Notable Women: Mme. Blanc
( " Th. Bentzon " )
Annie Adams Fields
It is natural that the attention and affection of Americans should
be attracted to a woman who has devoted herself assiduously to
understanding and to making known the aspirations of our country,
especially in introducing the labors and achievements of our women
to their sisters in France, of whom we also have much to learn;
for simple homely virtues and the charm of womanliness may still
be studied with advantage on the soil of France.
Thérèse de Solms Blanc, or "Th. Bentzon,"
novelist and essayist, was born in an old French château at
Seine-Port, in France, near what she herself has called "a
delicious village" in the department of the Seine-et-Oise. The
château was owned by her grandmother, the Marquise de Vitry, who
was a woman of great force and energy of character, "a ministering
angel" to her country neighborhood. Her grandmother's first
marriage was to a Dane, Major-General Adrien Benjamin de Bentzon,
who was a governor of the Danish Antilles. By this marriage there
was one daughter, the mother of Thérèse, who in her turn married
the Comte de Solms. "This mixture of races," Mme. Blanc once
wrote, "surely explains a kind of moral and intellectual
cosmopolitanism which is found in my nature. My father of German
descent, my mother of Danish, my nom de plume (which was her
maiden name) is Danish. -- with Protestant ancestors on her side,
though she and I were Catholics; my grandmother a sound and witty
Parisian, gay, brilliant, lively, with imperturbable physical
health and the consequent good spirits -- surely these materials
could not have produced other than a cosmopolitan being."
Mme. Blanc's life in the country during her
early years, although under conditions apparently unchanged from
those of an earlier century, was wonderfully conducive to the
child's health and her best physical development. The family at
the château, although far from rich, was nevertheless considered
the protecting power of the small village which surrounded their
domain. The family soon removed to a second château, this time in
the Orléanais, where the two children, her brother and herself,
seem to have remained the larger part of the year, while their
elders were in Paris.
The Marquis de Vitry was a most affectionate
grandfather to these children. He was a perfect type of the old
régime, having been a boy of thirteen or fourteen when the great
Revolution broke out. In the Reign of Terror his life and his
younger brother's were saved by their tutor, and in a
printing-office, where they were hidden as apprentices to learn
the trade, they one day set the type for the bill of sale of their
own confiscated estates. He was a superbly handsome man, as kind
and generous as he was handsome, and evidently a most enchanting
companion. Mme. Blanc's recollections of her childhood in this
country home, where she and her brother found playmates among the
village children, give delightful glimpses of a France which no
longer exists. I well remember one story of the wedding of two
young peasants. The ceremony was to take place, of course, in the
village church, and their little lady, Mlle. de Solms, was invited
to represent the great house, and was expected to be present. At
the moment of receiving the invitation she was playing out of
doors in her cape bonnet and pinafore, with good stout shoes well
tied up round her sturdy little feet, an unconscious subject for
Greuze, if ever one were seen. The child appreciated the greatness
of the occasion, and cast about in her mind as to what her
offering might be: she could think of nothing good enough for the
marriage gift except one of her own dear rabbits. She did not
think twice; one of these great treasures should go. She hunted
and found her pet, and carrying him by the ears, led the
procession -- cape bonnet, struggling rabbit, and all -- up to the
altar! Only in after years did the scene fully reveal its comic
side to her mind; at the moment all was seriousness, coupled with
a sense of high duty and pleasure in such generosity.
At this very early period an admirable English
governess was found for the small Thérèse and her brother. Mme.
Blanc has written of this period of her life: "At the bottom of
all I have done I find the moral influence of my mother, who
especially preached by example, combined with the British impulse
given me by my dear Miss Robertson, who inculcated love of truth
and simplicity; the traditions of the home of my grandparents, who
kept me a century behind in many things; a passionate love of
nature, due to long years spent in the country, where I have
passed the greater part of my life; the keen sensations of the
beauties of a landscape; the precocious curiosity to learn; and
the happiness which comes from scribbling."
In the healthful and picturesque surroundings
of an old French neighborhood such as we have described, the child
lived, except for certain brief periods passed at Paris with her
father and mother, who had made a winter home for themselves
there. Thus the days went by until she was sixteen years old, when
it was considered proper that a husband should be found for her.
It was one of the last acts of her father's life. He died the
winter of his daughter's marriage, having consigned the care of
his beautiful young child to one of his own friends, M. Alexandre
Blanc, whose estates were in the southern city of Vienne, whither
she went to live.
It seems to have been a deceptive dream to M.
