Mademoiselle de Maupin

The young poet d'Albert is in love with a beautiful woman who does not exist yet. A famous preface, a knight who is not what he seems, and a love that doesn't care about gender: Gautier's scandalous novel of 1835, which made the cult of beauty for art's sake. By Théophile Gautier (1835), translated by I. G. Burnham. A public-domain classic.

Content warnings: Sexual content

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How it begins One of the most burlesque incidents of the glorious epoch in which we have the good fortune to live side by side with Deutz and General Bugeaud, is, beyond question, the rehabilitation of virtue undertaken by all the newspapers, of whatever color they may be, red, green, or tri-colored.Virtue is most assuredly a very respectable thing, and we have no wish to fail in our devotion to the excellent, worthy creature--God forbid!--We consider that her eyes shine with sufficient brilliancy through her spectacles, that her stockings are reasonably well put on, that she takes snuff from her gold snuff-box with all imaginable grace, that her little dog courtesies like a dancing-master.--We agree to all that.--We are even willing to admit that her figure is not bad for her age, and that she carries her years as well as any one could. She is a very agreeable grandmother, but she is a grandmother. It seems to me to be natural to prefer to her, especially when one is twenty years old, some little immorality, very pert, very coquettish, very wanton, with the hair a little out of curl, the skirt rather short than long, the foot and eye alluring, the cheek slightly flushed, a smile on the lips and the heart in the hand.--The most horribly virtuous journalists can hardly be of a different opinion; and, if they say the contrary, it is very probable that they do not think it. To think one thing and write another is something that happens every day, especially among virtuous folk. Keep reading →

Chapters

1. 1Preface60 min · 9 Nov
2. 2Chapter I28 min · 9 Nov
3. 3Chapter II40 min · 9 Nov
4. 4Chapter III37 min · 9 Nov
5. 5Chapter IV33 min · 9 Nov
6. 6Chapter V31 min · 9 Nov
7. 7Chapter VI28 min · 9 Nov
8. 8Chapter VII16 min · 9 Nov
9. 9Chapter VIII16 min · 9 Nov
10. 10Chapter IX34 min · 9 Nov
11. 11Chapter X39 min · 9 Nov
12. 12Chapter XI66 min · 9 Nov
13. 13Chapter XII59 min · 9 Nov
14. 14Chapter XIII14 min · 9 Nov
15. 15Chapter XIV20 min · 9 Nov
16. 16Chapter XV40 min · 9 Nov
17. 17Chapter XVI15 min · 9 Nov
18. 18Chapter XVII5 min · 9 Nov

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