wholly

Daudet, like our Dickens, succeeded in producing characters invested with such reality that in the minds of readers they become veritable beings. Of all his creations Tartarin is the most widely known, and the world's conception of a French southerner is derived from the portrait of this hero. As is usual in the works of Daudet, the character of Tartarin is not wholly fictitious.

Alphonse Daudet - Tartarin de Tarascon

Of Monsieur de La Fayette's relations to his wife, we are almost wholly ignorant; and the sole evidence beyond a line or two in Mme. de La Fayette's letters that he existed at all, was the birth to the wife of two children.

Madame de (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne) La Fayette - La Princesse De Clèves par Mme de La Fayette : Edited with Introduction and Notes

For Mme. de La Fayette, though belonging wholly to the young Court, took no part in the intrigues and factions of the royal household. It is this Court life, which, under guise of that of Henry II., is described in La Princesse de Clèves: "There were so many interests and so many intrigues in which women took part that love was always mingled with politics and politics with love.

Madame de (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne) La Fayette - La Princesse De Clèves par Mme de La Fayette : Edited with Introduction and Notes

This opinion of Mme. de La Vergne, however, rests mainly upon the testimony of Cardinal de Retz; and may it not be that Mme. de La Fayette has drawn for us the portrait of her mother in the person of Mme. de Chartres? If this be true, Mme. de La Vergne, vain and intriguing though she may have been, was not wholly unworthy of her daughter.

Madame de (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne) La Fayette - La Princesse De Clèves par Mme de La Fayette : Edited with Introduction and Notes