The Story of Fifine

The Story of Fifine by Bernard Capes

The Story of Fifine is narrated by Felix Dane, an English-born sculptor and wandering, self-confident Bohemian who keeps a small flat in the Rue de Fleurus, Paris. Soon after returning to it, he is visited by his severe step-sister Marion, employed in the household of the Marquis de Beaurepaire. Marion begs Felix to conceal the Marquis’s nineteen-year-old daughter, the Comtesse de Beaurepaire, whom she calls Fifine. She claims that the Marquis, a morphiomaniac driven mad by doubts about his daughter’s legitimacy, threatens the girl’s life. Fifine has fled with Marion and must remain secretly under Felix’s protection. Felix doubts the melodramatic account but accepts the charge. Fifine arrives composed, proud, and apparently untouched by fear. She treats his modest rooms as her temporary domain, accepts his cooking and service with aristocratic assurance, and gradually turns his bachelor household into a shared domestic life. Felix buys her clothes, gives her his bedroom, and sleeps elsewhere; she begins to cook, sew, clean, and help order his surroundings. Though they present themselves as cousins, their relationship becomes a close, teasing companionship. Fifine proves far sharper and more educated than Felix expects. She attacks his artistic theories, condemning his impressionistic and “psychologic” pictures as evasions of form, labour, and intelligibility. Yet she admires a small painting by his dead friend Auguste Ronsin and a clay model of maternity. Her criticism unsettles Felix, but also stimulates him to work. He makes a portrait of her, striving to reveal the soul beneath her calm exterior; Fifine is deeply moved by it, though she cannot understand how he can see her as beautiful in that way. Their confinement continues for weeks without word from Marion. Felix becomes increasingly attached to Fifine’s presence, while insisting to himself that their companionship is dispassionate and honourable. A timid, shabby old man visits the flat while Felix is away; Fifine gives no explanation, and Felix later discovers that the man plays violoncello in the Opera orchestra. When Fifine admits she has run short of money, Felix offers her credit, which she accepts reluctantly. Marion subsequently sends two thousand francs, confirming that she has influence with the Marquis and intensifying Felix’s suspicion that her principal concern may be the Marquis rather than Fifine. Felix meets Marion near the Hôtel Beaurepaire and demands a limit to his guardianship. Marion says the danger remains, but unexpectedly approves his suggestion that he and Fifine should leave Paris together, provided they do so secretly. With Fifine’s eventual consent, they adopt the guise of brother and sister, take the name Dane, and depart by train for Nîmes. Their journey through the southern mountains liberates Fifine from her reserve; she marvels at the landscape, calls herself wicked and happy, and asks Felix to be her good elder brother. He struggles privately against feelings that are no longer merely fraternal. At Nîmes they meet Carabas Cabarus, a vain, talkative Provencal poet and self-styled troubadour. Cabarus immediately becomes infatuated with Fifine and follows them, first to Aigues-Mortes and then to Arles. Felix mocks him but is jealous of his attention. Fifine is alternately amused by Cabarus and interested in his legends, lore, and romantic imagination. In the amphitheatre at Nîmes, she urges Felix to pursue greatness rather than hide behind irony, idleness, or his professed indifference to success. Felix sketches her among the golden ruins, calling her Nemausea, and she praises his talent. At Aigues-Mortes, Fifine becomes upset when Felix pretends to desert her with Cabarus, revealing that their companionship has grown important to her. She recounts to Felix a tale told by Cabarus: Briande Sans-fleur, who hates plucked flowers, is deceived by the Count of Dauphiny and the minstrel Bérard, but falls in love with Bérard because he shares her reverence for flowers. After they are separated, both live chastely beside a garden wall; rose trees from their graves mingle red and white above it. The story leads Fifine to ask whether she could deceive Felix, and Felix claims he would always see through her. In Arles, Felix resolves to lessen their dangerous intimacy by suggesting that he will resume his wandering life after their return. Fifine reacts with hurt silence. Their days nevertheless fill with shared exploration of the city’s ruins, churches, cemeteries, and surrounding country. At the Aliscamps, Fifine hides in a sarcophagus to see how Felix would feel if she were dead; alarmed, he begs her not to play such tricks if she loves him.

By Bernard Capes · First published 1897 · Genre: Romance, Literary Fiction, Psychological Fiction · 24 chapters · 99,558 words

First lines

I always come back to Paris or to London as to a rich feast after abstinence. There are the reserves of perfect health to draw upon for its enjoyment; and I enjoy it while the reserves last. But, on the first sign of their depletion, I return to my lentils and spring water, which can stand my happiness in quite as good stead as young partridges and Montrachet.

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Edwardian fiction · romantic suspense · psychological romance · Paris setting · early 20th-century France · Bohemian artist · English expatriate · sculptor narrator · aristocratic heroine · hidden identity · protective guardianship · threatened heiress

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The Story of Fifine is listed on Textopian as a novel by Bernard Capes, dated 1897 CE.

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