Philosophers & actresses
Subtitle: scenes, vivid and picturesque, from the hundred & one dramas of art & passion
By: illustrated with thirty-five engravings on wood.
Contributors: Vizetelly, Henry, 1820-1894 (printer)
Series: Readable books --  no. 2
Publisher: Henry Vizetelly; Clarke & Co.
Published: 1852
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 225
Subjects: Philosophers -- Biography
Genres: Biography.
Other titles: Philosophers and actresses; Philosophers and actresses :
Work titles: Philosophes et comédiennes
Notes: Date taken from British Library Public Catalogue.

Authorship taken from signed "Author's Preface" (p. [v]-vi).

At head of t.p.: "II. Readable Books.".

"*Few readers will require to be informed that the following pages are translated from the French"--Contents.

"Philosophers and Actresses?  All men are philosophers, all women, actresses ... A poet once said 'God creates the Artist, and Woman perfects him;' and the poet was right.  God gave man philosophy, but taught woman how to act.  At a certain diapason of those men and women who have tasted the bitter fruit of science, of the favourites of art and of beauty, of artists, thinkers, reigning belles, and courtiers, the greater part of the one are philosophers, and of the other, actresses ... Friend reader, the names of folly or wisdom, of mourning or joy, which appear and disappear confusedly in the following pages, as in the giddy twining of a waltz, are the masks and disguises of my imagination."--Author's Preface.

Preliminary wood-engraved plate is signed: "H. Vizetelly Sc.".

Wood-engraved illustrations within the text are unsigned.

Includes wood-engraved decorative initials.

MASS copy: Bound in half dark green morocco and marbled paper-covered boards; a.e. speckled red.  Spine tooled in gold.
Table of contents: title: Author's preface; title: The wife of Scarron; title: Voltaire and Mademoiselle de Libry; title: Cornelius Schut and Elizabeth van Thurenhoudt; title: Chamfort, the friend of Mirabeau; title: Abelard and Heloise; title: Three passages in the life of Madame de Parabere; title: Jacque Callot; title: Ralph and Gabrielle; title: The hundred and one pictures of Tardif, the friend of Gillot; title: Hands full of roses, full of gold, and full of blood : a philosophical tale; title: Prudhon; title: Mademoiselle de Marivaux; title: The daughter of Sedaine; title: Plato the divine.