by Henry James

Name: Madame de Mauves — Chapter 1
Author: by Henry James

Summary

“Madame de Mauves — Chapter 1”, published in 1874, is a work by by Henry James. It explores elements such as Longmore, Saint-Germain and terrace.

Quotes from Madame de Mauves — Chapter 1 (by Henry James)

by Henry James, Madame de Mauves — Chapter 1 (1874)

“ The view from the terrace at Saint-Germain-en-Laye is immense and famous. Paris lies spread before you in dusky vastness, domed and fortified, glittering here and there through her light vapours and girdled with her silver Seine. Behind you is a park of stately symmetry, and behind that a forest where you may lounge through turfy avenues and light-chequered glades and quite forget that you are within half an hour of the boulevards. One afternoon, however, in mid-spring, some five years ago, a young man seated on the terrace had preferred to keep this in mind. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by Henry James, Madame de Mauves — Chapter 1 (1874)

“ Maggie's mamma turned from time to time and smiled at this lady with an air of invitation; the latter smiled back and continued gracefully to say nothing. For ten minutes, meanwhile, Longmore felt a revival of interest in his old acquaintance; then (as mild riddles are more amusing than mere commonplaces) it gave way to curiosity about her friend. His eyes wandered; her volubility shook a sort of sweetness out of the friend's silence.
The stranger was perhaps not obviously a beauty nor obviously an American, but essentially both for the really seeing eye. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by Henry James, Madame de Mauves — Chapter 1 (1874)

“ It's the miserable story of an American girl born neither to submit basely nor to rebel crookedly marrying a shining sinful Frenchman who believes a woman must do one or the other of those things. The lightest of US have a ballast that they can't imagine, and the poorest a moral imagination that they don't require. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by Henry James, Madame de Mauves — Chapter 1 (1874)

“ Invited then to explain her appearance at Saint-Germain, she embarked on a recital in which the general, according to the infantine method, was so fatally sacrificed to the particular that Longmore looked about him for a superior source of information. He found it in Maggie's mamma, who was seated with another lady at the opposite end of the terrace; so, taking the child by the hand, he led her back to her companions.
Maggie's mamma was a young American lady, as you would immediately have perceived, with a pretty and friendly face and a great elegance of fresh finery. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by Henry James, Madame de Mauves — Chapter 1 (1874)

“ The force of this offer in making him punctual at the Hotel de l'Empire Longmore doubtless never exactly measured; and it was perhaps well he was vague, for he found his friend, who was on the point of leaving Paris, so distracted by procrastinating milliners and perjured lingeres that coherence had quite deserted her. "You must find Saint-Germain dreadfully dull," she nevertheless had the presence of mind to say as he was going. "Why won't you come with me to London?" ”

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Source: Wikisource

by Henry James, Madame de Mauves — Chapter 1 (1874)

“ Prove to this fine sore creature that our manners may have all the grace without wanting to make such selfish terms for it. She avoids society and lives quite alone, seeing no one but a horrible French sister-in-law. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by Henry James, Madame de Mauves — Chapter 1 (1874)

“ If it doesn't you must come without it."
Then, as she continued to linger through the thickening twilight, she explained that she was waiting for her husband, who was to arrive in the train from Paris and who often passed along the terrace on his way home. Longmore well remembered that Mrs. Draper had spoken of uneasy things in her life, and he found it natural to guess that this same husband was the source of them. Edified by his six months in Paris, "What else is possible," he put it, "for a sweet American girl who marries an unholy foreigner?" ”

by Henry James

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Quotes from Madame de Mauves — Chapter 1 (by Henry James)

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