LETTERS OF MLLE. DE LESPINASSE WITH NOTES ON HER LIFE AND CHARACTER by d'Alembert, Marmontel, de Guibert,

Boston, Hardy, Pratt & Company, 1901, first edition, red cloth with paper title on spine, VG condition ( light wear and mild sun darkening to spine, blue check mark on front free end paper), 6 x 9, 342 pages, a few illustrations.# 578 of 800 numbered sets, this volume alone from a 12 volume series of books on French authors, ( this volume complete in itself), Versailles edition) ---------------------Jeanne Julie Éléonore de Lespinasse (9 November 1732 – 23 May 1776) owned a prominent salon in France.Establishment of her own Salon[edit]Mlle de Lespinasse then set up a salon of her own which was joined by many of the most brilliant members of Madame du Deffand's circle. Jean le Rond d'Alembert was one of the most assiduous of her friends and eventually came to live in her house. This arrangement ensured d'Alembert's comfort and lent influence to Mlle de Lespinasse's salon. Although she had neither beauty nor rank, her ability as a hostess made her get-togethers the most popular in Paris. She owes her distinction, however, not to her social success, but to circumstances which remained a secret during her lifetime, even from her closest friends.Two volumes of Lettres published in 1809 displayed her as the victim of a passion of a rare intensity. In virtue of this ardent, intense quality, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve and other of her critics place her letters in the limited category to which belong the Latin letters of Héloise and the Letters of a Portuguese Nun.Relationship with the Marquis de Mora[edit]Her first passion, a reasonable and serious one, was for the Marquis de Mora, son of the Spanish ambassador in Paris. She first met him about two years after establishing her salon, and then met him again when he returned to Paris two years later. Julie fell in love with the wealthy and handsome Marquis, and he returned her feelings. He began to suffer symptoms of consumption, however, and returned to Spain because of his ill health. Mora's illness and the separation caused Julie much pain and anxiety, although soon after his departure she became acquainted with the man who would be the main passion of her life, the Comte de Guibert. On the way to Paris in 1774 to fulfill promises exchanged with Mlle de Lespinasse, Mora died at Bordeaux.Relationship with the Comte du Guibert[edit]Julie's letters to the Comte de Guibert, the undeserving object of her fatal infatuation, begin from 1773. From the struggle between her affection for Mora and her blind passion for her new lover, the letters go on to describe her partial disenchantment on Guibert's marriage and her final despair.