her "mémoires" appeared about five years later, and have often been reprinted, both separately and in collections of the memoirs of the 17th and 18th centuries, to both of which the author belonged both in style and character. she has much of the frankness and seductive verve of mme de sévigné and her contemporaries, but more than a little alloyed with the sensibility of a later time. it may be doubted whether she does not somewhat exaggerate the discomforts of her position and her sense of them. in her lack of illusions, she was a child of the 18th century. sainte-beuve says that the most fit time for the reading of the "mémoires" is the late autumn, under the trees of november, but her book is an extremely amusing one to read, as well as not a little instructive. the humours of the court of sceaux are depicted as hardly any other society of the kind has ever been. "dans cet art enjoué de raconter", says sainte-beuve, "madame de staal est classique".