A curious incident occurred as to _Mademoiselle de Maupin._ After its appearance, all the opening of the eleventh chapter was inserted in _Le Monde Dramatique_ of January 4, 1836, without mentioning its source, under the title of: _La Comédie Romanesque._ Since that time, those pages have been frequently reprinted, but not a single one of these reproductions gives any indication of their origin. It must be admitted that Théophile Gautier himself gave rise to this error in _La Presse_ of December 17, 1838, in again quoting these lines, inserted in an unpublished commentary, as an isolated article which had come under his notice by chance. He had forgotten this extract, and believed in good faith to have found in _La Monde Dramatique_ only a newspaper improvisation. This first mistake was the starting-point of all that succeeded, the most striking of which is the insertion in 1858 of this fragment from _Mademoiselle de Maupin_ in the first volume of Théophile Gautier's work: _Histoire de l'Art Dramatique in France._ It is useless to add that no one noticed this fact. Time, however, rolled on, and the renown of the poet continued to increase; his appearance in _La Presse_ in 1836, and his critical work, had made a circle of new readers. Then, _Fortunio, La Comédie de la Mort, Une Larme du Diable, Tra Los Montès, Les Grotesques_, etc., etc., had considerably increased his literary _impedimenta._ So, when Monsieur Charpentier, the father of the present publisher of Théophile Gautier's complete works, had founded the collection to which he gave his name, he soon thought of reprinting our author's principal works. Monsieur Charpentier, who succeeded in grouping in his catalogue the most select of the remarkable works of his age, was of refined literary taste and held among the publishers of his day a place similar to that then held by Monsieur Buloz in his capacity of director of _La Revue des Deux Mondes_: it was difficult to obtain an interview with either, and to appear in print in their collections was regarded as a kind of consecration. It was in 1845 when four of Théophile Gautier's volumes appeared in the Charpentier catalogue; they were _Poésies Complètes, Nouvelles, Voyage en Espagne_, and _Mademoiselle de Maupin._ For this reprint, the first since the original edition[2], the author modified, but very slightly, some phrases of his work, the text of which, from that time, has never been changed.