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’ politi-cal 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 devel-op her own, unique form of monarchism.