Reading the Absence: The Shaping of Male Characters and Their Crises in the Void

Absence, and particularly the absent father, has been identified as a common feature in late eighteenth – nineteenth-century French novels. In an era which patriarchal order was changing King — nation’s father removed, it is unsurprising that so many of its novels have fathers. subsequent decades, children were left orphans wake Terror, lack figure key issue crisis masculinity arose France. The previously crucial element Mme de Staël’s Corinne (1807) work George Sand. Yet, influence on vulnerable young male hero biological (and his difficult relationship with replacement figure) remains unexplored other women writers also plays role: most notably Cottin’s Claire d'Albe (1799) Krüdener’s Valérie (1803).