The salon and English letters

by Chauncey Brewster Tinker

[125] Professor Cross, however, considers them fairly reliable. Life of Sterne, p. 287.

[126] D. Garat, Mémoires Historiques sur le XVIII^e Siècle 2. 136.

[127] 31 January 1762.

[128] Letters 6. 370; 2 December 1765.

[129] Cf. Cross, Life of Sterne, p. 282.

[130] The rise of Julie de Lespinasse (1732-1776) to a position of first importance in Parisian society is a thrilling story. See Ségur, Julie de Lespinasse. The account of her break with Madame du Deffand whose ‘companion’ she had been, is referred to above, p. 61. Walpole (Letters 9. 59) calls her ‘a pretended bel esprit,’ and begs Conway not to allow himself to be taken to her salon, frequented by Englishmen, lest he offend Madame du Deffand.

[131] Necker, Mélanges 2. 287.

[132] Letters to the Count de Guibert (1809) 2. 233.

[133] See Lettres de Mlle. de Lespinasse ... suivies de deux chapitres dans le genre du Voyage sentimental de Sterne, par le même Auteur. Paris 1809; 3. 261.

[134] The authenticity of these stories is vouched for by the first editor of Mlle. de Lespinasse’s Letters (1809), op. cit. 1. xiv, and by the author of the ‘Portrait’ in Éloges de Madame Geoffrin (1812), p. 47. Mlle. de Lespinasse read the chapters aloud in Madame Geoffrin’s salon.