AVERY, FRANCES ANN

In 1903 Emile Fabre, consummate theater technician, presented his adaption of Balzac's La Rabouilleuse at the Odeon Theater in Paris. The novel appealed to Fabre's naturalist interest in the worlds of family and finance, and Fabre based the action on the intense conflict among three characters for the inheritance of a dim-witted old man. Fabre amplified Balzac's theme of of the debilitating effects of money on families, and on society at large. This vying for inheritance becomes not only a game played for high stakes, but also a life-and-death struggle among beasts of prey. many of the alterations that Fabre made in adapting the novel into a play were necessitated by the change of literary genre, as in eliminating characters or creating composite figures. Many of the additions were made for purely theatrical reasons, enabling Fabre to present his money theme while, at the same time, holding his audience's interest until the final curtain. Other changes stemmed from Fabre's almost exclusive attention to finance, and his desire to stress its moral and political implications.