courtesan. n. a prostitute, especially one with wealthy or upper class clients (Oxford Concise Dictionary). n. a woman of the town [courtisane. Fr.] Shakespeare (Johnson’s Dictionary) Also: from traviare. v. to be lost, wandering, travail, travel, astray (Concise Cambridge Italian Dictionary) Nightmare parody as dreamt, seen, experienced by Alfredo Dear friends and readers, I’ve been [...]
Archive for the ‘French novels’ Category
Willy Dekker’s La Traviata; or, The Courtesan. A cross between Jane Campion & Samuel Beckett
Posted in 19th century novels, 20th century culture, Costume drama, Film adaptations, film studies, French culture, French novels, Italian culture, Met HDOperas, Movies, Music, mystery-suspense, opera, prostitution: how treated, Uncategorized, women's ilves, tagged HD opera, heroine's text, natalie dessay, oxford concise dictionary, the Met on April 14, 2012 | 15 Comments »
EC/ASECS Conference on Liberty in the long 18th century at Penn State: Thomson, the black Mozart, Edgeworth/Behn
Posted in 18th century, 18th century novels, 18th century poetry, book history, conference report, Conferences, feminism, French novels, mozart, Music, women's novels, tagged aphra behn, book illustrations, heroine's text, james thomson, Joseph Bologne, maria edgeworth on November 26, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Temple of the Muses, Scotland, dedicated to James Thomson, author of The Seasons Dear friends and readers, My third and last blog report on our East Central Region meeting on the theme of liberty in the long 18th century at Penn State: late Saturday afternoon and early Sunday morning. This last afternoon I heard a [...]
A la francaise: Sarah’s Key, The Names of Love, & The Hedgehog
Posted in 20th century culture, Film adaptations, film studies, French culture, French novels, women's novels, women's art, womens' films, tagged heroine's texts on September 4, 2011 | 7 Comments »
Renee (Josiane Balasko) and Paloma (Garance Le Guillermic) hug tightly (The Hedgehog) Dear friends and readers, Izzy and I continue our unplanned French Indian summer: sparkling, moving films. Just now French films seem the finest, most intelligent, unexpectedly telling movies in our neck of the world’s woods. We began with Sarah’s Key (Elle s’appelait Sarah [...]
Books in art and science, Sharp (2): the role of covers, periodicals (Romantic era); Mudie’s non-English and Murray’s travel books
Posted in 20th century culture, Austen, biography, book history, book illustration, conference report, Conferences, French novels, gothic, Regency Romantic literature, Travel Writing, women's art, tagged John Murray, julia kavanagh, monthly periodicals, Mudies Library on July 21, 2011 | 5 Comments »
The picture gracing the cover of Restless Spirits: Ghost Stories by American Women Writers, 1872-1926, edd. Catherine Lundie Dear friends and readers, I continue my tales of my time at this summer’s Sharp conference. I here cover three sessions, two on the first Friday afternoon and the first of four all day Saturday. My topics [...]
Massenet’s Manon from the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, or Roman noir as HD opera
Posted in 18th century, 18th century novels, Costume drama, Film adaptations, film studies, French culture, French novels, novels of sensibility, political novels/films, romance, Theater, tagged HD opera, Manon Lescaut, Massenet, Prevost, roman noit, West End cinema on June 20, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Natalie Dessay and Rolando Villazon sang & acted Manon and her Chevalier with great aplomb Dear friends and readers, Tonight we went for the second time to the West End Cinema in Georgetown, DC, to see and to hear another HD opera from Europe, this time Massenet’s Manon out of one of my favorite eighteenth-century [...]
Nadine Trintignant’s Ma fille, Marie
Posted in 18th century, 20th century culture, feminism, French culture, French novels, women's memoirs, women's art, womens' films, tagged jean-louis trintignant, male violence, marie trintignant, Mary Trouille, nadine trintignant, wife abuse on February 20, 2011 | 11 Comments »
Marie Trintignant Dear friends and readers, I’ve just spent some two months carefully reading and reviewing a somber telling history of wife abuse in France in the 18th century by Marie Trouille: her sources are court cases, memoirs, documents, novels and statistics. Trouille’s is a book whose importance goes well beyond that of the 18th [...]
Emilie de Varmont, ou le divorce necessaire by Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray
Posted in 18th century, 18th century novels, 20th century culture, feminism, French culture, French novels, political novels/films, politics, tagged French revolution, illegitimacy, natural daughter, rape on February 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
An 18th century French wedding announcement: celebrating the new civil secular companionate egalitarian marriage ideal Dear friends and readers, As part of my project (reading around) a review of Mary Trouille’s Wife Abuse in 18th Century France, I’m reading through (half-skimming) Suzanne Desasn’s important The Family on Trial in Revolutionary France. Dezan’s is yet another [...]
Sade
Posted in 18th century, 18th century novels, Andrew Davies, French culture, French novels, gothic, political novels/films, women's memoirs, tagged fanny hill, Justine, Marquis de Sade, Marquise de Gange, Milton's comus, Plessix-Grey, Quills, Richardson's Clarissa on August 30, 2010 | 19 Comments »
Jean-Baptiste Chardin (1699-1779), Le Singe Peintre Dear friends and readers, Over the last few weeks I’ve read a reasonable biography of Sade, Francine du Plessix-Grey’s At Home with the Marquis, and some of his works, including three novels: La Marquise de Gange, Eugenie de Franval, Justine; and two philosophical dialogues: Philosophy of the Boudoir, and [...]
The Duke & Phineas & Caroline & Clary: praise for & revamping website
Posted in 18th century, 18th century novels, Ann Radcliffe, Film adaptations, film studies, French novels, gothic, novels of sensibility, romance, Samuel Richardson, Trollope, women's memoirs, women's novels, women's art, tagged caroline de lichfield, Isabelle de Montolieu, madame max, pallisers, phineas finn, plantagenet palliser, Richardson's Clarissa on August 26, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Duke of Omnium (Philip Latham) and Phineas (Donal McCann) talking of their political ideals (12:24 1974 Pallisers) Dear friends and readers, I’m taking two days out between preparing and putting new materials for teaching “Exploring the Gothic” as well as writing on the natural sciences and technology (particularly in the field of medicine (e.g, “Patients [...]
ASECS, Albuquerque: epistolary, gothic, violent, and landscape novels (from Riccoboni & LaClos to Scott & Stael’s Corinne)
Posted in 18th century novels, conference report, Conferences, feminism, French culture, French novels, gothic, novels of sensibility, suzy mckee charnas, women's memoirs, women's novels, tagged clarissa, corinne, germaine de stael, Walter Scott on May 22, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Olivia Williams as Jane Austen in quiet creative reverie (Gwyneth Hughes and Anne Pivcevic, Miss Austen Regrets 2008) Dear Friends and readers, You see above my new avatar for my “Reveries under the Sign of Austen” blog. I’ve put a copy on the wall of my room too. It pictures a mood I wish I [...]
