EBOOK MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF ***
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Proofreading Team.
[Illustration]
MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF
(From Childhood to Girlhood)
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
BY MARY J. SAFFORD
PREFACE
THE SOUL OF A LITTLE GIRL
Marie Bashkirtseff, beginning at twelve years old, wrote her journal
ingenuously, sincerely, amusing us by her whims, thrilling us by her
enthusiasms, touching us by her sufferings.
We have gone through these note-books bound in white parchment,
slightly discoloured, like the winding sheet in which sleeps a
memory, and have already gathered a volume, precious, not because it
describes such an entertainment or such an event, but because it
reveals the mentality of a young girl.
This time we have been especially interested by the first books,
written in a large, unformed hand, dashing, variable, following the
successive impressions of a changeful, sensitive nature.
Very few documents exist concerning children, in whom the nineteenth
century alone began to interest itself.
In fact the real personality of the child is very secret, for it
distrusts these comprehensive and authoritative beings, "grown-up
people." And it hides its ironical observations, its dreams, all the
ardour of its little soul.
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