Description: Was La Comtesse de Ségur a sadist, as many critics have suggested? True, there are as many whips in her novels as in a torture chamber. The pages are filled with illustrations befitting of sado-masochistic fantasies: cruel parents and guardians flagellating half-naked children. This in-depth study is a defense of this misunderstood and misrepresented nineteenth-century French author. It explores specific accusations of sadism against Ségur and reinterprets the violent scenes in her novels against the backdrop of these accusations.
Review Quotes: «Lisette Luton has written a very original study on one of the major writers in French children's literature. She has highlighted the most debated aspect of the Countess of Ségur's works in a very effective way through a minute and well-informed analysis of sources and contents.» (Jean Perrot, Professor of Comparative Literature, Paris-Nord University; President of the French Research Institute for Children's Literature)