Hagar :: :: University of Virginia Library

Contents.—Dufresny, Fontenelle, Marivaux, Piron, The Abbé Prévost, Gentil-Bernard,
Florian, Boufliers, Diderot, Grétry, Rivarol, Louis XV., Greuze, Boucher, The Van
loos, Lantara, Watteau, La Motte, Dèhle, Abbé Trublet, Buffon, Dorat, Cardinal de
Bernis, Crébillon the Gay, Marie Antoinette, Madame de Pompadour, Vadé, Mdlle. Camargo,
Mdlle. Clairon, Madame de la Popelinière, Sophie Arnould, Crébillon the
Tragic, Mdlle, Guimard, Three Pages from the Life of Dancourt, A Promenade in the
Palais-Royal, the Chevalier' de la Clos.

“A more fascinating book than this rarely issues from the teeming press. Fascinating
in its subject; fascinating in its style; fascinating in its power to lead the reader
into castle-building of the most gorgeous and bewitching description. The men and
women of the last century, whose characteristics and habits of life the author makes his
theme, are French men and women. The Court of Louis XV, is the ground—not classic
ground, not romantic, far from hallowed, and yet enchanted—upon which he treads.
His step befits the place. He handles his subject daintily, elegantly, and with an apparent
consciousness of the bewildering effect he is producing.”

—Courier and Enquirer.

“A Book of books.—Two deliciously spicy volumes, that are a perfect bonne bouche
for an epicure in reading, have just been published by Redfield. They are called `The
Men and Women of the Eighteenth Century,' translated from the French of Arséne
Houssaye. Anecdotes, gossip, history, biography, are admirably mingled, and, in the
clear, bright, sunny English they have been transplanted into, they form as agreeable a
book as the season can show.”

—Home Journal.

“A combination of the light graces of literature with a profound philosophic insight,
such as is rarely found but among French writers, is essential in an historian of the eighteenth
century. We find such a combination in the brilliant work, the `Men and Women
of the Eighteenth Century,' by Arséne Houssaye.”

—Literary World.

“In the volumes of Arséne Houssaye before us, these gay but unsubstantial shadows
take flesh and blood, and become the Men and Women—the living realities of the Eighteenth
Century.”

—International Magazine.

“These two beautiful volumes are worthy the perusal of every intelligent reader. Mr.
Houssaye has opened a new path in the common every-day field of literature, his subjects
are of the deepest interest and the handles them with an accomplished pen.”

—
Buffalo Daily Ledger.

“They indeed furnish a most impressive picture of France, during that century, as
seen in her princes, philosophers, poets, painters, actors, dancers, &c.”

—Boston Traveler.

“It presents by far the best portrait of the prominent figures of the age to which it refers,
that we know of in the English language.”

—Evening Post.

“In these volumes are contained the sketches of the beaux esprits of the reign of Louis
XV.—a period notorious for the profligacy of the court, as it was remarkable for its influential
literary coteries, which gathered the wit and talent of the age.”

—Boston Journal.

“They reveal the familiar life of the time, disclose the inmost traits of thought and the
hidden motives of action, and furnish in all respects a glass in which we may view the
past age.”

—Brooklyn Evening Star.

“While they are true to the history of the times, and the men and women of the times,
they are as entertaining as the stories of the Arabian nights.”

—Bunker Hill Aurora.

“The author has laid his hand upon the dead heart of that age, reanimated the illustrious
dead who adorn it, and brought out before us of the present century—for inspection,
admiration, and criticism—its poets, philosophers, statemen, authors, artists, and
wits.”

—Albany State Register.

“We think, indeed, that we have never met with anything that carries us so entirely
into the interior life of French society in that age.”

—Albany Express.