Skip to main content
Read page text
page 30
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was made possible by an Arts and Humanities Research Council Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership Studentship [award reference 1445114], which allowed me to complete my PhD thesis at the University of Durham. I am further grateful to the British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies, and Durham University’s School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, and University College, for their support. This article has been developed from a revised chapter of my thesis, the full text of which is available here: http://etheses. dur.ac.uk/12629/. NOTES 1. Fougeret de Monbron, Louis Charles, Margot la ravaudeuse, in Romanciers libertins du XVIIIe siècle, ed. by Patrick Wald Lasowski, 2 vols (Paris: Gallimard, 2000), i, pp. 801-863. For an English translation of the text, see Louis Charles Fougeret de Monbron, Margot la ravaudeuse, ed. and trans. by Édouard Langille (Cambridge: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2015). Langille’s introduction to the text offers a fascinating overview of Fougeret de Monbron’s life and the text’s publication history, as well as the rehabilitation of libertine writing in literary scholarship (pp. 1–12). The French text is also freely available online via wikisource, Gutenberg and other, similar, platforms. A ravaudeuse would mend garments and stockings – from ravauder, to darn or sew. 2. Kathryn Norberg, ‘The Libertine Whore: Prostitution in French Pornography from Margot to Juliette’, in The Invention of Pornography: Obscenity and the Origins of Modernity, ed. by Lynn Hunt (New York: Zone Books, 1993), pp. 225–252 (p.225). 3. Nancy K. Miller, French Dressing: Women, Men, and Ancien Régime Fiction (New York; London: Routledge, 1995), pp. 70, 96. Perhaps the best known firstperson novel contemporaneous with Margot is Thérèse philosophe, a bestseller of eighteenth-century libertine fiction published in 1748 under disputed authorship, but usually attributed to Jean Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d’Argens. Thérèse philosophe also recounts a young woman’s sexual and philosophical awakening, marrying pornographic scenes with discussion of Enlightenment ideas on materialism, and radical political and religious ideas. 4. For the revolution that took place in eighteenth-century French kitchens and tables see, for instance, Susan Pinkard, A Revolution in Taste: The Rise of French Cuisine, 1650-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009); Sean Takats, The Expert Cook in Enlightenment France (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011); Piero Camporesi, Exotic Brew: The Art of Living in the Age of Enlightenment (Oxford; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Polity Press, 1994); Jennifer J. Davis, ‘Masters of Disguise: French Cooks Between Art and Nature, 1651–1793’, Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, 9 (2009), 36-49, and Defining Culinary Authority: The Transformation of Cooking in France, 1650-1832 (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2013); Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson, Accounting for Taste: The [ 29 ]
page 31
Triumph of French Cuisine (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004). 5. See, for instance, Nina Kushner, Erotic Exchanges: The World of Elite Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century Paris (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2013), p. 110. For an overview of the myriad intersections between food and sex work in eighteenth-century Paris, see Catherine Ellis, (2018) ‘Sex Work and Ingestion in Eighteenth-Century France’, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12629/, particularly Chapter One : ‘Food, Drink and Sex Work in Eighteenth-Century France’ (pp. 48–65). 6. Kathryn Norberg, ‘Goddesses of Taste: Courtesans and Their Furniture in Late- Eighteenth-Century Paris’, in Furnishing the Eighteenth Century: What Furniture Can Tell Us About the European and American Past, ed. by Dena Goodman and Kathryn Norberg (New York: Routledge, 2007), pp. 97–114 (p. 103). See also Kathryn Norberg, ‘Salon as Stage: Actress/Courtesans and their Homes in Late Eighteenth-Century Paris’, in Architectural Space in Eighteenth-Century Europe: Constructing Identities and Interiors, ed. by Meredith Martin (Farnham, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010), pp. 105–128 (pp.110–111). 7. ‘Prostitutes’, in A History of Women in the West: Renaissance and Enlightenment Paradoxes, ed. by N.Z. Davis and A. Farge (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1993), pp. 458–474 (p. 468). See also Jill Harsin, Policing Prostitution in NineteenthCentury Paris (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), pp. 32–33, 317n. 8. Margot (2000), p. 805; Margot, ed. by Langille (2015), p. 18 of Langille’s translation. Henceforth, page references will be given for the French edition, followed by Langille’s English translation, except where otherwise stated. 9. Arnaldo Pizzorusso, ‘Situation and Environment in Margot la ravaudeuse’, Yale French Studies, No.40 (1968), pp. 142–155 (p. 144). 10. Margot (2000), p. 804; my translation. For an approximate idea of value, one might follow Édouard Langille’s approach of roughly translating a sou as a penny, and a louis d’or (a gold coin) as a guinea. Langille (2015), pp. 13–14. 11. For further notes on Duparc, see Margot (2000), p. 805, n. 6. For more on traiteurs, see Stephen Mennell, All Manners of Food: Eating and Taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to the Present (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996), pp. 138–139. 12. Margot (2000), p. 805. 13. Margot (2000), pp. 807–808; Margot, ed. by Langille (2015), p. 20. 14. For further information on the various forms of eighteenth-century bread, see Jim Chevallier’s work, for instance: http://chezjim.com/18c/breads/Bread_18_3. html#fantaisie 15. Coffee’s multiple roles and meanings in seventeeth- and eighteenth-century France are explored in Chapter 3, ‘The Place of Coffee’ of Emma Spary’s Eating the Enlightenment (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2012). 16. The archives of the Paris Police and their surveillance of sex workers offer us a number of stories of young women being led astray with treats. For example, the sixteen-year-old Marguerite Girard is described as having been enticed into sex work with ‘pompons et bonbons’ designed to turn her attentions to ‘la coqueterie et à la friandise’ (coquetry and a taste for treats). BA, MS 10251, fol. 218r. See Ellis (2018), pp. 68–69. 17. Spary (2012), p. 96. 18. Vera Lee, The Reign of Women in Eighteenth-Century France (Cambridge, [ 30 ]

