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The Epistolary French Novel Between History and Literature

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The Epistolary French Novel Between History and Literature American Research Journal of English and Literature ISSN-2378-9026 Volume 3, Issue 1, 1- 7 Pages DOI:10.21694/2378-9026.17016 Research Article Open Access The Epistolary French Novel between History and Literature Luisa Messina University of Palermo [email protected] Abstract: The eighteenth century is considered as the golden age of epistolary art. If we analyse the historical and social value of letters, we notice that epistolary exchange soon becomes one of the principal ways of communication and of providing information. One of the most important qualities of the epistolary novel is its ability to effectively convey emotion. The epistolary novel removes the temporal distance between personal history and its written form. The most famous writers of the time (such as Montesquieu) and libertine writers social(Laclos importance and Sade in due particular) to the power employed of letter the toepistolary act as a vehicle novel in for different information. ways. ThisSo eighteenth-century emerges as one of literaturethe main reasonsis characterised for the rise by thein popularity successful of epistolary the epistolary novel. novel. Since the Modern Age letter has held great historical and Keyword: The Epistolary Novel in the Eighteenth Century novel, letter, modern Age, Eighteenth-century, France. Thanks to progress in learning and in postal organization, the letter becomes an important medium for communicating information and can be viewed as a precursor to the modern gazette. So the evolution of the epistolary form facilitates news circulation concerning politics, literature, family and society: it’s the main way a letter to enliven an ordinary life. The value of a letter lies in several aspects considering that the “art” of letterused by writing aristocracy under and the bourgeoisie Ancien Régime to find in Francenews (Grassi, clearly 1994has an : 302). ethic So as the well readers as an areaesthetic impatient importance, to receive a politic as well as a poetic component. So letters published as “art” under Classicism are always transformed into aristocratic order revolving around an absolute king . However, epistolary novel gives arise in the second half of illustrations of the “art” of writing letters where the 1writing subject is positioned as a loyal (male) servant of an their experience of life and love. The principle quality, attributed to a letter, is its capacity to transmit feelings immediately:the eighteenth in century. fact, a letterThe beginning avoids temporal of the Eighteenth distance betweenis dominated lived by experience memoirs in and which its written the protagonists expression. offer In this way, the absence of a narrator guarantees the authenticity of narration because nobody can talk or think in . 2 placeThis of characterswriter serves (Burel, the 2012:monarch 506) through public speech acts that constitute a predictable and universally imitable model of courtesy. The counter current to this dominant Classical model, which coexists with it from the outset,1. “ is epistolary ‘art’ interpreted as inimitable but inspiring emulation, because it is understood to emanate from differing, private literary spaces that articulate the particularities of historical contingency. The latter concept of epistolary art generates discourses of cultural difference, which will assume a renewed ascendancy in the eighteenth century” (Altman, 1986: 62). of2. P.rendering V. Conroy the analyses outside the world principal that elementsthe letter concerninghad already the conditioned French epistolary the reading genre public (epistolary to accept choice, as normal. public and authenticity) in this way: “By adopting the epistolary format, the novel took upon itself that particular way www.arjonline.org Page 1 To the extent that fictitious novel followed the same conventions and satisfied the same expectations as did The Epistolary French Novel between History and Literature Origins of the Epistolary Novel and the Principal French Epistolary Works The epistolary novel is a specific literary genre that is particularly lovedHeroines by European by Ovid authors who reproducesduring the Eighteenth century. The genre first appears in England and France and, later, in Germany. In fact, the epistolary tonovel absent is a husbandsmillennium and old lovers, if we considerwho apparently that one have of the other first things example to dois fictional correspondence between two lovers: except for three letters produced3 by men, all the women write . During the Middle-Ages and the duringModern the Age Renaissance several real that epistolary sees an exchangesincrease in (Saint the number Catherine4 of readers from Siena, of those