Blanc, as well as to herself, that they could leave the world of
Paris, to which they were both wonted, and go to his birthplace to
live permanently. The old family demesne could not be long
occupied by her husband, because he was too actively interested in
affairs in Paris. At intervals it was necessary that she should be
left quite alone in this strange city, full of provincial
interests of which she knew nothing, and thrown among strangers.
Before many months they returned to Paris. Meanwhile her father
had died, and she was gladly received again at the home of her
mother. Here her child was born, a son, before the end of the
year, when she was barely seventeen years old. Presently the
estates at Vienne were definitely and finally abandoned.
A turning-point in the career of Mme. Blanc was
thus reached very early in her life. She saw that the moment had
arrived when her literary talent, which had never been altogether
dormant, must awaken into full energy. "The melting away of what
fortune I had," she has written, "justified the development and
affirmation of my literary tastes. Consequently, I have always
looked upon poverty as an obliging friend, for it placed the pen
firmly in my hand. Though I had long written for my own amusement,
only once had I seen myself in print, and, curiously enough, I
made this debut in English dress. I had translated a book of
Viscount de Noe, one of our friends, whose 'Episodes of the
Crimean War' had appeared in the 'Revue des Deux Mondes.' I have
always suspected that Colonel de Noe, who was English on his
mother's side, must have touched up the manuscript before
publishing it."
Her English governess was happy in finding such
a grateful pupil. Mme. Blanc continually refers to this good
friend. "It is to her I am indebted," she says, "for my love of
English literature. She set me to reading works which were far
beyond my years, but which I understood very well. After the
Waverley Novels, I was carried away by Washington Irving, which
was my first acquaintance with America."
About this time her mother contracted a second
marriage with the Comte d'Aure, equerry of the Emperor Napoleon
III. "He was," Mme. Blanc says, "a superior man in every respect.
He was my literary providence. It was through him that I made the
acquaintance of George Sand, that woman of genius, whom I visited
at Nohant, and whose counsels and encouragement I enjoyed. She
recommended me in vain to Buloz" (who was at the time editor of
the "Revue des Deux Mondes," and through whose vast abilities the
great review came into the large place it can never lose under the
hands of Brunetière), "but my talents, in which she believed, were
not yet ripe for the 'Revue des Deux Mondes.' 'At twenty-two
I could not have done what you are doing,' George Sand said to me
one day. But the person to whom I am most indebted in the matter
of literary advice is the late M. Caro, the famous Sorbonne
professor of philosophy, himself an admirable writer, who, as he
used to say, put me through a course of literature, acting as my
guide through a vast amount of solid reading, and criticizing my
work with kindly severity."
A useful lesson may be drawn from the
experience of Mme. Blanc in being recommended to the "Revue" by
George Sand, who was then at the height of her popularity. The
editor, like others we have known, preferred to use his own mind,
and insisted that work must recommend itself. The idea still holds
good; much trouble would be spared if writers would stand on their
own achievements, and not ask the recommendations of others to
editors who must always use their own judgment.
The time was to come when M. Buloz found one of
her stories in the pages of the "Journal des Debats." It was the
one entitled "Un Divorce," and he lost no time in engaging the
young writer to become one of his staff. From that day to this she
has found the pages of the "Revue " always open to her. Mme. Blanc
had been writing for the newspapers ten years when she produced
"Un Divorce"; therefore her hand was steady for her work, and from
that day of her pronounced success to this she has never been
idle. Indeed, her industry is something phenomenal. A complete
list of her writings up to the present time is not easy to find --
perhaps I am safe to say impossible; but a list of thirty books
was advertised by her publisher, Calmann Lévy, in 1898, without
counting an excellent volume upon Canada. This list does not
contain "Un Divorce "; indeed, it is possible that another list of
the same length could be made up from other sources. Three of her
stories have been crowned by the French Academy -- " Constance,"
"Tony" and "Un Remords." Mme. Blanc's last novel, "Tchlovek," must
not be passed over without special mention. It is conceived and
executed in the large manner of ripe work, and with all her old
charm, to which she has added knowledge of modern conditions and
modem thought. It is not only a masterly work, but it is also one
showing both growth and finished art.
