Adèle de Sénange, ou Lettres de Lord Sydenham. En deux volumes. Vol. I [-II].

Bookseller Notes

The lives of the author, and her son - who is mentioned in the Avant-propos - were such that no author of fiction could have plausibly invented them. She fled from Paris in 1792 and joined the society of migrs at Mickleham, Surrey, described in Mme. d'Arblay's Memoirs. In exile, she supported herself by writing, and this, her first novel, which is partly autobiographical, is the most famous. The Avant-propos is a very interesting essay on the place of the novel in literary history, and a justification of novel-writing. Her son, then aged 7, Charles Joseph, comte de Flahaut, was generally known to be Talleyrand's son. She addresses him in the Avant-propos, clearly under the apprehension of her imminent demise from an unnamed ailment which was pursuing her: this written at the age of 32. In fact, she died in 1836, many adventures later.ESTC records 9 copies, all in the UK, in 7 locations.