Read The Girl Who Loved Camellias: The Life and Legend of Marie Duplessis Online
Authors: Julie Kavanagh
The Girl Who Loved Camellias: The Life and Legend of Marie Duplessis (35 page)
“Celebrated for more than a title”:
L’Epoque
, 9 February 1847.
“Why, Madame?”:
Matharel de Fiennes,
L’Entr’acte
, 10 and 11 February 1852.
“Go quickly to her”:
Revue Encyclopédique
, 15 February 1896.
“If I had happened to be in Paris”:
2 May or 2 June. Liszt and d’Agoult,
Correspondance.
“banned from the bedroom”:
Matharel de Fiennes,
L’Entr’acte
, 10 and 11 February 1852.
“Forty-eight hours before”:
Amédée Achard (Grimm) in
L’Epoque
, 9 February 1847.
“Oh, I’m dying!” and following descriptions of Marie’s final moments:
Matharel de Fiennes,
L’Entr’acte
, 10 and 11 February 1852.
That evening Clotilde answered the door to Romain:
Vienne says that he returned to Paris on Tuesday, 20 February, but, writing forty years later, he has forgotten the exact date. He must have meant Tuesday, 2 February (the 20th, a Saturday, is the date of Marguerite’s death in the novel).
“The tenderness and touching taste”:
Roqueplan,
Parisine.
The church was still hung with black draperies:
In the announcement of Marie’s death in
Les Petites Affiches, Le Constitutionnel et Le Moniteur des Ventes
, she is plain “Mlle Plessis.”
“Olympe A.”:
“Méjannes,” column in
Gil Blas
, 18 October 1887.
thoroughbred “of superb genealogy”:
Gros,
Une courtisane romantique.
Clotilde was “hunted down”:
Matharel de Fiennes,
L’Entr’acte
, 10 and 11 February 1852.
In the novel:
Could Dumas fils himself have been there observing Ned? He had learned of Marie’s death when he was in Marseille, but had returned to Paris by February 12 or 13. The exhumation took place on the 16th. In the first two editions of the novel the cemetery is described as Père Lachaise, not Montmartre, but this may just be another of Dumas fils’s amendments of the facts. There is no written evidence of his presence at the exhumation (undisclosed to all but Ned Perregaux, the grave diggers, and the prefect of police). But how else was he able to describe the procedure in such grim detail?
“delivered up to sepulchral worms”:
1 May 1847. Liszt and d’Agoult,
Correspondance.
“I’ve always felt that I’ll come back to life”:
Matharel de Fiennes,
L’Entr’acte
, 10 and 11 February 1852.
OSTSCRIPT
“a rich and elegant property” … “After the death”:
Gros,
Une courtisane romantique.
“The greatest medical practitioner”:
Letter (in French) from Dickens to Comte d’Orsay, Paris, March 1847, in Pontavice de Heussey,
L’inimitable Boz.
“For my part”:
Ibid.
“the gaudy and ghastly”:
Dickens, letter to the Rev. Edward Tagart, 28 January 1847. Pilgrim edition of
The Letters of Charles Dickens
, vol. 5: 1847–1849, ed. Graham Storey and K. J. Fielding (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981).
“with a dreadful insatiability”:
John Forster,
The Life of Charles Dickens
(London: Cecil Palmer, 1928).
“Everyone whom”:
Letter to d’Orsay, in Pontarice du Heussey,
L’inimitable Boz.
“each object speak”:
Dumas fils, “M.D.,” in
Péchés de jeunesse.
“This one was dead”:
Dumas fils,
La dame aux camélias.
“For it is there, in the past”:
Dumas fils, “M.D.,” in
Péchés de jeunesse.
Delphine had held back:
In an unpublished letter dated 28 October 1869, Gustave Le Vavasseur describes an encounter with Delphine that took place at a notary’s office in Vimontier (Frederick R. Koch Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University). “The unhappy Plessis girl” admitted being in miserable circumstances, he says, having sold every item she had inherited and lost twenty thousand francs through speculation. She was trying to negotiate a loan and was considering selling the last remaining thing of value, which was Vidal’s portrait
Marie Duplessis aux bains des Pyrénées.
The fact that it was found in an attic a century later by her descendents suggests that Delphine either changed her mind or did not find a buyer.
“Did he intend to give the courtesan’s”:
Boudet,
La fleur du mal.
But the explanation:
Letter to Calmann Lévy, printed in the 1886 edition of
La dame aux camélias
(Paris: Quantin).
