United States or Australia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"It is grand, it is terrifying in verve, in philosophy, in novelty, in painting, in style." And yet there was Eugene Sue selling the Wandering Jew to a newspaper for a hundred thousand francs, while the Philosophy of Conjugal Life, a publication of his own in Hetzel's Diable a Paris, fetched only eight hundred; and the Peasants was paid for only at the rate of sixty centimes a line.
"The story of Robert le Diable, to be sure, is not devoid of interest, and Holtei has worked it out with great skill in a drama that is very well written and full of strong and pathetic situations; but the French librettist has contrived to extract from it the most ridiculous farrago of nonsense.
"I was at the Theatre Francais last night," I said, "and saw Athalie." "It is the masterpiece of Racine; Voltaire, has been wrong in accusing me of having criticized that tragedy, and in attributing to me an epigram, the author of which has never been known, and which ends with two very poor lines: "Pour avoir fait pis qu'Esther, Comment diable as-to pu faire"
It is not to be wondered at that the memory of the terrible times of the English domination, and its consequence, the reign of the routiers, should linger on in the memory of the people; that every cliff castle should be a Chateau des Anglais, or a Chateau du Diable they mean the same thing.
To make amends for this, the opera shone in ballet, fairy-like performances in which pantomime and trap- doors played as important a part as the actual dancing. Nothing could have been more enchanting than the Diable Boiteux with its many and various tableaux and its dresses, and Fanny Elsler dancing the "cachucha," or the Sylphide or the Revolte du Serail with Taglioni.
Chicot continued: "P.S. I entirely approve of your plan with regard to the Forty-five; only allow me to say, dear sister, that you will be conferring a greater honor on those fellows than they deserve." "Ah! diable!" murmured Chicot, "this is getting obscure." And he read it again. "I entirely approve of your plan with regard to the Forty-five." "What plan?" Chicot asked himself.
"Diable," said Monte Cristo compassionately, "it is a hard blow for a third-rate fortune." "Third-rate," said Danglars, rather humble, "what do you mean by that?" "Certainly," continued Monte Cristo, "I make three assortments in fortune first-rate, second-rate, and third-rate fortunes.
We could but stand in silence, gazing upon the broad, impassable sheet of water, blocking further advance. De Noyan was earliest to recover power of speech. "Le Diable!" he swore, half unconsciously. "This cursed place is surely damned! Yet it has some consolation to my mind, for that will drive us backward into the lowlands, out of this demon-haunted defile."
And they like to join hands like children they are afraid to go alone. They came out of the wood crouching like dogs one behind the other. They are a bad lot canaille. They hide guns in ambulance-waggons and mount them on church-towers. There was one of our sappers diable! they tied him to a telegraph-pole and lit a fire under him." "But you make them pay for that?" He smiled grimly. "Mais oui!
"Diable, Monsieur, you are right," he cried, "and rather than have missed this entertainment I would pay Gratiot for his cargo." "Au revoir, Mademoiselle," said Nick, "I will return when I am released from bondage. When this terrible mentor relaxes vigilance, I will escape and make my way back to you through the forests." "Oh!" cried Mademoiselle to me, "you will let him come back, Monsieur."
Word Of The Day