"... [the young Cicely Hamilton] found a dusty copy of Eugene Sue's Juif Errant in a cupboard and with the aid of a dictionary, read it from cover to cover. The fact that 'it contained episodes which those in authority would probably consider unsuitable for juvenile reading' only adding [sic] to her enjoyment, for, in this educational context, 'there were only smiles of approval when I was seen with a French book in my hand.'"
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Cicely Hammill Print: Book
'I have been reading some French books lately viz, "Mathilde" par Eugene Sue and "Les mariages de paris" par Edmond About -'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Albert Battiscombe Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 21 November 1842:
'Keep my secret -- but I have been reading a good deal lately of the new French literature [...]
I was curious beyond the patience of my Eve-ship, & besides grew so interested in France &
the French through my long apprentice ship to the old Memoirs that I felt pricked to the heart
to know all about the posterity of my heroes & heroines. And besides I live out of the world
altogether, & am lonely enough & old enough & sad enough & experienced enough in every
sort of good & bad reading, not to be hurt personally by a French superfluity of bad [...]
[George Sand] is eloquent as a fallen angel [...] Then there is Eugene Sue, & Frederic Soulie,
& De Queile .. why the whole literature looks like a conflagration -- & my whole being aches
with the sight of it [...] Full indeed of power & caprice & extravagance is this new French
literature [...] The want is, of fixed principle [...] Now tell me, what you think? That it is very
naughty of me to read naughty books -- or that you have done the same?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 20-21 February 1844:
'We will talk of Eugene Sue.
' know the "Mysteries of Paris" very well, & much admire the genius which radiates, from end
to end, through that extraordinary work [...] the writer, if of less general power than Balzac,
is still more copious in imagination & creation. He glories in all extremities & intensities of evil
& of passion [...] he has written other romances [...] "Mathilde" interested
me beyond them all, & consists of some seven or eight volumes [...] but except for the insight
it gives into French society, I am not sure that you wd be pleased with it [...] I have been
thinking that the American translation in which you read the "Mysteries," may probably be a
[italics]purified[end italics] edition, of which I have seen some notices.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 20-21 February 1844:
'We will talk of Eugene Sue.
I know the "Mysteries of Paris" very well, & much admire the genius which radiates, from end
to end, through that extraordinary work [...] the writer, if of less general power than Balzac,
is still more copious in imagination & creation. He glories in all extremities & intensities of evil
& of passion [...] he has written other romances [...] "Mathilde" interested
me beyond them all, & consists of some seven or eight volumes [...] but except for the insight
it gives into French society, I am not sure that you wd be pleased with it [...] I have been
thinking that the American translation in which you read the "Mysteries," may probably be a
[italics]purified[end italics] edition, of which I have seen some notices.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Russell Mitford Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 20-21 February 1844:
'We will talk of Eugene Sue.
I know the "Mysteries of Paris" very well, & much admire the genius which radiates, from end
to end, through that extraordinary work [...] the writer, if of less general power than Balzac,
is still more copious in imagination & creation. He glories in all extremities & intensities of evil
& of passion [...] he has written other romances [...] "Mathilde" interested
me beyond them all, & consists of some seven or eight volumes [...] but except for the insight
it gives into French society, I am not sure that you wd be pleased with it [...] I have been
thinking that the American translation in which you read the "Mysteries," may probably be a
[italics]purified[end italics] edition, of which I have seen some notices.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 24 October 1844:
'I thought I had read only the [italics]third[end italics] volume of "Le Juif," -- but your fourth
must be my third, for I have assuredly read the madhouse scene -- & a very fine thing it is
[goes on to comment further upon specific episodes in novel] [...] I do wish I had the other
volumes of the "Juif Errant" -- but I suppose they are not written yet.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Mary Russell Mitford to Elizabeth Barrett, 4 December 1844:
'The only work of Eugene Sue which I have read among those you ask about, is "Le
Salamandre" [...] As strange a work it is as ever was written -- with few indications of the
power to come. The only remarkable thing is the preface, in which, by way of reason for
making all his people unhappy in this world, or rather for taking them out of it by being shot
and shooting themselves, he says that to represent good people as successful in this world
and rogues as unsuccessful would take away the chief argument for a future life.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Russell Mitford Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, c.20 September 1847:
'French books I get at [in Florence], but scarcely a new one, .. which is very provoking [...] I
have not read "Martin" ever since the first vol. in England.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 18 March 1845:
'I have been so low, and weary, & tired of life [...] Yesterday, I went to bed at four o'clock -- & even the ninth volume of the "Juif" would not animate me as it should.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 27 October 1845:
'Balzac's "Paysans" in its one volume, (for [italics]I[end italics] have only seen that one volume) is another proof of the pressure of the times towards sympathies with the people [...] he is Balzac still in "Les Paysans" -- but story there is none, & so no interest -- & no unity, as far as that first volume indicates: & I found it rather hard reading, despite the human character, & the scenic effects. As to "Le Juif" I have done with him, and am not sorry to have done. The last volumes fall off step by step.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Anna Brownell Jameson, 1 October 1849:
'We have had much quiet enjoyment here [...] read some amusing books, (Dumas & Sue! -- shake your head!) & seen our child grow fuller of roses & understanding day by day.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book
'In the late 1880s Gissing immersed himself in contemporary European fiction, as he had during previous periods of his life. Gissing's wide reading has been often noted but rarely assessed. Salient in any study of it would be his reading of Goethe and Heine in 1876 (and throughout his life), Eugene Sue and Henri Murger (in 1878 "Scenes de la Vie Boheme" was deepy influential), Comte (notably "Cours de Philosophie Positive" in 1878), Turgenev (in 1884 - but also constantly, for by the end of the decade he had read "Fathers and Sons" five times), Moliere, George Sand, Balzac, de Musset (whom he called indispensable" in 1885), Ibsen (in German, in the late 1880s), Zola, Dostoevski, the Goncourts (at least by the early 1890s). Gissing read with equal ease in French, German, Greek and latin, and these from an early age. Later he added Italian and late in life some Spanish'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Gissing Print: Book
'which I have encountered trying to think that it is curious to see what he has to say about the Jesuits, to excuse the frivolity'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: G. W. F. Howard, Lord Morpeth Print: Unknown