Chesnutt's "Paul Marchand F.M.C."

Teaching Charles Chesnutt's Paul Marchand F.M.C. during my "City and American Literature: New Orleans, Chicago, and New York" class last year, I became struck by two descriptions of houses that Chesnutt portrays: Pierre Beaurepas' and Paul Marchand's. The descriptions are fleeting, but a closer look at both of them reveals something about each character and what he values. Matthew Wilson, in the introduction to the novel, claims "the novel is in some way about the consequences of education" (xviii-xix). Today,  I want to explore how the descriptions of Pierre's and Paul's houses add to this conversation. I don't plan to add a summary of the novel, but if you have not read it, the link above provides a summary and the NY Times book review can be seen here.

Upon first describing Pierre's house, the narrator intones that the house is "the temple of the Beaurepas cult," constructing an image of the house as a type of shrine to the Beaurepas family name (23). With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that after Adolphe (one of Pierre's nephews) moves from the extravagance of the exterior architecture into the interior of the house that the house continues to resemble a temple with a fresco of Boucher's The Judgement of Paris, a Velasquez, and "a painting of Vigée Lebrun." Along with these paintings, Pierre's house also contains works by Benvenuto Cellini and  other bronzes. Within the library, Adolphe encounters "glazed bookcases, filled with leather-backed books, many of them bound in hand-tooled morocco" and a reduced, bronze copy of "Houdon's seated statue of Voltaire" (25). Passing through the room, Adolphe takes stock of the books. The narrator says,

Adolphe knew the books by their titles, but had small familiarity with their contents; he had never been fond of reading. Many of them he was aware were rare and curious, and should they become his, they could readily be turned into money which would buy pleasures he would appreciate far more than those of intellect. (emphasis added 25) 

Adolphe's thoughts, and the manner in which Pierre adorns his house, says a lot about them and the way they think about the world. Adolphe seeks, as the narrator makes clear, pleasures, refusing a modicum of enlightenment and education that can come through the books that his uncle has lining the walls of his library.

Houdon's Voltaire

When it comes to Pierre, he is "the disciple of Rousseau and Voltaire, cynical in his attitude towards life" (26). He sits in his chair holding a newly-arrived copy of "Émile, autographed and annotated by the great Jean Jacques himself" (26). Rousseau's treatise argues that education should return to nature instead of systematized education which would make man unnatural an education where the student learns from the consequences of his his actions "would result in a balance between desire and ability" (Wilson xviii). Wilson notes this scene as an indication that the novel is in some way about education, and I agree. However, I want to focus on the fact that the items in Pierre's house serve no purpose apart from adornment. The Rousseau book, even though it Pierre holds it, becomes "a rare item for his collection" (26). We do not see Pierre reading it, and we only see Adolphe thinking about how much money the collection can make him after his uncle passes.

Contrary to Pierre's "temple" filled with rare books, paintings, metal work, and other items, Paul's house is modest. However, the modesty does not make it any less important. The narrator spends about three-four pages on describing Pierre's abode and only about a paragraph on Paul's. Within that paragraph, though, we see that Paul's house is full of items that make him a "man of culture." Even though society classifies him as a Free Man of Color, and thus does not allow him the same rights as a white citizen, his house shows him to be more aware of the intellectual world around him when compared with Adolphe. The house on Bourbon Street contains books lining the walls, which appear to have been read, and art around the room. A piano and a harp sit in the room with sheet music open on the piano. Finally, the table contains "some current French novels and magazines" (88). The Marchand house contains culture just like the Beaurepas mansion, but the difference is that the Marchands appear to interact with the culture they bring into their house while the Beaurepas do not.

What does all of this say? I know there is more here, but at this time I am unsure what to think. For instance, specific artists and authors appear in the description of the Beaurepas' house, but none of that shows up in the description of the Marchand's. What does that say? What does it say that Paul "accepted and proclaimed the radical doctrine of The Rights of Man as applying to all men" (84). These are some of the questions I have.       

Chesnutt, Charles W. Paul Marchand F.M.C. Ed. Matthew Wilson. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1998.