15.06 - Extraordinary French Women Who Shaped France: As celebrated by contemporary men.
This FREE edition of le Bulletin introduces you to six inspiring women who changed the course of French history. Today their lives & achievements are celebrated by two contemporary male contributors.
Bonjour mes amis ! Meet the Women Who Shaped France
I’m so thrilled to have you back! Bienvenue !
This week will introduce you to six extraordinary women whose influence reverberates through French history. Each, in her way, defied expectations and changed the course of la belle France.
These remarkable women are celebrated in new articles in MyFrenchLife Magazine, brought to life by two talented male contributors: Mark and Keith. It's a fascinating exploration of their legacies and their lasting impact.
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Thank you to all Contributors to our magazine. I love that your articles take us from one end of France to another and constantly remind us of the rich culture of this wonderful and diverse country. Merci. Judy.
Vive les Femmes! Celebrating the Powerful Women of France
When we think of French history, men grab most of the headlines, names like Napoleon, Pasteur, and Louis XIV often spring to mind. But behind these iconic figures lies a rich tapestry woven with the brilliance, courage, and influence of remarkable women. From queens and revolutionaries to scientists and artists, these women have shaped 'la belle France' in profound ways often without the recognition they deserve.
This series delves into the stories of four exceptional French women—trailblazers who defied expectations and left an indelible mark on history. We'll uncover their triumphs, their struggles, and the lasting legacies they've bequeathed to us. And, as a special bonus, we'll also shine a light on the fascinating women of the Académie française, guardians of the French language, exploring their contributions to this esteemed institution. Prepare to be inspired by the 'real' stories of France's powerful women!
MyFrenchLife Magazine has published a series of articles about these women, as well as about the female members of the Académie française, the guardian of the French language. Let’s learn about these important contributors to the history of la belle France.
There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there’s only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a fairly good time.” (The Last Asset, 1904)
Late 1920s photo of Edith Wharton at her home near Hyères.
Mark Jespersen writes:
What struggling writer in their right mind would attempt to shed some light on the life of an internationally famous writer, the first woman to receive a Pulitzer Prize who spoke four languages and was both a friend and confidante to prominent intellectuals including Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, and André Gide?
Not me. I know better.
Instead, let me share a few impressions from what she, and others, have said.
After a life of writing, love affairs, house building, gardening, and significant charity projects during the First World War, or the Grand War as the French call it, Wharton ended up in the south of France. She spent the last ten summers of her life in Hyères (ee-air), about an hour from our village of Seillans.
There, she bought an impressive home that was originally built by Olivier Voutier, the French naval ensign who, in 1820, at the age of 23, unearthed the Venus de Milo, one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture in the world.
Image credit: Castel Sainte-Claire – via – https://www.portcros-parcnational.fr
Wharton purchased the place 50 years later.
The structure itself, in disrepair when she found it in 1927, was exactly what she needed at the time, and she exquisitely and correctly restored the chateau. Wharton was well-informed on historical details, and architecture on a grand scale was one of her many hobbies.
Her attention to detail, indoors and out, was astounding. It was said that she spent twenty years searching for an eighteenth-century Chinese Chippendale wallpaper based on a fragment she had saved.
The property’s rich backstories would also have appealed to Edith. Claire, the Mother Superior, was an aristocratic and strong-willed woman who denounced her family’s wealth to create the Order of the Institute of Poor Women in the year 1212.
Then there was the location, high above the village with a fine view beyond to the sea. Castel Sainte-Claire is renowned today and listed for its spectacular gardens, carefully designed and developed by Wharton to flourish year-round. Cactus and agave dominate the upper terraces, with huge magnolias below. One winter, a terrible drought nearly wiped out all her hard work, but she rebuilt it all, this time to survive during the windy dry spells.
Music
Beethoven’s grand, sweeping, dynamic works seem to suit her personality. We know she listened to his sonatas on those musical evenings in Hyères and I’m sure she had his ‘Pathetique’ in her collection.
“My object is still to hear Beethoven, & more Beethoven, in whatever way & of whatever kind I can…”
Money
Wharton was born into a family of immense wealth and prestige. Her father’s family, ironically, was named Jones and their material trappings were so ostentatious it is said they inspired the term, ‘keeping up with the Joneses’.
Though she wore the finest clothes, she was not beautiful.
As a young girl with her nose in her books, she was referred to as that handsome, disagreeable little Pussy Jones, always scribbling away. An enthusiastic bookworm from childhood, her reading opened vast vistas into the worlds of art, history, and culture that her family, though wealthy, did not appreciate. And yet with all her money, ambition, knowledge, and talent, she struggled with many of the mundane doubts and insecurities that bedevil most of humanity.
Love life of Edith Wharton
Her love life was well known to be complicated. One idyllic summer in Bar Harbor, Maine, as a young woman, she met Walter Berry. Handsome, athletic, artistic, intellectual, wealthy, and cultured, he was the kind of man she could talk to about books, art, and history.
Wharton wrote that their summer together in Maine was
a fleeting hint of what the communion of kindred intelligences might be.”
Berry left without proposing, and not long after, Wharton met her future husband, Teddy. For the next 14 years, she and Berry barely stayed in touch.
In one of Wharton’s short stories, a woman dies and reflects on her marriage with an apparition she names the Spirit of Life. It is a remarkably candid appraisal of her own failed marriage to the mercurial and depressive Teddy Wharton.
