L’influence d’Eugénie de Guérin dans la conception aurevillienne de la noblesse

This article demonstrates the importance of Barbey’s encounter with Eugénie de Guérin in the evolution of his perception of the nobility, whom he deemed, in his youth, to be tiresome and hypocritical. Through her journal and her personal conduct, Eugénie indeed made him understand that there was such a thing as an “aristocratic eternal” that is conferred on individuals at birth and that extends beyond the cultural and geographical disparities of this class. Furthermore, she allowed him to better distinguish between true nobility and mundane aristocracy.