One of the most conspicuous figures in the latter half of the nineteenth century is Mme. Adam,—­Juliette Lamber,—­an unusual woman in every respect.  In 1879 she founded the Nouvelle Revue, on the plan of the Revue des Deux Mondes, for which she wrote political and literary articles which showed much talent.  In politics she is a Republican and something of a socialist, a somewhat sensational—­but modestly sensational—­figure.  She has been called “a necessary continuator of George Sand.”  Her salon was the great centre for all Republicans and one of the most brilliant and important of this century.  In literature her name is connected with the movement called neo-Hellenism, the aim of which seems to have been to inspire a love and sympathy for the art, religion, and literature of ancient and modern Greece.  In her works she shows a deep insight into Greek life and art.  Her name will always be connected with the Republican movement in France; as a salon leader, femme de lettres, journalist, and female politician, no woman is better known in France in the nineteenth century.

A woman who might be called the rival of Mme. Adam, but whose activity occurred much earlier in the century, was Mme. Emile de Girardin,—­Delphine Gay,—­who ruled, at least for a short time, the social and literary world of Paris at her hotel in the Rue Chaillot.  Her very early precocity, combined with her rare beauty, made her famous.  In 1836, after having written a number of poems which showed a weak sentimentality and a quite mannered emotion, she founded the Courrier Francais, for which she wrote articles on the questions of the day—­effusions which were written upon the spur of the moment and were very unreliable.  Her dramas were hardly successful, although they were played by the great Rachel.  Her present claim to fame is based upon the brilliancy of her salon.

The future will possibly remember Mme. Alphonse Daudet more as the wife of the great Daudet than as a writer, although, according to M. Jules Lemaitre, she possessed the gift of ecriture artiste to a remarkable degree.  According to him, sureness and exactness and a striking truth of impressions are her characteristics as a writer.  She exercised a most wholesome power over Alphonse Daudet, taking him away from bad influences, giving him a home, dignity, and happiness, and saving him from brutality and pessimism; she was his guardian and censor; she preserved his grace and noble sentiments.  The nature of her relations to him should ensure the preservation of her name to posterity.