Literary Adaptation and the Fabric of Colonialism Paul et Virginie  on Printed Textiles

This paper analyses three different textiles printed with illustrations from Jacques-Henri Bernadin de Saint-Pierre’s Paul et Virginie (1788), produced in 1795, 1802, and 1818, by at least two different manufactories: Petitpierre et Cie in Nantes and Oberkampf in Jouy-en-Josas. In following the adaptation history of Paul et Virginie across textiles, and against the rapidly shifting political landscape of Revolutionary France, this article demonstrates the degree to which Bernadin’s novel could be presented in vastly different ways, from abolitionist to proslavery, testifying to both its longstanding appeal and the ease with which it could be mobilised toward radically different political agendas.