1stpersonsingular | Entries tagged with info

- Setting: Provence, France, 1904
- Character: Germaine Marie Dupont, b. 1874
- Education & Occupation: Mentorship by M. Blanchet at Aix-Marseille University. (Formerly an) author.
- Talents and skills: Language and writing, debate and the piano.
- Summary: After their parents' demise in a tragic carriage accident ten years prior, Germaine has been under legal guardianship of her five years older brother, Alain. He's a politician in the city council of Marseille and wants to advance, but the negative attention his sister gets for being unmarried and writing "unseemly" material works against him. Rather than trying to find a fiancé for her, he has forbidden her to publish anything more and made a contract with her publisher that he will pay double what they could earn on her to ensure that her books don't reach the literary circles. Germaine is devoted to her work, since it's the only place where she feels connected to her true self and can honestly express herself, so although she has been stonewalled by Alain, she keeps an active diary. She still has a small, devoted following, despite the fact that her writing style is dated and her views radical - and now, that she can't get anything else printed anywhere.
- Relationships: When she was a teenager, Germaine had a bosom friend, Raquel, whom she was very close to and eventually fell in love with. Upon disclosing her feelings for the other girl, Raquel immediately broke off their relation and has since then gotten married. It's a heartbreak Germaine still hasn't recovered from and emphasizes her feeling of being otherly and different. Alain knows about her inclinations, though they never openly address it. Neither does she ever acknowledge his forbidden passion for her, the feelings that make him resist the idea of her marrying, since he wants her to stay with him (and his wife, Jeanne) at the château.

1869, Alain is born.
1874, Germaine is born.
1892, Raquel and she "break up".
1893, Germaine publishes her first book and Raquel gets married.
1894, Germaine's parents are killed in a carriage accident.
1895, Germaine publishes her second book and Alain gets married to Jeanne.
1897, Germaine publishes her third book and Alain gains a seat in the city council. He soon stonewalls her writing career with her usual publisher.
1898, Germaine publishes her fourth book with the help of her mentor.
1900, Germaine publishes her fifth book, also with the help of her mentor. ( DEFAULT CANON POINT )
1904, Germaine hasn't been able to find anyone willing to publish her writing under her own name since then and has spent four years journaling extensively, preparing to write her personal manifest.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Faithless, a novel. 1893. 109 pages. The story of two girls, bosom buddies, who believe in the same story of guardian angels, but as they grow older, only one retains the belief, while the other outgrows it and resultantly, they outgrow each other. The girl who did not give up her faith is visited, in the end, by her guardian angel.

Brother, an essay. 1895. 52 pages. An intimate essay portraying the loss of her parents and the transition of her brother's role in her life from a distant older brother to an almost fatherlike figure.

Sister to Sister, a novel. 1897. 176 pages. An experimental novel, weaving together letters from various girls in a group of friends, supporting each other throughout their late teens and early twenties, as they get married, and don't get married, have children, and don't have children, love men and don't love men. The novel, upon release, created an uproar in her local community.

Nouveau, letters, published under the pseudonym "Thomas Robin". 1898. 75 pages. Letters from Germaine to her mentor, M. Blanchet over a period of six months. Pastorale motifs about the château the author lives in, grape harvest and wine production, as well as the little intrigues in the community she's part of. An undercurrent theme about writing practices.

Futur Proche, an essay, published under the pseudonym "Thomas Robin". 1900. 34 pages. An essay tackling the transition from one century to another, the hopes people nurse for the future and the fears they carry with them. Structured around a "the worst/the best that could happen" model.

Frater Germanus, an essay. 1905. 51 pages. Germaine's personal manifest and memoirs, chronicling her experience of being put under her brother's legal guardianship and their relation in the wake of this, as well as her open criticism of how Alain has tackled this custody of her. A call for women's liberation and independence.

B L O O D • S I S T E R S; There are times when I forget to doubt whether she felt like me, because I felt like me when I was with her and my naïve, unexperienced mind concluded that this should be enough for us both.

F R A T E R • G E R M A N U S; My brother is only one more king in a row of many, and as we have judged our kings before, I am waiting for this one to likewise lose his head along with his sceptre. If it requires that Allaux must burn to the ground in a second, a third, a fourth revolution, so be it. My freedom relies on those hands loosening their grip and on these walls crumbling around me; as such, I am simply preparing to be very far from here, when it is done.

I write myself

into existence.

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