2.3 The Staircase Awaits Your Arrival: The Beauty Spot by Alfred Louis Charles de Musset (1888)

The twist seems to have disappeared. The first two titles in this volume shared winding narratives delivered by characters that were not the narrator. In these stories description, whether of a supposed national identity or an unceasingly dismantling ship, propelled the narrative forward. There was no need for an unannounced revelation. Focused on the recollection of the past, the twist of fate format was exchanged for an imaginative reconstruction of the past.

Charles de Musset’s “The Beauty Spot” returns us the territory of the first volume. A “novelette” set in the mid-18^th century during the reign of Louis XV, this story is structured by seven chapters. Each chapter is an episode in the Chevalier de Vauvert’s evolving attempts to win the love of Mademoiselle d’Annebault. It bears the Franco-historical specificity of Stevenson’s tale of Villon and the economic morality of Arthur Somers Roche’s “The Dummy-Chucker.” What distinguishes this—the third lengthy tale in the “Romance” volume—is Musset’s charm as a narrator (still evident in spite of a noticeably clunky translation).

Untitled etching from The Imaginary Prisons series by Giambatista Piranesi

It would be surprising if Overton included a work of fiction where the man and woman didn’t come together. Though Musset has no surprise here, the path to that conclusion relies on a philosophical-political lesson that echoes the Biblical judgement of King Solomon. Louis XV may be the monarch but chance is king and integrity can only be earned.

The opening chapter establishes that Louis XV is exhausted by the size of his family and their influence. As he exclaims “My Parliament abuses my bounty; it really has too large a family.” This is all in response to an overwrought letter soliciting marriage. For Louix XV the letter was nothing but “Rousseau and water.” In the midst of growing public furor of a new tax he dares not make any move that might cede power.

Rigid structures of class and royalty define space in Musset’s tale.The way information travels across the land and who can occupy specific space is of especial interest to Musset. The ability of those in power to restructure psychological geography is turned into a metaphors and allegories that repeat. 

First edition of Musset's story in English

The second chapter details a conversation between the chevalier and his father in which the power of the king is made clear through a spatial metaphor. The Chevalier’s father explains “Suppose… there may be nothing between his Majesty and yourself but the thickness of a door; there will still be an abyss for you to cross.” This advice is  warning for his son who is in love royalty. Only chance can shrink the abyss.

Throughout this tale the narrator offers a variant of unpredictable interjections. These shape a charming voice, even as the banal and bureaucratic mechanics of a princess and pauper love story play out. Midway through the story Musset digresses, explaining Giambatista Piranesi’s engraving series “Antiquities of Rome.” The narrator reads one engraving as an allegory. With the eye of an art historian, he provides a close read and writes if one “follow[s] the steps a little higher… they suddenly come to an end before an abyss… Look now still higher, and another staircase still rises before you.” French Romantic author meet 18^th century Italian architect. Abyss meet staircase.

If not as subtle as it could be, Musset’s reference articulates the undergirding social framework of the story: those high in the hierarchy of royalty will never be within reach of the common laborer. For those not in Versailles exhaustion is a way of life. Chevalier is not condemned to such a life. In the end, his good fortune projects possibilities beyond the class he is born into. But first he has to imagine that things could be different. Changes develop only after he exclaims “Who will come to my help?”

Alfred de Musset (1810-1857)

Fate seems to. Our protagonist is among royalty when, by chance, la Marquise walks by and drops her fan. He helps pick it up and the two speak briefly. This is the first in a series of linked events. Later when the chevalier goes to deliver a letter to the king, he is rebuked by a guard at the gate That rejection is met with the luck of the moment as another courier arrives only for his horse to collapse, thus requiring some assistance. The chevalier de Vauvert assists. When he brings the letter from the courier to la Marquise, the two strike up a kind and generative conversation. In this conversation, as he heaps praises of beauty, he notices the “beauty spot” that gives the story its title in English.

Musset’s gift is in the ability to take what appears to be a short moment and stretch it out, far longer than it is due, all the while retaining its elasticity. Before the beauty mark is mentioned Musset’s narrator gives a brief exegesis on the cultural shifting values of fashion. And then: “The chevalier, serious as a giddy boy who is trying to keep his countenance looked at the mark, and the marquise, holding her pen in the air, looked at the chevalier in the mirror.”

The great reveal is that despite his supplications and repeated compliments, Vauvert is thrust into an unenviable and challenging situation. He is, with the King, the only person to have seen this beauty mark. That knowledge comes with power.

Now I’ve dwelled too long on the details. Some stuff happens and the knowledge of the “beauty spot” returns.

While at a masked ball, the chevalier is approached by an unknown woman and offered the marriage of Mademoiselle d’Annebault, the woman he believes to he loves. The catch: he must be willing to help bring down the marquise by telling his story of their meeting.

He is encouraged by the masked woman.As she explains, few like la marquise, the king doesn’t love her, and she is responsible for the troubling new tax. What kind of story would this be if the Chevalier made this deal? As he explains: “what you are asking of me would be an act of cowardice.” There is but one way forward for the Romantic: he must follow some sort of chivalric or ethical code. He refuses the offer.

And here comes the twist. The masked figure was testing the chevalier. Hidden identity was the grounding for questioning integrity. The masked woman was royalty; the fan that fell in front of the chevalier belonged to Madame de Pompadour, the mistress and lover of Louis XV. By proving his worth, in clarifying his loyalty, Madame de Pompadour offers her niece’s hand in marriage. By not divulging information about the beauty mark, in refusing to leverage politics for love between the chevalier and Mademoiselle d’Annebault is made conceivable.

It mostly works out in the end.

Advertisement for an opera "La Pompadour" at the Savoy Theatre in England (The Bystander, February 11, 1911)

What does not work well is the translation. I read the version included by Overton (no translator or source information is listed) and I also looked at a version translated by Kendall Warren. Warren’s translation appears to be less literal but more readable. 

As we ask questions about categories, I’m curious to learn more about the circulation of these texts. Where would Overton have read this story? Why would he choose this translation? It seems likely that either Overton or the publisher Funk & Wagnall’s lifted the version of “The Beauty Spot” included in 1915 collection of the Greatest Short Stories published P.F. Collier & Son Company. Was such a reprinting process, leading to one translation’s dominance, related to publisher’s pre-established relationships? Is there any way to trace the selection of these stories? 

That may itself be a Romantic endeavor.

You can read “The Beauty Spot” courtesy of Hathitrust: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015033417190