The political thought of Madame de Genlis: Rousseau’s royalist legacy

Abstract

Little is known about the political thought of Félicité de Genlis (1746-1830) beyond the fact that she became a royalist after the French Revolution. A wealth of clues to her politics, how-ever, is contained in the story of the Arcadia of Lagaraye in Adèle et Théodore, ou lettres sur l’éducation (1782). The figure of Lagaraye’s Legislator, in particular, shows that Genlis’ political thought is principally concerned with the emotional administration of political societies, and that it is so in ways that are both reminiscent and highly critical of the political preoccu-pations of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78). This essay examines the contrasts and corre-spondences between Lagaraye and the Arcadia of Clarens in Rousseau’s Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse (1762). It argues that although Genlis was a severe opponent of Rousseau’s ideas, she was also a covert adherent of his political philosophy who used it as a springboard to develop her own, unique form of monarchism.