Paris-Edinburgh: Cultural Connections in the Belle Epoque

by Siân Reynolds

By the end of the nineteenth century, Paris was widely acknowledged as the cultural capital of the world, the home of avant-garde music and art, symbolist literature and bohemian culture. Edinburgh, by contrast, may still be thought of as a rather staid city of lawyers and Presbyterian ministers, academics and doctors. While its great days as a centre for the European Enlightenment may have been behind it, however, late Victorian Edinburgh was becoming the location for a new set of cultural institutions, with its own avant-garde, that corresponded with a renewed Scottish national consciousness.

While Morningside was never going to be Montparnasse, the period known as the Belle Epoque was a time in both French and Scottish society when there were stirrings of non-conformity, which often clashed with a still powerful establishment. And in this respect, French bourgeois society could be as resistant to change as the suburbs of Edinburgh. With travel and communication becoming ever easier, a growing number of international contacts developed that allowed such new and radical cultural ideas to flourish.

In a series of linked essays, based on research into contemporary archives, documents and publications in both countries, as well as on new developments in cultural research, this book explores an unexpected dimension of Scottish history, while also revealing the Scottish contribution to French history. In a broader sense, and particularly as regards gender, it considers what is meant by 'modern' or 'radical' in this period, without imposing any single model. In so doing, it seeks not to treat Paris-Edinburgh links in isolation, or to exaggerate them, but to use them to provide a fresh perspective on the internationalism of the Belle Epoque.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Professor Siân Reynolds is an Emeritus Professor in French at the University of Stirling.

Reviews

[Cristina Contilli]

Non l'ho letto tutto, ma solo una parte che riporto in questo commento e che mi è servita per il libro che sto scrivendo:

“Rodin sent Camille a student, Ottie McLaren, in 1899 (Camille, 35), who wrote that she would make a "stunning teacher"; her work "is big and simple and seems to have that womanly quality which I like so immensely. She herself is very charming...". But on the eve of the first lesson, she writes to say "she prefers her solitude." (Nel 1899 quando Camille aveva 35 anni Rodin gli aveva mandato come allieva Ottie McLaren che ha lasciato scritto che Camille era un insegnante meravigliosa, che aveva un modo di lavorare semplice e grande nello stesso tempo oltre a possedere charme e quelle qualità femminili che lei apprezzava particolarmente, ma poi aggiunge anche Camille le aveva detto che preferiva lavorare da sola e che ogni tanto faceva i capricci. Da “Paris-Edinburgh: cultural connections in the Belle Epoque”, scaricato in pdf da google libri, la traduzione è la mia. Se Camille in quel periodo era effettivamente incinta e pochi mesi dopo ha abortito per la seconda volta costretta da Rodin si può comprendere che preferisse non avere gente intorno in atelier, ma anche che ogni tanto facesse i capricci).