Kathryn R. Bastin

ABSTRACT

During the late seventeenth-century fairy-tale vogue, a literary genre vanguarded by women, Henriette-Julie de Murat (1670-1716) pushed boundaries and was known for her scandalous behavior, critiquing court life, engaging in affairs with women, and cross-dressing. She was exiled from court in 1694 due to her scathing evaluation of Louis XIV’s court and remained in exile at Loches until after his death in 1715. During her incarceration, she turned to writing. In 1698, she wrote Contes de fées, which included the tale “L’Anguillette” which exemplifies Murat’s penchant for Greek mythology and takes up her interest in dismantling stereotypical depictions of love and happy endings. In this tale, the princess Plousine transforms into Hébé, the Greek goddess of eternal youth. Her portrayal of doomed love in “L’Anguillette” shows clear resistance to traditional narratives of female submission in romance and marriage. At the end of the tale, Hébé tragically ends her own life during a duel between her former lover and her current husband, and the titular fairy Anguillette ultimately metamorphosizes Hébé and her former lover into a pair of trees. Murat shows the destructive power of love and desire through this tale, and thus presents a contemporary reader with a clear warning about the precarious pursuit of love and pleasure. This tale, entwined with floral and vegetal references and resplendently reflecting material culture of the period, evokes a pair of malheureux amants that eschews conventional gender norms of the Grand Siècle. In this tale, Murat ultimately positions the plant as the redeemer of ill-fated desire and love.