New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-06-15
FRANCE.
RECENT FRENCH LITERATURE,

RECENT fRENCH LllEhAlthL-
s~m own Correspondent ,o-
PARIS Thursday, June |, 1854.
The Memoirs of Celeste Mogador, to be completed |
iu eight volumes of which FIVE already on sale
are having wider circulation than any two works (
together have enjoyed since the publication here OF
Uncle Toms Cabin Vilemessant says in his weekly .
review, the event of the week is the publication OF
"tbree new volumes of these Memories ii you wish to
"kpow the success of the book speculation, can
"tell YOU that the Lbraire Nouyee "a book-shop on
the Boulevard des Ialiens sells each week one vol
ume of the Memoirs of Francis Arago, man of sci
ence and of letters, and two hundred volumes OF the
"Memoirs of Celeste MogadOr' exprostitute and
hsh.fying lorette. And Vllemessant is not guilty OF
much exaggeration more is the pity: better that
be should SANDER the literary tastes oil the Parslans'
than that their tastes should be corrupt But it
true. No lecture-rOom in the Latin Quarter, no
meeting of the Academy of Sciences, draws hall the
number that meet nightly at Mabe's or the Chateau
des Fleurs. At these dancing places Celeste Mogador
was, some six eight years ago, one OF the topmost
flaming, faring, high-hyng celebrities. Her beauty
bodHess and viyacity won her the admiration oil the
crowd and the abundant largesses OF rchfoos whose
vanity was immensely tckled by the reflex glory that
shone around their title of accepted lovers Az ast
one more foolish than the rest, SCION or rather
sapling of noble house, one of the real old families
of the aristocratic Faubourg st. Germain-you know
that the Faubourg st. German is the Virginia oil
Paris-made her a present of bis worthless heart
head and hand. Celeste is now Countess. The al
hcted family sent her and her husband out of Paris
to rusticate into sort of respectable oblivion or into
sort of oblvOus respectability But Celeste has no
favorable opinion either of oblivion or respectabiy.
DESTROYS of revivng the souvenir of her old fame,
she adds TO il the new fame of literature. She fur
nsles copiOus notes of her experience in the life OF
harlotry dissipation and ambiguous fashion, OF which
she was once so brilliant On ornament, to literary
hack who ticks them into presentabe shape and sends
them forth to the world under the title of adeus to
the world When the publication of the memoirs be-
gan, some weeks ago, there was little prudery IN
the public Decent people read in secrecy, OF under
pretense of drawing moral from the book, or under
preteuse Of being wboesomely shocked by the inti-
mate view of bad life, and so, by contrast, getting
HIGHER relish to their taste for virtue as one might
haunt bar rooms and get drunk for the sake OF raising
ones appreciation of the pleasures of temperance.
drunken Heot was thought to be effective lecturer
on temperance by the Spartans. The Parisians are
ANYTHING but Spartans. The first week, Vilemessant
came out upon the publication of the indecent book
with Indignantly yirtuous criticism. The second week
he remarked that it was the talk of the Salons where
the female nterocutors were divided into two parties
those who maintained with warmth and bushes that
was unfit for any decent womans perusa and those
who plead with timidity and bushes that after all It
mebt be perused without danger when ones prlncl-
Mes were we'll confirmed The first party he said,
were those who had read and the second party were
those who intended to read. The third week he ac
kuowedeed that he had read it himself. To Judge by
the extensive and rapid sale OF the volumes there is not
very large third party in Paris. Small as Is, con-
fe,s TO membership. only know the book by It's yell
low covers all grmmed with thumb marks, as tney lie
exposed in the windows of every circulating library!
and by what is said of il by oral and scrp"ry crltics
What sort Of character the authorizes Is celebrated H.
have already said. In the days OF her celebrity she
came into relations of one kind another with all
sors of improper persons male as well as female III
Ia her indiscreet disclosures regarding the former many
of whom-as for instance the drunken Acadehlciail
Alfred Musset to whom she deyotes ntteen pages Oh
wretched scanda-are high placed IN the literary or
noitcal or social world; her abusive ubrcities and
her more or less warmly coored sketches OF loose lie
in Paris that make up the attractiveness OF her me-
moirs That moral may be drawn IRON all 'nis
wreched stuff is true as bits OF silver are drawn from
The London sewers by the wretches that risk their
Eves in seeking for them i was bound To mention the
hook. for il is the literary event of the day
The son of Marshal Soult has begun the publication
of his fathers memoirs. Soult commenced the worA
of preparing his memoirs in lclo whiie IN eAue At
dusseldorf. The first part written at that time,
which now appears in three volumes treats Q, ins
w.rs Of the Revolution in which he took an active
r.rt having entered the royal army as private IN
i;s5 and gained the rank of lieutenant in battalion
volunteers on the Upper Rhine in 1871. The next
three volumes he purposed to m with the wars OF the
Empire in Germany and Poland up to the Peace OF OF
lst; but following the order Of personal interest
...hsr than chronology he passed to the third series
.SsSrss volumes, in which he treats Of the war IN
S,siu He was engaged upon this part Of hs%e%Grs
5 interrupted BY the revolution Of 1880 which led
- n. return to active political life, in whose cares he
vas bused to the exclusion Of as, un, The
o. ~ Isei he Vas occupied in completing this aad
-,F. iar two mart