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The Comtesse de Ségur: Catholicism, Children‟s Literature, and the „Culture Wars‟ in Nineteenth Century France Sophie Heywood Thesis for Doctorate of Philosophy History University of Edinburgh 2008 1 I, Sophie Heywood, declare that the thesis is my own composition, and all my own work. Edinburgh15th July 2008 2 Contents Abstract 4 List of Abbreviations 5 Introduction 6 Chapter One: Life Stories 35 I. Childhood 43 II. Exile 56 III. Marriage and Motherhood 59 IV. Foreigner 71 V. Conversion 74 VI. Grandmotherhood 77 Conclusion 89 Chapter Two: Nobles, Saints, and Delinquents: Constructions of Childhood in The Collected Works of Madame de Ségur 92 I. Noble Children 105 II. Saintly Children 126 III. Juvenile Delinquents 140 Conclusion 148 Chapter Three: The Tribulations of an Author: Writing, Censorship and the Reading Public under the Second Empire 154 I. M.M.L. Hachette & Co The construction of an Empire 159 II. Money & Morality: The Hachette Editorial Policy 161 III. The Author in the „Age of the Publisher‟ 175 Conclusion 191 Chapter Four: The Comtesse and the Culture Wars 194 I. The New Catholic Era of the Ségur Family 200 II. Frère Louis 212 III. “Les Bacquois” An Ultramontane Network 217 IV. “L’Amour des petits” The Family Literary Mission 226 Conclusion 241 Chapter Five: Model Girls and Divine Women: Reading the Comtesse de Ségur 244 I. The Mother Educator and “Governess” Literature 253 II. “Moi je suis fière qu‟une petite fille ait écrit ses mémoires”: Books for Model Girls 272 Conclusion 290 Conclusion 292 Appendix I: The Collected Works of the Comtesse de Ségur 299 Bibliography 302 3 Abstract This thesis analyses the comtesse de Ségur (1799-1874), France‟s best-selling children‟s author, both as a cultural icon and as a historical subject. Although Ségur became the best- selling author for young children in the twentieth century, and a publishing phenomenon, her work has often been overlooked by Anglophone historians. This is because she is perceived to be a part of a school of didactic authors derided as “governesses”, and who are usually characterised as bigoted spinsters, in possession of little in the way of real literary talent. The recent tendency in French academic research has therefore been to play down the comtesse de Ségur‟s politico-religious agenda, in order to distance her work from that of her colleagues, and to explain her enduring popularity. However, such an approach is based upon a questionable reading of such “governess” authors, and is an indication that Ségur‟s politics recall a part of their history that many French people would prefer to forget. In contrast, it is the contention of this thesis that the comtesse‟s work must be understood in the context of the religious antagonisms of Second Empire France. Ségur was closely involved with one of the most influential religious propaganda networks of the Second Empire. The informal nature of their activities meant that Ségur‟s gender did not prevent her from engaging in the political fray. The thesis examines the immediate production of her work in the context of the Catholic drive to propagate „good books‟, and highlights the importance which the religious revival attached to the child and to children‟s literature; it looks at the myth-making process which generated the comtesse de Ségur as a symbol of ideal Christian womanhood, and the role that this played in the politics of identity in the second half of the nineteenth century; and finally it asks what her legacy has been for feminine culture in France. In restoring the comtesse de Ségur to the intransigent Catholic movement, this thesis brings to light a neglected aspect of the Franco-French culture wars, namely the important contribution made by women authors such as Ségur to the massive surge in religious print culture in the mid-century. It questions the old stereotypes that have long surrounded Catholic women, and shows just how engaged they were in the struggle for the nation‟s soul that raged in post-revolutionary France. 4 Abbreviations Archives Nationales – AN Bibliothèque Nationale – BN Histoire de l‟Édition Française – HEF Institut Catholique, Fonds Veuillot – ICFV Institut de Mémoires de l‟Édition Contemporaine – IMEC Nouvelles Acquisitions Françaises – NAF NB. All references to correspondence from the comtesse de Ségur to Olga de Pitray are taken from Vicomtesse de Simard de Pitray, née Olga de Ségur, sa fille, (ed) Lettres de la Comtesse de Ségur née Rostopchine au Vicomte et à la Vicomtesse de Pitray (Paris, Hachette, 1891) All other references to letters written by the comtesse de Ségur, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from Marie-José Strich (ed), with a preface by Michel Tournier, 1799-1874 La Comtesse de Ségur. Correspondance (Paris, Scala, 1990) 5 Introduction Madame la comtesse de Ségur, née Rostopchine (1799-1874) is a French national institution. Generations of children have grown up reading her stories, yet she remains virtually unknown in Anglophone scholarship,1 and hers is certainly