La Mère de la Marquise

Heath's Modern Language Series:
La Mère de
by Edmond About

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Title: Heath's Modern Language Series: La Mère de la Marquise
Author: Edmond About
Editor: Murray Peabody Brush
Release Date: September 30, 2007 [EBook #22813]
Language: French
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Heath's Modern Language Series
LA MÈRE DE LA MARQUISE
PAR
EDMOND ABOUT
EDITED WITH NOTES AND VOCABULARY
BY
MURRAY PEABODY BRUSH, PH.D.
WHILE PROFESSOR OF FRENCH, JOHNS HOPKINS
UNIVERSITY
D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO
COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY D. C. HEATH & CO.

INTRODUCTION
Edmond-François-Valentin About, the author of the accompanying
story, was born at Dieuze, in Lorraine, on February 14, 1828. He
followed the course of the French schools and in time was graduated
from the École normale, whence his taste for classical studies led him
to the French school at Athens. In 1853, About returned to Paris and
began to write for the newspapers, especially for the Moniteur, Figaro,
and Soir, and shortly after, in 1855, he published La Grèce
contemporaine, a bright, though hardly just satire on the manners and
customs of the people he had just left.
In the same year appeared About's first novel, Tolla, and although

forced to withstand the accusation of plagiarism in this work, the
following decade was the most fruitful of our author's life, the period in
which he produced almost all of the novels and stories to which he
owes his fame. The chief of these works are: Le Roi des Montagnes,
1856; Les Mariages de Paris, 1856; Germaine, 1857; Trente et
Quarante, 1858; L'Homme à l'Oreille cassé, 1861; Le Nez d'un Notaire,
1862; Le Cas de M. Guérin, 1862; and Madelon, 1863. Le Roman d'un
brave Homme did not appear until 1880. During these years About also
tried the dramatic field, but without success.
In the meantime the emperor, Napoleon the Third, had learned to
appreciate this quick and ready pen and was beginning to make large
use of it for political purposes. The resulting newspaper articles in
support of the government very soon made their author a favorite at
court and he was, furthermore, liberally rewarded and encouraged in
his work.
At this age About had no deep political sympathies, he supported the
imperial policy because he was well paid for his writings, but in 1870
the mismanagement of the Franco-Prussian war opened his eyes to the
shortcomings and deficiencies of the Bonapartist government and he
became an ardent Republican. He lost no time in giving up his literary
work that he might devote his whole energy to journalism in the
endeavor to advance the cause of his party, and in company with
Francisque Sarcey he founded the republican journal, Le XIXe Siècle.
Already under the empire About had been a violent anti-clerical, having
published as early as 1859 La Question romaine, against Romish
influence in France, and he now turned his particular attention to
combatting the Church of Rome in its relation to the republican
government.
In 1884, Edmond About was elected to the Academy, but before he
could be formally installed death overtook him, on January 17, 1885.
The characteristics of About's literary style appear as clearly in La
Mère de la Marquise, which is included in Les Mariages de Paris, as in
any of the author's longer works; we may briefly enumerate these
characteristics as facility and variety of expression, a ready wit, a large

and varied vocabulary, and the ability to sketch characters in a few,
bold strokes. About's stories are written to entertain, they are bright and
wholesome, they tell an interesting story in a straightforward manner,
and beneath all is just enough serious satire to lend a pleasing
proportion and balance to the whole.
In preparing this edition of La Mère de la Marquise the editor has
sought to present a text, with vocabulary, suitable for students of
French in the second year of the high-school course or in the first year
at college. The story itself has been chosen on account of its quick
action, the graceful and witty turn of the phrases, the easy, colloquial
style, and the entire freedom from coarseness. The text is that of the last
edition of Les Mariages de Paris, Paris, 1899; it is reproduced with the
omission of only a very few extracts hardly