Madame Thérèse

Madame Thérèse, by
Erckmann-Chatrian

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Title: Madame Thérèse Introduction and notes by Edward Manley
Author: Erckmann-Chatrian
Editor: Edward Manley
Release Date: July 10, 2007 [EBook #22039]
Language: French
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Heath's Modern Language Series

MADAME THÉRÈSE
PAR
ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN

EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND VOCABULARY
BY
EDWARD MANLEY
ENGLEWOOD HIGH SCHOOL, CHICAGO

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS BOSTON NEW YORK
CHICAGO

COPYRIGHT, 1910 BY D. C. HEATH & CO.
Printed in U. S. A.

INTRODUCTION
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Madame Thérèse is a story of the French Revolution. The events
described in it occur between the summer of 1793 and the following
spring. It abounds in allusions to episodes in the Revolution itself and
contains many references to customs which owed their origin to the
Revolution. Though it presents no difficulties to the intelligent
Frenchman, still, by the constant introduction of these allusions to
events and institutions of the Revolution, it refers to many things which
are not clear to readers of other nations, unless they are familiar with

the leading facts of French history preceding the revolutionary outbreak.
The following sections contain an account of many things mentioned in
Madame Thérèse.
1. The French Revolution was the culmination of the revolt of the
French people against royal despotism and class privilege. The
spectacular part of the Revolution began in 1789, the real revolution
was complete before that date. In 1786 the king, Louis XVI, called
together the ancient representative and legislative body of the nation to
ascertain whether the members could suggest any means of securing
the great and constantly increasing sums of money which he thought
necessary for maintaining an extravagant court--and incidentally the
government.
2. If the king was compelled as a last resort to summon this ancient
legislative body, called the Estates General, the financial condition of
the government must have been bad indeed; for the Estates General had
not met for two centuries. It was unable to devise any increase in
taxation which the people could bear, for the poorer classes were
already taxed to the utmost and the upper classes were unwilling to tax
themselves. The Estates General, therefore, was not able to plan ways
and means of increasing the income of the government.
3. But in this session the non-privileged part of the people had leaders.
Certain nobles and ecclesiastics, of whom Mirabeau and Abbé Sieyès
are the best known, purposely became representatives, not of the upper
classes but of the lower. Under their guidance representatives of the
Third Estate (the three estates were the Nobility, the Clergy, and the
Commons) in the Estates General now assumed power on behalf of the
French people to regulate taxation. They represented ninety-six per cent
of the population and took the name of National Assembly.
4. This was revolution. It stirred the king to assert his authority and he
directed them to adjourn. They refused. The Assembly now proceeded
to a consideration of changes in the government. The king brought
soldiers to Paris. This act of intimidation won for the Assembly the
support of the Parisian mob. One of the first acts of this mob was to
destroy the Bastille, which was the ancient state prison and a

monument of royal oppression.
5. The peasantry in France rose, and in some places demolished the
castles of the nobility. The mob brought the king from the royal
residence at Versailles to Paris, where he was kept practically a
prisoner. Thus in a few months the people had secured control of the
government, but without overthrowing the monarchy. On the fourth of
August, 1789, the National Assembly "swept away all the odious
privileges of the old regime and decreed in law the reign of equality in
France." This was the beginning of the Republic, and the people began
to call themselves Republicans. Later, income-producing church
lands--perhaps one-fifth of the area of the country--were confiscated
and the Church was made a department of the state.
6. But the National Assembly needed money, so it issued paper called
assignats, whose value was secured by these church lands. This money
was subsequently issued in such large quantities that a dollar of it came
to be worth only a quarter of a cent. It was finally repudiated altogether.
7. From 1791, the history of the Revolution is a recital of factious
quarrels,