The House of the Combrays

The House of the Combrays

One evening in the winter of 1868 or 1869, my father-in-law, Moisson, with whom I was chatting after dinner, took up a book that was lying on the table, open at the page where I had stopped reading, and said: "Ah! you are reading Mme. de la Chanterie?" "Yes," I replied. "A fine book; do you know it?" "Of course! I even know the heroine." "Mme. de la Chanterie!" " By her real name Mme. de Combray. I lived three months in her house." "Rue Chanoinesse?" "No, not in the Rue Chanoinesse, where she did not live, any more than she was the saintly woman of Balzac's novel;but at her Chteau of Tournebut d'Aubevoye near Gaillon!" "Gracious, Moisson, tell me about it;" and without further solicitation, Moisson told me the following story: [Pg viii] "My mother was a Brcourt, whose ancestor was a bastard of Gaston d'Orleans, and she was on this account a royalist, and very proud of her nobility. The Brcourts, who were fighting people, had never become rich, and the Revolution ruined them completely. During the Terror my mother married Moisson, my father, a painter and engraver, a plebeian but also an ardent royalist, participating in all the plots for the deliverance of the royal family. This explains the msalliance. She hoped, besides, that the monarchy, of whose reestablishment she had no doubt, would recognise my father's services by ennobling him and reviving the name of Brcourt, which was now represented only in the female line. She always called herself Moisson de Brcourt, and bore me a grudge for using only my father's name. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 17067
Author: Lenotre, G.
Release Date: Nov 15, 2005
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Translator: Gilder, Gwendolen Jackson