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The Arcades Project - Operi

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Henri Bonchot, La Lit]wgraphie (Paris), p. 138, compares the productivity of<br />

Deveria with that of Balzac and Dumas. [p2a,6]<br />

Several passages from ChOre Demar's work Ma Loi d'avenir may be cited by way<br />

of characterizing her relation to James de Laurence. <strong>The</strong> first comes from the<br />

foreword written by Suzanne and has its point of departure in Claire Demar's<br />

refusal to contribute to La Tribune des jhnmes: "Up until the seventeenth issue,<br />

she had consistently refused, saying that the tone of this periodical was too<br />

moderate . ... When this issue appeared, there was a passage in an article by me<br />

which, by its fonn and its moderation, exasperated Claire.-She wrote to me that<br />

she was going to respond to it.-But . .. her response became a pamphlet, which<br />

she then decided to publish on its own, outside the framework of the peri·<br />

odical . ... Here, then, is the fragment of the article of which Claire has cited only<br />

a few lines. '<strong>The</strong>re is still in the world a man who interprets ... Christianity . .. in<br />

a nlanner ... favorable to our sex: I mean M. James de Laurence, the author of a<br />

pamphlet entitled Les Enfonts de dieu, ou La Religion de }lfsus . ... <strong>The</strong> author is<br />

no Saint·SinlOnian; . . . he postulates . . . an inheritance through the mother.<br />

Certainly this system ... is highly advantageous to us; I am convinced that some<br />

part of it will have a place ... in the religion of the future, and that the principle<br />

of motherhood will become one of the fundamental laws of the state'" (Claire<br />

Demar, Ma loi d'avenir: Ouvrage posthume pub/it par Suzanne [paris, 1834], pp. 14-<br />

16). In the text of her manifesto, Claire Demar makes common cause with<br />

Laurence against the reproaches leveled at him by La Tribune des fimmes, which<br />

had clainled that he was advocating a form of "moral liberty ... without rules or<br />

boundaries;' something "which ... would surely land us in a coarse and disgust·<br />

ing disorder!' <strong>The</strong> blame for this is said to reside in the fact that in these things<br />

Laurence propounds mystery as a principle; on the strength of such mystery, we<br />

would have to render account in these things to a mystical God alone. La Tribune<br />

des Femmes, on the contrary, believes that "the Society of the Future will be<br />

founded not on mystery but on trust; for mystery merely prolongs the exploita·<br />

tion of our sex!' Claire Demar replies: "Certainly, Mesdames, if, like you, I<br />

confused trust with publicity, and considered mystery as prolonging the exploita·<br />

tion of our sex, I would be bound to give my blessings to the times in which we<br />

live!' She goes on to describe the brutality of the customs of these times: "Before<br />

the mayor and before the priest, ... a man and a woman have assembled a long<br />

train of witnesses . ... Voila! ... <strong>The</strong> union is called legitimate, and the woman<br />

may now without blushing affirm: 'On such and such a day, at such and such an<br />

hour, I shall receive a nlan into my WOMAN'S BED!!/' . .. Contracted in the presence<br />

of the crowd, the marriage drags along, across an orgy of wines and dances,<br />

toward the nuptial bed, which has become the bed of debauchery and prostitu·<br />

tion, inviting the delirious imagination of the guests to follow . . . all the details<br />

. . . of the lubricious drama enacted in the name of the Wedding Day! If the<br />

practice which thus converts a young bride . . . into the object of impudent<br />

glances . . . , and which prostitutes her to unrestrained desires, . . . does not<br />

appear to you a horrible exploitation, ... then I know not what to say" (Ma Loi<br />

d'avenir, pp. 29-30). [p3,1]

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