Mme. Blanc has not, however, seated herself in
the center of a web to spin stories alone. She has lived much in
the world, often with most distinguished companionship, and has
eagerly embraced the opportunities which have presented themselves
to enlarge the scope of her interests. These opportunities have
been so various and continuous that one realizes at last, if not
at first, that something of the roaming and spirited soldier
nature of her ancestors must be in her veins. In her young
womanhood her stepfather, the Comte d'Aure, was a great lover of
horses. One day Mme. Sand urged him to read that delightful first
book of Cherbuliez, "Un cheval de Phidias." He having passed it on
to his daughter, she wrote a review of it for a French sporting
journal. "George Sand sent the author my notice without telling
me, and Cherbuliez returned a note of thanks to the office
of 'La France Hippique,' supposing it to be the work of some
man on the staff. I replied, without revealing my identity, and if
my letters seemed to interest him, it is mainly because I was
aided by the thorough knowledge concerning things equestrian
possessed by my stepfather, who was one of the most famous
horsemen of France. And thus it happened that I was in
correspondence with Cherbuliez for over twenty years before making
his personal acquaintance. I have still two or three precious
letters of his which I carefully guard, especially the last one
addressed to M. d'Aure, who finally let him into the long-kept
secret."
This incident gives one an idea of her life
beyond the writing-desk. She was a fine rider at that time, with
plenty of good horses at her command, and the best of riding
companions. Her home was in the old French palace of St. Cloud,
and she was a sharer of the gaieties of the court at Fontainebleau
or in Paris. After the death of her stepfather she became a great
walker, and has always kept up the good habit. A few years ago it
was my happy fortune to pass some time with her at Barbizon. The
weather was sunny and beautiful, and it was the habit of the place
to take an early luncheon, or breakfast, at half-past eleven, when
we always met at table in the open air. After the dejeuner, all
literary work having been previously dispatched, we would start
for a walk in the great forest of Fontainebleau. Mme. Blanc
apparently knew every inch of the way as well as she knew the
pavement of the Rue de Grenelle, and from noon until dark we would
walk and rest under the great trees, and walk again, while she
peopled the forest with histories connected with that romantic
region, or read to us from her enchanting store of George Sand's
unpublished letters. My companion and I used sometimes to confess
fatigue the following morning after these endless tramps; but Mme.
Blanc was always perfectly fresh the next day, and eager to
continue her walks and talks; and continue we did, most gratefully
and delightedly.
My first acquaintance with Mme. Blanc began in
1883. In February of that year she printed a long critical paper,
in the "Revue des Deux Mondes," [ 1 February1885 ] upon the
New England stories of my friend Miss Jewett, which showed such
keen understanding and extraordinary literary gift, such a
sympathetic appreciation of a land outside any practical knowledge
of the writer, that Miss Jewett wrote a note of acknowledgment to
the unknown "M. Th. Bentzon " to express her pleasure in his work.
When Mme. Blanc wrote a delightful womanly reply, and the case was
made clear, a correspondence was begun between the two ladies
which laid the foundation of a long-continued friendship.
Eight years later we visited Paris, and found
ourselves on the staircase of an old mansion in the ancient part
of the city. "Perhaps we shall do better to turn back," Miss
Jewett said; "it is really taking a great risk to see so old a
friend for the first time. This dear and intimate friendship of
ours may be in danger." But her companion, being of a more daring
mind in such matters, rang the bell, and the trial moment was soon
most happily over.
Mme. Blanc, at this time, was living alone. Her
mother had lately died, before years had touched her charming
gifts or very unusual powers, leaving her daughter to confront the
practical side of life, of which hitherto she had no experience.
Mme. Blanc's only son, a scholar and traveler, who had already won
fame for himself, was often absent in the far East. Of course her
life was a very busy one, but when did "affairs" in a woman's life
ever fill the place of the affections and the cares of a home!
A few years earlier Mme. Blanc had also introduced Aldrich to the
French world of letters. She had translated "Marjorie Daw" and
published it in the "Revue," with the author's name alone, which
was her custom with translations; thus a whole new world of
readers were made acquainted with his work. Also, still earlier
than this, she had done the same for Bret Harte. Therefore, in
1893, when the time arrived for Mme. Blanc to come to America, she
had many friends and readers, and could not feel herself a
stranger.
It is most interesting to observe the effect
that life in the United States produced upon this true Parisian
lady. Mme. Blanc was no ordinary traveler. Armed with a distinct
purpose to observe and to record, she went three times, always
alone, from the Atlantic coast to Chicago, and wrote of that city
and its famous Exposition many admirable things which had not been
put on record before. Since 1893, many questions, new at that
time, have become a part of the natural atmosphere of thought, yet
Mme. Blanc's comments are still most instructive and admirable,
and to many women of the Eastern States they must still be new.
In proof of the effect produced on her mind by
life here and in Canada, we find five volumes full of interesting
material. One of these books, which she calls " Femmes
d'Amérique," she says she has written solely for Frenchwomen, in
order to introduce them to their sisters beyond the sea. These
volumes are all the result of the closest personal observations.
