



Produced by ellinora, Charlie Howard, and the Online
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by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)









SARAH BERNHARDT


[Illustration: Mme. Sarah Bernhardt.]




  SARAH BERNHARDT

  BY
  JULES HURET

  WITH A PREFACE BY
  EDMOND ROSTAND

  TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY
  G. A. RAPER


  _WITH FIFTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS_


  LONDON
  CHAPMAN & HALL, LTD.
  1899




  RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
  LONDON & BUNGAY.




PREFACE


MY DEAR HURET,

You have given me an attack of vertigo. I have been reading your
biography of our illustrious friend. Its rapid, nervous style, its
accumulation of dates and facts, its hurried rush of scenery and events
flying past as though seen from an express train, all help to attain
what I imagine must have been your object--to give the reader vertigo.
I have got it.

I knew all these things, but I had forgotten them. They are so many
that no one even attempts to reckon them up. We are accustomed to
admire Sarah. “An extraordinary woman,” we say, without at all
realizing how true the remark is. And when we find ourselves suddenly
confronted with an epic narrative such as yours; with such a series of
battles and victories, expeditions and conquests, we stand amazed.
We expected that there was more to tell than we knew, but not quite
so much more! Yes, here is something we had quite forgotten, and here
again is something more! All the early struggles and difficulties and
unfair opposition! All the adventures and freaks of fancy! Twenty
triumphs and ten escapades on a page! You cannot turn the leaves
without awakening an echo of fame. Your brain reels. There is