Description
Book SynopsisWinner of the 2021 Best International Book Award from the Mormon History Association In the late nineteenth century, numerous French plays, novels, cartoons, and works of art focused on Mormons. Unlike American authors who portrayed Mormons as malevolent “others,” however, French dramatists used Mormonism to point out hypocrisy in their own culture. Aren't Mormon women, because of their numbers in a household, more liberated than French women who can't divorce? What is polygamy but another name for multiple mistresses? This new critical edition presents translations of four musical comedies staged or published in France in the late 1800s:
Mormons in Paris (1874),
Berthelier Meets the Mormons (1875),
Japheth’s Twelve Wives (1890)
, and
Stephana’s Jewel (1892)
. Each is accompanied by a short contextualizing introduction with details about the music, playwrights, and staging. Humorous and largely unknown, these plays use Mormonism to explore and mock changing French mentalities during the Third Republic, lampooning shifting attitudes and evolving laws about marriage, divorce, and gender roles.
Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.
Trade Review"
Mormons in Paris is as erudite as it is enchanting. In their introduction, Corry Cropper and Christopher Flood show exceptional depth and breadth of knowledge about French theater, opera, and light opera and their place in late nineteenth-century French culture. The language of the translations is natural and readable, and the little songs in verse are especially delightful." -- Susan McCready * author of Staging France between the World Wars *
"This well-introduced collection of little-known musical comedies featuring French characterizations of Mormonism is a welcome contribution to nineteenth-century French cultural studies. The translations themselves are excellent . . . the authors’ choices of idiomatic expressions capture just the right tone, neither anachronistically modern nor too archaic to retain their impact." -- Andrea Goulet * co-editor of Orphan Black: Performance, Gender, Biopolitics *
"
Mormons in Paris is as erudite as it is enchanting. In their introduction, Corry Cropper and Christopher Flood show exceptional depth and breadth of knowledge about French theater, opera, and light opera and their place in late nineteenth-century French culture. The language of the translations is natural and readable, and the little songs in verse are especially delightful." -- Susan McCready * author of Staging France between the World Wars *
"This well-introduced collection of little-known musical comedies featuring French characterizations of Mormonism is a welcome contribution to nineteenth-century French cultural studies. The translations themselves are excellent . . . the authors’ choices of idiomatic expressions capture just the right tone, neither anachronistically modern nor too archaic to retain their impact." -- Andrea Goulet * co-editor of Orphan Black: Performance, Gender, Biopolitics *
Table of Contents List of Illustrations
Introduction
Chapter 1: Mormons in Paris
Louis Leroy and Alfred Delacour
Chapter 2: Berthelier Meets the Mormons
Chapter 3: Japheth’s Twelve Wives
Antony Mars and Maurice Desvallières
Chapter 4: Stephana’s Jewel
Arthur Bernède and Albert Dubarry
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index
