Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewUsing vivid prose and a distinct sense of humour, Stewart deftly maneuvers between fictional and real portraits of older women while in the processs offering engaging analyses not only of the correspondences but also of novels such as Le paysan parvenu by Marivaux, Liaisons dangereuses by Laclos, and the letters exchanged by the latter and Riccoboni.
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French ReviewThe result of long-lasting research efforts and meticulous close readings, Joan Hinde Stewart’s monograph is devoted to the exploration of the fate of aging and elderly women in eighteenth-century France, focusing on the section of society that should, according to the perception at the time, leave said society’s limelight once their prime begins its decline.
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MLN‘[Stewart] pursues her argument with a lightness of touch that makes this book both enjoyable and instructive. Indeed, the title of the book and a number of the chapter titles - ‘Fifteen Minutes to Fifty’, ‘What Time Is It?’, ‘Word Salad’- reflect a witticism of style that is pleasing to find in an academic study of such breadth and depth.’
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French StudiesTable of ContentsJoan DeJean, Foreword
Introduction
1. A prescription for eternity
2. Old fairies
3. Menopause and morals
4. Fifteen minutes to fifty
5. What time is it?
6. Romancing Marie
7. Addressing her age
8. Portrait of the artist as an old lady
9. Generations
10. Word salad
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
