Mormons in Paris
428 pages, 6 x 9
7 b-w images, 2 color images
Hardcover
Release Date:16 Oct 2020
ISBN:9781684482375
Mormons in Paris
Polygamy on the French Stage, 1874-1892
Edited by Corry Cropper and Christopher M. Flood; Translated by Corry Cropper and Christopher M. Flood
Bucknell University Press
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Desvallières
Chapter 4: Stephana’s Jewel
Arthur Bernède and Albert Dubarry
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index
Related Titles
Mormons in Paris
Polygamy on the French Stage, 1874-1892
Edited by Corry Cropper and Christopher M. Flood; Translated by Corry Cropper and Christopher M. Flood
Contemporary Francophone African Plays
An Anthology
Translated by Judith G. Miller, Subha Xavier, Ninon Vessier, and Amelia Parenteau; Edited by Judith G. Miller, with Sylvie Chalaye
