LETTRES

An excellent letter, linking leading nineteenth-century writers of the French and English nations. See Daudet's entry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Meredith’s in the Oxford DNB. Daudet’s association with Meredith during his ‘first and only visit to England’ is described on pp.122-124 of the 1911 edition of J. A. Hammerton’s ‘George Meredith, his Life and Art’, which also quotes extensively from Madame Daudet’s account of the Englishman, referred to in the letter. 2pp, 16mo. Twenty-one lines of closely- and neatly-written text. On the rectos of the leaves of a bifolium.

2pp, 4to. On leaf tipped-in onto a piece of light-green card from an album, at head of which is attached a printed slip: 'BARENTIN C. L. F. de P. | Born 1738. Died 1819. | KEEPER OF THE SEALS TO LOUIS XVI.' The letter is undated, but the year '1789' has been added in pencil in a nineteenth-century hand. (That same year, following the Storming of the Bastille, Barentin was dismissed by the king.) Nineteen lines of closely-written text. Addressed at bottom left of first leaf to 'M le P Gl' (Monsieur le Procureur général?).

4to, 1 p. Addressed in autograph on the reverse of the second leaf of the bifolium. Good, though lightly creased and a little grubby. He is sending a notice (not present) announcing the courses for the term 1825-1826 at the Faculté, and asks for it to be inserted as soon as possible 'en totalité ou par extrait dans votre journal'.