Parisians in the Country by Honoré de Balzac
page 67 of 311 (21%)
page 67 of 311 (21%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
that real statesmen are becoming rare indeed in the lower chamber.
In point of fact, this plan, of very doubtful outcome, was hatched in the brain of the Superior Woman of the borough, _dux femina fasti_, but with a view to personal interest. This idea was so widely rooted in this lady's past life, and so entirely comprehended her future prospects, that it can scarcely be understood without some sketch of her antecedent career. Sancerre at that time could boast of a Superior Woman, long misprized indeed, but now, about 1836, enjoying a pretty extensive local reputation. This, too, was the period at which two Sancerrois in Paris were attaining, each in his own line, to the highest degree of glory for one, and of fashion for the other. Etienne Lousteau, a writer in reviews, signed his name to contributions to a paper that had eight thousand subscribers; and Bianchon, already chief physician to a hospital, Officer of the Legion of Honor, and member of the Academy of Sciences, had just been made a professor. If it were not that the word would to many readers seem to imply a degree of blame, it might be said that George Sand created _Sandism_, so true is it that, morally speaking, all good has a reverse of evil. This leprosy of sentimentality would have been charming. Still, _Sandism_ has its good side, in that the woman attacked by it bases her assumption of superiority on feelings scorned; she is a blue- stocking of sentiment; and she is rather less of a bore, love to some extent neutralizing literature. The most conspicuous result of George Sand's celebrity was to elicit the fact that France has a perfectly |
|