This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
By THERESE BENTZON (MME. BLANC)
With a Preface by M. THUREAU-DANGIN, of the French Academy
It is natural that the attention and affection of Americans should beattracted to a woman who has devoted herself assiduously to understandingand to making known the aspirations of our country, especially inintroducing the labors and achievements of our women to their sisters inFrance, of whom we also have much to learn; for simple, homely virtuesand the charm of womanliness may still be studied with advantage on thecherished soil of France.
Marie-Therese Blanc, nee Solms—for this is the name of the author whowrites under the nom de plume of Madame Bentzon—is considered thegreatest of living French female novelists. She was born in an oldFrench chateau at Seine-Porte (Seine et Oise), September 21, 1840. Thischateau was owned by Madame Bentzon's grandmother, the Marquise de Vitry,who was a woman of great force and energy of character, "a ministeringangel" to her country neighborhood. Her grandmother's first marriage wasto a Dane, Major-General Adrien-Benjamin de Bentzon, a Governor of theDanish Antilles. By this marriage there was one daughter, the mother ofTherese, who in turn married the Comte de Solms. "This mixture ofraces," Madame Blanc once wrote, "surely explains a kind of moral andintellectual cosmopolitanism which is found in my nature. My father ofGerman descent, my mother of Danish—my nom de plume (which was hermaiden-name) is Danish—with Protestant ancestors on her side, though sheand I were Catholics—my grandmother a sound and witty Parisian, gay,brilliant, lively, with superb physical health and the consequent goodspirits—surely these materials could not have produced other than acosmopolitan being."
Somehow or other, the family became impoverished. Therese de Solms tookto writing stories. After many refusals, her debut took place in the'Revue des Deux Mondes', and her perseverance was largely due to theencouragement she received from George Sand, although that great womansaw everything through the magnifying glass of her genius. But theperson to whom Therese Bentzon was most indebted in the matter ofliterary advice—she says herself—was the late M. Caro, the famousSorbonne professor of philosophy, himself an admirable writer, "who putme through a course of literature, acting as my guide through a vastamount of solid reading, and criticizing my work with kindly severity."Success was slow. Strange as it may seem, there is a prejudice againstfemale writers in France, a country that has produced so many admirablewomen-authors. However, the time was to come when M. Becloz found one ofher stories in the 'Journal des Debats'. It was the one entitled 'UnDivorce', and he lost no time in engaging the young writer to become oneof his staff. From that day to this she has found the pages of the Revuealways open to her.
Madame Bentzon is a novelist, translator, and writer of literary essays.The list of her works runs as follows: 'Le Roman d'un Muet (1868); UnDivorce (1872); La Grande Sauliere (1877); Un remords (1878); Yette andGeorgette (1880); Le Retour (1882); Tete folle (1883); Tony, (1884);Emancipee (1887); Constance (1891); Jacqueline (1893). We need not enterinto the merits of style and composition if we mention that 'Un remords,Tony, and Constance'