# Madame Clarence — Penguin Island character guide

> Madame Clarence in Penguin Island by Anatole France.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Madame

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

## Snapshot

A fashionable hostess whose salon gathers the political and social figures of Penguinia, and whose daughter Eveline becomes a pawn in the era's marriage market.

## Who they are

Madame Clarence presides over one of the capital's most influential drawing rooms, where ministers, aristocrats, and aspirants mingle and where reputations are made over tea. Her ambitions for her daughter Eveline place her at the center of the novel's satire of Penguinian society, where marriages are negotiated like treaties and charm is a form of currency. She matters because the salon is where the public world of politics and the private world of vanity meet, and where the reader sees how thoroughly the two have become indistinguishable.

## In the story

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

Host of the weekly gathering; a widow of an exalted functionary who loves to entertain.

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

Eveline's mother, who is accidentally assaulted by Cléna when he mistakes her bedroom.

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

Hostess of the drawing room, appreciates Cérès' attention.

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

Favors the engagement, reassured about her daughter's future and pleased by the weekly flowers for her drawing room.

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

Eveline's mother, present when Cérès insults his wife.

## Links

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