Maja Pawłowska

Published in 1625, Palombe, ou la femme honorable, is a novel by Jean-Pierre Camus showing the model of a mondain, or worldly, Christian. With the example of count Fulgent, an immoral rake, who undergoes a spiritual transformation, Camus demonstrates that even a libertine courtesan can become a good Christian. However, such coexistence is possible only for those who have achieved spiritual maturity and who can distinguish vice from virtue, consciously renouncing immorality. Camus represents the marriage of mondains not as a source of pleasure or opportunity for a libertine lifestyle, but rather as a contract demanding certain commitments and renouncements. On entering marriage, Fulgent is not initially morally prepared for the social position and responsibilities that he must assume. He only becomes a good husband and Christian once he accepts the commitments of his social position, This is indeed how Camus defines virtue: as a conscious renouncement of licentiousness and a conscious acceptance of duties imposed by society. To turn back from the path of debauchery is a slow and difficult process, just as it is to learn to fulfil one’s moral duties.

In their treaties, Deimier and Rapin welcome novelty and individualism. But, if Deimier sees this creative freedom as synonymous with inventiveness, Rapin attaches it, paradoxically, to the imitation of classical antiquity. This is indeed because he is dissatisfied with the output of French writers. In his view, French letters fail to match the greatness and the sublime quality of Latin and Greek literature, which he recommends should be studied and imitated. In imitating Homer and his art, irregular but captivating and full of charm, contemporary poets can hope to create singular and incomparable works of literature.

In the Lettres de la Marquise de M*** Crébillon shows, through the Marquise’s reflections of shame, the opposition between the galant and the tender conceptions of love. Galant love is represented as a game and false feeling, but it has a primary importance in mondain’s way of life. Failure to fulfil a galant love rules is accompanied by true or false feelings of shame. The Marquise de M*** wants conform to the galant tone demanded by society, but she is also seeking for true, tender love, which is opposed to behavior of a milieu. Accordingly, her sensitivity and a system of values brings her to elaborate her personal, secret conception of shame.