Marguerite Cret manuscript, Les Aventures d'Agnes d'Avrancourt Voyages dans le Guatemala, 1888

Summary

Creator:

Cret, Marguerite

Abstract:

The Marguerite Cret manuscript is a romance-adventure novella, written in French, containing watercolors and pencil illustrations.

Extent:

342 pages

Language:

French

Authors:

Collection processed and finding aid created by Rob S. Cox, 1990

Background

Scope and Content:

Marguerite Cret's novella has an engaging, rapidly moving plot line, filled with adventure and a minor dose of romance. The story is enhanced by the inclusion of a series of pencil and watercolor sketches, some of which were never quite completed. Each chapter includes at least one major, full page water color. Its authorship is established tentatively on the basis of an inscription on page 2, "affectueusement á Noël Cortês, Marguerite Cret, 1888."

Biographical / Historical:

Adventure stories have long appealed to the tastes of Americans and Europeans, particularly when set in an exotic locale. While nothing is known about Marguerite Cret, the presumed author of Les Aventures d'Agnes d'Avrancourt: Voyages dans le Guatemala, it seems that she was intimately familiar with the romance-adventure genre as written for a younger readership, and appears that she, herself, was an adolescent. Her story is an elaborate one, involving the pleasures and perils encountered by a young French girl, Agnes d'Avrancourt, while traveling through the jungles of Guatemala, including encounters with Toltecs and their arch-enemies, the Aztecs, a brush with Amazonian women, and especially with the handsome Don Pablo d'Albares, whom Agnes eventually marries.

Although at one level the novella is a formulaic exercise in the genre, it is written in a particularly appealing style and the water color and pencil illustrations that Cret includes truly complete the picture. On another level, Cret's novella creates a fascinating running commentary on gender roles in a context in which an imperial European presence interacts with an indigenous, non-white population, all as seen by a (presumably) adolescent woman author.

Acquisition Information:

1988. M-2429 .

Rules or Conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Related

Additional Descriptive Data:

List of illustrations ("translated title," description, page number)

