Book Review: Mademoiselle de Maupin by Théophile Gautier

In a series of letters to his friend Silvio, the Chevalier d'Albert describes what would be the perfect woman for him and why he's in such desperate need to find himself a mistress. Unfortunately, every woman he meets is unable to reach his lofty standards -- not even the young and beautiful Rosette with whom he at first believes that he's found his ideal. She smart, coquettish, knows exactly the right thing to say and knows how to slyly manipulate his moods, but d'Albert soon finds himself back to lamenting his bad luck at trying to find the ideal woman. Finally, when he's convinced himself that he needs to find some way to break things off with Rosette, a young sman named Théodore steps into the picture.

He has all the women aflutter, and apparent to d'Albert, has had some sort of past relationship with Rosette to which she still feels a strong attachment. Much to his own surprise, d'Albert finds that Théodore embodies many of the qualities he's been looking for and hesitantly writes to Silvio, "I am in love with a man!"

But beneath all his charms, is Théodore hiding a dark secret?

Mademoiselle de Maupin turns out to be a 19th Century French take on Shakespeare's As You Like It so it's filled with cross-dressing and modest sexual intrigue only set in the French lounges and salons of the wealthy and bored. One the one hand, this comes across as a wonderful way to examine the social mores of the times, the differences between the treatment of men and women, and their pre-conceived roles in society. On the other hand, the story is told in such a boring fashion that it took quite a bit of effort on my part to finish it.

None of the characters particularly captured my interest. Which is a pity as the character of Théodore/Mademoiselle de Maupin was based on an actual swordswoman and opera singer of the 17th Century, Julie d'Albigny. She comes across more manly in her manners and attitudes than I would have expected, though she admits that she finds herself becoming more like a man as time passes. Chevalier d'Albert for his part, thinks himself a poet and describes in much detail and overuse of the extended metaphor. For example, in one paragraph, d'Albert questions where the idea of the perfect woman comes from and goes on the re-ask the same question (in the same paragraph) eight different ways. (Yes, I counted.) And that's a brief example. I found myself disliking d'Albert, the "hero" of the tale from the beginning and was bored reading each paragraph. In fact, I found skipped to the next after two sentences because I knew a long repetitive list awaited me. What's worse is all the characters wrote like that, and because the novel is, for the most part, epistolary, it makes for tedious read.

What I did find interesting was Gautier's openness to discuss homosexuality in his novel. Though d'Albert deplores the idea, calling it depraved, he still accepts that he may have fallen in love with another man. The same goes for Maupin. Disguised as Théodore, she finds herself able to see the attraction to both men and to women, though she also tends to believe that homosexual attraction to be against societal norms. Though she didn't seem to have a problem with it toward the end when she hops into bed with Rosette to reveal her true identity and stays the entire night in her room.

But even that isn't enough to make me whole-heartedly recommend this book.

Mademoiselle de Maupin
by Théophile Gautier
Penguin Classics
ISBN: 0-140-44813-6
softcover, 363pp.

purchased book

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