“I have brought a great many interesting books with me, among them _Histoire de ma vie_, by George Sand. The book is rather carelessly written--without logical sequence, like a clever gossip relating his own reminiscences, but with many digressions. But it has much sincerity, a complete absence of pose, and remarkably clever portraiture of the people among whom she moved in her youth. Your library, too, contains many books I cannot put down when I have once opened them. Among these is a superb edition of de Musset, one of my favourite authors. To-day, looking through this volume, I became so absorbed in _Andrea del Sarto_ that--seated upon the floor--I was compelled to read the whole work to the end. I am passionately fond of all de Musset’s dramatic works. How often have I thought of using one of his comedies or plays as an opera libretto! Unfortunately they are all too French, and not to be thought of in a translation; for instance, _Le Chandelier_, or _On ne badine pas avec l’amour_. Some, less _local_ in character, are lacking in dramatic movement, such as _Lorenzaccio_, or _Andrea del Sarto_. Others, again, contain too much philosophising, like _Les caprices de Marianne_. “I cannot understand why French composers have hitherto neglected this rich source of inspiration.” _To N. F. von Meck._ “BRAILOV, _August_ 16_th_ (28_th_), 1878. “I return once more to Alfred de Musset. You must read his _Proverbes Dramatiques_ from end to end. I recommend you especially _Les caprices de Marianne_, _On ne badine pas avec l’amour_, and _Le Chandelier_. Do not these things cry aloud for music? What thought! what wit! How profoundly felt and fascinating in their elegance! Yet in reading his works we feel that all is written with a light hand, not for the sake of the ideas; that is, we never feel that these ideas have been forcibly obtruded upon the artistic material, thereby paralysing the free development of the characters and situations. Then I delight in his truly Shakespearean anachronisms: for instance, when an imaginary King of Bavaria discusses the art of Grisi with some fantastic Duke of Mantua. Like Shakespeare, de Musset does not keep to the _verities of place_, yet all the same we find among his characters, as among those of Shakespeare, many of those universal human presentments who, independent of time and locality, belong to the eternal truth. Only with de Musset the frame is narrower and the flight less lofty. Nevertheless, no other dramatic writer approaches Shakespeare so closely. _Les Caprices de Marianne_ has made a peculiarly strong impression upon me, and I have thought of nothing else all day long but the possibility of turning it into an opera. I feel the