A dark fairy-tale set in the countryside
In this passage from George Sand's novel, the young boy Landry searches for his beloved twin, whose whereabouts only seem known by Fadette -- a village outcast.
From La Petite Fadette (1849)
“Come, Fadette,” said Landry, “you want me to promise you something. Tell me quick what you want, and I will give it to you. Would you like to have my new knife?”
“Let me see it,” cried Fadette, leaping down beside him like a frog. When she had seen the knife, which was a pretty good one, for which Landry’s godfather had paid ten sous at the last fair, she was tempted for a moment. But she soon decided it was not enough, and asked him if he would give her instead his little white hen which was no bigger than a pigeon and had feathers down to the very tips of its toes.
“I can’t promise you my white hen, because she belongs to my mother,” answered Landry; “but I promise that I will ask her to give it to you, and I am sure that she won’t refuse, for she will be so glad to get Sylvinet back again that she will not grudge you anything.”
“Indeed!” said little Fadette; “and what if I should take it into my head to ask for your black-nosed goat; would Mother Barbeau give me that too?”
“Good heavens! How long it takes you to make up your mind! Listen! There are no two words about it. If my brother is in danger, and you take me to him at once, I am very sure there is not a hen or a chicken, a goat, about the place, which my father and mother would not gladly give you as a reward.”
“Well! We’ll see about it, Landry,” said little Fadette, holding out her scrawny little hand to the boy, so that they might shake hands on their bargain, which he did, but not without fear and trembling; for at that moment her eyes glowed so that she looked a very incarnation of the will-o’-the-wisp. “I will not tell you what I want of you! perhaps I have not yet made up my mind; but don’t forget what you have promised me, and if you do not keep your promise to me, I shall tell everybody that there is no trusting the word of Landry. So now good-bye, and don’t forget that I shall not ask you for anything till the day when I take it into my head to hunt you up, and demand something which you must place at my disposal at once.”
“All right, Fadette! I promise you; it is a bargain,” said Landry, shaking hands with her.
“Well,” said she, looking quite pleased and proud, “go back to the river bank, and keep on till you hear a bleating, and where you see a black lamb, you will see your brother too. If it doesn’t turn out as I tell you, I let you off your promise.”
And then she ran off into the bushes, and Landry saw or heard no more. He wasted no time wondering whether little Fadette had been making fun of him. He hurried to the other end of the rush field, without drawing breath; he ran along its border till he reached the Hollow, and then he was about to go on without stopping, as he had already examined the spot so closely that he was sure Sylvinet was not there, but just at that moment he heard the bleating of a lamb.
“Oh, my God!” thought he, “that girl told the truth. I hear the lamb, my brother must be there, but I don’t know whether he is dead or alive!”
He jumped down into the Hollow and pushed his way through the bushes. His brother was not there; but following the stream for ten paces or so, still hearing the lamb bleat, Landry saw his brother sitting on the opposite bank, holding a little lamb in his shirt, which was indeed quite black, from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail.
(the above passage is based on the 1896 translation by “Mrs James M Lancaster”)
Illustration, from La Petite Fadette (1851) by Tony Johannot and Maurice Sand, featured by Wikipedia.
What we love about this passage…
The youthful Landry and Fadette are sophisticated, but not completely innocent. Echoing nineteenth-century fairy-tales, the conversations that the children have among themselves are surprisingly mature: dealing with not only life but quite often, death. Fadette’s inspection of the knife, as well as her threat to “hunt” Landry for the terms of their bargain, suggests her worldliness.
Fadette has been labeled a witch by the other children due to, among other things, her tomboyishness. In this passage, she seems mercenary, and so at first glance, to live up to her reputation. She is mysteriously the only person who knows what has happened to the lost boy, Sylvinet.
Yet, as the novel continues, Fadette is made less magical, and the narrative increasingly focuses on the pressures of conformity in a small village and the dangers of going against the grain.
About the Author
George Sand (1804-76), born Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, is among the most influential writers of the nineteenth century, and her legacy was well acknowledged by later writers, such as Gustave Flaubert, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, and Marcel Proust. Her best known works, which include La Petite Fadette, often reflect experiences from her own life, where she often went against the gender conventions of the day, in her preference for men’s clothing (at a time when women in France had to apply for a permit to wear it), her enjoyment of smoking in public (also deemed unfeminine at the time), and—more privately—in her bisexuality.
Portrait courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
To read alongside…
George Sand is one source of the pen-name for Mary Ann Evans, also known as George Eliot. Like Sand in France, Eliot’s depiction of the English countryside in novels such as Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), and Middlemarch (1871) created a new cultural interest in rural settings once believed to be far away from (and less exciting than) the action of industrial cities.
The success of these female authors under gender-swapped pennames and its implications for gender roles more generally was explored by the early feminist Elizabeth Robins in her short story (also featuring a woman who takes the name “George”) “George Mandeville’s Husband” (1894)–published under Robins’s own gender-neutral pseudonym, C.E. Raimond.
Suggest a LitHit!
Tell us your own favourites from literature you've read, and we can feature you as a Guest Curator. Just email us with the following information:
Your full name
The title of the book you're suggesting
The location of the excerpt within the book (e.g., "in the middle of chapter 5"), or the excerpt itself copied into the email or attached to it (in Word)
Why you love it, in just a few sentences
About LitHits
LitHits helps you make time for reading by bringing you unabridged excerpts from brilliant literature that you can read on the go, anytime or any place. Our curators carefully select and frame each excerpt so that you can dive right in. We are more than a book recommendation site: we connect you with a powerful, enduring piece of literature, served directly to your mobile phone, tablet or computer.
Today's guest curator...
Dr Daniel Abdalla, core member of LitHits and an expert in nineteenth and twentieth-century literature, particularly its relationship to science.
You might also enjoy...
Feedback
We'd love to hear your thoughts on our newsletter:
kshepherdb@yahoo.co.uk
Graphic design by Sara Azmy
All curation content © 2023 LitHits. All rights reserved.