CINDERELLA OF THE BRETON POLDERS: SUFFERING AND ESCAPE IN THE NOTEBOOKS OF A YOUNG, FEMALE FARM-SERVANT IN THE 1880S.

Virginie Desgranges (1868–1887), was born into an impoverished family on the Brittany/Normandy border. Her father, who died when she ten, was a rag-and-bone man. At the request of folklorist, she filled eleven notebooks with a mixture of songs, traditional tales and three longer, semi-autobiographical fictions, written while she was employed as a farm servant. This article uses these texts to explore the world of a young, poor, malnourished and possibly abused young woman in nineteenth-century rural Brittany. Through her narratives we can derive a picture of her world with its dangers, miseries and occasional pleasures, and the characters who shaped her life experiences: the predatory masters, the miserly farmers, the helpful neighbours, and the magistrates. We learn about her cultural formation, the role of the school and the church, but also the street-singers, the sailors and the vagabonds who contributed to her oral culture. In her short stories Virginie tells us about the tensions within her family – with her brother but particularly her mother – and raises the topic of sexual abuse. These texts enable historians to perceive how someone in her position interpreted their own sufferings, and in particular what violence and misery she felt was normal and what aberrant. They also show us how a young woman might plan her escape from her circumstances, as well as the forces that prevented those plans coming to fruition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]