Description
While mysteries remain in her biography, Madame d'Aulnoy's tremendous literary talent is finally being rediscovered. Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, baronne d'Aulnoy (1652-1705) was the first Frenchwoman to write, publicize, and publish the account of her travels into Spain as an independent woman. Considered the authority on Spain for nearly two centuries until historiographers labeled them as disreputable, Travels into Spain can now be appreciated for its ironic gaze on realities concealed from male travelers and Madame d'Aulnoy's unabashedly female and often playful voice. Her writing casts a unique light on gender relations, the condition of women, cultural biases, national rivalries, and religious superstitions at a critical time in early modern cultural and literary history. The first modern translation of Travels into Spain, this book situates Madame d'Aulnoy's account in its historical context. Travels into Spain is a masterpiece of ethnographic observation, expressing a woman's view on gender relations, marriage, religion, fashion, food, bullfights, and the Inquisition.
About the Author
Madame d'Aulnoy was a seventeenth-century French writer. She published fifteen books before her death in 1705, including historical novels, memoirs, and collections of fairy tales. Gabrielle Verdier is professor emerita of French at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Reviews
"The triple-decker, this edition of which Verdier has superlatively translated, edited and annotated, was 'the most important source of information on Spain for two centuries.' It remains a gripping account of early-modern Spain and the female gaze. D'Aulnoy and one of her daughters crossed the border from France on a litter, a kind of sedan chair. . . . Verdier has cut many pages of borrowed historical material, summarizing between sections in italics. Crucially, she leaves in the soft tissue of history - the perishable bits. In her personal observations the baronne has an eye for detail and a taste for the idiosyncratic: in Burgos the reader sees a pet monkey sharing the archbishop's tobacco." -- Sara Wheeler * Times Literary Supplement *
Book Information
ISBN 9781649590572
Author Baronne D`aulno Le Jumel De Bar
Format Paperback
Page Count 322
Imprint Iter Press
Publisher Iter Press
Weight(grams) 528g
Dimensions(mm) 226mm * 157mm * 19mm