When a woman entitles a book _The Dangerous Age_ we may feel sure she
does not intend to write of the dangers of early youth. The dangerous
age described by Karin Michaëlis is precisely that time of life which
inspired Octave Feuillet to write the novel, half-dialogue,
half-journal, which appeared in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ in 1848, was
adapted for the stage, played at the _Gymnase_ in 1854, and reproduced
later with some success at the Comédie-Française--I mean the work
entitled _La Crise_.

It is curious to compare the two books, partly on account of the long
space of time which separates them, and partly because of the different
way in which the two writers treat the same theme.

Octave Feuillet, be it remembered, only wrote what might be spoken aloud
in the most conventional society. Nevertheless those who think the
author of _Monsieur de Cantors_ timid and insipid are only short-sighted
critics. I advise my readers when they have finished the last page of
_The Dangerous Age_ to re-read _La Crise_. They will observe many points
of resemblance, notably in the "journal" portion of the latter.
Juliette, Feuillet's heroine, thus expresses herself:

"What name can I give to this moral discomfort, this distaste for my
former habits, this aimless restlessness and discontent with myself and
others, of which I have been conscious during the last few months?... I
have taken it into my head to hate the trinkets on my husband's
watchchain. We lived together in peace for ten years, those trinkets and
I ... Now, I don't know why, we have suddenly fallen out...."

These words from _La Crise_ contain the argument of _The Dangerous Age_.