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86 MADAME DE GIRARDIN.
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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.
• In Her, The Published Following Two Ye...
acquaintance with , the serious realities and aspirations which lie beyond the ephemeral interests of the drawing-room region in which
she passed her life , and from which her inspirations—even in her best and maturest efforts—were principally drawn .
But while regretting- the somewhat superficial character of her productionsit must be admitted that her last works are so greatly
superior , both , in pathos and in power , to their predecessors , as to warrant the belief that , had her life been prolonged , she would
have left behind her the elements of a solid and lasting fame . Her early poetic compositions , notwithstanding the success they
met with on their first appearance , are , as already remarked , altogether inferior to lier prose , and would probably be voted unreadable by
most people . The general style of these pieces may be inferred from the opening couplet of the first of them , wfiich obtained the honors
of Academic approval : — " Xe Susp blessed end , one serap momen him , t celestia , your delicious l throngs songs , !"
The most pretentious of her rhyming compositions are the unsuccessful tragedies which , she wrote for Rachel , and which undoubtedly
contain many passages of neat and clever -writing ; while the most poetic is perhaps the one entitled "To the Night . "
The profound sadness and weariness of life , the moral gloom and [ hopelessnessso eloquently expressed in the verses just mentioned ,
seem to have , constituted a mental mood with which , amidst the social and intellectual excitement that surrounded herMadame de Girardin
, was not unfamiliar ; and this state of despondency appears to have deepened with the progress of her malady , until the intensity of her
yearning for some conclusive proof of the continuance of our existence beyond the led her to throw herself with feverish , ardour into
grave , the practice of " table-rapping" and its kindred exercises . During the last year of her life , she passed several hours daily in conversing
with the unseen intelligences with whom she believed herself to be thus Throug broug h ht the int severe o communication suffering of . the last stage of her illness , she
retained full possession of all her faculties , and was able to receive her more intimate friends until a very short period before its
termination . The gifts which some fairy godmother seemed to have showered around lier in her cradle , retained tlieir charm to the close
of her career . Graceful , elegant , and keenly alive to external impressions to the lasther thoughts were so clearher conversation so
vivid and energetic , , even in her latest moments , , that the few who were admitted to her presenceknowing that lier hours were
num-, bered , always quitted her sofa with as much admiration as regret . One of her last wishes wasthat her life might be prolonged until
, she could have heard the musical plash of a fountain which she was having made under a & ae old horse-chestnut tree outside her window ,
under which she had been fond of sitting . The idea of this fountain
had been in her mind for years ; as a thing to be placed under her
86 Madame De Girardin.
86 MADAME DE GIRARDIN .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1860, page 86, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101860/page/14/
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