Page Text

View plaintext

Triumph of French Cuisine (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004). 5. See, for instance, Nina Kushner, Erotic Exchanges: The World of Elite Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century Paris (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2013), p. 110. For an overview of the myriad intersections between food and sex work in eighteenth-century Paris, see Catherine Ellis, (2018) ‘Sex Work and Ingestion in Eighteenth-Century France’, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12629/, particularly Chapter One : ‘Food, Drink and Sex Work in Eighteenth-Century France’ (pp. 48–65). 6. Kathryn Norberg, ‘Goddesses of Taste: Courtesans and Their Furniture in Late-

Eighteenth-Century Paris’, in Furnishing the Eighteenth Century: What Furniture Can Tell Us About the European and American Past, ed. by Dena Goodman and Kathryn Norberg (New York: Routledge, 2007), pp. 97–114 (p. 103). See also Kathryn Norberg, ‘Salon as Stage: Actress/Courtesans and their Homes in Late Eighteenth-Century Paris’, in Architectural Space in Eighteenth-Century Europe: Constructing Identities and Interiors, ed. by Meredith Martin (Farnham, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010), pp. 105–128 (pp.110–111). 7. ‘Prostitutes’, in A History of Women in the West: Renaissance and Enlightenment

Paradoxes, ed. by N.Z. Davis and A. Farge (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1993), pp. 458–474 (p. 468). See also Jill Harsin, Policing Prostitution in NineteenthCentury Paris (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), pp. 32–33, 317n. 8. Margot (2000), p. 805; Margot, ed. by Langille (2015), p. 18 of Langille’s translation.

Henceforth, page references will be given for the French edition, followed by Langille’s English translation, except where otherwise stated. 9. Arnaldo Pizzorusso, ‘Situation and Environment in Margot la ravaudeuse’, Yale

French Studies, No.40 (1968), pp. 142–155 (p. 144). 10. Margot (2000), p. 804; my translation. For an approximate idea of value, one might follow Édouard Langille’s approach of roughly translating a sou as a penny, and a louis d’or (a gold coin) as a guinea. Langille (2015), pp. 13–14. 11. For further notes on Duparc, see Margot (2000), p. 805, n. 6. For more on traiteurs, see Stephen Mennell, All Manners of Food: Eating and Taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to the Present (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996), pp. 138–139. 12. Margot (2000), p. 805. 13. Margot (2000), pp. 807–808; Margot, ed. by Langille (2015), p. 20. 14. For further information on the various forms of eighteenth-century bread, see

Jim Chevallier’s work, for instance: http://chezjim.com/18c/breads/Bread_18_3. html#fantaisie 15. Coffee’s multiple roles and meanings in seventeeth- and eighteenth-century

France are explored in Chapter 3, ‘The Place of Coffee’ of Emma Spary’s Eating the Enlightenment (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2012). 16. The archives of the Paris Police and their surveillance of sex workers offer us a number of stories of young women being led astray with treats. For example, the sixteen-year-old Marguerite Girard is described as having been enticed into sex work with ‘pompons et bonbons’ designed to turn her attentions to ‘la coqueterie et à la friandise’ (coquetry and a taste for treats). BA, MS 10251, fol. 218r. See Ellis (2018), pp. 68–69. 17. Spary (2012), p. 96. 18. Vera Lee, The Reign of Women in Eighteenth-Century France (Cambridge,

[ 30 ]

read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content