MADAME DE GENLIS DANS LA LITTÉRATURE RUSSE DU XIXe SIÈCLE : Pouchkine, Léon Tolstoï et autres

Abstract

In this article we examine the reception of Madame de Genlis by several nineteenth-century Russian authors. Pushkin called her “a scribbler without talent”, despite the fact that her Mémoires interested him greatly. Leo Tolstoy used Madame de Genlis’ name in War and Peace to underscore the character of his protagonists, Kutuzov and Vera Rostova. Leskov wrote a little masterpiece, “The Spirit of Madame de Genlis”, on her deification in high society. Madame de Genlis’ Russian reception appears to be closely related to the aristocratic status of her oeuvre, that for a century served as a cultural model for Francophile Russian elites.