Count de G. who “launched” … “no more than”:
Dumas fils,
La dame aux camélias.
“It’s a history”:
Saint-Victor,
Le théâtre contemporain.
“The habitués”:
Vandam,
An Englishman in Paris
, vol. 1.
“Acting on impulse”:
Gustave Le Vavasseur, in
L’almanach de l’Orne
, 1895.
“The Faubourg St Germain” … “Haughty with men”:
Elisabeth de Gramont,
Pomp and Circumstance
, trans. Brian W. Downs (New York: Jonathan Cape’s Harrison Smith, 1979).
“My dear count”:
Alice Ozy to Théophile Gautier, Letter 960, 14? March 1847. Claudine Lacoste-Veysseyre, ed.,
Théophile Gautier, correspondance générale 1846–1848
, vol. 3 (Geneva and Paris: Librairie Droz, 1988).
“an amiable and witty”:
Alice Ozy to Théophile Gautier, Letter 162, Gautier correspondence, Lovenjoul Collection, Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France.
“And he has kept”:
Mané,
Le Paris viveur.
“very extraordinary and distinguished”:
Quoted in Perényi,
Liszt.
“It was the last”:
Iassy, May or June 1847.
“He loved to lay stress”:
Wohl,
François Liszt.
“with his inventive intelligence”:
Le Vavasseur, in
l’Almanach de l’Orne
, 1895.
“the phantom who had haunted”:
Ibid.
F
REQUENTLY
C
ITED
S
OURCES
Choulet, Jean-Marie.
Promenades à Paris et en Normandie avec la dame aux camélias.
Paris: Editions Charles Corlet, 1998.
Dumas fils, Alexandre.
La dame aux camélias.
Preface by André Maurois. Paris: Collection Folio Classique, Gallimard, 1975.
———.
Théâtre complet.
Vol. 3,
Notes.
Paris: Calmann Lévy, 1898.
Gros, Johannes.
Une courtisane romantique, Marie Duplessis.
Paris: Au Cabinet du Livre, 1929.
Hays, Charles du
. L’ancien Merlerault: Récits chevalins d’un vieil éleveur.
Paris: Morris Père et Fils, 1885.
Janin, Jules. Preface to
La dame aux camélias.
Paris: A. Cadot, 1851.
Judith, Julie Bernat.
La vie d’une grande comédienne: Mémoires de Madame Judith de la Comédie-Française et souvenirs sur ses contemporains.
Edited by Paul Gsell. Paris: J. Tallandier, 1911.
Matharel de Fiennes, Charles.
L’Entr’acte
, 10 and 11 February 1852.
“Méjannes.” Column in
Gil Blas
, 18 October 1887.
Mesnil, E. du.
L’Intermédiaire des Chercheurs et Curieux.
10 September 1890.
Roqueplan, Nestor.
Parisine.
Paris: J. Hetzel et Cie, 1868.
Vandam, Albert.
An Englishman in Paris
, vol. 1. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1892.
URTHER
R
EADING
Alméras, Henri d’.
La vie parisienne sous le règne de Louis-Philippe.
Paris: Albin Michel, no date.
Anon.
La grisette à Paris et en province. Sa vie, ses moeurs, son caractère, ses joies, ses espérances, ses tribulations.
Paris: Renault, 1843.
Anon.
Paris dansant; ou, Les filles d’Hérodiade.
Paris: J. Bréauté, 1845.
Ariste, Paul d’.
La vie et le monde du boulevard (
1830–1870
)
(
Un Dandy: Nestor Roqueplan
). Paris: Jules Tallandier, 1930.
Banville, Théodore de.
Mes souvenirs.
Paris: G. Charpentier, 1882.
———.
Les Parisiennes de Paris.
Paris: M. Lévy Frères, 1866.
———.
Petites études, Paris vécu.
Paris: G. Charpentier, 1883.
Barnes, David S.
The Making of a Social Disease: Tuberculosis in Nineteenth-Century France.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
Beach, Vincent W.
Charles X of France: His Life and Times.
Boulder, Colo.: Pruett, 1971.
Beaconsfield, Lord.
Correspondence with His Sister, 1832–1852
. London: John Murray, 1886.
Beauvoir, Roger de.
Voluptueux Souvenirs; ou, Le Souper des Douze
(avec la réproduction de 12 figures libre de Devéria). Paris: Romainville, pour la bibliothèque de “Disciples d’Eros,” date unknown.
Bertaut, Jules.
Le Boulevard.
