Nineteenth-Century Objects: Review of Marta Caraion, <i>Comment la littérature pense les objets. Théorie littéraire de la culture matérielle</i>

ABSTRACT Caraion’s work examines the treatment of objects in French literature from 1850 to 1900, arguing that this period uniquely explores the multifaceted roles of material things. Rather than limiting objects to the role of symbols for abstract ideas—as seen in romanticism where objects represent emotions or universal themes—narratives of this period pay increased attention to the materiality of objects and to their role in shaping human experience. Dividing her study into two parts, Caraion contrasts unique, often artistic objects with serially produced ones, and then explores how objects evoke memories and contribute to a sense of identity. Through examples drawn from writers like Chateaubriand, Balzac, Zola, Maupassant, and Jules Verne, she demonstrates that literature functioned as “the theoretical laboratory where a critical thinking about objects is formulated,” long before the contemporary movement of New Materialism took up this question, and she lays down the foundations for a diachronic study of objects in fiction.