You have hit upon the exact word; I was fond of him, yes, just as I was fond of my grandmother, and the house that I was born in, and my old nurse. Oh, I was fond of him, and we were counted a very happy couple. But I have sometimes thought that a woman’s nature is like a great house full of rooms: there is the hall, through which everyone passes in going in and out; the drawing- room, where one receives formal visits; the sitting- room, where the members of the family come and go as they list; but beyond that, far beyond, are other rooms, the handles of whose doors perhaps are never turned; no one knows the way to them, no one knows whither they lead; and in the innermost room, the holy of holies, the soul sits alone and waits for a footstep that never comes.”
And your husband,” asked the Spirit, after a pause, “never got beyond the family sitting room?”
Never,” she returned, impatiently; “and the worst of it was that he was quite content to remain there.
He thought it perfectly beautiful, and sometimes, when he was admiring its commonplace furniture, insignificant as the chairs and tables of a hotel parlor, I felt like crying out to him: ‘Fool, will you never guess that close at hand are rooms full of treasures and wonders, such as the eye of man hath not seen, rooms that no step has crossed, but that might be yours to live in, could you but find the handle of the door”
Passion
Wharton was prim and proper, but also intensely passionate, keeping a secret diary during her brief affair with Morton Fullerton, the dashing journalist she met through Henry James before her divorce from Teddy was finalized.
She was no prude, as she wrote in her diary:
Brains & culture seem non-existent from one end of the social scale to the other, and half the morons yell for filth, the other half continue to put pants on the piano legs.”
Photograph of William Morton Fullerton inscribed to André Raffalovic. Photographer unknown. Used with permission: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library UCLA
Wharton resumed her friendship with Berry in 1897. She was at work on her first book, ‘The Decoration of Houses’, with coauthor Ogden Codman Jr., the architect who had renovated her mansion in Newport.
As she wrote in her memoir:
He happened to come and stay with us at Land’s End the very summer that Codman and I were struggling with our book. Walter Berry was born with an exceptionally sensitive literary instinct, but also with a critical sense so far outweighing his creative gift that he had early renounced the idea of writing… I remember shyly asking him to look at my lumpy pages; and I remember his first shout of laughter (for he never flattered or pretended), and then his saying good-naturedly: ‘Come, let’s see what can be done,’ and settling down beside me to try to model the lump into a book.”
Berry remained one of Edith’s closest friends until he died in 1927, the year she found her new home near Hyères in the south of France. Theirs was a lifelong relationship of admiration, friendship, and respect. Spending time together in that inner room, the holy of holies.
Though never physical, they shared an abiding love.
He was the love of my life,” she wrote.
They are buried next to each other in Paris, still not touching.
Were you aware of Edith Wharton before this article? Do you have any questions for Mark Jespersen, the author? Please share in the comments below.
Thank you, Mark, what a fascinating article. I was most certainly not fully aware of the life story of Edith Wharton. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. Judy
3. “Thank you for subscribing to ‘le Bulletin’ newsletter” Judy MacMahon
As I’ve mentioned I’m in Australia enjoying a summer beach holiday!
This morning when swimming at the river mouth in Pambula, NSW I spotted this overhead! Look at it!
The White Bellied Sea Eagle. The second-largest raptor in Australia. As in other raptors (birds of prey), Males (2.5 kg – 3.7 kg) are slightly smaller than females (2.8 kg – 4.2 kg).The wingspan is about 1.8 m – 2 m…
Huge!
I’m swimming, reading, writing, bird watching, relaxing, and sending le Bulletin newsletters to you. I hope that you’ve enjoyed this one :)
I hope to see you here again next week Judy MacMahon Fondatrice MyFrenchLife.org You can always email me at info@myfrenchlife.org I’d love to hear from you.
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Marie Curie was an amazing modern female physicist ahead of her time. Her father secretly sent Marie to France in 1891 to study Physics and Maths at the Sorbonne - because at the time, women were not allowed to go to university in Poland.
Marie Curie herself completed the vast majority of the research work and the associated physically demanding process of grinding, dissolving, filtering, precipitating, collecting, redissolving, crystallising and recrystallising 20 kg batches of pitchblende.
Her extraordinary efforts resulted in the discovery of the element radium, radioactivity and the element polonium. Yet, in the then male dominated society of the time, she had to unfairly share credit for HER scientific discoveries with her husband Pierre.
Short video clip of Alan Alda discussing the life of Marie Curie, who was the subject of his 2011 play Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie.
Marie Curie was an amazing modern female physicist ahead of her time. Her father secretly sent Marie to France in 1891 to study Physics and Maths at the Sorbonne - because at the time, women were not allowed to go to university in Poland.
Marie Curie herself completed the vast majority of the research work and the associated physically demanding process of grinding, dissolving, filtering, precipitating, collecting, redissolving, crystallising and recrystallising 20 kg batches of pitchblende.
Her extraordinary efforts resulted in the discovery of the element radium, radioactivity and the element polonium. Yet, in the then male dominated society of the time, she had to unfairly share credit for HER scientific discoveries with her husband Pierre.
Short video clip of Alan Alda discussing the life of Marie Curie, who was the subject of his 2011 play Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie.
https://www.britannica.com/video/Alan-Alda-work-subject-Marie-Curie-Radiance-2011/-218158