The theme that develops “Sarrasine” is the man who falls in love with a castrated
believe that it is a woman. The story is built according to the technique of "récit Box"
and queen in the plot, as I said, the mystery and suspense:
At 183, 010, in the Parisian salon of Lanty is an evening in the course of
which the presence of a strange old man centennial of ghostly aspect is the subject of
Many comments were among the guests. All they ask for the identity of this character
and its relationship with Lanty, while there are numerous questions about the
origin of this mysterious and hermetic family and the origin of his fortune. Everything is thinks
in this regard, no one could ever know anything except the character-narrator, a
of those attending the end is that such confidential know the secret of Lanty to one of the guests, the
Mrs Rochefiof, who tries to conquer. The mystery increased when a picture that represents
Adonis to a reclining on a lion's skin care called lady. The narrator
it only says that this is a picture that the painter made on the model

and a statue of a woman who represents a relative of the family. The next day, reveals the
Mrs Rochefi of the mystery that envelops the Lanty, leading to the central story of the play.
This is the tragic love story lived by the sculptor Sarrasine, who, in 1758, when
had twenty years, he moved to live in Rome, where he met Zambinella, a singer
opera of that fell in love and whose figure reproduced on a statue of clay. Sarrasine tried
to conquer the young, but Zambinella resisted his constant harassment. Finally, the cardinal
Cicogna, protector and patron of the singer, the sculptor revealed that this was not a woman,
but a castrated, representing female roles, as women were prohibited by
Pope singing in the theaters of Rome. Reluctant to believe it, Sarrasine kidnapped the singer and it will
reveal his true identity. Outraged after a failed attempt to break the statue he created,
the sculptor tried unsuccessfully to kill Zambinella therefore fell crashed by three shots
assassins sent by his protector. The narrator concludes that Cardinal counting appropriated
the statue of Sarrasine and made it play in marble. The family then directed Lanty
the painter who Vien reproduce the statue in a box. And this painting, which was inspired, his
time later, Girodet to create your Endimión, is the Adonis who had drawn the attention of
Mrs Rochefi of. Everything is clear: the character represented in the table and the elderly
decrepit that he had walked in this end are therefore Zambinella, who happens to be the end
an uncle, grandfather of Lanty.
10 In his introduction to Sarrasine in the edition of La Pléiade, Pierre Citron believes that although the story frame
do not see any specified date, it appears that action on it is contemporary with the publication
of the work.

(As opposed to parody see the argument of "Sam".)