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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

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Listings for Author:  

Madame de Sevigne

  

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Madame de Sevigne : Letters

Mary Berry to Mrs Cholmeley, 5 October 1799: 'Mentioning [...] [Madame de Coigny] puts me in mind of a book which I am now [italics]devouring[end italics] with delight, though no new one, and I am now reading it for the third time. I mean Madme de Sevigne's Letters.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry      Print: Book

  

Madame De Sevigne : Letters

Mary Berry to a friend, from Nice, March 1803: 'I am reading over for the fiftieth time, I believe, the letters of Madame de Sevigne. They always improve on me, and are [italics]here[end italics] particularly interesting.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry      Print: Book

  

Madame de Sevigne : unknown

Thursday 22 September 1938: 'I was just getting into the old, very old, rhythm of regular reading, first this book then that [...] bowls 5 to 6.30: then Madame de Sevigne; get dinner 7.30 [...] read Siegfried Sassoon; & so to bed at 11.30 or so.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf      Print: Book

  

Madame de Sevigne : letters

Saturday 14 September 1940: 'I am reading Sevigne: how recuperative last week [during heavy air raids]; gone stale a little with that mannered & sterile Bussy now. Even through the centuries his acid dandified somehow supercilious well what? -- cant find the word -- this manner of his, this character penetrates; & moreover reminds me of someone I dislike [...] Theres a ceremony in him that reminds me of Tom [ie T. S. Eliot]. Theres a parched artificial cruelty'.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf      Print: Book

  

Madame de Sevigne : Letters

Passages quoted at length in E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book (1940) include three extracts from the Letters of Madame de Sevigne, the first of which, Forster notes underneath it, 'is not the one I wanted to copy out,' continuing, 'Her orthodox, gaiety, and caution are much better combined in the following,' and announcing the third with 'And still better -- gaiety dominating'.

Century: 1800-1849 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster      Print: Book

  

Madame de Sevigne : Letters

Lady Harriet Cavendish to her former governess, Selina Trimmer, 19 November 1803: 'I have only read 2 of Belsham's lives; Charles the second and James the second. Charles the first I feel pretty well acquainted with, from our old friend Clarendon. I do not mean to go on with Belsham till I have finished Madame de Sevigne's letters, one volume of which I have read. It is a great undertaking to read them through, but they are so very delightful, and I have so much time for reading here, that I do not find it at all too tedious. I do think her letters and her sentiments quite incomparable, and the endless variety of anecdote and wit, assure their never tiring or boring [...] In the evening we all read and oh! the pleasures of Ignorance. Madame de Sevigne's is to me more entertaining and to my shame I confess, much more [italics]new[end italics], than any novel I could read.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Harriet Cavendish      Print: Book

  

Madame de Sevigne : Letters

Lady Harriet Cavendish to her sister, Lady Georgiana Morpeth, 19 November 1803 ('Friday evening'): 'I just this moment found these lines in one of Madame de Sevigne's letters: "Il faut avouer que nous sommes a une belle distance l'une de l'autre, et que si l'on avoit quelquechose sur le coeur, dont on attendit du soulagement, on auroit un beau loisir de se pendre." The tedious six days before it is possible that I should receive your answer to my last letter are indeed enough to tempt one to some tragical end, and I know not how I shall go through them with patience.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Harriet Cavendish      Print: Book

  

Madame de Sevigne : Letters (vol. 5)

Lady Harriet Cavendish to her former governess, Selina Trimmer, 24 November 1803: 'I lament the reason I am going to give you for keeping to one book at a time. I find from the long habits of inattention and unsteadiness of reading to which I have accustomed myself that I cannot remember or connect what I am about as well if I vary the subject, as when I keep steadily to one, and in fact, I gain as much information from constantly having my book [italics]near[end italics] or [italics]about[end italics] me, I get on very fast [sic]. I am now in the 5th volume of Madame de Sevigne's letters, and I own myself to be quite captivated by her style, wit and variety of sentiment. I think people are much mistaken who only dip into this book, as it is impossible to do her, or one's own judgement of her, justice without reading it through with attention and I am sure then with delight.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Harriet Cavendish      Print: Book

  

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