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If you have been following this blog series, welcome back!  If you are just now tuning in, I recommend catching up by reading this brief biography of Malvina Blanchecotte.  The following poem, the Dreamer, appears in Blanchecotte's second collection of poetry, Nouvelles Poésies.   Overthere by Gabriel Frascella* (used with permission)   LA RÊVEUSE A UNE CRÉOLE   L’œil fixe et ne regardant rien,Inattentive et sérieuse,Tout révèle dans ton maintienQuelque peine mystérieuse. Nos paroles n’arrivent pasA ton oreille au loin distraite :Tu sembles écouter tout basLe chant d’une autre voix secrète. Ainsi réfugiée en toi,A tout le reste indifférente,Où s’en va ton rêve ?...

Autodidact, seamstress, teacher, single mother, poet   In 1830, the Souvilles, a working class family in Paris, had a baby girl. Augustine Alphonsine Malvina was largely self-taught and learned English, German, and Latin. She married an accountant by the name of Blanchecotte in 1850. However, he was eventually hospitalized for a mental illness, and she was left to raise their son alone. She worked as a seamstress and bookkeeper, and later as a teacher. Malvina Blanchecotte participated in the salon of Louise Colet, a fellow poet, and made the acquaintance of other writers, including George Sand (Schultz 136). Lamartine, in...

You are probably wondering who Malvina Blanchecotte is. She is an obscure member of a largely ignored group of writers: women poets of the 19th century. I would like to do a series of posts about her life and work, beginning with some of her own words.  A UNE INCONNUE.Vous qui, lisant mes vers, avez compris mon âme,Qui, me tendant la main, avez dit : Me voici !Vous qui voyez des pleurs sous mon voile de femme,     Oh ! vous avez souffert aussi !Dimanche 23 october 1854. Since most of Blanchecotte's work is not available in English, I've provided...

One might expect this book to be about the famous American aviator who flew solo across the Atlantic. It's not. It's about a mouse, a German mouse who wants to go to America because someone has, in fact, built a better mousetrap. (Cue There are no cats in America.)The cover caught my eye while I was browsing a bookstore in France. I saw a mouse on an airplane, and I was sold. The story is an inspirational tale of inventiveness and perseverance. I did see a review that accused it of being predictable, which is fair, but do we want...

When their headmistress and her brother suddenly and mysteriously drop dead, the seven students of St. Etheldreda's School for Girls react unconventionally; they bury the bodies and pretend nothing happened.On the surface, this young adult book is an absurdist (in the best way possible) dark comedy about a group of girls making an unethical, illegal, and ultimately unsustainable decision to cover up a murder. However, it's the reason for this farce that is the most interesting. Each of these girls is underestimated by her family and doesn't quite fit into the position that Victorian life has laid out for her....