Erasmus, letters: Cromwell so their authenticity and Madame is de Sévigné) are published and read by a large audience Astrée. But it’s by especiallyHonoré d’Urfé the rediscoverypublished at of the Ovid’s beginning work thequestioned. second half However, of the theseventeenth first epistolary century French after thenovel publication is of Lettres portugaises of the seventeenth century (between 1607 and 1627). But the epistolary novel becomes very popular only in 5 (1669) by Guilleragues (1669) . The novel is focused on Marianne’s suffering: the girl,Confessions who is abandoned by a young and charming French officer, writes a series of letters in which she expresses her grief after her lover’s escape. The technique is not innovative because it is inspired by Saint Augustine’s . However, Marianne describes her Lettresinterior portugaises struggle as being characterised by flux and reflux between reminiscences and dreams, judgements6 and emotions, questions and answers, decision and irresolution, regret and desperation (Jost, 1996: 412) . And yet, represents the first example of an epistolary novel with one voice centred on feelings and it whichinaugurates characters a long confess tradition to eachaccording other totheir the battle Portuguese plans and model. strategic Among lies. different writers using the epistolary technique, Laclos is the only one able to personalise the epistolary novel transforming it into a war bulletin in The Eighteenth century manifests the triumph and the end of the epistolary genre linked to the increasing presence of femals: women become writers and readers . The history of letter books during and after 7 real. It letters,is said Ovid’sthey qualified Heroides as authentic and enjoyed the same ‘real’ status as the true letters they resembled in format and content” (Conroy, 1981: 413). 3 is an Ovid’s exercise when Latin author is studying for a law degree because legal rhetorical training in Rome includes the art of writing of imaginary speeches and epistle. Actually, no other clas- sical work gives women characters such different and precise voices (Beebee, 1999: 106). hierarchy4. The letter of isgenre: considered “The epistolary as the most novel prominent became and an importantoften-used cultural literary formvehicle which for living is reserved women to afemale voice, voice both and experience. In other words, epistolary novel is a sub-literary genre to which women are condemned by the as characters and as authors. Arguably, Western literature had never produced an array of female characters at once realistic and eloquent as it did starting with Mariana (the Portuguese nun) and continuing through Richardson’s. Considering Pamela the publication and Clarissa, of Lettres Graffigny’s portugaises Peruvian princess, Rousseau’s Julie, and Laclos’s Madame de sanceMerteuil women (Beebee, can abashedly1999: 105). publish their own letter books and broach the same range of topics as men. In sev enteenth5 century women’s letters are rarely turned into, it is letter easy books: to recognize they write a significant anonymously change. and In against the Renais their- - wills. In fact, authorship in the seventeenth century becomes a male-dominatedLettres portugaises institution, can deeply be considered connected, as moreover, to political hierarchies (Altman, 1986: 45). 6. Also in this case authenticity is questioned. However, Beebee argues ofgenuine letters. because So there no are man letters could for disorder those who his prose have notso beautifully taken leave (Beebee, of their 1999:parents 117). before a trip, a letter from a father7. Successful writing epistolary to his son novel who correspondsis in Paris, a toletter the tospread another of manual son to lettersmake renounce which give to a a model duel and for differenta letter from kinds a mother to a daughter staying in a convent (Altman, 1992: 869). American Research Journal of English and Literature Page 2 Writing-letters manuals do not end in the eighteenth century. Between about 1830 and the turn of century 195 The Epistolary French Novel between History and Literature experience,the eighteenth and centuryas conveyors is marked of social by values an awareness of the relational differences betweenLettres oral persanes conversation, handwriting, and print as modes of interpersonal8 communication, as representations of temporally specific . At the beginning of the eighteenth century (1721) sendby Montesquieu a lot of letters is published. to their other Montesquieu friends who, shows however, a certain do internalnot answer. coherence In this becausecase the theepistolary letters cometechnique, from associatedthe same character with exotic which taste, maintains is useful a for kind hiding of psychological the writer’s political,unit. In fact, social the and main philosophical characters (Rica convictions: and Usbek)
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