• Agnes and party in the jungle with dog. Pen and ink, 11 x 4.5 cm. p. 1
• Bird served up for supper. Pencil, 7.5. x 3 cm. p. 9
• "Agnes and Broken-Arrowhead" Agnes seated on chair in a manicured garden, her dog at her feet, with a croquet set up around. Pencil and water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 10
• European battle scene. Pen and Ink and pencil, 11 x 4.5 cm. p. 11
• A mother with a baby in a cradle. Pencil, 9 x 8 cm. p. 19
• "They leave in silence" Party of four boating in a tropical scene. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 20
• Battle with Indians. Party including Agnes firing guns, surrounded by Indians. Pen and ink, 11 x 5 cm. p. 21
• Tropical scene. Pencil, 11 x 6 cm. p. 31
• "The savanna is disturbed only by some tapirs" Beautiful tropical, swampy scene with four tapirs. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 32
• Indian with gun in the jungle. Pen and ink, 9.5 x 5 cm. p. 33
• Dead birds. Pencil, 10 x 8 cm. p. 41
• "When a boulder bounced on the [illeg.] ..." Man with gun on top of cliff, boulder falling. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 42
• Indian war party at the base of the cliff. Pen and ink, 11 x 5 cm. p. 43
• [Uncertain]. Pencil, 4.5 x 3 cm. p. 51
• "There are at least two thousand, counting women and children" Tipi and Indians beneath a palm tree. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 52
• Joyous Indians with weapons. Pen and ink, 11 x 5 cm. p. 53
• Winged Mercury with caduceus. Pencil, 4.5 x 4 cm. p. 67
• "The savages dancing the war dance." Indians in buckskins dancing around a campfire with spears. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 68
• Two horsemen riding through a jungle clearing. Pen and ink, pencil, 11.5 x 5.5 cm. p. 69
• Small rodent. Pencil, 9 x 2 cm. p. 89
• "They make an angry reply." Men on cliff dropping boulders from the Eagle's Nest onto arrow-shooting Indians below. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 90
• Indians firing arrows up the face of a cliff. Pen and ink, 12 x 5 cm. p. 91
• Arrow and pistol. Pencil, 6 x 4 cm. p. 101
• Indians in the Eagle's Nest. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 102
• Indians preparing for war ?. Pen and ink, pencil, 10 x 5 cm. p. 103
• Arrow and overturned tin of food. Pencil, 7 x 3 cm. p. 111
• Shooting at Indians in a cave. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 112
• The party at rest in camp. Pen and ink, 11 x 5 cm. p. 113
• Dead Indians. Pencil, 7 x 3 cm. p. 123
• "Neac not awakened, one is again left free for dinner." The party enjoying dinner at an open campfire on top of a rock. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 124
• Agnes in a cave with an Indian outside. Pen and ink, 11 x 4.5 cm. p. 125
• Indian looking at Don Pablo asleep behind rocks ?. Pencil, 10 x 9 cm. p. 131
• "The savages fall onto the little troop." Indians with tomahawks attacking the party. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 132
• The party is bound, taken captive by Indians. Pen and ink, 14 5.5 cm. p. 133
• Agnes bound like a mummy and gagged. Pencil, 9 x 6 cm. p. 141
• "He rowed that way for more than half an hour." Brawny Indian rowing, staring at a faint Agnes. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 142
• "They surround Neac." Neac, fallen and bleeding, amid his compatriots. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 142
• An armed band of Indians in the jungle. Pen and ink, 12.5 x 6 cm. p. 143
• Indians in the jungle. Pen and ink, 11 x 5.5 cm. p. 143
• Agnes and Don Pablo ? holding hands in the Indian camp. Pen and ink, 13.5 x 6 cm. p. 153
• "Twelve Toltecs let their arrows fly." Toltecs in brightly colored clothing shooting at a man tied to a post. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 160
• Pablo and Agnes running with guns to save fallen comrade. Pen and ink, 13 x 6 cm. p. 161
• "François accompanied by an armed Toltec." Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 180
• Agnes and Pablo watching Indians smoke in the forest. Pen and ink, 11 x 5 cm. p. 181
• "Agnes asks Don Pablo to dance with her." Agnes and Don Pablo waltzing in a jungle clearing, amid Indians. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 188
• The party asleep in camp. Pen and ink, pencil, 13.5 x 6.5 cm. p. 189
• "Two women [attack] the stranger" Two Amazonian women attack an Indian. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 198
• "A young Toltec girl appears in her turn." Agnes and a young Toltec girl picking flowers from the same bush. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 204
• "Let's go, my little one, he cried." Combat between Don Pablo and Indians. Pencil, 22 x 17 cm. p. 220
• Hand to hand fighting. Pen and ink, 13.5 x 6 cm. p. 221
• "Feather-Man earns his name, this time..." Befeathered Feather-Man amid Indians. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 236
• Legs and hat falling. Pencil, 9 x 9 cm. p. 243
• Yellow-Bear attacks Pablo with knife. Pencil, 22 x 17 cm. p. 244
• "At the end of the lance was stuck an horribly mutilated head." Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 250
• "They just noticed Yellow-Bear." Don Pablo and Agnes, hand in hand, spy Yellow-Bear through a clearing. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 268
• Moonlight scene in jungle. Pencil, 13.5 x 6 cm. p. 277
• "Over there, she said, over there." Agnes pointing at some Indians in the distance. Pencil, 22 x 17 cm. p. 284
• A carriage racing through the city. Pen and ink, 13 x 6 cm. p. 285
• Lancers in battle ?. Pencil, 22 x 17 cm. p. 292
• Horseman partial sketch. 8.5 x 10.5 cm. p. 293
• Agnes on a donkey in the city. Pencil, 22 x 17 cm. p. 294
• "She dreams." Agnes in a dreamy mood among trees. Water color, 22 x 17 cm. p. 300

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Adventure stories.
Romance fiction.

Formats:

Novellas.
Sketches.
Watercolors (paintings)