Novels are not often without their author's point of view or biases within them. Mademoiselle de Maupin is no different; Gautier expresses his opinoins about 19th century society and the beauty of Romanticism throughout the entire book,. In fact, the chapter following the inner working's of Madeleine's mind is devoted completely to the latter.
Though not my favorite chapter thus far, it nevertheless offers a very clear exploration of the author's mind, basically saying to the reader: THIS IS WHAT I THINK IF YOU HAD ANY DOUBTS! Stylistically, Gautier changes between three types of narrative. Up to this point, we have seen only two forms: 2nd person narrative (IE: writing a letter to someone) and 3rd person omniscient (a traditional book where the characters don't know what the characters are thinking, but we, the reader, do). This chapter introduces a new style: 1st person. Throughout this chapter he speaks as himself, speaking to the reader not as a character, but explaining why romanticism is the bees knees, and some experience in the theater. Like I said, not my favorite chapter, but interesting from the point of view of getting a romantic's point of view on life. The most interesting idea I found was that romanticism was both real and unreal at the same time. Unreal because fairy creatures, mysticism and all the things that 'cannot' exist, don't, but real in the sense that it accurately expresses human emotion, psyche and mystery. Our desire to love, to be loved and why we love the heroes we do, and hate the villains we loathe.
The following chapter returns to the second person narrative that I've grown accustomed to, and what makes it great, is it's Madeleine explaining her falling in love...with a woman. (Parental warning: next entry may contain some racy scenes!)