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Mademoiselle de Montpensier: Memoirs. Edited by William Brooks and
selected, translated, and introduced by P. J. Yarrow. London: Modern
Humanities Research Association, 2010. 246 pp. $15.99. ISBN 9781-907322-01-3.
Anne-Marie Louise d’Orléans, duchesse de Montpensier, known as “La
Grande Mademoiselle,” has long been considered one of the most important figures of France’s Ancien Régime. Her long and colorful life spanned
almost the entire seventeenth century (1627–1693). The daughter of
Louis XIV’s uncle, Gaston d’Orléans, and granddaughter of Henri IV and
Marie de Médicis, Montpensier was one of the richest women in France,
having inherited the extensive estate of her mother, Marie de Bourbon,
when she died upon giving birth to her. Montpensier took an active part
during France’s brief civil war known as “La Fronde” (1648–52), famously
ordering troops to fire on those of her cousin, Louis XIV, from the top
of the Bastille. Such activities, as well as her refusal to submit to royal
arranged marriages, earned her frequent exile from court.
During these periods in particular, usually spent in Burgundy at her
chateau of St. Fargeau, or at Eu in Normandy, Montpensier turned to writing. She composed a few short novels, a compilation of literary portraits,
two religious texts at the end of her life, and most important, her celebrated
memoirs composed over a period of fifty years. Originally published posthumously in the early eighteenth-century, Montpensier’s four-volume opus
provides a wealth of information about everyday court life in seventeenthcentury France. Much more than a chronicle of events, the text is arguably
one of the first autobiographies, especially by a woman. Montpensier not
only reflects on the events of her own life and her personal journey, she also
provides a unique perspective on the life of a noble woman and women in
general during what is known as France’s “Grand Siècle.”
The past few decades have witnessed the publication of a number of
editions of Montpensier’s memoirs in French, inspired in large measure
by the attention the text has received by feminist scholars, especially in
the United States and Great Britain, since the 1980s, as well as by the
work of the French scholar Jean Garapon, who provides a foreword to
this translation. In addition, numerous biographies have appeared, making Montpensier one of the most recognized female figures of the Ancien
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Régime. In 2002, Joan DeJean made some of Montpensier’s writings
accessible to non-French speakers in Against Marriage, which consists of a
series of letters between Montpensier and Mme de Motteville inspired by
Louis XIV’s marriage to the Spanish Infanta in 1661. Until the publication of the present translation, however, Montpensier’s most fascinating
text, her memoirs, has not existed in a readable, annotated English translation. William Brooks’s edition of P. J. Yarrow’s wonderful translation is
thus a welcome and, indeed, essential addition to the seventeenth-century
literary and historical corpus and will undoubtedly spark new interest
among scholars who were previously unable to access the text in English or
enjoy any outdated, incomplete translations that did exist. Moreover, the
Brooks/Yarrow English edition has the added advantage of being eminently manageable for students and scholars alike. Yarrow’s judicious choice of
passages in this abridged translation, combined with Brooks’s notes that
elucidate the text as well as its context, allow non-French specialists to
quickly understand and appreciate Montpensier, her text, and the period
as a whole. Even those who know the French text well can enjoy this lively
and faithful translation.
William Brooks and P. J. Yarrow are especially to be commended for
allowing Montpensier’s rich text to be enjoyed and interpreted without the
heavy overlay of interpretation that often mars editions and translations.
The commentary that surrounds the actual text is designed to illuminate
the historical context, especially for readers who are not entirely conversant
with seventeenth-century France and its court, but it does not, thankfully,
interpret Montpensier and her text. The reader is thus free to develop
her/his own interpretation of the text and impression of Montpensier. A
scholar might wish that there were references to the plethora of scholarly
work that has appeared about Montpensier’s memoirs, especially in the
footnotes and the bibliography, but clearly the editor made the choice
to have the work stand on its own, without the critical apparatus that
scholarly editions often have. Yarrow’s introduction, edited by Brooks, is
informative and gives the necessary historical context of the memoirs. The
list of “Further Reading” points to the biographies devoted to Montpensier
and editions of her memoirs, in French and in English.
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Overall, this translation seems to be designed to give English speakers the chance to experience the life and writing of an exceptional French
woman living during one of France’s most celebrated centuries. But English
speakers are not the only beneficiaries of this new edition. Scholars who
have pored over, or pushed through, the hundreds of pages of Montpensier’s
memoirs in French will be grateful for this carefully condensed version in
which the essence of the memoirs and Montpensier’s personality come
through more succinctly than in the complete edition in French. Brooks
and Yarrow have chosen some of the passages of Montpensier’s text that
best characterize the work as a whole and its author. Scholars can appreciate the careful choice of these passages and be especially grateful for
the meticulous editorial process. Rather than simply stringing passages
together in order to make a coherent whole, Brooks and Yarrow indicate to
the reader, through ellipses, when they have cut out passages. In addition,
when long passages have been omitted, there are parenthetical summaries
of what those passages contained. Thus, a reader who wishes to augment
her/his reading of the translation could feasibly find these passages in the
nineteenth-century French edition by Chéruel that serves as the base for
this translation. As the exact volume and page numbers are not indicated,
this would take some effort, but Brooks and Yarrow are to be commended
for indicating what is being left out of this edition. As an editor and eminent seventeenth-century scholar, Brooks has a keen and accurate sense of
what students, the general reader, and scholars need to get the most out of
this translation of the memoirs. In addition to the excellent notes, there is
an extensive and useful index.
In sum, this is a welcome English translation that deserves to find its
way into classrooms in a variety of disciplines and will no doubt inspire
further research into this fascinating and provocative figure.
Faith E. Beasley
Dartmouth College
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