No subject, perhaps, has excited the curiosity of readers like this one, and always without satisfying that curiosity.  A library could be formed of the books devoted to this subject, written within the last ten years.  Monsieur Rocheblave, Monsieur Maurice Clouard, Dr. Cabanes, Monsieur Marieton, the enthusiastic collector, Spoelberch de Lovenjoul and Monsieur Decori have all given us their contributions to the debate.(19) Thanks to them, we have the complete correspondence of George Sand and Musset, the diary of George Sand and Pagello’s diary.

(19) Consult:  Rocheblave, La fin dune Legende; Maurice Clouard, Documents inedits sur A. de Musset; Dr. Cabanes, Musset et le Dr. Pagello; Paul Marieton, Une histoire d’amour; Vicomte Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, La vrai histoire d’Elle et Lui; Decori, Lettres de George Sand et Musset.

With the aid of all these documents Monsieur Charles Maurras has written a book entitled Les Amants de Venise.  It is the work of a psychologist and of an artist.  The only fault I have to find with it is that the author of it seems to see calculation and artifice everywhere, and not to believe sufficiently in sincerity.  We must not forget, either, that as early as the year 1893, all that is essential had been told us by that shrewd writer and admirable woman, Arvede Barine.  The chapter which she devotes to the Venice episode, in her biography of Alfred de Musset, is more clear and simple, and at the same time deeper than anything that had yet been written.

It is a subject that has been given up to the curiosity of people and to their disputes.  The strange part is the zeal which at once animates every one who takes part in this controversy.  The very atmosphere seems to be impregnated with strife, and those interested become, at once, the partisans of George Sand or the partisans of Musset.  The two parties only agree on one point, and that is, to throw all the blame on the client favoured by their adversary.  I must confess that I cannot take a passionate interest in a discussion, the subject of which we cannot properly judge.  According to Mussetistes, it was thanks to George Sand that the young poet was reduced to the despair which drove him to debauchery.  On the other hand, if we are to believe the Sandistes, George Sand’s one idea in interesting herself in Musset was to rescue him from debauchery and convert him to a better life.  I listen to all such pious interpretations, but I prefer others for myself.  I prefer seeing the physiognomy of each of the two lovers standing out, as it does, in powerful relief.

It is the custom, too, to pity these two unfortunates, who suffered so much.  At the risk of being taken for a very heartless man, I must own that I do not pity them much.  The two lovers wished for this suffering, they wanted to experience the incomparable sensations of it, and they got enjoyment and profit from this.  They knew that they were working for posterity.  “Posterity will repeat our names like those of the immortal lovers whose two names are only one at present, like Romeo and Juliette, like Heloise and Abelard.  People will never speak of one of us without speaking of the other.”