WorkAlain-René Le Sage

Gil Blas

Gil Blas (L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane [The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane], 1715-35) Inferred

Alain-René Le Sage (1668–1747) · Paris: Pierre Ribou, 1715–35; 4 vols.; English trans. by Tobias Smollett: The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, 1748

AnalyzedReadMentioned

Documented 1837–1845

Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Letters • Books • Essays

Selected engagements, in chronological order.

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed

IV. Transcendentalist1record

V. New York3records

VI. Europe

✦. Memoirs (1852)1record

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

1837—

Letter to Harriet Martineau

p309

read

“I do not think all authors are like Gil Blas' archbishop.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Inferred Fuller alludes to the episode of Gil Blas and the Archbishop of Granada from Lesage's novel, fearing Martineau will punish her for honest criticism as the archbishop punished the hero. Hudspeth identified the source in *The History and Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane.

Hudspeth identified the source in *The History and Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane.

1844—

Letter to Georgiana Bruce

analyzed · read

“Eliza's account of her strong instinctive development is excellent, as clear and racy as Gil Blas.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. III. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.

1845—

New-York Daily Tribune

“Edgar A. Poe” · January 24, 1845 · p. 1

read

“It has often been our lot to share the mistake of Gil Blas with regard to the Archbishop.”

Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860.

Inferred Fuller's allusion to "the mistake of Gil Blas with regard to the Archbishop" refers to the episode in Alain-René Lesage’s Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane in which Gil Blas is dismissed by the Archbishop of Grenada for offering honest criticism, despite the Archbishop's request for it. This reference suggests Fuller's familiarity with Lesage's novel.

1845—

The Raven and Other Poems.

“The Raven and Other Poems.”

mentioned

“It has often been our case to share the mistake of Gil Blas, with regard to the Archbishop.”

Fuller, Margaret. "The Raven and Other Poems." New-York Daily Tribune, 26 November 1845. · 26 November 1845

Undated

Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.

n.d.—

Allston's Pictures

“Allston's Pictures”

analyzed

“Scene from Gil Bias— also unlike the other in being perfectly objective, and telling all its thought at once. It is a fine paintmg.”

Fuller, Margaret. Art, Literature, and the Drama. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. New York: The Tribune Association, 1869. · p295

Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

1852—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

p110

analyzed

“lounging lazily under a tree, while mentally accompanying Gil Blas through his course of intrigue and adventure, and visiting with him the impure atmosphere of courtiers, picaroons, and actresses.”

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.