BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE

It will thus be seen that our author, making bis firet début just

a quarter of a century ago, has already accomplished the literary

work of a reasonably long life, and yet he is, to-day, at forty-

nine, in the prime of his rare intellectual powers ; and it is

not at ail unsafe to predict that he will stand prominent as

one of the bright and shining lights in the literary history of

France of the closing years of the nineteenth century.

It only remains to say something of that work which, amid this wealth of material, has been selected for Volume IIL of this " Modem French Séries. " It has been seen that it was first published in Paris twelve years ago, and it has since been crowned by the French Academy. The Editor has taken the liberty of selecting the latter of two stories which together form one in Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard as originally published. The former of thèse is entitled La Bûche, and the latter La Fille de Clémentine. As the whole would make a volume of rather greater length than is désirable for the purposes of this séries, and as the " Crime " of the title (which, as has been said, is really no crime whatever, except in name) is connected only with the latter story, this modification seemed warrantable.

It is unnecessary to develop hère the plot of this admirably told story, as that may be safely and more profitably left to the student or reader of the book. The following brief estimate of this truly charming volume we translate from the analysis of the work given by Larousse in his Grand Dictionnaire Universel: "There is much delicacy of wit and shrewdness of observation, both in the représentation of the old savant and his governess, l cross and faithful, abounding in proverbial expressions, in préjudices, in virtue, and in dévotion/ and also in that of the cunning Mlle. Préfère and her worthy accomplice, M. Mouche. This intermingling of grâce, émotion, feeling, and of arch simplicity has caused the success of the volume.' '

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