# Eveline Clarence — Penguin Island character guide

> Eveline Clarence in Penguin Island by Anatole France.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Eve, Mademoiselle Clarence, Eveline, Mademoiselle Eveline Clarence, Mademoiselle

**First appearance:** 0061-i-madame-clarence-s-drawing-room

## Snapshot

A pious, calculating society beauty who weighs suitors, faith, and political advantage with the same cool eye, finally settling on the rising radical Hippolyte Cérès.

## Who they are

Eveline moves through Penguinia's salon society as a devout but pragmatic young woman, courted and courted again while her mother watches the flowers and the fortune. Her central tension is between genuine religious feeling and the worldly calculus of a good marriage, played out in her struggle over a church wedding with a freethinking fiancé. She matters because her choices bind private piety to public politics, drawing the reader into the novel's later intrigues.

## Relationships

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_psychological_

The narrator is obsessively fixated on Eveline, documenting her every move and thought with voyeuristic intensity.

### [Madame Cérès](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/characters/madame_ceres)

_professional_

Madame Cérès acts as a manipulative employer or mentor to Eveline, exploiting her for social or financial gain.

### [Viscount Cléna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/characters/viscount_clena)

_romantic_

Eveline and Viscount Cléna are entangled in a scandalous romantic affair that fuels social gossip and personal ruin.

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_psychological_

The narrator is obsessively fixated on Eveline, documenting her every move and thought with voyeuristic intensity.

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_psychological_

The narrator is obsessively fixated on Eveline, documenting her every move and thought with voyeuristic intensity.

### [Madame Cérès](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/characters/madame_ceres)

_professional_

Madame Cérès acts as a manipulative employer or mentor to Eveline, exploiting her for social or financial gain.

## In the story

### [Madame Clarence’s Drawing Room](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/chapters/i-madame-clarence-s-drawing-room)

Madame Clarence's pretty but portionless daughter; she is determined to find a husband and plans to attend Father Douillard's retreat.

### [II: The Charity of St. Orberosia](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/chapters/ii-the-charity-of-st-orberosia)

Attends the retreat with her mother, meets Viscount Cléna, and later resists his advances during a three-month courtship.

### [III: Hippolyte Cérès](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/chapters/iii-hippolyte-c-r-s)

Daughter of Madame Clarence, initially disdainful of Cérès but later intrigued by his passion.

### [A Politician’s Marriage](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/chapters/iv-a-politician-s-marriage)

Uses piety and religious affectations to attract Cérès; hesitates over the marriage but eventually accepts; insists on a religious ceremony, then compromises with a secret chapel wedding.

### [VI: The Sofa of the Favourite](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/chapters/vi-the-sofa-of-the-favourite)

Eveline, referred to as Madame Hippolyte Cérès, discovers her sensuality and begins an affair with Paul Visire on the Sofa of the Favourite.

### [The First Consequences](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/chapters/vii-the-first-consequences)

Carries on a reckless affair with Paul Visire, displaying imprudence and indifference toward her husband.

### [VIII: Further Consequences](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/chapters/viii-further-consequences)

Remains indifferent to her husband's efforts, spends his money on dresses, and continues her affair with Paul Visire.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/characters/eveline_clarence
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/characters