The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1891-12-03
BOOKS OF The WEEK.
A Crisp Review Of Current and
Holiday Literature,
WOMEN OF THE FRENCH SALONS,
william Morris's STORY Of the Glitter
Ing Plain Sir Edwin Arnold's Book
on Japan-The People Who Write,
What They Are Doing.
THE WOMEN OF THE FRENCH sA


THE WOMEN OF THE FRENCH SA-
Ions. BY AMELIA GERE MASON.
New York the Century Company.
"Inspire-don't WRITE" said Lebrun to
women f; and this advice has been marvel
lously fruitful In French literature. I'm
derlying IL all, thinks the Critic,
has been the secret, active, fertilizing
influence of women from the time
when Christine de Pisane, Marie de
France and Maugerite of Navarro wrote
their poems, fables and tales down to
Daudet and his wife or Prosper Merimee
and his Inconnue. Every Frenchman has
had his fnconnte, stimulating, inspiring,
pushing him on to better and better
things. Women have been the soul of all
great French enterprises, whether as lead
ers of kings or leaders in society. The
Fauborg St Germain has been fourth
estate" with its coteries of brilliant and
aristocratic women actively engaged In
discussing the political problems of the
day, behind all the varied movement of
the time as Beatrice was behind Dante or
Leonora lowered in the dreams Of Tasso.
What Goethe owed to women the world
abundantly knows, and doubtless behind
Homer lowered some divine Helen be-
witching the great old rhapsodist and
making him sing immortal things of An
dromache and Tyndareus's daughter.
IL is these delicate and charming appari-
tions that Mrs. Mason calls up in her
beautifully illustrated book. French lit
erary history murmurs with the soft sus-
urrus of woman's garments; the trail Of
silk is heard In every line; the flash of jew
els and smiles and laces peeps ont from
between the poems and tragedies that
have become classics. Nine. de Main
tenon suggests to Racine his two most ex-
quite works. Lafontaine's friend" calls
out those delightful fables which all the
world remembers. Chateaubriand and
Lamartine are full of the love Of women
who suggest lovely and melodious pas
sages in their verse. Groups of these witty
and fascinating women troop through
Mrs. Mason's pages, and gather in salons
where the celebrities of the day assembled.
The nucleus, the eve, the heart of these
dazzling focuses of fashion and esprit is
always some one noble or intellectual
woman like Mime. de Stael or Nine. Ro-
land or Julie de Rambouillet, radiating
energy and charm through the Louis
Quinze room, touching the men with light
electric wand teaching in the inimitable
manner of Frenchwomen by a word, an
epigram, a witticism, a gesture.
IiThese salons, according to the period in
which they were held, were literary, reli-
gious philosophical or revolutionary, be-
ginning with the famous assemblies Of
the Hotel de Rambouillet in the seven
teenth century with their femmes saudn-
tes and their precteuses, and going on
down through Port Royal, the de Sevig-
mes and de la Fayettes, to Nine. du Def
and, Nine. Geoffrin and the cradles of the
new philosophy, to Grimm, Diderot,
and the Encyclopedia, the Salon Helve-
tique, Nine. Recamier and the Restora-
tion.i This gorgeous volume, printed and
illustrated in two colors in the best style
Of the De Winnie Press, reproduces innnu-
merable.pen and pencil portraits of these
women and adds book of permanent his
.orical value to the list of those already
contributed by The Century to literature
art and science. The only fault we have
to find with it is the stiffness of the paper.
Is it necessary, in order TO print engrav-
ings so perfectly as these are printed, that
the page should be so heavy as well as so
glossy.