Beschreibung:
Female up-breeding and the Aristocracy in Saint-Simon. A study of Saint-Simon's Mémoires allows us to construct an image of the French aristhocracy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (1620-1730). The higher the social class of the "Saint-Simonian characters" of these years, the younger they seem to die. We regard this as distortion resulting from the duke's special interest in the noblesse gentilice. In addition, the Saint-Simonian corpus provides privileged ground for the study of aristocratic marriages. These assure the reproduction of social ranks, each group manifesting an inclination towards the internal recruitment of wives. Female up-breeding, rather than contradicting this evidence, completes it : Saint-Simon and those of his class tolerate small degree of social ascent of women as long as it does not interfere with the general stability of court-society. Female down-breeding, on the other hand, is almost absent from the picture. It is only characteristic of few minor groups whose exceptional success does not risk compromising the social order.
A study of Saint-Simon's Mémoires allows us to construct an image of the French aristhocracy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (1620-1730). The higher the social class of the "Saint-Simonian characters" of these years, the younger they seem to die. We regard this as distortion resulting from the duke's special interest in the noblesse gentilice. In addition, the Saint-Simonian corpus provides privileged ground for the study of aristocratic marriages. These assure the reproduction of social ranks, each group manifesting an inclination towards the internal recruitment of wives. Female up-breeding, rather than contradicting this evidence, completes it : Saint-Simon and those of his class tolerate small degree of social ascent of women as long as it does not interfere with the general stability of court-society. Female down-breeding, on the other hand, is almost absent from the picture. It is only characteristic of few minor groups whose exceptional success does not risk compromising the social order.