William Jerdan: Autobiography

“No. 30, Rue Taibout, Chaussee d’Antin, Paris.

“My present address ought to be well known to you.* I write on purpose to scold you. Why have you not sent me the ‘Gazette;’ it would have been such a treat. Also, you have not (like everybody else) written to me, and I quite pine for news from England. I would return tomorrow if I had the opportunity. I do not think that you have properly valued my letters, for things ought to be valued according to their difficulty, and really writing is no little trouble, to say nothing of putting my epistles in the post. I have been very unwell ever since my arrival, and for
* From my translation and publication of “L’Hermite” of Jouy.

198 AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
the last three days I have scarcely been off the sofa. The fatigue and the heat are equally overpowering. I feel so unequal to the exertion of hearing and seeing. Yesterday I was going to a little party at Lady Kingsmill’s, but I was too unwell. I cannot tell you half the kindness and civility which I have received. Of all the persons I have met, or rather who have called upon me—for there is no meeting anybody now, all the soirées being over—I have been the most struck with M. Heine; his conversation is most original and amusing. Next to him, I like Monsieur Sainte Beuve, he is very French, very animated, and, to use the national expression, très-spirituelle. Monsieur Merimée, whom I met at Mr. Bulwer’s, wrote me first a most polite note, asking permission to claim my acquaintance, and then called to offer his services, and made himself so agreeable. Certainly the conversation here is very delightful, far more intellectual, and with a great deal more thought in it than English talking in general. M. Odillon Barrot has been our chief cicerone, he is what we should call a remarkably quiet and gentleman-like person,—rather English than French. Another, who has shown us the very greatest civilité, is M. Beulot, rédacteur de ‘Revue de deux Mondes,’ a work that has the greatest reputation here. He has given us a box for the opera next Wednesday. Excepting the morning that M. Odillon Barrot took us to Notre Dame and Le Jardin des Plantes, I have scarcely been out of the house. Poor Miss Turin is still in the doctor’s hands, and of course it is impossible for me to go out by myself, or accept the attendance of any gentleman alone, so that I am surrounded with all sorts of little difficulties and embarrassments. I never again would think of going anywhere with only a lady; one might almost as well stay at home. I had no idea till now how useful you gentlemen are—I might say,
L. E. L. 199
how indispensable. We are very comfortably situated; we have delightful bed-rooms, a little ante-chamber, and the prettiest saloon, looking on a charming garden. The quiet is such a relief; for in Rue Louis-le-Grand we could not hear each other’s voice for the noise; and above my head was a printer, and opposite my window a carpenter’s. I do not know what it may be in the city, but at the West End there is nothing that can give an idea of the noise of Paris; the streets are all paved, the omnibusses innumerable, and carts and carriages all of the heaviest kind. I was delighted with the giraffe—it is like the creation of a fairy tale—with the light, graceful head, like that of a serpent, and the heavy, ill-shaped body of an animal; it seems as if nature had been making two creatures at once, and not having time to finish both, joined them together in a hurry, being about as well matched as marriages in general.* The elephant, too, was stupendous, it gave me sensation of fear, and made me understand, better than anything else, the gigantic size of life in the East. Next to these was a tremendous cedar of Lebanon, more like a tree built than one planted. Such a tree, standing alone in a plain, would be the most magnificent temple in the world. I have read as many books as I could get, having subscribed to a French library. We have not an idea of French literature in England. As far as I can judge, it is full of novelty, vivid
* Unequal marriages are, it is true, seldom happy, but sometimes those which appear to be equal at the outset, turn out no better. Baron Holland, of tall memory, used to tell that in walking out near London one day he saw an old wizened Italian Tramp on one side of the road with two or three monkeys, and on the other a rather buxom woman trudging along in the same manner with a tambourine. He was struck by the contrast, and entering into chat with the lady found she was the Signor’s wife, and asked her, How she could marry that old man? “Oh, Sir,” said she, with a deep drawn sigh, and a meaning glance at the questioner, “when I married him, he had a dromedary!”

