Abstract

The Comtesse de Ségur is still among the most widely read authors of juvenile literature in France, and has received a renewed and sustained critical attention, after the publication of her complete works in 1990.This study will address an important, yet underestimated aspect of Ségur's works, the illustrations which accompanied the original and subsequent editions of her eighteen novels. This paper will explore the complex relationship between the text and its visual support, by exploring the ways in which illustrations of Ségur's novels have evolved, over the last 150 years, how they have altered and oriented our readings of the novels, how they have been affected by censorship, issues of political correctness and cultural representations, and new techniques and media.