The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoirs of the Comtesse du Barry, by
Baron Etienne Leon Lamothe-Langon

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Title: Memoirs of the Comtesse du Barry
With Minute Details of Her Entire Career as Favorite of
Louis XV, "Written by Herself"

Author: Baron Etienne Leon Lamothe-Langon

Posting Date: December 6, 2008 [EBook #2563]
Release Date: March, 2001

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIRS OF THE COMTESSE DU BARRY ***

Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer

MEMOIRS OF THE COMTESSE DU BARRY

WITH MINUTE DETAILS OF HER ENTIRE CAREER AS FAVORITE OF LOUIS XV

"WRITTEN BY HERSELF"

By Baron Etienne Leon Lamothe-Langon

With a special introduction by Robert Arnot, M.A.

GUTENBERG EDITOR'S NOTE:

This delightful (piquant, the comtesse would say) pseudonymous work
was in fact written not "by herself" but by Baron Etienne Leon
Lamothe-Langon (1786-1864). The persona created is that of a woman
who always tells the truth as she sees it, but it is made clear to the
reader that what the narrator sees is very seldom exactly the objective
truth. The author ends as well as begins _in medias res_ (in the middle
of the action), thus creating an illusion of a slice of a journal but
simultaneously giving the reader the uneasy feeling that the first and
last chapters seem to be missing.

The French-style quotation marks have, for ease in typesetting and use,
been changed to American-style quotation marks, and the dot after the
name of Louis XV has been removed to conform to American punctuation.
Captions of illustrations are omitted because the illustrations
themselves cannot be inserted. A few minor editing errors have been
silently corrected. No other changes have been made; the irregularity in
italicizing or not italicizing, in translating or not translating French
words, and in punctuating quotations of letters, is in the text itself.

Notes are identified as coming from author, tr. (translator), editor, or
Gutenberg editor.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Letter from Lebel--Visit from Lebel--Nothing conclusive--Another visit
from Lebel--Invitation to sup with the king--Instr