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Family, Gender, and Law in Early Modern France ed. by Suzanne Desan, Jeffrey Merrick

2011; American Association of Teachers of French; Volume: 84; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/tfr.2011.0274

2329-7131

Eileen M. Angelini,

French Historical and Cultural Studies

Il y a de petits “indies” américains souvent aimables (les grands sont hors compétition), de petits films français également plaisants, sans plus. Aucun nouveau cinéma, qu’il soit roumain, hindou ou brésilien, ne s’envole vraiment. Mon titre est injuste car Cannes donne pourtant toujours sa chance aux films les plus humbles, isolés, démunis. Le festival a réussi à tirer de sa prison iranienne le cinéaste Jafar Panahi et son film, hélas pas à temps pour le voir cette année. Un dernier coup d’œil au palmarès de Tim Burton et de son équipe nous chatouille. Le Prix de la Mise en Scène est allé au film de Mathieu Amalric pour Tournée, dans lequel il gère un groupe d’effeuilleuses américaines dans des boîtes de province, avec le projet de monter à Paris, tournée qui va mettre fin à leur joie. C’est le New Burlesque, un peu Fellini mais il a beau se placer sous l’égide de la Colette de L’Envers du music-hall, il n’y arrive pas. La surprise finale, la cerise sur le gâteau, c’est la Grande Palme décernée à Oncle Boonmee se souvient de ses vies antérieures du Thaïlandais Apichatpong Weerassethakul dont on a aimé les deux premiers films: superstitions, réincarnation en buffle ou en chien-singe, mais aussi fantômes translucides (comme dans René Clair)—trop long, trop nocturne pour qu’il puisse être projeté au grand public. Et si je me trompais? Aut Caesar, aut nihil—César ou rien... Jean Decock Society and Culture edited by Marie-Christine Koop DESAN, SUZANNE, and JEFFREY MERRICK, eds. Family, Gender, and Law in Early Modern France. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State UP, 2009. ISBN 978-0-271-0349690 . Pp. 304. $55.00. This collection of seven articles is an excellent primer for those new to the field of family history in early modern France. In their introduction, Desan and Merrick explain: In early modern France, the family played a significant role in individual and collective experience, social structures and relations, and political order and culture . It helped French subjects locate their places in the local community and the broader world, define identities and create alliances, and understand concepts of hierarchy, authority, deference, obligations, and justice. As a social product and legal construct, it constituted a site in which multiple private and public interests converged and conflicted. (XI) The first article, “Making and Breaking Marriage: An Overview of Old Regime Marriage as a Social Practice” by Desan provides a fundamental analysis of marriage not only as a social practice but as a legal one as well. She examines how marriages were initially negotiated (for example, companionship or financial arrangement), how property was managed and, in the case of conflict, how separation was dealt with. This reviewer was particularly intrigued by Dena Goldman’s article, “Marriage Choice and Marital Success: Reasoning about Marriage, Love, and Happiness,” because she examined letters between two sets 642 FRENCH REVIEW 84.3 of spouses as a means of exploring courtship in the late Old Regime. It is truly fascinating to learn how Bernard de Bonnard and Sophie Sylvestre barely knew one another but agreed to marry for financial purposes. De Bonnard and Sylvestre developed a loving relationship. In contrast, Manon Philipon and Jean-Marie Roland chose to marry one another, had the consent of both their families, but failed to have a loving relationship. Goldman’s study thus challenges the long-held assumption that a marriage made from free choice would lead to a happy union. Complimenting Goldman’s article is “Family Affaires: Wives, Credit, Consumption , and the Law in Old Regime France” by Clare Crowston. Although from a different time period, her analysis of the links between the consumer revolution and a married woman’s access to credit immediately evokes Flaubert’s Emma Bovary. Crowston deftly demonstrates via her study of lawsuits over debts that married women had a great ability to spend money and run up huge debts. Julie Hardwick’s article, “Between State and Street: Witnesses and the Family Politics of Litigation in Early Modern France...