I was talking one day with a long-standing auction house contact about a book I wanted to offer for a future sale. I had not found any reference to the book being on sale in the major on-line databases, nor having been sold in a past auction. The reaction of my contact was – and I paraphrase – ‘well it’s either very valuable or comparatively worthless’. The details of the book escape me now, it was many years ago, so I have to conclude that it was in the latter category and hence not a memorable volume.
In more recent years I have been carrying around in my stock of books a slim volume with a similar profile.
MM. Arthur de St-Luc et P. Aymés, Physiologie de la Vie Conjugale et des Mariés au Treizième. Paris, Éditeur Terry, Palais-Royal, Galerie de Valois. Imprimerie de A. Hiard, no date.
Bound in red cloth over boards with original paper cover bound in, gilt embossed leather title label to spine, 24mo. (155 x 95mm), 104 pages (non-uniform sizes) plus blank end-papers, with an engraved frontispiece.
According to the main on-line research tool used by many in the book world, only four copies of the book are held in libraries worldwide [1], and I have never found one on sale. Due to the on-going pandemic restrictions I finally pushed myself to give this curiosity some further on-line research attention.
The copies held in libraries suggest 1842 as the date of publication. Further, it does not take too much effort to discover that Arthur de St-Luc is a pseudonym for Édouard Gourdon (1820-1869), a French journalist and author of news books, essays and novels. As such he can be found in the International Standard Name Identifier database.
Édouard Gourdon, using his own name, authored at least 3 other similarly styled books [2]. In so doing he was part of the 19th century cultural ‘physiology mode’ [3] adopted by French authors, and therefore not the only writer in that period starting his book titles with the words ‘Physiologie de…’. His style of writing however can be compared across volumes to identify him as the author of Physiologie de la Vie Conjugale et des Mariés au Treizième. Gourdon had also introduced Arthur de Saint-Luc as a character in his 1841 ‘Physiologie du Bois de Boulogne’.
But what of Monsieur P. Aymés? The only mentions of him on-line I have found, literary or otherwise, refer back to this joint authorship with Arthur de St-Luc/Édouard Gourdon. Taking a leap in the dark my hypothesis would be that P. Aymés was another pseudonym used also on this occasion by Édouard Gourdon, but I would be delighted if someone can come up with a different answer.
Given the vogue for this mode of writing there were many other potential culprits should any readers take offence to the contents of ‘Physiologie de la Vie Conjugale’ and seek to identify the authors. Possibly Gourdon felt that having a joint author, Aymés, fictitious or otherwise, would allow him to share any crticisism of the work in the event of his unmasking?
And so to the contents [4]. Whilst my capacity to deal fluently with French literary texts has its limits, I can safely describe the contents as being a satire on the mainly bourgeoise and petty-bourgeoise moral and sentimental foibles, in marital and non-marital situations, in mid-nineteenth century Paris. These are explored through various scenes involving a variety of characters, whether imaginary or based upon Gourdon’s journalistic observations I cannot say.
At the time of publication, 1842, the administration of Paris was based upon 12 arrondissements or districts. Reference to the “treizième arrondissement” (i.e., the 13th district of Paris) was the key to a popular expression referring to those living together unmarried, «Ils se mariés à la mairie du 13ieme» (i.e., they were married at the town hall of the – non-existent – 13th district). This state of personal and familiar relationships was much moralised against in ‘polite society’. By focusing upon the ‘respectable’ classes of Parisian citizens, and their double moral standards, Gourdon seeks to highlight the hypocrisy of those quick to condemn others.
The prevalence of this double standard impacted upon planning for the urban development of Paris. More specifically the mid-nineteenth century plans to enlarge the administrative and geographical area of Paris to physically create a new, but already disparaged, “treizième arrondissement”.
Georges-Eugène Haussmann (Baron Haussmann) was responsible for major renovations of Paris between 1853 and 1870. His 1850s plan to create a new 13th district for Paris based upon the affluent areas of what is now the 16th district were vociferously opposed by their influential inhabitants. As citizens of proclaimed good standing they were horrified at the idea of living in the “treizième arrondissement”, and thus the prospect of organising actual family marriages in its town hall.
As the newspaper Le Figaro for 12th of October 1859 stated, «Hélas! ce treizième arrondissement, il est partout, et on n’en veut nulle part» – i.e., Alas! the 13th district is everywhere and we [respectable society] don’t want it anywhere [near us].
This state of moral agitation was also lampooned in a cartoon by Cham (Amédée de Noé) published in 1859.
‘Women from the Breda area queue at the door of the town hall of the 13th district to be absolutely sure that their marriage contracts are not in the archives of that municipality.’
The fact that the Breda area was a well-known location for Parisian lorettes (i.e., courtesans) was the basis for Cham’s lampooning of the brouhaha [5] surrounding the creation of the “treizième arrondissement”.
When the “treizième arrondissement” was finally created in 1860 the moral indignation of high society had won the day. The decision was taken to base the 13th district upon working class areas to the south of Paris surrounding the Porte d’Italie. The bourgeois districts of western Paris originally earmarked to be the “treizième arrondissement” were assigned to the new 16th district. Thus demonstrating the 1846 analysis of two other, but non-pseudonymous, contemporary writers concerning the link between economic power in society and the associated dominant ideas or ideology;
“The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas; hence of the relationships which make the one class the ruling one, therefore, the ideas of its dominance.”
(Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The German Ideology, Part 1, International Publishers, New York, 2004, page 64)
Districts of Paris
The red outline = pre-1860 and the grey outline = post-1860
[1] Possibly there are 5 copies as the entry for the Catalogue général de la Bibliothèque nationale de France lists two locations. However, for one of them – repeated 3 times – there is the comment “exemplaire réputé present” (i.e., copy deemed to be present).
[2] Physiologie du Bois de Boulogne, Paris, Charpentier, 1841 ; Physiologie des Diligences et des Grandes Routes, Paris, Terry, [1842] ; Physiologie de l’Omnibus, Paris, Terry, [185?].
[3] The ‘physiology mode’ used caricatures of manners to describe the characteristics and behaviour of a social or professional group such as: the concierge, the notary, the convict, the poet, the smoker etc.
[4] There is an obvious parallel with Balzac’s ’Physiologie du mariage’ first published anonymously in 1829 under the title, ‘Physiologie du mariage ou méditations de philosophie éclectique, sur le bonheur et le malheur conjugal, publiées par un jeune célibataire’.
[5] A noisy and overexcited reaction or response to something.