Da una siberiana all’altra (Sophie Cottin, Xavier de Maistre)

Sophie Cottin’s Élisabeth ou les Exilés de Sibérie (1806) and Xavier de Maistre’s La jeune Sibérienne (1825) are two novellas based on the true story of Praskov’ja Lupolova, a girl who travelled throughout Russia to ask the tsar for her exiled father’s mercy. Élisabeth was very successful, but since the publication of La jeune Sibérienne most critics have opposed Cottin’s sentimental and “feminine” approach to Maistre’s realism, to the latter’s advantage. This article resumes the comparison of the two novellas, showing their many differences both in style and meaning; it also suggests that, despite these differences, they both follow the model of the exemplary tale, exalting Christian faith and filial love in the cultural context of post-revolutionary France.