The first one, published in 1896, besides her interesting pictures
of and reflections upon Chicago, contains also a charming account
of Boston, which, she says (at first sight of the great circle of
lights reflected in the Charles River), "m'éblouit comme un réve
de beauté,"'
This first book is called " Les Américaines
chez elles," and bears the mark throughout of a new note having
been struck in her experience. The individualism developed in
America is, of course, something which has grown with our growth
and brought about astonishing results so quietly that we have
hardly recognized them ourselves. The fact that every created
being -- man, woman, and child -- has a place and a right to be
considered in the world, is a truth which has never found such
full development as here and now. To find so many women who had
come to a new sense of the value of existence, employed for the
service of others outside their homes as well as inside -- all
this naturally impressed, with a sense of revelation, one who had
been educated amid different conditions of life. "Charity,"
"benevolence," had been known before, but the sense that the poor
have a right to come to the surface and breathe, to be given a
chance with the rest, much of this was new, and all the new forms
of work in college settlements, upon tenement-houses, in schools,
and for defective children, and the myriad different forms in
which rescue for the unfortunate presents itself to the American
citizen of the present hour, made a deep mark upon her and
animated her pen.
Her next book, called "Things and People in
America" (1898), begins with a paper on communism in America,
prompted by Bellamy's "Looking Backward" and his later book called
"Equality." Evidently new trains of thought had been awakened, and
Mme. Blanc was eagerly studying and watching whither they might
lead. She felt revolution in the air, but found no features in
common between such social revolution and the revolutions of
Europe. A few brief years, and although the advantage still rests
with us, the same spirit is seen to have been at work all over the
world. It is interesting to see how so short a time ago these
first notes struck a fresh rejoinder from the old world of France.
This volume contains also an admirable picture
of the community of Shakers in Alfred, Maine, critical and
biographical papers upon Charles Warren Stoddard and Sidney
Lanier, done in her own fine original manner, and a paper written
after a visit to her friend Octave Thanet's plantation in
Arkansas. Finally, the book ends with an essay on family life in
America.
In 1897 Mme. Blanc made a second visit to
America, in company with M. and Mme. Ferdinand Brunetière.
The editor of the "Revue des Deux Mondes" had been invited to give
a series of lectures at both Johns Hopkins and Harvard
universities. It was during this second journey that Mme. Blanc
accompanied her friends to Canada, and afterward wrote her fourth
delightful book. A singular freshness and charm are in its pages.
The unexpected way in which the French have held together without
commingling with their neighbors; the remarkable preservation of
the language, which is more like the language of the time of Louis
XIV than the Parisian French of to-day; the sharp lines that are
drawn between the English and French citizens; her own Catholic
faith as seen from that new standpoint; her life with the "
sisters " of various religious houses -- all give a personal as
well as a national flavor to her book.
Her fifth volume on American topics is chiefly
written from a literary point of view. It is entitled "Questions
Américaines," but they are questions raised and answered through
the works and lives of others. The writings of Hamlin Garland, T.
W. Higginson, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Nelson Page, Miss Grace
King, George W. Cable, and William Allen White, are reviewed in
its pages, but always with the skill of a true literary artist
from the American point of view. Thus France will receive from
these writers, as she translates and interprets them, wonderful
pictures of Kansas, Louisiana, and Virginia, of prairie life, and
last, but not least, of New England.
The fine résumé of Mr. Kipling's work is the
exception among American topics. Probably his temporary residence
was one reason for including his name (our pride delights in
whatever small portion we may claim of Rudyard Kipling), but Mme.
Blanc's deep interest in army affairs goes far to make her wish to
include his work in her repertory. She ends her paper with the
words: "II est vrai que chez nous, Dieu merci, le soldat c'est la
France tout entière, et que cette raison doit suffire pour qu'on
le respecte et qu'on 1'aime."
The International Congress of Women organized
in Washington in 1888 met in London in 1899. Mme. Blanc ends her
latest American book with an account of this congress. In her
paper she pays a deserved tribute to Mrs. Johnson of Sherborn,
whose name must be forever associated with the building up and the
continued creation of this our Woman's Prison of Massachusetts;
she also speaks with deep appreciation of the Elmira Reformatory
under Mr. Brockway as a lighthouse in the great sea of this
subject. It is a masterly essay, giving brief sketches of the
reports from England, Russia, Germany, and elsewhere with perfect
intelligence and impartiality.
After this recapitulation of Mme. Blanc's
literary relations with our own country, and the brief sketch of
her life, another word must surely be added to express, however
unfitly, her grace and wit and charming kindness, and, above all,
the noble character and determination with which she stands for
what she believes.
Edited by Terry Heller, Coe College.