French Historicals Oh La La: Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors

In the second year of my history degree, I had the opportunity to write a dissertation, and naturally I chose my favourite subject, eighteenth-century France. The post-revolutionary period was particularly rich in memoirs and I decided that I would analyse seven autobiographies by noblewomen. This is an extract from my conclusion:

The role of women of the eighteenth-century noble elite was in many respects strictly limited. The task to which they were dedicated by their own order was to form a marriage alliance with another noble house for which they provided heirs. Marriage was therefore usually the most important event in their lives and it was one over which they had little control. In normal circumstances daughters of noble houses had only the right of refusal and knew little of their suitors. They were expected to obey their husband and if their behaviour displeased him he could imprison them permanently in a convent. Independence only came with widowhood and throughout their lives, women were governed by strict rules of etiquette which few dared transgress.

Mistress of the Revolution, which takes the form of a memoir by a fictional character, Gabrielle de Montserrat, reflects exactly this historical reality. This is not the type of historical novel which features a twenty-first century woman in historical dress: Gabrielle is very much of her time.

Raised in Auvergne by a cold and abusive family, Gabrielle hopes to find escape through her love for a commoner, Pierre-André Coffinhal. Her brother, who is also her guardian, won’t hear of her demeaning herself by such a match and instead forces her to marry a much older nobleman who treats her alternately with generosity and brutality. His death does not bring her independence, because he has failed to provide for her financially. Faced with the necessity of supporting herself and her small daughter, Gabrielle moves to Paris to become the companion to a dowager, her cousin the Duchesse d’Arpajon. With so little money, her chances of marriage are slim, but she finds several men willing to consider a less orthodox arrangement. She enjoys a brief period of glamour and luxury before the Revolution begins. And from that point, I couldn’t put the book down.

Catherine Delors manages to convey both the excitement of the early days of the Revolution, when liberal nobles like Gabrielle dreamed of a new, more democratic society, and the Terror, when Gabrielle finds her life in danger simply because she was born noble. To protect herself and her daughter, she turns to Coffinhal, now a member of the revolutionary government – only to find he bears her a grudge.

Catherine Delors researched the book using many of the same sources I studied in college, and the text has a lovely authentic flavour. Here is an extract from Gabrielle’s first conversation with Marie Antoinette:

That night we attended the Queen’s gaming salon. She was seated at a card table, quite different from the woman I had seen before. Here, she was alive, enthralled by the game, the rules of which were unknown to me. All I understood, from the quantity of gold louis piled in front of each player and in the middle of the table, was that the stakes were very high. The Duchess de Polignac occupied the chair next to the Queen’s. The two friends were whispering to each other and giggling like schoolgirls…

Madame de Polignac looked at me and said something to the Queen’s ear. Her Majesty smiled at her friend and addressed me.

“Madam, will you not sit? The Count de Vaudreuil will gladly surrender his place to you.”

I obeyed, my heart beating fast. There were but two gold louis of twenty-four francs each in my pocket.

“Why, Baroness,” said the Queen, “do you not play?” Her manner had become haughty again.

I took a deep breath. “Your Majesty is very kind, but I have neither a taste for games of cards nor the means to indulge in them.”

The whole room became silent. After what seemed a very long pause, the Queen said: “How odd! What do you like then, Baroness?”

“I enjoy music and riding, madam, and more particularly reading.”

Madame de Polignac chuckled while the Queen shrugged and turned her attention back to the cards without paying me any further attention. I heard whispers and giggles behind my back. I rose and curtseyed to the Queen as soon as the game was over.

This little scene presents Marie Antoinette in a less than flattering light – which is exactly how she appeared to those  (the vast majority) who were not admitted to her private circle of friends. Although Marie Antoinette appears only briefly in the book, we get a very good idea of why she was so unpopular and so misunderstood.

Interview with Catherine Delors

1: You were writing in English which is your second language. I was very impressed with how close the book is in feel to actual memoirs of the period. Did you ever feel frustrated because there was something which just wouldn’t translate? Gabrielle mentions at one point that there is no equivalent for the phrase “la mort dans l’ame” in English.

No wonder you find my novel so reminiscent of the actual memoirs of the time, because those were my main inspiration! Indeed I tried to remain as close as possible to these true memoirs. If  I managed to give you this impression, I must have succeeded, and it makes me very happy.

As for the challenges of finding the exact equivalent of a French phrase in English, they are unavoidable. Each language has its music, its images, its set of references. I am also a translator and run into this all the time. Sometimes, there is simply no exact translation.

2. Did you have anywhere particular in mind when describing two of the places Gabrielle stays – the Duchesse d’Arpajon’s townhouse in the Marais and her lover Villers’ country house at Vaucelles?

Like my characters, many of my settings are composites. The house of the Duchesse d’Arpajon was inspired by several mansions in the Marais District of Paris. It is probably closest to the Hôtel de Sully. The delightful chateau of Vaucelles is a joint product of the 18^th century’s “douceur de vivre”, the sweetness of living, and my imagination. But come to think of it, friends of my parents owned a chateau near Bordeaux, with grounds gently sloping down to the river.

