Delphine Lalaurie: Understanding Evil in the Age of Elegance

In an age often revered for its elegance and poise, the name of Delphine Lalaurie remains a jarring anomaly. Society’s grand parlours, resplendent in silks and chandeliers, had no room for the unsettling shadows cast by figures like Lalaurie, whose horrific deeds shocked even her contemporaries. Yet, the paradox is unavoidable: this was a woman who mingled with the social elite, a hostess of celebrated gatherings, and yet she harboured a brutality that scandalised 19th-century New Orleans and has continued to disturb us ever since.