Mormons in Paris
Polygamy on the French Stage, 1874-1892
Published on 16. October 2020
Book
Hardback
428 pages
978-1-68448-237-5 (ISBN)
Description
Winner of the 2021 Best International Book Award from the Mormon History Association
In the late nineteenth century, numerous French plays, novels, cartoons, and works of art focused on Mormons. Unlike American authors who portrayed Mormons as malevolent "others," however, French dramatists used Mormonism to point out hypocrisy in their own culture. Aren't Mormon women, because of their numbers in a household, more liberated than French women who can't divorce? What is polygamy but another name for multiple mistresses? This new critical edition presents translations of four musical comedies staged or published in France in the late 1800s: Mormons in Paris (1874), Berthelier Meets the Mormons (1875), Japheth's Twelve Wives (1890), and Stephana's Jewel (1892). Each is accompanied by a short contextualizing introduction with details about the music, playwrights, and staging. Humorous and largely unknown, these plays use Mormonism to explore and mock changing French mentalities during the Third Republic, lampooning shifting attitudes and evolving laws about marriage, divorce, and gender roles.
Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.
In the late nineteenth century, numerous French plays, novels, cartoons, and works of art focused on Mormons. Unlike American authors who portrayed Mormons as malevolent "others," however, French dramatists used Mormonism to point out hypocrisy in their own culture. Aren't Mormon women, because of their numbers in a household, more liberated than French women who can't divorce? What is polygamy but another name for multiple mistresses? This new critical edition presents translations of four musical comedies staged or published in France in the late 1800s: Mormons in Paris (1874), Berthelier Meets the Mormons (1875), Japheth's Twelve Wives (1890), and Stephana's Jewel (1892). Each is accompanied by a short contextualizing introduction with details about the music, playwrights, and staging. Humorous and largely unknown, these plays use Mormonism to explore and mock changing French mentalities during the Third Republic, lampooning shifting attitudes and evolving laws about marriage, divorce, and gender roles.
Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.
Reviews / Votes
"Mormons in Paris is as erudite as it is enchanting. In their introduction, Corry Cropper and Christopher Flood show exceptional depth and breadth of knowledge about French theater, opera, and light opera and their place in late nineteenth-century French culture. The language of the translations is natural and readable, and the little songs in verse are especially delightful." - Susan McCready (author of Staging France between the World Wars) "This well-introduced collection of little-known musical comedies featuring French characterizations of Mormonism is a welcome contribution to nineteenth-century French cultural studies. The translations themselves are excellent . . . the authors' choices of idiomatic expressions capture just the right tone, neither anachronistically modern nor too archaic to retain their impact." - Andrea Goulet (co-editor of Orphan Black: Performance, Gender, Biopolitics) "Mormons in Paris is as erudite as it is enchanting. In their introduction, Corry Cropper and Christopher Flood show exceptional depth and breadth of knowledge about French theater, opera, and light opera and their place in late nineteenth-century French culture. The language of the translations is natural and readable, and the little songs in verse are especially delightful." - Susan McCready (author of Staging France between the World Wars) "This well-introduced collection of little-known musical comedies featuring French characterizations of Mormonism is a welcome contribution to nineteenth-century French cultural studies. The translations themselves are excellent . . . the authors' choices of idiomatic expressions capture just the right tone, neither anachronistically modern nor too archaic to retain their impact." - Andrea Goulet (co-editor of Orphan Black: Performance, Gender, Biopolitics)More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
7 b-w images, 2 color images
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-68448-237-5 (9781684482375)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
CORRY CROPPER is a professor of French at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. His book Playing at Monarchy: Sport as Metaphor in Nineteenth-Century France examines French literary representations of sports and games. He has also published on nineteenth-century Fantastic literature, and on cycling, gambling, and poaching in French fiction.
CHRISTOPHER M. FLOOD is an assistant professor of French at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. His research focuses on the unique insights offered by comedies and satires into the contexts that produced them. He has previously published on medieval and early modern political and religious satires.
CHRISTOPHER M. FLOOD is an assistant professor of French at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. His research focuses on the unique insights offered by comedies and satires into the contexts that produced them. He has previously published on medieval and early modern political and religious satires.
Content
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Chapter 1: Mormons in Paris
Louis Leroy and Alfred Delacour
Chapter 2: Berthelier Meets the Mormons
Chapter 3: Japheth's Twelve Wives
Antony Mars and Maurice DesvalliEres
Chapter 4: Stephana's Jewel
Arthur BernEde and Albert Dubarry
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index
Introduction
Chapter 1: Mormons in Paris
Louis Leroy and Alfred Delacour
Chapter 2: Berthelier Meets the Mormons
Chapter 3: Japheth's Twelve Wives
Antony Mars and Maurice DesvalliEres
Chapter 4: Stephana's Jewel
Arthur BernEde and Albert Dubarry
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index