Letters from a Peruvian Woman

Letters from a Peruvian Woman (French: Lettres d'une Péruvienne) is a 1747 epistolary novel by Françoise de Graffigny. It tells the story of Zilia, a young Incan princess, who is abducted from the Temple of the Sun by the Spanish during the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. In a series of letters to her fiancé Aza, who is also the Sapa Inca, Zilia tells the story of her capture, her rescue by French sailors, her befriending of the captain Déterville and her introduction to French society.

Lettres from a Peruvian Woman
Title page from first edition of Lettres d'une Péruvienne
AuthorMadame de Graffigny
Original titleLettres d'une Péruvienne
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
GenreEpistolary novel
PublisherA. Peine
Publication date
1747
Media typePrint

Summary of Letters 1 - 9: A Peruvian woman named Zilia wrote letters to her fiance about her turmoil, suffering, and love. In her letters, the woman spends most of the context sharing the strong love she has towards her fiance Aza, the King in the land of the Sun. Zilia shares in her letters about her capture story; that when she was making her way to the sacred temple she saw the Spaniard soldiers who were looked upon as Virachocas killing the native men and capturing the virgins. As Zilia attempted to escape she was captured by the soldiers. Zilia warns Aza to be careful of the people around him because the Spaniards have more followers than Aza and she fears that some of the men around Aza would try to kill him as a favor to the Spaniards. Zilia also complains about her situation in the foreign land and begs her fiance to come and save her with his might. Zilia also explains that her heart is filled with curiosity upon her arrival in the foreign land and she does not seem to make a friendly connection with the culture there.

Like Montesquieu's Lettres persanes, Lettres d'une Péruvienne presents a satirical view of French life, particularly the conditions of French women, through the eyes of an outsider. Zilia talks about language, literature, philosophy, education, and child rearing, among other subjects. To a much greater degree than Montesquieu, Françoise de Graffigny engages readers in a suspenseful story, turning on whether Zilia will be reunited with Aza or whether she will consent to marry Déterville. Many readers and critics were unsatisfied by the conclusion, but when the author revised and expanded the novel for a new edition in 1752, she refused to change the ending.

The inspiration for the novel came from seeing a performance of Alzire, Voltaire's play set during the Spanish conquest of Peru; immediately afterwards, in May 1743, she began to read the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega's History of the Incas, which supplied most of the historical background for the story.[1] Although only a small fragment of a manuscript exists, the process of composition can be followed in the author's correspondence.[2]

The novel was an immediate success with readers; by the end of 1748 there were fourteen editions, including three of an English translation. Over the next hundred years, more than 140 editions appeared, including the revised and expanded 1752 edition, several different English translations, two in Italian, and others in German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.[3] Contemporary critics, including Pierre Clément, Élie Catherine Fréron, Joseph de La Porte, and Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, wrote long and mostly favorable reviews. Several articles in Diderot's Encyclopédie quote the novel. A number of sequels were written, often to "improve" on the author's dénouement; the most famous was Lettres d'Aza, by Ignace Hugary de Lamarche-Courmont, published in 1748 and frequently reprinted with the original novel.[4]

The popularity of Lettres d'une Péruvienne faded after 1830, but it enjoyed a strong revival of interest in the last third of the twentieth century, thanks in part to new scholarship and in part to the new interest in women writers generated by the feminist movement.

References
  1. Dainard, ed., Correspondance, vol. 4, letters 557-558.
  2. Vera L. Grayson, "The Genesis and Reception of Mme de Graffigny's Lettres d'une Péruvienne and Cénie." Studies on Voltaire 336 (1996), pp. 7-27.
  3. See Smith, "Popularity".
  4. For excerpts from the reviews and sequels, see Mallinson's edition of the novel.

English translation
  • Letters of a Peruvian Woman translated by Jonathan Mallinson. O.U.P. 2020. ISBN 9780199208173

Modern editions
  • Dainard, J. A., ed. Correspondance de Madame de Graffigny. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1985--, in progress.
  • Bray, Bernard, and Isabelle Landy-Houillon, eds. Françoise de Graffigny, Lettres d'une Péruvienne. In Lettres Portugaises, Lettres d'une Péruvienne et autres romans d'amour par lettres. Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1983. pp. 15–56, 239-247.
  • DeJean, Joan, and Nancy K. Miller, eds. Françoise de Graffigny, Lettres d'une Péruvienne. New York: MLA, 1993; revised edition, 2002.
  • DeJean, Joan, and Nancy K. Miller, eds. David Kornacker, tr. Françoise de Graffigny, Letters from a Peruvian Woman. New York: MLA, 1993; revised edition, 2002.
  • Mallinson, Jonathan, ed. Françoise de Graffigny, Lettres d'une Péruvienne. "Vif". Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2002. The best available edition; contains a valuable introduction, shows variants of early editions, and provides supplementary materials in appendices.
  • Mallinson, Jonathan, ed. and tr. Françoise de Graffigny, Letters of a Peruvian Woman. "Oxford World classics." Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
  • Nicoletti, Gianni, ed. Françoise de Graffigny, Lettres d'une Péruvienne. Bari: Adriatica, 1967.
  • Trousson, Raymond, ed. Françoise de Graffigny, Lettres d'une Péruvienne. In Romans de femmes du XVIIIe Siècle. Paris: Laffont, 1996. pp. 59–164.

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