New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-01-18
OCTAVE FEUILLET.
DEATH OF A NOVELIST WHO WAS FAvnpvn
BY EUGENE

Paris, January .
effect Of opening the French Academy n IL
Zoa. The deceased Academician intended to va.
at the next election at the Academy for H..
realistic author whose prodigious success he Off,
envied, as he felt the tide flowing from himssr
NJ Feuillet's novels are like the New Years com
fectionery sold at Boissiers. One wonders az n.
amazing variety with which the sweetness q,
sugar is varied, and at the artistic manne, !.
which the saccharine stuff is decorated ana
wrapped up. The receptacle made to hold il !.
when new, feast to the eye. But as soon as III.
freshness passes away it loses all value, and ba.
no more beauty than the wings of butterav
that has been roughly handled. One can now
with difficulty realize the effect produced bv
"Sybille," which converts a young free thinE,,
who belonged by birth, fortune and station "a
the gidcd youth of the Empire, from infdelItv
to Roman Catholic piety Of the type the Empress
Eugene fattcred herself on practising. All the
heroines of Octave Feuillet are wealthy, elegant.
idle, and from ideness and luxurious living
pathological subjects. Their amorous passion IA
flower of evil
VI. Octave Feuillet was man of sweet
presence l should call him handsome. and az
such he was great success in the circle Of the
Empress Eugene Wien the court was at COmpiegus
he was a kind of director of its theatrical diver
sons The Empress always spent the festival Of
Saint Eugenia there. Octave Feuiet, the Duo
de Morny, the Prince and Princess Metternich
and the Marquis dc Massa generally put their
heads together in thinking out the programme
for the amusements of the intimate circle on that
OCCASION Charades and proverbs were PLAYED
complimentary verses rccited. or soynetes" acted
When NJ Octave Feuillet was elected a Member
of the Academy the Empress went TO his reeep.
ton and to have the JOY of witnessing his tr.
umph, braved the hatred of the Orleaniss, who
then filled more than thirty out OF forty arm,
chairs RI was thought that she would be hssed
but she and the bevy of ladies among whom she
appeared disarmed hostility by their elegance and
loneliness. Octave Fcuict nearly broke his heart
When the Empire collapsed lie resigned his
sipecure post at Fontainebeau, hat NJ Jules
Simon, of whom he was pupil IN the Class OF
French literature at the Ecole Normale de liautes
Etudes sixty years ago, sent back his letter.
NJ Theirs begged him To retain the post.
But he was not to DC pefsuao'a. hs
almost went out Of his mind from anguish when,
in 1879, the readers Of LA Revue DIES Deux
Mondes' saw in Julie de Frecoeur portrait Of
the Empress. II was not consciously meant TO he
one, but the Likeness of Julie TO Eugene was
striking to all who knew the Impress lie at
once went to Chiselhurst to declare " the Imperial
lady that nothing was further from his thoughts
than to present her TO the public under the name
of Julie a lanciful. wilful and unhoy minded
persoa whose only rule OF coDcuct was hef own
pleasure. Eugene accepted the denial, ana tod
The author that she could not see ner own image
in the character. and therefore did not see why
She should feel angry. When NJ Octave teulleS
lost his eldest son SEE sent him telegram winch
showed that she had herself been afflicted Dy
similar bereavement and was able to enter INTO
his and his wfes sorrow.
As he advanced in lite, he could not bear any
kind of racket The trcmOr of q railway tram
so iaded his nerves that he usually travelled ny
road In the old-fashioned way. lie dreaded noisa
overhead, OF the sound of door-bell. ms Is
why he hired two flats in the Rue Gounod, where
he died. The under fat he occupied himself:
The upper fiat. AZ which visitors were drecte!
hv the concierge 10 call, was conneced
with the one beneath by private corAscrew
stairs, II ade at his expense. Ills sitting ana
bed rooms had their windows on courtyard.
This, however, did not remove him FAR enough
from the noise OF the sticet.
On the other hand. Versailles had been tried
as a refuge from bores and noise, but Its solitude
and silence had him the effect of nightmare.
lie often started up IN n cold sweat out Of hia
sleep and fanced himself in the presence Of death,
"'NNP $780, F.. C..