Paris: Jules Tallandier, 1957.
Blessington, Countess of.
The Idler in France
, vols. 1 and 2. London: Henry Colburn, 1841.
Bordeaux, Michèle, et al.
Madame ou Mademoiselle?: Itineraires de la solitude feminine
, 19–20
me siècle.
Paris: Montalba, 1984.
Castelnau, Jacques.
En remontant les grands boulevards.
Paris: Le Livre Contemporain, 1960.
Claudin, Gustave.
Mes souvenirs: Les boulevards de 1840–1870.
Paris: Calmann Lévy, 1884.
Claretie, Jules La.
Vie à Paris.
Paris: Bibliothèque-Charpentier, 1911.
Contades, Comte G. de.
Portraits et fantaisies.
Paris: Maison Quantin, 1887.
Corbin, Alain.
Women for Hire: Prostitution and Sexuality in France after 1850.
Cambridge, Mass. London: Harvard University Press, 1990.
Czapska, Maria.
Une famille d’Europe Centrale 1772–1914.
Paris: Plon, 1972.
Delvau, Alfred.
Les lions du jour.
Paris: E. Dentu, 1867.
Disraeli, Benjamin.
Letters
, vols. I, II, V. Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press, 1982.
Dumas, Alexandre.
Lettres à mon fils.
Edition présentée et annotée par Claude Schopp. Paris: Mercure de France, 2008.
Dumas fils, Alexandre.
L’affaire Clemenceau: Mémoire de l’accusé.
Paris: Michael Lévy Frères, 1869.
———.
The Lady of the Camellias.
With a critical introduction by Edmund Gosse. London: William Heinemann, 1902.
———.
Péchés de jeunesse.
Paris: Fellens et Dufour, 1847.
Félice, Raoul de.
La Basse-Normandie.
Paris: Hachette, 1907.
Foulkes, Nick.
Last of the Dandies.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003.
Gramont, E[lisabeth] de, ex-Duchesse de Clermont-Tonnerre.
Pomp and Circumstance.
Trans. Brian W. Downs. New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1929.
Gribble, Francis.
Dumas, Father and Son.
London: Eveleigh Nash & Grayson, 1930.
Grunwald, Constantin de.
Le Duc de Gramont, gentilhomme et diplomate.
Paris: Hachette, 1950.
Guitry, Sacha.
Cinquante ans d’occupations.
Paris: Le Grand Livre du Mois, 1993.
Hemmings, F.W.J.
The King of Romance: A Portrait of Alexandre Dumas.
London: Hamish Hamilton, 1979.
Henriot, Emile.
Portraits de femmes d’Héloïse à Katherine Mansfield.
Paris: Albin Michel, 1951.
Houssaye, Arsène.
Man about Paris.
Trans. and ed. Henry Knepler, London: Victor Gollancz, 1972.
———.
La péchéresse
, Paris: M. Lévy Frères, 1863.
———.
Souvenirs de jeunesse.
Paris: Flammarion, 1896.
Hugo, Victor.
Choses vues.
Paris: Mondiale, 1957.
James, Henry.
The Scenic Art: Notes on Acting and the Drama, 1872–1901.
London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1949.
Janin, Jules.
735 lettres à sa femme.
Textes décryptés, classés et annotés par Mergier-Bourdeix. 3 vols. Paris: C. Klincksieck, 1973–79.
John, Nicholas, ed.
Violetta and Her Sisters: “The Lady of the Camellias”; Responses to the Myth.
London: Faber & Faber, 1994.
Landor, Walter Savage.
Letters and Other Unpublished Writings.
Ed. Stephen Wheeler. London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1897.
Liszt, Franz.
Selected Letters.
Trans. and ed. by Adrian Williams. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.
Liszt, Franz, and Marie d’Agoult.
Correspondance.
Présentée et annotée par Serge Gut et Jacqueline Bellas. Paris: Fayard, 2001.
Loliée, Frédéric.
The Gilded Beauties of the Second Empire.
London: John Long, 1909.
Madden, R. R.
The Literary Life and Correspondence of the Countess of Blessington
, vols. 1–3. London: T. C. Newby, 1855.
Mané [pseudonym of Henri de Pené].
Le Paris viveur.
Paris: E. Dentu, 1862.
Mansel, Philip.
Paris Between Empires, 1814–1852.
London: John Murray, 2001.
Martin, Marietta.
Le Docteur Koreff (
1
783
–
1851
): Un aventurier intellectuel sous la restauration et la Monarchie de Juillet.
