Genlis (Paris: Perrin, 1985), 458.