Title:  His Excellency the Minister

Author:  Jules Claretie

Translator:  Henri Roberts

Release Date:  May 29, 2005 [EBook #15934]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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This edition
dedicated to the honor of the
Academie Francaise
is limited to one thousand numbered and registered
sets, of which this is

NUMBER 358

The ROMANCISTS
Jules Claretie
his excellency the minister

BIBLIOTHEQUE
des chefs-d’oeuvre
du Roman
CONTEMPORAIN

HIS EXCELLENCY THE MINISTER

JULES CLARETIE

OF THE ACADEMIE FRANCAISE

PRINTED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY BY

George Barrie & sons, Philadelphia
copyright, 1900, by G.B. & Son

This edition of
his excellency the minister
has been completely translated
by
Henri Roberts

The ETCHINGS are by
Eugene Wallet
and drawings by
Adrien Marie

TO ALPHONSE DAUDET

My dear friend,

Ideas sometimes float about in the air like the pollen of flowers.  For years past I have been at work collecting notes for this book which I have decided to dedicate to you.

In one of your charming prefaces, you told us lately that you only painted from nature.  We are both of us, I imagine, in our day and generation, quite captivated and carried away by that modern society from which in your exquisite creations you have so well understood how to extract the essence.

What is it that I have desired to do this time?  That which we have both been trying to do at one and the same time:  to seize, in passing, these stirring times of ours, these modern manners, that society which perpetuates the antediluvian uproar, that feverish, bustling world always posing before the footlights, that market for the sale of appetites, that kirmess of pleasure that saddens us a little and amuses us a great deal, and allows us romance-writers, simple seekers after truth, to smile in our sleeves at the constant seekers after portfolios.