Reconstructing the 1790s in Literature and Theater

The (Re)Invention of the Merveilleuses Under the Second Empire and Third Republic

Bibliographic Data

ID8940748
AuthorsChristine Adams (0000-0001-5362-654X, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume48
Issue4
Pages597-634
Publication date2025-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFrench Historical Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-1071 • E-ISSN: 1527-5493
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00161071-11938139
OpenAlexW7108475815
LanguageEN
References cited26

The Directory (1795–1799) is often defined by the female fashion plates, the Merveilleuses, along with their male counterparts, the Incroyables, who also share the blame for the regime's corruption and short duration. However, their representation in contemporary documents differs from their outsized role in the French historical imaginary. Over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, their image was reshaped by the Goncourt brothers, playwrights Victorien Sardou and Charles Lecocq, and others who conflated them with celebrity women such as Thérésia Tallien, Joséphine Bonaparte, Fortunée Hamelin, Mademoiselle Lange, and Juliette Récamier—all of whom were labeled “leaders of the Merveilleuses.” These elegant women are associated with the regime's decadence and licentiousness, but also its dazzle and style. They introduce an ambiguity into the negative legacy of the Directory, refashioning it as vibrant and pleasurable as well as corrupt, an image that mirrors the contradictory attitude of the French toward women and their influence more generally. Under the Third Republic, as politicians and historians looked back to France's failed First Republic and grappled with women's political and cultural role, the Merveilleuse, as a symbol of the Directory, offered a flexible, collectively composed allegory for French anxieties and ambivalence about women's influence

Allegory · Ambivalence · Blame · Decadence · Empire · Politics · Symbol (formal · The Republic · Decadence, Literature, and Society · European Political History Analysis · Literature and Culture Studies

Tools

Open DOI