‘His most ardent desire is to be ranked with Zola and rejected by Mudie’: Gerard; or The World the Flesh and the Devil – M. E. Braddon’s Fin-de-Siècle Faustian Rewrite

Hatter, Janine

Abstract

Faust’s pact with the Devil and his subsequent decline into hedonism have been the basis for many rewritings and adaptations since Marlowe’s Elizabethan tragedy. Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s radical rewrite of the Faust myth from a fin-de-siècle perspective – Gerard; or the World, the Flesh, and the Devil (1891) – updates the conflict between God and the Devil vying for man’s soul into a non-supernatural tale to comment on fin-de-siècle bourgeois materialism, atheism and decadence. Braddon draws on two source texts for her adaptation: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust: A Tragedy (1808) and Honoré de Balzac’s La Peau de Chagrin (1831). Braddon’s three main characters critique different, yet interconnecting, social issues: the dandy hypnotist, Justin Jermyn, warns of the dangers of increasing pseudo-scientific knowledge; the nouveau riches Gerard Hillersdon illustrates the harm done to both mind and body when religious doubt and material culture collide; and the fallen woman, Hester, comments on women’s agitation for social change. Overall, Braddon’s combination novel transcends her trademark sensationalism to become an excellent example of the female aesthetic novel.

Citation

Hatter, J. (2019). ‘His most ardent desire is to be ranked with Zola and rejected by Mudie’: Gerard; or The World the Flesh and the Devil – M. E. Braddon’s Fin-de-Siècle Faustian Rewrite. Victorian popular fictions journal, 1(1), 35-56. https://doi.org/10.46911/HMTW2498

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 18, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jun 30, 2019
• Publication Date: Jun 30, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jul 2, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 1, 2019
• Journal: Victorian Popular Fictions
• Electronic ISSN: 2632-4253
• Publisher: Victorian popular fiction association
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 1
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 2
• Pages: 35-56
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.46911/HMTW2498
• Keywords: Mary Elizabeth Braddon; Faust; Balzac; Goethe; adaptation; rewriting; fin de siècle; decadence; hypnotism; fallen woman
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/2096363
• Publisher URL: https://victorianpopularfiction.org/publications/1200-2/victorian-popular-fictions-volume-1-issue-1/janine-hatter-his-most-ardent-desire-is-to-be-ranked-with-zola-and-rejected-by-mudie-gerard-or-the-world-the-flesh-and-the-devil-m-e-braddons-fin-de/