Villiers de L'Isle Adam; His Life and Works, from the French of Vicomte Robert Du Pontavice de Heussey (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ...sure that thou shalt be heard Thou who standest on Calvary Thou who canst pardon Heel that crushest the serpent Whiteness of the eternal dawn Glory of human tears Light of the eastern star Thou soul of chastity Thou resignation of the poor ' etc., etc., etc. "To an author who told him the atrociously cynical title of his lately-published book, he answered boldly: 'Such things should never be written. Those are words that will come back to you on your deathbed.' " As I am in a vein of quotation, I will cite one more charming anecdote on the same subject, related in the "Revue Blane" by M. Henri Laujol, one of Villiers' earliest comrades. "I remember," he says, "receiving a visit from Villiers one day, while I was reading Hoeckel's ' History of the Creation.' I can see him now, turning over the leaves, looking at the woodcuts, and weighing the book in his hand, with much pantomimic alarm. He asked how much that grand book had cost, and I told him the price, somewhere about ten francs. 'The catechism costs only two sous ' was his reply. It was a regular country parson's remark. But Villiers was so delighted at having made it that he spent his whole afternoon repeating it to me, droning it out in every sort of key, now falsetto, now bass, and then again in a Tyrolese jodel; interrupting himself, now and then, to laugh at the top of his voice. I could get nothing else out of him the whole of that day." But I must turn from our bygone talks to register here an incident of his life on the boulevards, which he related to me one evening, and which was to give birth to that famous novel, "L'Eve Future," which...