The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-03-15
Recent Publications.

MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF MADAME
REcAMrER. Translated from the French and
edited by lsaphene NJ Luyster. 12mo. pp.
4OS, Boston: Roberts Brothers.
Beauty is a born queen, and counts her sub
jects every where. In all grades of life, in all
lands and ages there have been women who by
the sheer force of personal attractions have ex-
ercised a surprising and irresistible ascend
ancy over all who come within the sphere of
their destinations. Among such women few
are more eminent or remarkable than the one
whose memoirs are here presented to us.
During her long life of more than seventy years
she continued to exercise over all who came
in connection with her the same controlling
Charm, Her biographer says in reference to
this remarkable influence:
1t did not lie in her beauty and wealth alone:
for she lost one while time dmmed the other.
Nor was it due to power of will for she was not
great intellectually, and, had she been per-
son OF strong convictions, she never would have
been so universally popular. As il was, she
pleased persons OF every shade of opinion and
principle. Her instructive coquetry can part
ly account for her sway over men, but not over
women. What then, was the secret of her
influence? 1t lay in the subtitle power of a
marvellous tact. This tact though nurtured
and ripened by experience, was not the off
spring of art. 1t was an effect, not a cause;
not simply the result of an intense desire to
please, regulated by fine intuitive perceptions
but of higher characteristics, such as natural
sweetness OF temper, kindness of heart and
forgetfulness of sell.
In short, she had received the gift of hscina-
ton at her birth, and it was as natural for her
to charm as to breathe. Her conquests were
nearly always enduring. Sainte Beuve pref
tily said of her that she brought the art Of
friendship to perfection. Coquettish, she was
seldom capricious; and the men who began by
loving her passionately usually ended bg be-
coming her true friends, and she deserved their
friendship by the constancy and faithfulness Of
her own.
The material for the present volume has been
chiefly drawn from an imperfect biogra pby of
Nine. Recamier written by niece of her hus.
band, and published in Paris in 1859. 1t has
been carefully revised and added to by the pres
ent editor and translator, and is Tor the first
time presented in an English dress. 1t con-
tains fewer details of the personal history of
Mime. Recamier and fewer extracts from her
own correspondence than we could have desir-
ed, but is occupied chiefly with the letters to
her of Madame de Stael, Chateaubriand, Bal
lanche, and other eminent persons
of the day, with whom she was
on terms of intimate friendship
Those of Chateaubriand in particular, are nu-
merous and from their confidential character.
and the long period over which they extend,
have almost the interest of biography of
that distinguished man. The whole collection
is valuable as offering very vivid illustration
OF the political and social condition of France
in the first half of the present century. This,
added to the personal interest which attaches
to the subject of the memoir, is likely to gain
for the book wide circle of readers.
Bailey & Noyes have it.