Alexandre Dumas, Jr. Approximately 130 autograph, signed letters to Princess...
Alexandre Dumas, Jr. Approximately 130 autograph, signed letters to Princess Aurélie Ghika. 1872–1895. Approximately 630 pp., in-8 and in-12
Henriette-Aurélie Soubiran (1820–1904) was the daughter of a disreputable adventurer, who appears to have given her an excellent education. She frequented Parisian literary and artistic circles and began publishing in 1841. An attempt at a career in theater came to an abrupt end. In 1849, she married Prince Grigore Ghika, one of the sons of Grigore IV Ghika, the hospodar of Wallachia, out of love. Widowed in 1858, she lived for a few years in Romania before settling in Lectoure in 1866, where she would die. In this provincial town, where the memory of her father’s dubious past had preceded her, she was initially kept at a distance from society before the townspeople began flocking to her home and her salon became the center of social life.
Alexandre Dumas, Jr. wrote the preface to one of her last books, *Pensées de la Solitude*.
An interesting exchange of friendly letters in which Dumas, Jr. expounds his ideas—primarily on women—confident that he would be understood by a cultured and highly intelligent correspondent who was not put off by philosophical questions.
– 1872. “Lectoure! That’s a long way off. At least 150 leagues for a man so busy—it’s impossible. Only my memories and my gratitude can go there. But my actual presence is impossible.” – March 28. “That is truly remarkable. You have both form and substance. Why not write the Bible for women!” – March 21, 1875. “Your handwriting is neat, clear, straight, firm—a bit angular, as is typical of great minds… You know that one can judge a person’s character by their handwriting… By filling your mind and soul with all sorts of things, you have altered—consciously or unconsciously—your handwriting, that is, one of the outward signs of your mind and soul…” – June 26, 1875: “As for the melancholy you thought you detected behind my laughter, I would not have insulted you by hiding it from you. For intelligent people, laughter is nothing more than the mask behind which they hide their thoughts when they are in contact with a world that does not deserve their trust…” – 1876. “You ask me with dread what we would put in place of what is? We would put what must be. Everything that disappears is replaced by something that was behind, beneath, above, or within it. There is no void in nature…” – May 18, 1876. On the death she fears: “Is it not rest? Is it not the end of realities that are more or less deceptive, and whose continuation would be a true torment? Is it not the beginning of the possible realizations of our mind’s conceptions?...“ – August 4, 1876: “Everything you tell me about G.S. [George Sand] is perfectly true. Her excuse is that she portrayed a great many women of her time and the phase of rebellion and emancipation of French women. The harm she seemed to cause would have occurred without her—and less poetically than with her. We’ve gained a few beautiful pages from it, for she leaves behind not a true masterpiece, but a vast number of fine pieces. She was a great writer with very little depth of thought…” – April 22, 1877. “I once advised you to write the Bible for women. Now that I know you better, that is no longer what I would advise. You have a vague, indecisive, poetic, drifting, superstitious, supernatural religion… You do not have hands strong enough to tie the knot between nature and the creature…” – 1878: “A woman is always available, and she always will be because she lacks her own direction… because she needs a man and, when a man is lacking, God to bring about her providential evolution…” – 1878: “Divorce must not be open to every whim, but in certain specific cases, it must be available to whichever of the two is suffering too much in the marriage—a marriage in which the innocent truly pays too dearly for the guilty party…” – June 1884: The friendship I feel for you goes beyond a mere sentiment. You are not only a soul that loves, you are a soul that thinks—which is the rarest of all things. – 1882: Mademoiselle Jeannine, whom you won’t recognize at first, has grown to an enormous size; her sister is doing well, as is the baby, and even Madame Dumas, who sends her warmest regards. She envies you for always being in the country. She thinks she loves it!” – 1882: “I know of no one but you who writes so well. I have, without mentioning your name, of course, shared a few sentences from your latest letter
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Alexandre Dumas, Jr. Approximately 130 autograph, signed letters to Princess Aurélie Ghika. 1872–1895. Approximately 630 pp., in-8 and in-12
Henriette-Aurélie Soubiran (1820–1904) was the daughter of a disreputable adventurer, who appears to have given her an excellent education. She frequented Parisian literary and artistic circles and began publishing in 1841. An attempt at a career in theater came to an abrupt end. In 1849, she married Prince Grigore Ghika, one of the sons of Grigore IV Ghika, the hospodar of Wallachia, out of love. Widowed in 1858, she lived for a few years in Romania before settling in Lectoure in 1866, where she would die. In this provincial town, where the memory of her father’s dubious past had preceded her, she was initially kept at a distance from society before the townspeople began flocking to her home and her salon became the center of social life.
Alexandre Dumas, Jr. wrote the preface to one of her last books, *Pensées de la Solitude*.
An interesting exchange of friendly letters in which Dumas, Jr. expounds his ideas—primarily on women—confident that he would be understood by a cultured and highly intelligent correspondent who was not put off by philosophical questions.
– 1872. “Lectoure! That’s a long way off. At least 150 leagues for a man so busy—it’s impossible. Only my memories and my gratitude can go there. But my actual presence is impossible.” – March 28. “That is truly remarkable. You have both form and substance. Why not write the Bible for women!” – March 21, 1875. “Your handwriting is neat, clear, straight, firm—a bit angular, as is typical of great minds… You know that one can judge a person’s character by their handwriting… By filling your mind and soul with all sorts of things, you have altered—consciously or unconsciously—your handwriting, that is, one of the outward signs of your mind and soul…” – June 26, 1875: “As for the melancholy you thought you detected behind my laughter, I would not have insulted you by hiding it from you. For intelligent people, laughter is nothing more than the mask behind which they hide their thoughts when they are in contact with a world that does not deserve their trust…” – 1876. “You ask me with dread what we would put in place of what is? We would put what must be. Everything that disappears is replaced by something that was behind, beneath, above, or within it. There is no void in nature…” – May 18, 1876. On the death she fears: “Is it not rest? Is it not the end of realities that are more or less deceptive, and whose continuation would be a true torment? Is it not the beginning of the possible realizations of our mind’s conceptions?...“ – August 4, 1876: “Everything you tell me about G.S. [George Sand] is perfectly true. Her excuse is that she portrayed a great many women of her time and the phase of rebellion and emancipation of French women. The harm she seemed to cause would have occurred without her—and less poetically than with her. We’ve gained a few beautiful pages from it, for she leaves behind not a true masterpiece, but a vast number of fine pieces. She was a great writer with very little depth of thought…” – April 22, 1877. “I once advised you to write the Bible for women. Now that I know you better, that is no longer what I would advise. You have a vague, indecisive, poetic, drifting, superstitious, supernatural religion… You do not have hands strong enough to tie the knot between nature and the creature…” – 1878: “A woman is always available, and she always will be because she lacks her own direction… because she needs a man and, when a man is lacking, God to bring about her providential evolution…” – 1878: “Divorce must not be open to every whim, but in certain specific cases, it must be available to whichever of the two is suffering too much in the marriage—a marriage in which the innocent truly pays too dearly for the guilty party…” – June 1884: The friendship I feel for you goes beyond a mere sentiment. You are not only a soul that loves, you are a soul that thinks—which is the rarest of all things. – 1882: Mademoiselle Jeannine, whom you won’t recognize at first, has grown to an enormous size; her sister is doing well, as is the baby, and even Madame Dumas, who sends her warmest regards. She envies you for always being in the country. She thinks she loves it!” – 1882: “I know of no one but you who writes so well. I have, without mentioning your name, of course, shared a few sentences from your latest letter
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