montagnarde1793 | Entries tagged with éléonore duplay in literature

While I have not managed to post every representation of Éléonore in literature that exists, much less every one that I have on hand (I left out most of the French novels and plays because most people would not understand them and I didn't have time to translate), this last post represents the complete collection of such excerpts that I have been able to find in English, so if you can't find it here, given all the combing through libraries, bookstores, and online sources that I've done, it's probably extremely rare. (That is, unless I've forgotten something, which, I suppose, is entirely possible. If I've left anything--in English, obviously, since I've already mentioned why there's not much French in this compilation and I can't read any other languages for the time being--out that you know of, it would be of interest for me to know, whatever the reason.)

( So, on to the last passage. )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Quanto Duomi, Susanna - Le Nozze di Figaro

So I'm going to end with a couple of plays--the only English ones (and even then one is a translation and hte other one is just a commentary on that) I could find where Éléonore is a character, though there are several French ones--that most people are probably familiar with. Be that as it may, I didn't feel I could leave them out. As a side note, I think the French translation of "The Danton Case" is, if not a better translation--I would have no idea about that since I don't read Polish--at least a better-sounding translation. But then, I could be biased. :P

( The Danton Case, Stanislawa Przbyszewska, translated by Boleslaw Taborski in 1989 )

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Cosa Sento! - Le Nozze di Figaro

And yet another, back in chronological order where we left off--that is, after City of Darkness, City of Light. Don't ask me why this author feels the impulsion to give such bizarre nicknames to her characters--I can't help cringing whenever I read Betsi instead of Babet for Élisabeth, and is Tanith Lee aware that Élie is a man's name? I mean, really. There's such a thing as taking the whole âme virile thing too far. >__> (Moreover, she stole her title from Anatole France, for some other unfathomable reason.)

( The Gods Are Thirsty, Tanith Lee, 1996 )

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: La Vendetta, Oh, La Vendetta - Le Nozze di Figaro

And now back to the regularly scheduled collected excerpts involving Éléonore's portrayal in literature. This is another strange and pathetic one--out of sequence again, for which I apologize, but it couldn't be helped.

( The Ninth Thermidor, M. A. Aldanov, 1926 )

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Se A Caso Madama - Le Nozze di Figaro

Something random I noticed when I was browsing: that ridiculous picture from the Antoinette movie with Antoinette wearing stockings tied up by blue ribbons... did anyone else notice that they're tied above her knees? This was a convention in drawings from the era of women putting on their stockings, but this was only done to increase the drawings' worth as erotica (on a rather tame level, of course, mostly): the higher the stockings were tied on, the higher they could lift the skirt. However if one were to try to tie stockings on above the knee, unless by some bizarre freak of nature one's knees were larger than one's thighs, they would fall down. So basically, it's just one more instance of the makers of that movie unwittingly using the imagery of caricatures of Antoinette. Idiots.

( But back to the excerpts... (City of Darkness, City of Light again) )

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Le Nozze di Figaro

So I finally finished typing up the next passages for last month's

revolution_frprompt--and I'm still not done. What can I say, I'm a bit behind. Anyway, this next passage isn't bad, in my humble opinion, especially not for a novel written in English. The names are a bit weird though. (It should be noted though, that Victoire's name was changed to Vivienne in order to avoid confusion with a friend of Claire Lacombe's, who is a more major character in the novel, as the author makes clear in the note preceding the work.) Also, something that amused me about this book--though I didn't include it in the excerpt--is that Maxime is something of a "The Sorrows of Young Werther" fanboy in it.

( City of Darkness, City of Light; Marge Piercy; 1996 )

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Le nozze di Figaro

I truly am sorry for inflicting this on you, but it's almost done, I swear.

( A Place of Greater Safety (3) )

Current Mood: sleepy

( A Place of Greater Safety (2) )

Current Mood: annoyed

...But I'm posting it anyway. It will have to be in (at least) two parts, since despite the small part Éléonore plays in this book proportionately, it's rather... ~~excessive~~ vast.

