Mormons in Paris / Louis Leroy and Alfred Delacour -- Berthelier Meets the Mormons -- Japheth's Twelve Wives / Antony Mars and Maurice Desvallières -- Stephana's Jewel / Arthur Bernède and Albert Dubarry.
Summary:
"In the late nineteenth century, numerous French plays, novels, cartoons, and works of art focused on Mormons. Unlike American authors who portrayed Mormons as malevolent "others," however, French dramatists used Mormonism to point out hypocrisy in their own culture. Aren't Mormon women, because of their numbers in a household, more liberated than French women who can't divorce? What is polygamy but another name for multiple mistresses? This new critical edition presents translations of four musical comedies staged or published in France in the late 1800s: Mormons in Paris (1874), Berthelier Meets the Mormons (1875), Japheth's Twelve Wives (1890), and Stephana's Jewel (1892). Each is accompanied by a short contextualizing introduction with details about the music, playwrights, and staging. Humorous and largely unknown, these plays use Mormonism to explore and mock changing French mentalities during the Third Republic, lampooning shifting attitudes and evolving laws about marriage, divorce, and gender roles"-- Provided by publisher.
Series:
Scènes francophones : studies in French and Francophone theater
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.