Sapho: Les maladies de la volonté

Alphonse Daudet's Sapho (1884) portrays the deterioration of a man's ability to live according to the moral standards of the middle class from which he comes. Jean Gaussin, an artist, moves to Paris and becomes involved with Fanny Legrand, the former mistress of many artists. He eventually enters into a "collage" [living arrangement] with her, and thereafter begins to lose the power to carry out his moral decisions, to pull himself out of this "moral morass." Through his use of images relating to contagious disease and infection, Daudet reinforces his presentation of the debilitating effects of contact with (what Daudet saw as) immorality. (RMB)