European Society in the Belle Epoque

Abstract

Antoine Sylv’re was a peasant boy in the French region of Auvergne at the turn of the twentieth century; his memoirs describe the wrenching poverty of the countryside. Malnutrition, unemployment, accidents, sickness and illiteracy plagued the landless farmers of central France. Some managed to eke out a bare existence on miserable plots of land, but others were less fortunate and had to resort to begging. Toinou, as the author was called, remembers one particular couple. The woman had fallen prey to leprosy at the age of 45, and the disease rotted away her nose, pockmarked her face with black holes and pulled her lips back from toothless gums. Her husband had become blind with an eye disease which caused him so much pain that he screamed for hours on end. The couple could no longer farm their land and resorted to going from house to house asking for alms. When they received charity, they offered a prayer for their benefactors in return: ‘We have only that to give for the bread that we eat’. Toinou comments:

At that time, France was the richest country in the world. She produced too much wine, too much wheat. The banks pumped billions of francs, their surplus of resources, into all of Europe and even across the oceans. She financed the construction of American ports and various foreign enterprises. A part of the profits returned to the country to be invested in luxury, in retribution for venal loves and scandals. The demi-monde shone from the fire of its pearls and diamonds and the city man fantasised about the gommeuse in her black stockings. It was the happy year 1900, the ‘Belle Epoque’. A half-century later I, Toinou, would be most surprised to learn about it.