Transcriber's Note:
Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.
THE GREAT FRENCH WRITERS
BERNARDIN DE ST. PIERRE
The Great French Writers
Bernardin de St. Pierre
BY
ARVÈDE BARINE
TRANSLATED BY J. E. GORDON
WITH A PREFACE BY
AUGUSTIN BIRRELL
CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY
1893
CONTENTS.
| Chapter | Page | |
| I. | Youth—Years of Travel | 1 |
| II. | Period of Uncertainty—Voyage to the Isle of France; Acquaintance with J. J. Rousseau; The Crisis | 42 |
| III. | The "Études de La Nature" | 87 |
| IV. | Paul and Virginia | 149 |
| V. | Works of His Old Age—The Two Marriages—Death of Bernardin de St. Pierre—His Literary Influence | 179 |
PREFACE.
The life of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre is so unusual, so interesting,so suggestive and amusing, that the grumpiest of Anglo-Saxons neednot complain of the fact that no series of Great French Writers wouldbe complete which did not contain the name of the author of "Paul andVirginia." Even "Shakespeare's heirs" must accept the judgment of othernations about their own authors. Our duty is to comprehend a verdict weare powerless to upset. Dorian women, as Gorgo says in the famous odeof Theocritus, have a right to chatter in a Dorian accent, and a greatFrench writer is not necessarily the worse for a strong infusion ofFrench sentiment.
Saint-Pierre was no ordinary pe