Henri de Latouche and the Murder Memoirs of Clarisse Manson

The Memoirs of Madame Manson (1818), purportedly "edited" by Henri de Latouche from the manuscript of the principal witness in the Fualdès murder trial, is actually an early example of the "non-fiction novel." In the work Latouche, a founder of Le Figaro, first editor of Chénier and sponsor of Balzac and George Sand, applied his fictional and journalistic skill to the imaginative reconstruction of the motivations of Clarisse Manson, a psychopathic publicity seeker. Three separate strands run through the Memoirs: the romance of Mme Manson with the young officer Clemandot, told in the style of Samuel Richardson; an account of Mme Manson's odd behavior at the trial; and, a fragmentary report of Mme Manson's own investigations in the case. The narrative of Clarisse's investigations is a prototype of the modern French detective story that proceeds by personal confrontations rather than logical deduction. (AIB)