Paris: Edouard Champion, 1925.
Maupassant, Guy de.
Le colporteur.
Edition présentée, établie et annotée par Marie-Clare Bancquart. Paris: Gallimard, 2006.
Maurois, André.
Three Musketeers: A Study of the Dumas Family.
Trans. Gerard Hopkins. London: Jonathan Cape, 1957.
Morrison, Alfred.
The Collection of Autograph Letters and Historical Documents: The Blessington Papers.
Printed for private circulation, 1895.
Murger, Henri.
Scènes de la vie de bohème.
Paris: Calmann Lévy, 1886.
Musset, Alfred de.
Etudes d’histoire romantique.
Vol. 1 (1848–1914). Paris: Societé du
Mercure de France
, 1907.
Nesselrode, Comte de.
Lettres et papiers
, 1760–1850. Paris: A. Lahure, 1904.
Noël, Benoit, and Jean Hournon.
La Seine au temps des canotiers.
Paris: ROM Productions, 1997.
Parent-Duchâtelet, Alexandre.
La prostitution à Paris au XIXe siècle.
Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1981.
Perényi, Eleanor.
Liszt.
London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1974.
Plancy, Baron de.
Souvenirs et indiscrétions d’un disparu.
Paris: Paul Ollendorff, 1892.
Pontavice de Heussey, Robert du.
L’inimitable Boz: Etude historique et anecdotique sur la vie et l’oeuvre de Charles Dickens.
Paris: Maison Quantin, 1889.
Prévost, d’Exiles, Antoine-François.
Histoire du chevalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut.
Paris: Gallimard, 2008.
Price, David.
Cancan!
London: Cygnus Arts, 1998.
Richardson, Joanna.
The Courtesans: The Demi-Monde in Nineteenth-Century France.
London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1967.
———.
Théophile Gautier: His Life and Times.
London: Max Reinhardt, 1958.
Roqueplan, Nestor.
Regain: La vie parisienne.
Paris: Librairie Nouvelle, 1853.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques.
La nouvelle Héloïse.
Paris: Garnier, 1963.
Sadleir, Michael.
Blessington-D’Orsay: A Masquerade.
London: Constable, 1947.
Saint-Pierre, Bernardin de.
Paul and Virginia.
Trans. Helen Maria Williams. London: F. C. and J. Rivington, 1822.
Saint-Victor, Paul de.
Le théâtre contemporain.
Paris: C. Lévy, 1889.
Sand, George.
Isidora.
Paris: Editions Sercap, 1982.
Saunders, Edith.
The Prodigal Father: Dumas Père et Fils and
The Lady of the Camellias. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1951.
Seymour, Bruce.
Lola Montez: A Life.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1996.
Texier, Edmond.
Tableau de Paris.
Paris: Paulin et Le Chevalier, 1852–53.
Vento, Claude.
Les peintres de la femme.
Paris: E. Dentu, 1888.
Vérel, Charles.
Nonant-le-Pin, ses foires et son marché, etc.
Alençon: Vve A. Laverdure, 1914.
Viel-Castel, Horace de.
Mémoires sur la règne de Napoléon III, 1851–1864.
Paris: Chez Tous les Libraires, 1883.
Villemessant, H. de
. Mémoires d’un journaliste: deuxième serie: Les hommes de mon temps.
Paris: E. Dentu, 1872.
———.
Mémoires d’un journaliste
:
Scènes intimes.
Paris: E. Dentu, 1876.
Walker, Alan.
Franz Liszt.
Vol. 1,
The Virtuoso Years, 1811–1847.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990.
Wharton, Edith.
Beatrice Palmato.
Appendix to R. W. B. Lewis,
Edith Wharton: A Biography.
London: Constable, 1975.
Williams, Adrian.
Portraits of Liszt by Himself and His Contemporaries.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990.
Wissant, Georges de.
Cafés and Cabarets.
Paris: Jules Tallandier, 1928.
Wohl, Janka.
François Liszt: Recollections of a Compatriot.
Trans. B. Peyton Ward. London: Ward & Downey, 1887.
Yriarte, Charles.
Les cercles de Paris 1828–1864.
Paris: Dupray de la Mahérie, 1864.
Zola, Emile.
L’assommoir.
Paris: Livre de Poche, 1996.
———.
The Belly of Paris.
Trans. with an introduction and notes by Brian Nelson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
———.
Nana.
Trans. with an introduction and notes by Douglas Parmee. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
