Tea at Trianon: Seven Dark Novels About Motherhood

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Seven Dark Novels About Motherhood

Some very disturbing. I wonder how such stories have contributed to the culture of death. From Crime Reads:

The American roman noir as we know it was practically invented by James M. Cain by way of his first two novels, The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity. With his fourth novel, 1941’s Mildred Piece, Cain eschewed the violent acts of murder central to his previous work and instead focused on crimes of the heart (with a little bit of embezzlement thrown in for good measure).

The title character is a tough, sympathetic “grass widow” and mother of two, struggling to get by in the Great Depression after her husband abandons her. Opening her own restaurant, she almost manages to make a success of herself, but is ultimately undone by her ungrateful, scheming daughter, a brilliant musician whose ruthless climb to the top was made possible through Mildred’s sacrifice. While Mildred Peirce may not contain the mortal violence we usually associate with hardboiled noir, it’s as fatalistic as any book within the genre.
The eventual 1945 Hollywood adaptation—which starred Joan Crawford in one of her most iconic roles—added a murder and a more traditionally cathartic (if not happy) ending, while the 2011 HBO limited series version stayed extremely faithful to Cain’s original. (Read more.)