Novel
Letters of a Peruvian Woman
Lettres d'une Péruvienne
Françoise de Graffigny · 1747
Synopsis
Zilia, a young Inca princess, is torn from the Temple of the Sun by the Spanish conquistadors and separated from her fiancé Aza. The ship carrying her to Europe is taken by the French, and Captain Déterville becomes her protector, then settles her in Paris with his sister. Zilia writes to Aza, first in the knots of the quipus, then in the French she is learning: in her letters she tells of her exile and casts on French manners, religion, the education of women and the love of money the gaze of a stranger. Déterville, for his part, falls in love with her.
Context
Inspired by Voltaire's Alzire and by Garcilaso de la Vega's history of the Incas, the novel appeared without its author's name in 1747, in an unfinished version; the 1752 edition, published by Duchesne and signed by the author, added a historical introduction and several letters. It was among the most widely read French books of the century: fourteen editions by the end of 1748, more than a hundred and forty in a hundred years, and a fashion “à la péruvienne”. Unauthorised sequels claimed to correct its ending. Forgotten after 1830, it was rediscovered by feminist criticism in the last third of the twentieth century.
Who it is for
For an epistolary novel that looks at Enlightenment France through the eyes of a stranger, between satire and feeling.
Prizes and reception
Reviewed by Fréron and by Raynal, quoted by the Encyclopédie, it has been translated into nine languages.