200 AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
conceptions, and, I must say, genius, but what we should call blasphemous and indelicate to the last degree. If my money holds out I shall buy several works and translate them at home, but I doubt being able to accomplish it; for though I have bought nothing but what was indispensable, such as gloves, shoes, paper, &c., I have little more left than will bring me home. The dust here is something not to be told; before you have walked a hundred yards your feet are of a whitish brown. A great deal of my time has hung heavily on my hands, I have been so languid and so feverish; still I feel that I have quite a new stock of ideas, and much material for future use: and as to Paris, it has more than realised my expectations, but to have seen anything of the society I should have been here two months earlier. Now, excepting the visits that are paid me, I can see nothing of the people; as to sights, you know me too well to suppose that I care two straws about them. I would sooner have a morning visit from an amusing person than see the Tuileries or the Louvre ten times over. One ridiculous misfortune is continually befalling me; I am always falling down, the parquet, i.e. the floor, is so slippery, and I am never very steady on my feet. I really thought I had broken my arm yesterday. I am very anxious about getting home. Miss Gibbon and I were to have returned together, but as her sister is not yet recovered she is obliged to wait. I have settled to stay one fortnight from to-day, Sunday, with Miss Turin, in hopes of Mrs. Fagan being sufficiently restored to allow of her sister’s departure. However I have set everybody to inquire that I can think of. I like our new lodgings so much. They are, according to Sir William Curtis’s orthography, three C.’s, namely, clean, cool, and quiet. We are going to-day, with Monsieur Odillon Barrot, to the prison de l’Abbaye, but as we shall go
L. E. L. 201
near the post-office I shall put in this letter. Tell Nanon and Ellen I am quite disappointed in not having a letter from either. I wrote them a long letter by Miss Montgomery, and have another nearly finished in my desk. I am more and more enchanted with Madame Tastu. And now, with kindest remembrances,

“Yours very truly,

“L. E. LANDON.”

Camille Hyacinthe Odilon Barrot (1791-1873) French liberal politician.

François Buloz (1803-1877) He was editor of the Revue des deux Mondes from 1831 and chief administrator of the Comédie-Française (1838-48).

Sir William Curtis, first baronet (1752-1829) A banker and friend of George IV; he was Lord Mayor of London (1795) and as Tory MP for London (1790-1818) was a target of Whig mockery.

Henry Richard Fox, third baron Holland (1773-1840) Whig politician and literary patron; Holland House was for many years the meeting place for reform-minded politicians and writers. He also published translations from the Spanish and Italian; Memoirs of the Whig Party was published in 1852.

Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) German lyric poet and essayist; from 1831 he lived in Paris.

Victor-Joseph Etienne de Jouy (1764-1846) French journalist and dramatist, author of Sylla (1821).

Lady Eliza Katherine Kingsmill [née Kingsmill] (d. 1865) Of Hermitage Park, Lucan; the daughter of Sir Robert Kingsmill, second baronet (1772-1823); in 1824 she married Sir John Kingsmill [originally Woodham] (d. 1859).

Letitia Elizabeth Landon [L. E. L.] (1802-1838) English poet who came to attention through the Literary Gazette; she published three volumes in 1825. She was the object of unflattering gossip prior to her marriage to George Maclean in 1838.

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer Lytton, first Baron Lytton (1803-1873) English historical novelist and MP who began his career with Pelham: or the Adventures of a Gentleman (1828).

Prosper Mérimée (1803-1870) French man of letters, author of the novella Carmen; in 1834 he was appointed inspector-general of historical monuments.

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804-1869) French poet, literary critic, and lecturer.

Amable Tastu (1798-1885) French poet and librettist.

William Jerdan (1782-1869) The Paris Spectator; or, L'hermite de la Chaussée-d'Antin. Containing Observations upon Parisian Manners and Customs at the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century. 3 vols (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1815). Translated from the French of De Jouy by William Jerdan.

INFORMATION FROM TEI HEADER

Source Description:

Author: Jerdan, William, 1782-1869

Title: The Autobiography of William Jerdan. 4 vols (London: Arthur Hall, Vertue & Co., 1852-53).

Electronic Edition:

Series: Lord Byron and his Times: http://lordbyron.org

Encoding Description: Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed. Obvious and unambiguous compositors’ errors have been silently corrected.

Markup and editing by: David Hill Radcliffe

Completed June 2010

Publication Statement:

Publisher: Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Tech

Availability: Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License