Velocipedomania

A Cultural History of the Velocipede in France

By Corry Cropper and Seth Whidden

Bucknell University Press

When blacksmith Pierre Michaux affixed pedals to the front axle of a two-wheeled scooter with a seat, he helped kick off a craze known as velocipedomania, which swept France in the late 1860s. The immediate forerunner of the bicycle, the velocipede similarly reflected changing cultural attitudes and challenged gender norms.

Velocipedomania is the first in-depth study of the velocipede fad and the popular culture it inspired. It explores how the device was hailed as a symbol of France’s cutting-edge technological advancements, yet also marketed as an invention with a noble pedigree, born from the nation’s cultural and literary heritage. Giving readers a window into the material culture and enthusiasms of Second Empire France, it provides the first English translations of 1869’s Manual of the Velocipede, 1868’s Note on Monsieur Michaux’s Velocipede, and the 1869 operetta Dagobert and his Velocipede. It also reprints scores of rare images from newspapers and advertisements, analyzing how these magnificent machines captured the era’s visual imagination. By looking at how it influenced French attitudes towards politics, national identity, technology, fashion, fitness, and gender roles, this book shows how the short-lived craze of velocipedomania had a big impact.

In this engaging and informative book, Corry Cropper and Seth Whidden explore how, in late 1860s France, the forerunner of the bicycle came to be seen as a marker of modernity, freedom and even of national identity . . . A large number of contemporary cartoons and illustrations add to the rich source material—and to the reader’s enjoyment. French History

In this immensely enjoyable and highly original volume brimming with illustrations, helpful notes, short texts, and links to online musical recordings, Cropper and Whidden study responses to the development of this prototype vélo, thus bringing much-deserved attention to the optimistic Zeitgeist of a period now haunted by the specter of the Paris Commune. Nineteenth Century French Studies

Careening across the stage, lifted into song, championed in story—velocipedes take France by storm in 1869-70. The machine of speed touches on gender, politics, class, and more. Never has cultural history been more informative or more fun than in the rollicking translations and commentary of Velocipedomania. Scott Carpenter, author of Aesthetics of Fraudulence in Nineteenth-Century France

In Velocipedomania, Cropper and Whidden bring to light an unexamined page of French cultural history—France’s obsession and cultural identification with the bicycle that began in the 1860s and that persists to this day. This lively compilation of texts about the velocipede, the iconic two-wheel wood and iron vehicle, will delight readers. Masha Belenky, author of Engine of Modernity: The Omnibus and Urban Culture in Nineteenth-Century Paris

This book is a fabulous exploration of the social and cultural importance of the velocipede—a short-lived but consequential predecessor to the modern bicycle—in France during the late 1860s. Robert Lewis, author of The Stadium Century: Sport, Spectatorship and Mass Society in Modern France

Engaging, well-researched, and expertly translated, Velocipedomania gives insight into the craze this two-wheeled machine inspired in the late 1860s and, more generally, into the rich popular culture of the period. Anne O’Neil-Henry, author of Mastering the Marketplace: Popular Literature in Nineteenth-Century France

CORRY CROPPER is a professor of French at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. His publications include Marianne Meets the Mormons, Mormons in Paris (Bucknell University Press), and Playing at Monarchy.

SETH WHIDDEN is a professor of French at the University of Oxford and a fellow and tutor in French at The Queen’s College, Oxford. His publications include monographs on Baudelaire, Verlaine, and Rimbaud, a biography of Rimbaud, and translations and critical editions. He is the editor of Nineteenth-Century French Studies.

Introduction
Velocipedomania

CHAPTER ONE
The Utilitarian Velocipede
Note on Monsieur Michaux’s Velocipede

CHAPTER TWO
The Velocipede on Stage
Dagobert and His Velocipede

CHAPTER THREE
Narrating Velocipedomania
Manual of the Velocipede

CHAPTER FOUR
Velocipedomania in Verse

CONCLUSION
“We Thought the Velocipede Was Dead”

Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Illustration Credits
Index

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