The book was praised up to the skies the moment it appeared. It was translated into English, Italian, German, Dutch, Russian, Polish, and Spanish. Upwards of three hundred imitations were written in French. It was put into novels, plays, pictures, and popular engravings. Mothers called their newly-born children Paul or Virginia. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre was decidedly a great man, and in 1791 when the National Assembly drew up a list from among which to choose a governor for the Dauphin, his name figures in it, in company with that of Berquin, of Saint-Martin, called the unknown philosopher, of de Sieyes and of Condorcet; a strange medley that says a good deal for the disorder which at that time reigned in men's minds.
This brilliant success was not a mere flare up. Some years later we find the Bonaparte family showing a marked enthusiasm. First there is a letter signed Louis Bonaparte, in which the author relates that he had wept so much in reading Paul and Virginia that he would like to know what is true in the story, "so that another time in re-reading it I can say to myself to comfort my afflicted feelings—'this is true, this is false.'" Then comes a note from General Bonaparte, commanding the army in Italy, who finds time between two battles to write to M. de Saint-Pierre: "Your pen is a paint brush; all that you paint one can see; your works charm and comfort us; you will be one of the men whom I shall see oftenest and with most pleasure in Paris." After the letters came visits from Louis, from Joseph, from Napoleon, who flatter and praise the writer of the day. His book never leaves them; during the campaign in Italy, "it reposed under the pillow of the General-in-Chief, as Homer did under that of Alexander." Joseph endeavoured to imitate it in a pastoral called Moïna, which he respectfully submitted to Saint-Pierre. Napoleon envies from the bottom of his soul the peaceful existence of his host "in the bosom of nature." He expresses himself in accents of such sincerity that Bernardin hastens to offer him a small country house of which he had become the proprietor. The "Conqueror of Italy smiled in rather an embarrassed manner and murmured in a low voice some words about his retinue, equipment, and repose from labour," but he redoubled his politeness, and invited the celebrated man to dinner. Matters became somewhat strained when the celebrated man refused to enrol himself amongst the paid journalists. However, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre never had to complain of the Empire, and on his side Napoleon remained faithful to his admiration for Paul and Virginia; we are assured that he re-read it several times at Saint Helena.
FOOTNOTE:
[23] Theophile Gautier, Souvenirs intimes, by Mme. Judith Gautier.
CHAPTER V. Works of his Old Age—The two Marriages—Death of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre—His Literary Influence.
We have not yet got through half the Complete Works, and our task is nearly done. With the exception of certain pages, pleasant or valuable for the information which they contain, the rest might as well not have been published; the reputation of the author would have lost nothing by it. In the month of September, 1789, appeared the Vœux d'un solitaire. The opening promises something rural:
"On the first of May, of this year 1789, I went down into my garden at sunrise to see what condition it was in after the terrible winter, in which the thermometer on the 31st of December had gone down to 19° below freezing....