of the most obvious faults of the _Spectateur francais_ was the
irregular and disconnected manner of its publication. Perhaps through
natural indolence, but more likely through over conscientiousness and too
high an ideal of artistic perfection, which caused him to magnify his own
shortcomings and to soon tire of the subject in hand, he was inclined to
abandon his work unfinished and to turn to newer interests. This tendency
may be seen in the _Spectateur_, which, after sundry interruptions,
finally reaches the twenty-fifth leaflet, after which it suddenly, and
without warning, comes to an end.

Another journal in the same vein, _l'Indigent Philosophe_, undertaken in
1728, fared even worse, for it was carried only through the seventh
leaflet, when it too succumbed, to be revived, however, in 1734, under the
title of _le Cabinet du Philosophe_. The same fate awaited the latter, and
Marivaux's enthusiasm forsook him at the end of the eleventh leaflet,
Fleury[81] characterizes this as the best of his three periodical
publications. but I am of the opinion of Lavollee,[82] who does not
consider it comparable "either in interest or variety" with the
_Spectateur_.

It is not alone in this style of literature that our author wearies of his
theme and drops his pen, for neither of his novels _Marianne_ nor _le
Paysan parvenu_ was completed. The former was begun in 1731, and the
publication of its eleven parts was not completed until 1741, ten years
later; but the periodical publication of novels was common at that
epoch,[83] and the _chef-d'oeuvre_ of Le Sage, contemporary with it (1715-
1735), was double that time in appearing.

It has long been thought that the twelfth part, which concludes the story
of _Marianne_, was by Mme. Riccoboni; but Fleury[84] has proved quite
satisfactorily that the _Conclusion_, which appeared in 1745, in an
Amsterdam edition of _Marianne_, was written by one of those who, as
d'Alembert says, "se sont charges, sans qu'on les en priat, de finir les
romans de M. de Marivaux, et (qui) ont eu dans cette entreprise un succes
digne de leurs talents:" while a simple _Continuation_, written, in fact,
by Mme. Riccoboni, and so cleverly, too, as to almost deceive the critics
of the eighteenth century, did not appear until 1751.[85]

Marianne is a young girl, beautiful and of high birth, who, when but a
small child, has the misfortune to lose her parents in an attack by
robbers on the road to Bordeaux. Shelt