( A Place of Greater Safety, Hilary Mantel, 1992 )

Current Mood: bitchy
Current Music: I Am A Rock - Simon & Garfunkel

Welcome to the really random and bizarre part involving a Scarlet Pimpernel-esque premise, which... *Maxime* of all people is complicit in. It's really too strange to be taken seriously--I wouldn't recommend taking it too seriously. You're reaction will probably much closer to "WTF" generally, anyway, but I thought I'd warn you all. That said, the end is somewhat unsettling, if not for the reasons you might think. Oh, and it's narrated by a fictional aristo by the name of Marc de Guémont. And yes,

maelicia, I'm sorry to report, he does call Saint-Just Lucifer. Consistently. Through the whole narrative. >__>

( The Incorruptible: A Tale of Revolution and Royalty, Helma de Bois, 1965 )

Current Mood: rejuvenated

I must warn you all right now that this next extract comes from a novel that in my opinion is the worst written on the Revolution in English (Jamet's book claims that dubious distinction for French). It features not just *evil* Maxime, but evil!Nazi!Communist!sexuallyrepressed!Maxime. Although, since the book calls him Maximilian, perhaps we can just pretend it doesn't even refer to him, considering how ridiculous and revolting the portrayal is. I'm not even sure for the moment that I'm going to link this to

revolution_fr--it's probably better that it's spread around as little as possible. (Oh, and it's a bit out of chronological order again, sorry.)

( Warning: This is not happy-making )

Current Mood: pissed off
Current Music: The Leaves That Are Green - Simon & Garfunkel

This is the last one, until I type up some more. And yes, it's in French; apologies again to those of you who won't be able to understand it.

( Robespierre, l'Incorruptible; Geneviève Hemmert; 1981 )

( Jacobin's Daughter, Joanne Williamson, 1956 (Part II) )

The icon is in reference to the scene with Lucile Desmoulins, by the way.

Current Mood: bouncy

Since Éléonore plays such a prominent role in Jacobin's Daughter, the excerpts from it will be posted in two parts (and cut, at that), the first with a brief line from another novel.

The House of Tavelinck, Jo van Ammers-Küller, 1938

Page 431

[…] His fiancée, the daughter of his landlady, was a virtuous girl and had already gone to sleep long ago. The lonely walker was Maximilien Robespierre, a petty lawyer of Arras, who had attracted attention in the Legislative […]

( Jacobin's Daughter, Joanne Williamson, 1956 (Part I) )

Current Mood: weird
Current Music: Le nozze di Figaro - Overture

( Mon ami Robespierre, Henri Béraud (Translator: Slater Brown), 1928 )

Current Mood: indescribable

( The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel, Emmuska Orczy, 1922 )

Current Mood: annoyed

( Robespierre: The Story of Victorien Sardou's Play Adapted and Novelized Under His Authority, Ange Galdemar, 1899 )

Current Mood: mellow

( The Friend of the People: A Tale of the Reign of Terror, Mary Rowsell, 1895 )

Current Mood: apathetic

( Longman's Magazine, Charles Longman, 1890 )

( The Journal of a Spy in Paris During the Reign of Terror, Charles Fletcher, 1895 )

Current Mood: depressed

This next one is by some random Briton or American (I forget which) who decided that it would be better to try to write something from Éléonore's point of view than to write about her in a non-fictional fashion, bizarrely enough. So these are two "letters" written to a fictional friend in the Vendée. And this time, instead of Jesus!Maxime, we get priest!Maxime. -__-;

( Macmillan's Magazine, John Morley, 1888 )

Current Mood: cynical

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

Citoyenne la traductrice jacobine

Veillons au maintien de nos droits !

Part XXXIV (last one!)

Part XXXIII

Part XXXII

Part XXXI

Part XXX (2)

Part XXX (1)

Part XIX (3)

Part XIX (2)

I've been dreading this, I must confess...

Part XVIII

Part XVII

Part XVI

Part XV

Part XIV

Part XIII

Step away from the bad!crack, Orczy!

Part XII

Part XI

Part X (Éléonore continued)

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