not a name that is familiar to the general public of the English-speaking world. The comtesse de Ségur began writing late in life, when she was a fifty-six-year-old grandmother. Between 1856 and 1869 she produced twenty children‟s storybooks for the publishing giant Hachette, as the flagship author of their children‟s collection, the Bibliothèque Rose. Her books enjoyed immediate success, and soon she was being hailed as the „nation‟s grandmother‟ by enthusiastic reviewers. Ségur went on to become the bestselling young children‟s author of the twentieth- century, and her works have been translated into many languages. She is a publishing phenomenon: her books have sold over thirty million copies in France alone, and they are still widely read today.2 1 There are some researchers based in French Studies departments, including Penny Brown at the University of Manchester, Élise Noetinger at Cambridge University, and in the United States, Ruth Carver Carpasso, and Claire Malarte-Feldman at the University of New Hampshire 2 Guy Schoeller, cover text, comtesse de Ségur, Oeuvres (Paris, Robert Laffont, 1990) 3. By way of comparison, worldwide sales of J.K. Rowlings‟ Harry Potter series are thought to have reached 325 million, according to The Daily Telegraph, 6th June 2007 6 Madame de Ségur was part of a wave of authors who wrote in the so-called „golden age‟ of European children‟s literature, c.1850-1870, characterised by their emphasis on the idea of “instruire en amusant.” Ségur had a fertile imagination and an exuberant style. Often the educational progress of her protagonists served mainly as a central anchor for the plot, whilst all around them she created a whirl of comic, burlesque, and villainous characters, who cause mayhem, and are designed to make her moral message more amusing. All of the comtesse‟s bestselling works feature rebellious protagonists.3 Ségur relished detailing children‟s misdemeanours, as well as their efforts to mend their ways. The most consistently popular Ségur book over the past 150 years has been the tale of disobedient Sophie, the semi-autobiographical, four-year-old heroine of Les Malheurs de Sophie (1858). Sophie is followed by Cadichon, the donkey narrator of Mémoires d’un Âne (1860), and then by the misadventures of her mischievous orphan, Charles Mac‟Miche in Un bon petit diable (1865), the only one of her books to be set in Scotland. Fourth in her bestsellers list are the iconic Petites Filles modèles (1858), the portrait of her well-behaved granddaughters. Again however, the real heroine of this work is still Sophie, who is now an orphan. Most of the comtesse‟s stories are set in rural Normandy under the Second Empire, and take place in a Château, or its environs, but she also transported her readers to her homeland Russia, in the General Dourakine books, L’Auberge de l’Ange Gardien (1863), and Le Général Dourakine (1863). Although, (particularly in her later books), Ségur could at times be accused of following a set formula, centred upon the upbringing of young aristocrats in the countryside, as this list above suggests, hers was a rich and varied oeuvre. 3 On the comtesse de Ségur‟s sales figures, see Annie Renonciat, „Fortune éditoriale de la comtesse de Ségur (1857-1939), Cahiers Robinson, 9 (2001) Special issue La comtesse de Ségur et ses alentours, edited by Isabelle Nières-Chevrel, 213-222; Legros, Valérie, De l’Histoire à l’histoire. Lire la comtesse de Ségur, thèse de doctorat en sciences de l‟éducation, Université de Rennes II, 1996, Unpublished. See annexes in volume two for lists of re-editions 7 Madame de Ségur‟s contribution to French culture is often overlooked by historians, who tend to dismiss her as an author of „improving‟ books for girls; in other words the sole remnant of a rather tiresome school of writing that has thankfully been laid to rest. Theodore Zeldin, for example, gave the comtesse de Ségur short shrift, in his epic study France 1848-1945. Detailing the literary production of the period he noted the vast expansion of children‟s books, but singled out Ségur‟s oeuvre as a prime example of how historians ought to “beware of attributing too much influence to these books.”4 The resultant lack of detailed historical study of the comtesse has led to misinterpretations, particularly when her work is used as source material by historians.5 By examining the phenomenon of the comtesse and her works, and setting them firmly in the context of Second Empire France, this thesis aims to dispel these confusions surrounding the „nation‟s grandmother‟. It is structured around several key questions. How did she perceive her juvenile audience and seek to write for them, and what can this tell us about her specifically Catholic vision of childhood? In what ways did she conceptualise her piety, and what role did she play in the mid-century „culture wars‟? And finally, although her readership has never been limited to girls, we cannot separate Ségur and her famous Petites filles modèles from questions of gender.

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