Bel-ami

Robert Pattinson as George Duroy and Christina Ricci as Mme Marelle in the 2012 film adaptation of Maupassant's Bel-ami. Here Duroy entertains Marelle in his apartment, which has been decorated with fans and lanterns, objects that often became cheap decorations during the vogue of japonaiserie in France.*

Guy de Maupassant’s Bel-Ami, published in 1885, mostly comprises the story of a young man’s rise to social prominence in Paris. Maupassant commented on japonisme several times in his work, even writing an essay entitled “China and Japan” in which he discussed the orientalist vogue. In a small but vivid passage in Bel-Ami, he illustrates the enchanting, defamiliarizing effects of Japanese commodities in nineteenth century Paris: Maupassant’s leading man, Duroy, pays a visit to Mme de Marelle, a carefree bourgeoise who’s just gotten out of bed in her silk Japanese-style negligee. A close reading of this exceptionally well-crafted passage reveals a cluster of sensations Marelle’s appearance evokes in Duroy. He describes the negligee as embroidered with “gold landscapes, blue flowers, and white birds” and finds her less put-together than Mme Forestier, who simply wears a white negligee, but more tempting, more “poivrée” (literally: peppery; provocative).[1] He remarks on the desire he feels to touch the “raised contours of the light silk.”[2] The reaction of enormous desire Marelle’s exotic garment provokes epitomizes the way pseudo-Japanese commodities manufactured novelty within the familiar by using imagery from the other side of the globe. This was often japonisme’s contribution to the private life of those who made use of its power to spice up the mundane, just like the pepper Maupassant alludes to. Ironically, increased Western exposure to Japan due to trade only served to mystify it more. “It has been said that for the average Frenchman at the end of the nineteenth century, Japan was the land of geishas, cherry blossoms, and Mount Fuji.”[3] For these consumers of japonisme, Japan was not real in any sense. It was only fantasy.

Footnotes:

¹ Maupassant, Guy De. Bel-ami. Paris: Garnier, 1959. Print. p. 72

² Ibid.

³ Hartman, Elwood. “Japonisme and Nineteenth-Century French Literature.” Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 18, No. 2, East-West Issue (Jun., 1981). Penn State UP. pp. 142. Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/402462 p 142

* Lambourne, Lionel. Japonisme: Cultural Crossings between Japan and the West. London: Phaidon, 2005. Print. pp 109, 110, 111