The Project Gutenberg EBook of The International Weekly Miscellany, Vol.
1, No. 7, by Various

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Title: The International Weekly Miscellany, Vol. 1, No. 7
Of Literature, Art, and Science, August 12, 1850

Author: Various

Release Date: October 11, 2004 [EBook #13711]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY MISCELLANY

Of Literature, Art, and Science.

* * * * *

Vol. I. NEW YORK, AUGUST 12, 1850. No. 7.

* * * * *

WOMEN AND LITERATURE IN FRANCE.

From a sprightly letter from Paris to the _Cologne Gazette_, we
translate for _The International_ the following account of the
position of women in the French Republic, together with the
accompanying gossip concerning sundry ladies whose names have long
been quite prominently before the public:

"It is curious that the idea of the emancipation of women should have
originated in France, for there is no country in Europe where the
sex have so little reason to complain of their position as in this,
especially at Paris. Leaving out of view a certain paragraph of the
_Code Civile_--and that is nothing but a sentence in a law-book--and
looking closely into the features of women's life, we see that they
are not only queens who reign, but also ministers who govern.

"In France women are engaged in a large proportion of civil
employments, and may without hesitation devote themselves to art and
science. It is indeed astonishing to behold the interest with which
the beautiful sex here enter upon all branches of art and knowledge.

"The ateliers of the painters number quite as many female as male
students, and there are apparently more women than men who copy the
pictures in the Louvre. Nothing is more pleasing than to see these
gentle creatures, with their easels, sitting before a colossal Rubens
or a Madonna of Raphael. No difficulty alarms them, and prudery is not
allowed to give a voice in their choice of subjects.