LA SEMAINE DE SUZETTE

From La Semaine de Suzette
to BIBLIOTHEQUE DE SUZETTE

Bibliothèque de Suzette is a children's book collection published in France between 1919 and 1965 by the publisher Gautier & Languereau. Its existence is strictly interconnected with that of La Semaine de Suzette. In fact all the books of the collection started life as feuilletons in La Semaine de Suzette, a French illustrated weekly for well-to-do little girls, published by the same publisher from February 2nd 1905 until June 6th 1940 and from May 30th 1946 to August 25th 1960.
Each issue of La Semaine de Suzette, which was aimed at an age range of 8-14, contained short stories, an episode of a serialized novel, an agony aunt column, games, cookery recipes, sewing patterns for the wardrobe of the doll Bleuette, a stylish French grand'mama of the yet to be born Barbie, competitions, crosswords, good manners and fashion features, in short anything deemed indispensable to make a proper little girl blossom into a proper grown up Madame, supporting manners, principles and ideals of the middle class milieu to which the readers belonged. It carried some discrete and tasteful advertising. By today' s standards, it was a most gloriously politically incorrect magazine... et alors!?... to paraphrase Larkin, political correctness began well after nineteen-sixty-three.
Witness the alluring poise of M.lle Dominique Rolin, born 1913 in a well-to-do Belgian family caught by her father Jean reading Suzette in this delightful photo circa 1924. (courtesy Prof. François Nielsen, University of North Carolina, Miss Rolin's nephew) and the enchanting group of five little French brothers photographed (Suzette warrants!) on the 1st of June 1950 (courtesy JMC)
Amongst its readers La Semaine could boast children who became famous such as Michèle Morgan, André Malraux, Jeanne Moreau, Troyat, Sylvette Baudrot, Barjavel and others who in later years reminisced fondly about Suzette in books or interviews. On the other hand, Simone de Beauvoir relates in her memoirs that while the majority of children in her milieu read La Semaine, she had a subscription to L'Etoile Noëliste which her mother considered «d'un niveau moral plus élevé». As for Dominique Rolin, she became the acclaimed writer of more than forty books (see BNF). Suzette had also two royal readers: the English Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose. In July 1938 their governess Marion Crawford (the infamous Crawfie) subscribed for a year to Suzette through a London bookshop.

One of the most interesting features of the Semaine are the agony aunt columns, edited in succession by:

Tante Jacqueline (Jeanne Spallarossa, Mme Alexandre Bernhardt , the very first aunt). Wrote under the pseudonyme of Jacqueline Riviére (see in Authors)
Tante Rolande (Mme Rolande Le Brun, born in 1880 in Paris, employed at G&L, in charge of advertising, a stopgap agony aunt, also wrote some features as Edna Lor. She remained at La Semaine until her death in 1939)
Tante Alice (Alice Piguet, b. 1 Sett. 1901 in Nimes, a.k.a Alice de Chavannes, pseud. of Alice Pourcherol) A Law graduate rapporteur à la Commission de contrôle de la Presse juvénile). She became a writer inspired by Mme de Ségur. Prix Jeunesse 1945 for Le jardin de Thérèse.
Tante Mad (see Madeleine Giraud)
Tante Mireille(Géneviève Néranval, she started working as a secretary for Jean Valmy-Baysse Secrétaire Général de la Comédie Française , collaborated with the writer Madeleine Chaumont and became a brilliant poet and writer)
and the last, another
Tante Jacqueline, (Jacqueline Gaillard born 1934, eventually she became editor-in-chief at Les Veillées des Chaumières).

