Inheritance in Nineteenth-century French Culture: Wealth, Knowledge and the Family PDF
Preview Inheritance in Nineteenth-century French Culture: Wealth, Knowledge and the Family
Inheritance in Nineteenth-Century French Culture Wealth, Knowledge and the Family legeNda legenda, founded in 1995 by the european Humanities Research Centre of the University of Oxford, is now a joint imprint of the Modern Humanities Research association and Routledge. Titles range from medieval texts to contemporary cinema and form a widely comparative view of the modern humanities, including works on arabic, Catalan, english, French, german, greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Yiddish literature. an editorial Board of distinguished academic specialists works in collaboration with leading scholarly bodies such as the Society for French Studies and the British Comparative literature association. The Modern Humanities Research association (mhra) encourages and promotes advanced study and research in the field of the modern humanities, especially modern european languages and literature, including english, and also cinema. It also aims to break down the barriers between scholars working in different disciplines and to maintain the unity of humanistic scholarship in the face of increasing specialization. The association fulfils this purpose primarily through the publication of journals, bibliographies, monographs and other aids to research. Routledge is a global publisher of academic books, journals and online resources in the humanities and social sciences. Founded in 1836, it has published many of the greatest thinkers and scholars of the last hundred years, including Adorno, Einstein, Russell, Popper, Wittgenstein, Jung, Bohm, Hayek, McLuhan, Marcuse and Sartre. Today Routledge is one of the world’s leading academic publishers in the Humanities and Social Sciences. It publishes thousands of books and journals each year, serving scholars, instructors, and professional communities worldwide. www.routledge.com edITORIal BOaRd Chairman Professor Colin davis, Royal Holloway, University of london Professor Malcolm Cook, University of exeter (French) Professor Robin Fiddian, Wadham College, Oxford (Spanish) Professor Paul garner, University of leeds (Spanish) Professor andrew Hadfield, University of Sussex (english) Professor Marian Hobson Jeanneret, Queen Mary University of london (French) Professor Catriona Kelly, New College, Oxford (Russian) Professor Martin Mclaughlin, Magdalen College, Oxford (Italian) Professor Martin Maiden, Trinity College, Oxford (linguistics) Professor Peter Matthews, St John’s College, Cambridge (linguistics) dr Stephen Parkinson, linacre College, Oxford (Portuguese) Professor Suzanne Raitt, William and Mary College, Virginia (english) Professor Ritchie Robertson, St John’s College, Oxford (german) Professor lesley Sharpe, University of exeter (german) Professor david Shepherd, Keele University (Russian) Professor Michael Sheringham, all Souls College, Oxford (French) Professor alison Sinclair, Clare College, Cambridge (Spanish) Professor david Treece, King’s College london (Portuguese) Managing Editor dr graham Nelson 41 Wellington Square, Oxford ox1 2jf, UK [email protected] www.legenda.mhra.org.uk Inheritance in Nineteenth-Century French Culture Wealth, Knowledge and the Family ❖ andrew J. Counter Modern Humanities Research association and Routledge 2010 First published 201o Published by the Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA LEGENDA is an imprint of the Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © Modern Humanities Research Association and Taylor & Francis 2010 ISBN 978-1-906540-75-3 (hbk) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, including photocopying, recordings, fax or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher. Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Contents ❖ Acknowledgements ix Notes x Introduction 1 part i: inheritance struggles in nineteenth-century france 1 The Politics of Inheritance in Nineteenth-Century France 28 2 all about My Uncle: Narratives of Inheritance in Nineteenth-Century France 50 part ii: family knowledge in the french novel of inheritance 3 The Power of the Will in Balzac’s Ursule Mirouët 76 4 Being of Sound Mind: The Forbidden Knowledge of Maupassant’s Subversive Testaments 106 5 Heirs of darkness: Women’s Writing on Inheritance in Nineteenth-Century France 134 6 Donner et retenir ne vaut: gift and discourse in Zola’s La Terre 158 Conclusion 187 Bibliography 191 Index 203 for my parents, jan and john symington ACKnoWLeDGeMents ❖ This book began life as a Phd thesis submitted in the University of Cambridge in 2008, and my greatest debt of thanks is therefore to my Phd supervisor, Nick White, whose encouragement and tireless enthusiasm have seen me through my research. I couldn’t have asked for a more engaging and generous teacher. I am also very grateful to my examiners, Robert lethbridge and ann Jefferson, for their advice and support. a number of people kindly took the time to read sections of the text during its preparation, and I am very grateful to all of them; they are: david Baguley, Masha Belenky, damian Catani, Michèle Hannoosh, Nigel Harkness, Rachel Mesch, Michael Tilby, and, above all, Marco Wan. I have also benefited enormously from the advice and intellectual stimulation provided by many friends and colleagues, including Michael Boucai, Martin Crowley, Miranda gill, Kate griffiths, gerald Moore, Tom Stammers and emma Wilson. More particular thanks are due to alison Finch, and especially to annie Metz of the Bibliothèque Marguerite durand, for their advice and assistance in the preparation of Chapter 5; and to Frédéric Rideau, who clarified a number of points of law. any mistakes are, of course, my own. My doctoral research was generously funded by my own mysterious benefactor, the arts and Humanities Research Council. Financial support for the completion of the book was provided, in the form of a Research Fellowship, by the Master and Fellows of St John’s College, Cambridge; and subsequently by the Master and Fellows of gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. I am extremely grateful to both institutions. an earlier version of Chapter 5 appeared in State of the Union: Marriage in Nineteenth-Century France, a special number of Dix-Neuf (2009). Parts of Chapter 4 appeared in Dix-Neuf, 9 (October 2007) and Modern Language Review, 103 (2008). I am grateful to the editors of both journals for permission to reproduce this material. a.j.c., November 2009
The list of books you might like
