THOMAS-SIMON GUELLETTE

Thomas-Simon Gueulette (1683-1766) was a French playwright and writer of tales. He was born in Charenton and fulfilled several functions as a jurist. He wrote more than sixty theatre plays and wrote several essays about Italian theatre. He became especially famous for his collections of tales which were modelled on the Mille et une nuits, Galland’s translation of the Thousand and one nights, which appeared between 1704-1717. The most well-known are Les mille et un quart d’heures, contes tartares (1715), Les aventures merveilleuses du mandarin Fum-Hoam, contes chinois (1723), and Les sultanes de Guzarate, contes mongols (1732). Most of his tales are rather mediocre and imitative, but they were quite popular at the time. They were translated into the main European languages.

The fragments:

The novels of Gueullette are clear emulations of Galland’s Mille et une nuits, as the titles indicate, although they are set in different geographical locations. The structure follows that of the Thousand and one nights: a framing story containing a plot, which is linked to a chain of embedded stories. Some are rather unpretentious collections of stories, while others have a more tight construction. In Les aventures merveilleuses du mandarin Fum-Hoam (1723), the king of Georgia is expelled from his empire with his daughter by a usurper, and seeks refuge at the court of the king of China. After the usurper has been chased away, the Chinese king marries the princess. The series of inserted stories contain the life story of the mandarin Fum-Hoam, and more particularly the many animal forms he assumed in the past. The stories’ main theme is metempsychosis, a concept popular at the time after the gradual unravelling of Eastern religions in Europe. It was thought that the transformation of souls was the central dogma of the Hindu religion, and Fum-Hoam, after completing his autobiographical tale, turns out to be the son of the king of Georgia, Alroamat, who now attempts to convert the Chinese king to Islam, by condemning the belief in metempsychosis. The storytelling is divided into 46 evenings covering 19 stories. The stories obviously inspired other authors to use the motif of transmigration, notably Voisenon (Le sultan Misapouf). In Les sultanes de Guzarate Sultan Ozug is married to five jealous wives. In order to observe them, he builds a place where he can observe his wives without being seen by them, and has his death announced. The sultanas reveal their true feelings for him and receive visitors who narrate their tales. The main themes here are the tension between truth and imagination and the various intrigues of love. Moreover, the work exemplifies the motif of males spying on their wives in various ways, which was popular in the libertine novel, especially in the works of Montesquieu and Diderot.

Les sultanes de Guzarate ou les songes des hommes merveillés. Contes mongols, 2 vols., Le Clerc, Paris 1733, vol. 2, pp. 1-51. (ULAN Press)

Contes Chinois ou les avantures merveilleuses du mandarin Fum-Hoam, 2 vols., Pierre Goss & Co, La Haye 1728, vol. 2, pp. 1-45. (Nabu Public Domain Reprints)