There Are No Letters Like Yours: The Correspondence of Isabelle de Charrière and Constant d'Hermenches (European Women Writers) - Hardcover

Charriere, Isabelle De; D'Hermenches, Constant

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803217145 ISBN 13: 9780803217140

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2000

Synopsis

Book by Charriere, Isabelle de, d'Hermenches, Constant

About this title

About the Author

Janet and Malcolm Whatley live in Burlington, Vermont.Janet Whatley is a professor of French at the University of Vermont, specializing in the literature of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.

Reviews

This animated, cultured correspondence begins almost like a romantic novel: high-born Dutch virgin, age 20, meets dashing older married man--a Swiss colonel with a reputation as a libertine--and they strike up a clandestine correspondence. Gossip alternates with deep thoughts and self-revelation in this 16-year epistolary friendship of Dutch novelist Isabelle de Charriere (1740-1805), whose novels (written in French) have been compared to those of Jane Austen, and David-Louis, baron de Constant d'Hermenches (1722-1785), amateur musician and actor, pamphleteer and poet, friend of Voltaire. Isabelle van Tuyll (the novelist's maiden name) writes bright, witty, lucid letters spiked with epigrammatic wit, which weave a cunning self-portrait of a passionate, intelligent woman who oscillates between self-assertive independence and doing what her family and associates expect of her. D'Hermenches's letters, which swing between self-dramatization, moralizing and worldly advice, reflect the extended midlife crisis of a man who feels trapped in the role of misanthropic Don Juan, growing estranged from his wife and tired of upper-class pretensions. When the scheming baron tries to marry off Isabelle to his friend, the four-year fiasco ends with her fleeing to London in 1767 for a half-year vacation; she later marries a placid Swiss country gentleman. D'Hermenches's transfer to Corsica, where he helps the French crush a revolt, prompts his self-justifying letters full of carnage and Isabelle's tart replies doubting the motives of colonialism. Janet Whatley (a professor of French at the University of Vermont) and Malcolm Whatley have done a fine job translating this lively correspondence. (Mar.)

Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Janet (French, Univ. of Vermont) and Malcolm Whatley bring together 16 years of letters between novelist de Charri?re and d'Hermenches, a soldier and social activist. The couple's correspondence began at her secret instigation when she was 20 and he was 38. Their letters were initially written and delivered covertly; he was married, and she needed to protect her reputation and that of her high-born Dutch family. Yet their correspondence was based on friendship, a shared intellectual curiosity, and social awareness and responsibility. The letters are revealing: on occasion, sexual tension is obvious, but more obvious are the writers' scruples, values, and their aspirations for growth, happiness, self-respect, and personal excellence. Each provided a moral compass for the other, nourishing and almost always rewarding. These letters are also rewarding, not only for their wit and style but also for their insights into the times, especially the Enlightenment. The couple's correspondence ended after d'Hermenches divorced and remarried in 1776. De Charri?re went on to write four novels, which are currently receiving renewed literary respect. Recommended for public and academic libraries.
-Robert Kelly, Fort Wayne Community Schs., IN
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803217145
• ISBN 13: 9780803217140
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 551