The Southern Literary Messenger, Volume I., 1834-35Various
General
The Southern Literary Messenger, Volume I., 1834-35
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
enough is told to excite the reader's sympathy and impart a melancholy
interest to the narrative. She finally fell a victim to her
sufferings, and found at the age of twenty-six, a premature grave at
Autun, in France, on her return to her native England.
In the course of her pilgrimage she visited Paris, Geneva, Milan,
Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, Genoa, and various other cities. All
the wonders of art and glories of nature in Italy's elysian land, seem
to have borrowed additional splendor and beauty from the touches of
her magic pencil--and in her reflections upon men and manners there is
a purity of sentiment which could neither be sullied by the
temptations of wealth and fashion, nor by the prevalence of licentious
customs in that voluptuous climate.
We cannot deny to our readers the pleasure of a few extracts, which
will fully justify the estimate we have placed upon this delightful
volume.
The frivolous extravagance which in many things characterises the
French people, and especially the Parisian circles, is thus described:
"_La mode_ at Paris is a spell of wondrous power: it is most like what
we should call in England a rage, a mania, a torrent sweeping down the
bounds between good and evil, sense and nonsense, upon whose surface
straws and egg-shells float into notoriety, while the gold and the
marble are buried and hidden till its force be spent. The rage for
cashmeres and little dogs, has lately given way to a rage for Le
Solitaire, a Romance written, I believe, by a certain vicomte
d'Arlincourt. Le Solitaire rules the imagination, the taste, the dress
of half Paris: if you go to the theatre, it is to see the 'Solitaire,'
either as tragedy, opera, or melodrame: the men dress their hair and
throw their cloaks about them _à la Solitaire_; bonnets and caps,
flounces and ribbons are all _à la Solitaire_; the print shops are
full of scenes from Le Solitaire; it is on every toilette, on every
work table;--ladies carry it about in their reticules to show each
other that they are à la mode; and the men--what can they do but
humble their understandings and be _extasiés_, when beautiful eyes
sparkle in its defence, and glisten in its praise, and ruby lips
pronounce it divine, delicious, 'quelle sublimité dans les
descriptions, quelle force dans les caractères! quelle âme! quel feu!
quelle chaleur! quelle verve! quelle originalité! quelle passion!' &c.
"'Vous n'avez pas lu le Solitaire?' said Madame M. yesterday; 'eh mon
dieu! est-il donc possible! vous? mais, ma chère, vous êtes perdue de
reputation, et pour jamais!'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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