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L, VI.—MADAME RECAMIER.
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— : » • ' ¦ i '.' Madame Recamiee's retu...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
( 373 )
( 373 )
L, Vi.—Madame Recamier.
L , VI . —MADAME RECAMIER . ( Concluded from p . 305 . )
— : » • ' ¦ I '.' Madame Recamiee's Retu...
— » ' ¦ i ' . ' Madame Recamiee ' s return to Paris was hailed by lier friends
with a triumphant joy which surrounded her with a thousand evidences that absence , so far from , diminishing , had but increased
her It power would . be in vain to attempt to chronicle even the names of
the distinguished persons who formed her society . She continued her relations with the family and friends of Bonaparte , with the
same disinterested courage with which she had clung to her royalist connexions -when they were on the losing side , and her house
became a neutral ground of meeting for all parties , and all shades of inion . All the illustrious foreigners whom the Restoration
had op assembled in Paris were presented to her , amongst others the Duke of Wellington , whose admiration for Madame Recamier did not
lend him sufficient tact to avoid offending her , and their acquaintance did not progress into friendship . M . Recamier ' s affairs , though
not so nourishing as they had been before his bankruptcy , were sufficientlprosperous to enable Madame Recamier to resume most
of the comforts y and luxuries to which she had been accustomed , and the deprivation of which she had severely felt . The death of
Madame de Stael , which happened in the summer of 1817 , was a great grief to Madame Recamier , and is the only circumstance we must pause
to note , until the year 1818 , when M . de Chateaubriand , who had been presented to her about a year previouslyfirst began his
intimacy with her . Dazzled by his literary reputation , , full of admiration of his geniusand with many points of sympathy in common ,
, Madame Recamier not only exercised , but in this case owned , a sway which was henceforth to occasion her many hours of pain , and
much anxiety;—his affection and his vanity were alike _~ exacting , and Madame Recamier devoted her life to content both . The chivalrous
fidelity of Matthieu de Montmorency , the unselfish and noble affection of Ballanchefailed to gain the place in her heart which
she accorded to the irritable , and egotistical Genius from the very commencement of their friendship . Whether her feminine nature
was weary of receiving instead of giving , and found a satisfaction in the daily and hourly opportunities of small self-sacrifices , which
M . de Chateaubriand did not spare her , it would be hard to say . There is no doubthoweverthat her influence over him was extreme
, , , and that after long years of patient affection the fruits were evident in the softening of many asperities , and the ennobling of
many small weaknesses which marred his otherwise _iine character and good heart .
Her other friends did not see this new friendship without some
pain ; but with disinterested regard , it was more for her future peace ,
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 1, 1861, page 373, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01021861/page/13/
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