Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Sexual Crime, Religion and Masculinity in fin-de-siècle France

The Flamidien Affair

  • Book
  • © 2018

Overview

Authors:
  1. Timothy Verhoeven

    1. Monash University, Clayton, Australia

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Explores the political culture of fin-de-siècle France through an examination of a notorious crime and its aftermath in 1899
  • Utilises a mass of archival records illuminating the nature of masculinity, the power of the popular press and understandings of sexual perversion
  • Demonstrates the role of sexual crime in driving the republican attack on the Catholic Church

Part of the book series: Genders and Sexualities in History (GSX)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Timothy Verhoeven
    Pages 1-12

  3. Gaston Foveaux: Lille and the War of Two Frances

    • Timothy Verhoeven
    Pages 13-29

  4. Charles Delalé: Republicans, Celibacy and the Performance of Masculinity

    • Timothy Verhoeven
    Pages 31-46

  5. Dr. Castiaux: Legal Medicine, Pederasty and Effeminacy at the Fin de Siècle

    • Timothy Verhoeven
    Pages 47-62

  6. Cyr: Catholic Masculinity and the Defence of Frère Flamidien

    • Timothy Verhoeven
    Pages 63-78

  7. Les Flamidiens/Les Dreyfus: The School Question and Collective Guilt

    • Timothy Verhoeven
    Pages 79-94

  8. Émile Zola: “Vérité” and the Aftermath of the Affair

    • Timothy Verhoeven
    Pages 95-109

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 111-122
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book explores a vital though long-neglected clash between republicans and Catholics that rocked fin-de-siècle France. At its heart was a mysterious and shocking crime. In Lille in 1899, the body of twelve-year-old Gaston Foveaux was discovered in a school run by a Catholic congregation, the Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes. When his teacher, Frère Flamidien, was charged with sexual assault and murder, a local crime became a national scandal.  The Flamidien Affair shows that masculinity was a critical site of contest in the War of Two Frances pitting republicans against Catholics. For republicans, Flamidien’s vow of chastity as well as his overwrought behaviour during the investigation made him the target of suspicion; Catholics in turn constructed a rival vision of masculinity to exonerate the accused brother. Both sides drew on the Dreyfus Affair to make their case. 

Reviews



“Verhoeven’s judicious, rich scholarship beautifully recreates the debates and animosities … This book will interest non-specialists, undergraduate and graduate students, and professors of history, French cultural studies, criminology, sexuality, and gender studies.” (Sharon P. Johnson, French Studies, Vol. 73 (2), April, 2019)


“Verhoeven … showcase the continuing need for scholars to more fully integrate gender into their work, but also the need for historians of gender and sexuality to pay closer attention to religion. I highly recommend this book not only to gender historians, but also to anyone interested in the political and cultural history of the early French Third Republic.” (Andrew Israel Ross, French History, April 02, 2019)






“Timothy Verhoeven’s excellent monograph on the so-called Flamidien Affair is a study of masculinity that will interest historians of the Church as well as a wider academic audience. This book speaks to a growing body of scholarship in which the analytical tool of gender is applied to the study of religious faiths and sexualities.” (Elizabeth C. Macknight, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 70 (1), January, 2019)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Monash University, Clayton, Australia

    Timothy Verhoeven

About the author

Timothy Verhoeven is Senior Lecturer in the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies at Monash University, Australia. He is the author of Transnational anti-Catholicism: France and the United States in the Nineteenth Century (2010) as well as a series of articles on the history of Catholicism, anticlericalism and masculinity.

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation