Six Works On The Luxe Des Femmes Debate. Dupin, André-Marie-Jean-Jacques; Olympe Audouard; Constance Aubert; & Others.

A tract volume of quick-fire responses to André Dupin's condemnation of women and their love of luxuries, which he blamed for the perceived rise of sexual immorality and other vices in French society at the time. The six pamphlets, published in 1865 on both sides of the debate, include Dupin's famous speech, two ripostes by Olympe Audouard, and replies from the fashion correspondent Constance Aubert, Louise Laurent-Martin, and Jules Tardieu. Following a petition aimed at abolishing prostitution and at the height of the crinoline controversy, "in the mid-1860s there was an outspoken controversy about the culture of 'luxe' in modern Paris. Opinions on this were polarised by the address of Monsieur le Procureur Général Dupin [1783-1865] to the French Senate in June 1865, provocatively entitled Sur le luxe effréné des femmes (On the Unbridled Luxury of Women). Dupin argued that fashionable society was slipping into prostitution, because prostitutes had fostered a taste for luxury which inspired emulation and committed weak-willed women to an unsustainable level of expenditure. His homily generated responses from all across the social and political spectrum. [in] spirited defence of luxury culture, arguing that it was a necessary expression of personal freedom" (House, p. 44). "This conflict between civic and commercial culture, as well as the notion that women's relationship to the world of goods was at the heart of the problem, reached back to the Ancien Régime. The late 19th-century debate, however, did not simply rehash earlier arguments: the advent of a new phase of commercial modernity and the accession of the bourgeoisie to political power dramatically changed the stakes of the debate. Republicans as well as their opponents feared the danger posed by the uncivil, self-interested female shopper" (Tiersten, p. 16). Audouard (1832-1890) "produced two pamphlets on the Dupin affair from a perspective unusually sympathetic to courtesans. Narcissism was typically coded as feminine; Audouard reversed this assumption in her second pamphlet, Du luxe effréné des hommes (On the Unbridled Luxury of Men), by suggesting that men were themselves dominated by their obsession with conforming to a certain model of masculinity. She concluded by countering Dupin's notion of a female temperance society with that of a 'society of good fathers', which would require men to break with their mistresses, live frugally, and support their illegitimate daughters" (Gill, pp. 124-5). The six tracts are bound in the following order, and are assumed first editions unless noted otherwise: 1) [LAURENT-MARTIN, Louise.] Reponse de ma femme à Monsieur Dupin. Paris: Lebigre-Duquesne Frères, 1865. Trigesimo-secundo, 28, [2] pp. Printed on green paper. Little is known of the author, save that her husband was a Parisian clinician who published Les dangers de l'amour de la luxure et du libertinage (1865), which warned mature women against wearing corsets, dyeing their hair, and having sex. 2) DUPIN, André-Marie-Jean-Jacques. Opinion sur le luxe effréné des femmes à l'occasion d'une pétition contre la prostitution rapportée par M. de Goulhot de Saint-Germain. Paris: Garnier Frères, n.d. [1865]. Small duodecimo, 11, [1] pp. Date added in manuscript ink to title page, internal gathering partly loose. Dupin's famous speech circulated widely, and was reprinted in Ernest Feydeau's Du luxe, des femmes, des moeurs, de la litterature et de la vertu the following year. 3) [TARDIEU, Jules.] Éloge du luxe effréné des femmes. Extrait des légendes de J.T. de Saint-Germain. Paris: Jules Tardieu, s.d. [1865]. Small duodecimo, 12 pp. Date added in manuscript ink to title page. The publisher and bookseller Jules Tardieu used the pseudonyms J. T. de Saint-Germain and Abbé Paul when writing. 4) AUBERT, Constance. Encore le luxe des femmes. Les femmes sages et les femmes folles. Paris: Dentu, 1865. Duodecimo, 12 pp. Aubert (1803-?) was a journalist and editor for peri