TPO-8

The article states that the Chevalier distorted or invented many events in the memoir to take his life seem more exciting and glamorous than it really was and provides three reasons of support. However, the professor says that no memoir can possible be correct in every details and refutes each of the author’s reasons.

First, the reading claims that the Chevalier was not very wealthy as he claims in the memoir and spent a lot of money on parties and gambling while he was living in Switzerland. The professor refutes this point by explaining that the Chevalier wasn’t poor and while he was living in Switzerland he spent huge amount of money on parties and ambling but the Chevalier had to convert his assets into actual money and it took few days. Also, when he run out of cash he had to barrow some while he was waiting for his money to arrive.

Second, the reading posits that the conversation between Chevalier and the famous writer Voltaire that recorded in the memoir could not be accurate because the Chevalier impossible to remember exact phrases from extended conversation held many years ago. In contrast, the professor says that the Chevalier states in his memoir that each night immediately after the conversation with Voltaire, he wrote everything he could remember in the conversation.

Third, the article claims that the memoir questioned about the Chevalier’s escape from a notorious prison in Venice, Italy. The professor refutes this point by saying that the Chevalier bribed his way out of a prison in Venice and the government documented that the ceiling had to be repaired after the Chevalier escaped from the prison