The Hotel de Sully, Paris. Photo by Beckstet.

3. Gabrielle reads Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos, dramatised as Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Valmont (1989), and Cruel Intentions  (1999). Gabrielle is repelled by the malice of the main characters. Do you think French aristocrats of the 1780s were really as decadent and cynical as Laclos portrays them?

Laclos had a political agenda. He would become personal secretary to the Duc d’Orléans, later Philippe Egalité. His depiction of aristocrats, like that by Beaumarchais in Les Noces de Figaro, painted a deliberately hateful picture of the ruling classes. It is no coincidence if those works were published only years before the French Revolution.

4. Non-French readers will find it easiest to place Pierre-Andre Coffinhal by knowing that he was one of Marie Antoinette’s judges. You’re a lawyer – do you think that Marie Antoinette got a fair trial and do you think the correct verdict was reached (not the same question)?

Did Marie-Antoinette get a fair trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal? The short answer is no. Yet she was represented by two of the best attorneys in Paris, and had the opportunity to present her defence at length, which she did with great presence of mind. She was nervous but quite composed, at times drumming with her fingers on the arms of her chair. Obviously, she was more than surprised, she was devastated by the announcement of the guilty verdict. The problem was not with the proceedings themselves, but with the prejudice of the jurors.

In fact Marie-Antoinette had been tried –also unfairly in my opinion- before the court of public opinion a few years earlier, when the Affair of the Necklace broke. Her reputation was in tatters ever since that scandal, and her guilt was a foregone conclusion in the minds of the jurors. One must remember that, at the time of her trial, most cases before the Revolutionary Tribunal (about two thirds) still ended in dismissals or acquittals. But she was no ordinary defendant.

The main accusation was collusion with the enemy in wartime. It was true, though the proof was not available to the judges and jury . However, from the standpoint of Marie-Antoinette herself, what she had done was not treason. She was only working for the restoration of the monarchy as it had existed before the Revolution. It was in her eyes the only legitimate regime in France. The –outrageous and patently false- accusation of incest had been dropped by the judges and it was not even put to the jury.

5. Gabrielle suffers from the patriarchal system in place under the Ancien Regime. The Revolution overturns that, but concerns itself with the Rights of Man – no mention of the Rights of Woman! How far do you think the Revolution improved women’s status and legal rights?

Oh yes, many did mention the rights of women! The Marquis de Condorcet championed female suffrage. And Olympe de Gouges wrote in 1791 a Declaration of the Rights of Women, dedicated to Marie-Antoinette. It is available at Gallica, the site of the French National Library.

The Revolution saw, within the private sphere, a considerable improvement in the status of women. Forced marriages were banned, divorce was allowed, women acquired the right to own, inherit and manage property. The pendulum swung back with the fall of Robespierre, and still more dramatically Napoléon’s Code Civil. Most of the progress achieved during the Revolution was repealed then.

Where the Revolution failed to change the status of women was in the political sphere. Yet women were active participants in the great journées of the Revolution. Female political clubs flourished for years, but they were closed down with the advent of the Reign of Terror. The political rights of women were discussed but, unlike the private rights, they were never implemented.

6. The Revolution was a terrifying but also a thrilling period. Would you like to have lived through it?

This is a question I have never been asked… Thanks, Miss Moppet! Now how do I answer it? I am tempted to say yes, because those the days when modern political thought took shape, and it must have been thrilling, as you say, to live through them. Then I think of the extraordinary physical courage displayed by people at the time: look at Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, Madame Roland, Robespierre, the Jacobins. Would have I shown the same fortitude? I am afraid I cannot answer. I would like to know your answer to this question, though…

I visited France twice in 1989 and enjoyed the bicentenary celebrations. That year also saw revolutionary political change – the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communism in many countries. Fragments of the Berlin Wall were sold as souvenirs, just like the stones of the Bastille. I think 1789 would have been a very exciting year to live through because of the speed of change after so many years of political stagnation and the hope for the future. But I’m not sure I would have wanted to stay around after that!

One last question: you are descended from the French nobility. How did your family fare during the French Revolution?

Sorry if I disappoint, but the Revolution was fairly mild in Auvergne. No guillotined ancestors as far as I can tell, which, truth be told, can also be explained by the fact that my family had already lost most of its clout and possessions from the 16th century on. Some relatives thought it safer to emigrate, though, and branches of my family are now settled in the United States and modern-day Belgium.

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Very many thanks to Catherine for answering my questions. Her new book, FOR THE KING, will be released in July 2010.

Click on the image to go to Youtube and watch FOR THE KING trailer.

Catherine Delors: author website

Catherine Delors: blog

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I bought my own copy of Mistress of the Revolution.

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This book counts towards the following challenges:

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