L’Enfance dans Le Nouveau Décaméron
Childhood in Le Nouveau Décaméron

Summary/Abstract: This article focuses on the portraits of children as presented in Le Nouveau Décaméron and the different images of childhood that they convey. We have selected seventeen of the hundred short stories, by Paul Arène, Théodore de Banville, François Coppée, Abraham Dreyfus, Anatole France, Ludovic Halévy, René Maizeroy, Guy de Maupassant, Émile Pouvillon, Aurélien Scholl, and Émile Zola. These authors, writing in a realistic, naturalistic and decadent style, sometimes present children as part of the romantic image of childhood, imbued with innocence and purity, and sometimes in opposition to the same clichés of childhood. We thus see the child facing death, either their own or that of their relatives. We then focus on childhood and sexuality, a subject that runs through the ten volumes. Whichever portrait is proposed, the authors encourage the reader to reflect morally on the relationship between children and adults.

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