Blanche Monnier… prima

Naturalmente non esiste una pagina wikipedica italiana, ma ricordiamo Blanche comunque. Ricordiamo la vita di una giovane benestante parigina rinchiusa per 25 anni in una camera della sua casa dalla madre e dal fratello, onde impedirle di vedere il suo amante avvocato squattrinato, e così salvare “l’onore della famiglia”.

Blanche morì 13 anni dopo la “liberazione”, in un ospedale psichiatrico… fermo restando che la vera follìa l’ha circondata per un quarto di secolo e nessuno ha mosso una mano per aiutarla.

“L’orrore!” urlava Conrad, muovendo “Into the heart of darkness”, e non aveva torto!

RB (will be back soon online!)

Blanche Monnier (1849–1913), often known in France as la Séquestrée de Poitiers, was a woman in Poitiers, France, who was secretly kept locked in a small room by her mother for 25 years. Blanche Monnier had not seen sunlight for 25 years.[1][2][3]

Biography
At age 25, Blanche Monnier had set her heart on marrying a lawyer who was not to her mother’s liking. Her disapproving mother locked her in a tiny room, where she was kept for 25 years. On May 23, 1901, the Paris Attorney General received an anonymous letter that revealed the secret incarceration. Blanche was found in appalling conditions and rescued by police.[4][5]
Her mother became ill shortly after being arrested, and died 15 days later. Her brother Marcel appeared in court, and was initially convicted, but later was acquitted on appeal; Marcel Monnier was mentally incapacitated, and although the judges criticized his choices, they found that a “duty to rescue” did not exist in the penal code at that time.[4][6]
Having been released from the room, Blanche Monnier experienced continuing mental problems that soon led to her admission to a psychiatric hospital, where she died in 1913.[7]

Legacy

Blanche Monnier… dopo

In 1930, André Gide published a book about the incident, La Séquestrée de Poitiers, changing little but the names of the protagonists.[4][8]
The novel and the movie based on this book “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” have some similarities with Blanche’s story. Both Blanche Hudson and Blanche Monnier were locked up until they would die from hunger.

(source Wikipedia in English)