"THÉOPHILE GAUTIER." Finally, in 1835, the second volume was written in six weeks on Rue du Doyenné, where the poet, having left the paternal nest, had installed himself; the manuscript was delivered to Renduel and we read the following note in _Le Monde Dramatique_, of September 20th, concerning the biography of the strange person who really bore the name of Maupin, a biography signed by Rochefort and published in that number under the title: _Mademoiselle d'Aubigny-Maupin_: "One of our collaborators, Monsieur Théophile Gautier, has been busy for a long time on a romance entitled: _Mademoiselle (de) Maupin._" The work was now soon to appear; it was issued in November, 1835, in two octavo volumes, printed by Madame Poussin under the title: _Mademoiselle de Maupin--Double Love._ The first volume bears the date 1835, the second 1836, while the preface is dated May, 1834. The work produced no very great sensation. A few journals spoke of it, but publicity was not then systematized as it is to-day, and except by some few literary men and the small romantic group of the author's friends, _Mademoiselle de Maupin_ was soon forgotten. Let us remark, nevertheless, that immediately the book appeared, Honoré de Balzac wrote Renduel a note, asking for a copy, this note we have seen ourselves; from this moment dates the admiration that he always professed thereafter for Théophile Gautier. We learn from Monsieur Arsène Houssaye, the old and faithful friend of the poet, that owing to the failure to sell the work, Renduel determined not to publish anything more for his author; _La Comédie de la Mort_, already announced upon the covers of the work (as well as _Capitaine Fracasse)_, was, in fact, returned to the author, and only appeared in 1838, when it was published by Desessart, at that time one of Arsène Houssaye's publishers; it was the author of _La Couronne de Bleuets_, who introduced his friend to him and secured a favorable consideration for his collection of verses. How strange to us and unlikely, even, all this seems, when one recalls the exorbitant prices obtained for some years past for rare, stitched copies in good condition of the first edition of the work that we are now considering. Many have realized one thousand five hundred francs, that is to say, the total sums received by the author as royalty on the first issue of his work. This sum is verified by his receipts to Renduel, which are in our hands.