Translated from the French of
JULES CLARETIE, Manager of the Comédie Française
With Preface by Francisque Sarcey.
12mo. Cloth, extra, gilt top. $1.50.
M. Jules Claretie has had a wide acquaintance with actors. He has had an opportunity of studying them still more closely since he has been the manager of the Comédie Française. Brichanteau is charming because he is always treading the boards, because he believes in good faith that his life is a drama, in which he plays the principal part. The work is written with a sprightly and witty pen.—Francisque Sarcey.
The translation has preserved the sprightly wit and grace of the original, in which all the shades of character, frequently delicate and elusive, are brought out by refined turns of expression.—Philadelphia Press.
As a whole, the book is a delightful and beautiful work of art. The man of whom Claretie writes becomes a living character to us, and we love him as we would such a man in real life.—Cincinnati Tribune.
He is more than a sketch; he is a Meissonier portrait, painted with all that accuracy of detail for which Meissonier was famous.—Boston Literary World.
One of the most pathetically humorous books ever written, and it should become a classic.—St. Louis Mirror.
That there is a lovable, generous, elevated, human and humane picturesqueness to the caricatured strolling player is shown with such admirable truth by Claretie, that his "Brichanteau" deserves permanency among desirable books.—Washington Times.
You love Brichanteau and take him to your heart, for he is an honest fellow, who fights gallantly and merrily with his bad luck.—New York Times.
A lively, amusing, intensely Gallic series of studies of stage life.—The Outlook.
A delicious character, this Brichanteau.—Detroit Free Press.
The author is so witty and the ridiculous side of his hero is so well described that the book is a treat—restful and refreshing.
The delicious absurdity of this "optimist failure," "Brichanteau Actor," reminds one of Don Quixote, while his consummate good nature is almost equal to Sir Roger de Coverley's. The clever French author has made his actor tell for the most part his own story, and in a natural, easy manner—the perfection of polished French style.—Chicago Farm, Field, and Fireside.