The Difficult Beginning of an Epistolary Marriage between Alexandra and Philippe Néel (1904-1911)

Abstract

Explorer and writer Alexandra David Neel is known first and foremost for her adventures in and travel stories about Tibet. The lengthy correspondence she maintained with her husband Philippe Neel was published posthumously. These letters, which are unmistakably unique, were the only link between the couple throughout their thirty-seven years of marriage. The present study focuses on the difficult early stages of this union, namely the years from 1904 to 1911 – a time when their matrimonial relationship quickly became a mere epistolary connection. This marriage, at first deemed a “folly” by this feminist turned out to be a great opportunity and marked the onset of a new life for Alexandra. Indeed, those first letters walk the reader through a remarkable example of individual transcendence but, even more importantly, they reveal the argumentative strategy deployed by the woman writer to convince her husband to let her trace her own path. The persuasiveness of this amazing woman eventually led her husband to offer her what she longed for deep down inside: traveling to a faraway land to nurture her writing creativity