THE MARQUISE DE LA FAYETTE

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29714, 6 January 1962, Page 3

THE MARQUISE DE LA FAYETTE

[Reviewed by K.J.] Adrienne. The Life of the Marquise de La Fayette. , By Andre Maurois. Translated from the French by Gerard Hopkins. Jonathan Cape. 496 pp. Most recent historical research dealing with the French Revolution has been concerned with the “lesser people,” the composition of the crowds, the more obscure clubs, the administrators. As a result of this type of inquiry, our conception of the revolution has been radically altered, indeed, distinguished scholars such as the late Georges Lefebvre talk of four revolutions and it is sometimes difficult to realise that there is any connexion between such complex socioeconomic manifestations and the: vivid scenes depicted earlier. What was to Carlyle “that fiery infernal Phenomenon. sailing unlooked-for, unbidden,” has become “an essentially multiple phenomena, diverse in its causes, in its development and in its consequences.” Hence "Adrienne, The Life of the Marquise de La Fayette,” is doubly welcome not only as an account of the fortunes of a remarkable woman, but also because it is a useful reminder that the French Revolution midst all its differing facets, was an intensely personal happening disrupting, ruining or even ending the lives of many of its participants.

Added to this, the story of how the book came to be written is in itself remarkable. Much of the material upon which it is based was only discovered in 1955, having been locked in the tower room of La Fayette’s old house for 121 years. Happily for the biographer, not only did the “Hero of Two Worlds” diligently collect every scrap of material relating to his past, including all his wife’s letters, but the letters and documents also survived the depredations of the revolution itself, largely due to the care of devoted servants. When discovered, the materials were in perfect condition and almost unbelievably complete, even to the last postal deliveries of the general’s life found unopened in a drawer. The story that these documents reveal is then, in fullness, as remarkable as the story of their preservation. Adrienne, born of two highly placed and powerful families, was at the age of 14 married to the man des-

tined to be the Peter Pan of the Rev6lution. She grew to be not merely his wife and companion (on the rare occasions that he was at home), but also his business manager, counsellor and worshipper, remaining unquestioningly faithful even to the point of keeping her husband’s dazzling mistress informed of his activities, or if need be, supplied with money.

If by modern standards Adrienne seems at times too compliant or lacking in backbone in her relations with her husband, the revolution proved conclusively that she was a person of no mean spirit. Fighting a lone battle for self-preservation, though never ceasing to help and comfort others, she succoured her family and finally triumphed over daunting adversities to share the rigours of her husband’s Austrian prison at Olmnutz. Once out of prison, her health permanently impaired, Adrienne laboured ceaselessly to restore her husband and family in the new French society and to retrieve sufficient lands to form a patrimony for her children, importuning the highest in the land including the formidable First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte in her endeavours.

Although large sections of the book are necessarily devoted to La Fayette himself, this only serves to heighten the qualities of this truly noble woman beside whom, the famous general emerges as a man of romantic illusions and juvenile vanity, always the symbol rather than the leader. The story of the pious, capable, almost tragic Adrienne is eminently readable in the excellent translation by the late Gerard Hopkins and has 17 collotype illustrations.