Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Essays of Sainte-Beuve, Vol. 3: Portraits of Women
IN compiling this volume of sainte-reuve's studies of illustrious women, I have not confined my choice to his Portrait studies, but have selected from them and from his Causeries the essays which appeared to me most likely not only to interest English readers, but also those which exemplify the exploring and far reaching erudition which the great French critic has brought to bear upon the complex science of 'literary Criticism. His method is original; his style, neither very ponderous nor very brilliant, is essentially penetrating and analytic. He read and studied, carefully observed and noted, every natural trait in a writer as an individual; every literary characteristic; recognised every shade of opinion, discussed these opinions liberally; and then, with infinite subtlety of understanding and great copiousness of language, he boldly clothed his subject with his own convictions, making, as he himself has said, his praise prominent and his criticism unobtrusive, blending enchantment with his smiling sarcasm, fascinating ever and anon by those ?ashes of poetic prose which relieve some of his most curiously-enveloped passages.
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