A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2

  ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA FOR VOL. II

  P. 65.--A reviewer of my first volume, who objected to my omission thereof Madame de Charrieres, may possibly think that omission made moresinful by the admission of Madame de Montolieu. But there seems to me tobe a sufficient distinction between the two cases. Isabella AgnesElizabeth Van Tuyll (or, as she liked to call herself, Belle de Zuylen),subsequently Madame de Saint-Hyacinthe de Charrieres (how mellifluouslythese names pass over one's tongue!), was a very interesting person, andhighly characteristic of the later eighteenth century. I first met withher long ago (see Vol. I. p. 443) in my "Sensibility" researches, ashaving, in her maturer years, played that curious, but at the time notuncommon, part of "Governess in erotics" to Benjamin Constant, who wasthen quite young, and with whose uncle, Constant d'Hermenches, she had,years earlier and before her own marriage, carried on a long and veryintimate but platonic correspondence. This is largely occupied withoddly business-like discussions of marriage schemes for herself, one ofthe _pretendants_ being no less a person than our own precious Bozzy,who met her on the Continental tour for which Johnson started him atHarwich. But--and let this always be a warning to literary lovers--thetwo fell out over a translation of the Corsica book which she began.Boswell was not the wisest of men, especially where women wereconcerned. But even he might have known that, if you trust thebluest-eyed of gazelles to do such things for you, she will probablymarry a market-gardener. (He seems also to have been a little afraid ofher superiority of talent, _v._ his letters to Temple and his _Johnson_,pp. 192-3, Globe Ed.)

  Besides these, and other genuine letters, she wrote not a few novels,concocted often, if not always, in epistolary form. Their French was sogood that it attracted Sainte-Beuve's attention and praise, while quiterecently she has had a devoted panegyrist and editor in Switzerland,where, after her marriage, she was domiciled. But (and here come thereasons for the former exclusion) she learnt her French as a foreignlanguage. She was French neither by birth nor by extraction, nor, if Ido not mistake, by even temporary residence, though she did stay inEngland for a considerable time. Some of these points distinguish herfrom Hamilton as others do from Madame de Montolieu. If I put her in, Ido not quite see how I could leave Beckford out.

  P. 400, ll. 2, 3.--_For_ "1859 ... 1858" _read_ "1857--a year, with itssuccessors 1858 and 1859,"