#even if they dislike borel or not take his politics seriously sya that review is brutal and unfair

[lafcadiosadventures]

Things I found remarkable from Madame Putiphar: (warning: this post is mushy and earnest. And the writing is clunky af. if you don’t like those things, skip it)(no spoilers tho)

-Borel’s denunciation of the horrors of the ancien regime. From the kidnapping and purchase of girls as young as 7or 9 to become trainees at the Parc-aux-cerfs, Louis XV’s personal harem, to the illegal incarceration and disappearance of enemies of the crown(since the incarceration was not legal, your family didn’t know if you were alive or dead, and anything could be done to you because technically you were not incarcerated)(very reminiscent of certain non democratic methods of xxth c dictatorships), to the incarcerations of writers such as Diderot and Sade for their ideas. (parallels could be made with Borel’s present time and they might have. The book was not censored but it got such a terrible review from Jules Janin, Borel found it harder and harder to find work again)(Jean-Luc Steinmetz calls Janin’s review a rehearsal for the later censorship trials on books such as mme bovary and les fleurs du mal during Napoleon III’s government)

-a heroine whose shortcomings and aptitudes are not rooted in her gender (crazy I know.)(like in Champavert, where race is not deterministic at all) Debbie, our heroine, is a brave, intelligent person, doing what best she can in adverse circumstances. Not always correct, not invincible, not ever stunted (or blessed!) by the innate powers of femaleness some authors and thinkers seem to believe in. (a probable antecedent is Diderot’s Suzanne Simonin, some of her misadventures are similar and she is a fleshed out character as well)(but it’s been a while)

-an appreciation of femaleness and effeminacy, and androgyny. Because of their love, padraig and debbie’s genders mingle and impregnate one an other. Debbie becomes more masculine. Pádraig in his turn, is made more effeminate by his love of Debbie. And this improves them both. (The androgyne as a divine being is a recurrent theme in romantic literature, but an appreciation of femaleness, maybe not so much. Borel says padraig has been improved by receiving debbie’s femenine upbringing. That is unheard of)

-A narrator that shows love and care for his readers. Besides Borel’s usual use of irony and meta literary discussion, here he stops and comforts the reader, takes their hand (Borel specifically addresses a female and male reader) and asks if they’re ready to carry on. Since this was a book he felt pain while writing, he -correctly- assumes the reader will probably be shaken as well. This is very sweet and considerate and it never happens?? I feel like writers are usually here to lecture the reader and make them swallow their truth. (Borel does a fair share of that too, tbh)(there is more to be said about the narrator in this book. But it will require a rereading because I admit I am not at all certain about some things he does here)

-a Romantic’s take on the Enlightenment. Borel takes familiar tropes and makes them his own. I was reminded of Diderot’s heroine from La réligieuse, his playful narrator in Jacques le fataliste. Sade’s Justine, (tho sade does not really write humans, rather gears that put his plot in motion, this is not a jab at sade. just that debbie is not a sadian innocent sticking to her virtue in ways required only by the plot) Voltaire’s Candide and Laclos’ Dangerous Liaisons come to mind as well.

Overall I really loved this book. I have one or two complaints over one midly unfortunate rant about the roots of european orientalism, a queer character that is not that bad but uuh seems rather underdeveloped and tropey, and one coup-de-theatre death that was unnecessary imo. There’s also the narrator thing. This requires a second reading bc I found some of his digressions confusing. His tone was easier to decode in Champavert. Here I had trouble discerning what Borel is being serious about or not. Not all the time but occasionally. Hard to tell what he is serious about or not. But overall this are very minor complaints. I insist this is a great book!! And I feel very grateful for having read it 🖤