After more than eighty years, the advice given to the little Suzettes makes appalling or appealing reading (whichever side of the divide one happens to be) all based on submission, blind obedience, reverence towards parents, through the complete annihilation of a child's personality, which — the message is — can only be moulded by the experience of the grown-ups, on middle class models of behaviour.
This is what Tante Rolande replies, on 16 December 1926 to a rebellious Libellule Verte, aged 14, who is asking for Tantine's help to convince her parents to let her 1) change her first name [...didn't we all at 14 wish to re-invent ourselves?...] — 2) cut her plaits — 3) get rid of nanny.
Not totally unreasonable desires for a girl of 14, one would imagine. Tantine's answer is a devastating blow to poor Libellule's hopes.
Though highly prolific and successful in the genre — some winning prestigious literary prizes — with a few exceptions little is known about Suzette's authors who fell into more or less deserved oblivion (*)
At first glance Suzette's writers, editors and columnists — basically an in-house female team — seem upperclass or aristocratic women (their surnames are prefixed by a profusion of "de") who had received some sort of education, proto-feminists unhappy to be just glorified housewives.
İn reality the majority were middle-class "girls of slender means", more or less obliged to use their talent to earn a living or subsidize teaching jobs.
Most were spinsters. Ashamed of their writing — any money making activity being socially unacceptable for a woman of the time — they hid under impenetrable male pseudonyms and were exploited shamelessly by their publishers (for instance G&L owned the copyright of all its authors, except Marie Delly's) who dumped them when their style went out of fashion. Many died in abject poverty.
The matter of the authors' identities was raised by Anne des Déserts who in 2001 wrote to Les Veillées des Chaumière, (the big sister of La Semaine still going in 2005): « Les auteurs, les illustrateurs de la Semaine de Suzette m'intéressent. Qui étaient-ils ? Des femmes seules qui écrivaient pour gagner leur vie, des mères de famille qui avaient envie d'écrire, des professionnels ? Etaient-ce des salariés, attachés à la rédaction, ou bien des personnes qui travaillaient à la vacation ou au contrat. ? Comment choisissait-on les manuscrits ? etc. »
Surely no Balzacs, yet they write in an elegant polished French, still readable today. What made them fade into obscurity is certainly the context of their stories depicting the way of life of a limited section of society "univers de marquises et de baronnes menant grand train grâce à leurs rentes et à leurs fermages, et servies par une foule de domestiques"(cit. Hachette Jeunesse website) which started to disappear in 1914, its conduct dictated by strong Catholic principles, the result too anachronistic for a modern reader. However one feels that if not for their literary merits they should have been remembered for their contribution to the social history of the times.
One of Gautier&Languereau's authors who stood the test of time and was financially successful is Berthe Bernage: Catholic, grande-dame of good manners, editor of Les Veillées des Chaumières, contributor to La Semaine, she created the character of Brigitte who first saw the light in 1925 as a serial in Les Veillées. Published in book format, Brigitte's adventures lasted 35 years following the protagonist from adolescence to maturity and are still very much in print and on sale.
Bernage who was unmarried, remained tied to G&L all her life, published in their various collections and on her death she made them her heirs.
On the other hand, the illustrators, who much contributed to the success of Suzette, famous artists such as Avélot, Thiriet, Morin, Berty, Lorioux, Giffey, Le Rallic, Raffin, Zier, active in the artistic movements of the XX century, not just as children illustrators saw a revival in the Sixties becoming even more famous with the passing years, their work highly collectible.
In the first issue of La Semaine was born, almost by accident, one of the most enduring long lasting characters of the French bande dessinée: Bécassine, the Disaster Maid, the Queen of Malapropism, who continuously misunderstood her mistress' orders with hilarious results, interpreting life according to her own philosophy of little paysanne Brétonne.
«Pour quelles raisons la Semaine de Suzette est-elle incontestablement le premier périodique du genre?» asks Polybiblion: Revue bibliographique universelle in 1920 «Ces raisons sont multiples. D'abord elle comporte des illustrations fort nombreuses, en couleurs et en noir, très variées et très vivantes : les enfants aiment les images; leurs parents aussi, du reste. Puis le texte est irréprochable au double point de vue moral et religieux. Ajoutons que la note patriotique résonne fréquemment dans cet ensemble toujours attachant»

These multiple good reasons were going to last for another forty-five years

.(*) The life of some of the authors of Bibliothèque de Suzette has been researched by www.bibliothequedesuzette.com/BMR/AUTORI.htm

***

BEFORE AND AFTER
or
The disciplinary effect of Suzette on unruly juveniles
(from L'Ouvrier, February 1905)

Look!... Rover, Pussy and Bleuettes are behaving too

The first episode of
La Tutelle de Cousine Linotte by Berthe Bernage in
La Semaine de Suzette 3rd August 1926.

The book version 1931

Jerry dans l' Ombre by M. Giraud
in La Semaine de Suzette, May 1946
and in Bibliothèque de Suzette, 1948.

Jerry dans l'ombre was the novel serialised in La Semaine when it reappeared in a four pages format after the war in May 1946:

"Un événement important pour toutes les petites filles ! Après six ans d'interruption LA SEMAINE DE SUZETTE reparait provisoirement deux fois par mois"

Not all Suzette feuilletons were published in volume, for instance (in bracket) the years in which some were serialized.

Le Charmeur des serpents, Léon Lambry, 1919)
A la conquete de l'Atlas, Myriam Catalany 1919
Les P éripéties des petites Dalsie, P. Bresbre 1920
Une bien bonne idée, G. Louza 1929
Musette, M. de Carnac 1929
La Petite fille de Sainte-Hélène, E. de Cys et J. Rosmer 1929
Histoire véridique de M.me Chelmi et de son chat, P Perrault 1929