Marie Antoinette's Gossip Guide to the 18th Century: The Unfortunate Madame de la Popelinière

November 01, 2011

The Unfortunate Madame de la Popelinière

Maurice-Quentin De La Tour, Madame de La Pouplinière. Pastel on paper, not dated. Musée Antoine Lécuyer

The ideas of love and relationships in the 18th century varied by social status. Extramarital affairs were not only common amongst aristocrats but accepted too. This was not the case with the bourgeoisie, if affairs cold be considered a privilege, it was one of the nobles only. An excellent case of affair-intolerance among the bourgeoisie would be the fortunate-then-unfortunate case of Madame de la Popelinière....

To read about Madame de la Popelinière, check out my guest blog post at 18thCenturyHistory.com ! [Full Post Here]

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Read more on the Popelinières:

Berlanstein, Lenard R. 2001. Daughters of Eve: A Cultural History of French Theater Women from the Old Regime to the Fin de Siècle. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Cucuël, Georges. 1971. La Pouplinière et la musique de chambre an XVIIIe siècle. New York: Da Capo Press. [French edition]

Johnson, James H. 1996. Listening in Paris: A Cultural History. Berkeley: Univ Of California Press.

Kavanagh, Julia. 1893. Woman in France during the eighteenth century. New York: Putnam.

2 comments:

heidilea said...: I remember reading somewhere that the aristocracy believed that the lower and working classes were incapable of love.

Even more recently: my mother recalled her and a friend being propositioned by a man about 10 years older than them in the late 70s. Apparently, men in his generation were raised to believe that unmarried women who lived with men were "loose" and therefore fair game.; 1 November 2011 10:57
Heather said...: Thank you so much for sharing with us!; 1 November 2011 18:42