TWENTY YOUNG GIRLS

A magazine recently asked to choose from works of imagination twenty types of young French girls. Here is the list of the first twenty:

1. Mireille, from Mistral;
2. Colette Baudoche, from Maurice Barrès;
3. Hélène de la Seiglière, from Mlle de la Seiglière, from Jules Sandeau;
4. Colomba, from Mérimée;
5. Henriette, from Femmes sarantes, from Molière;
6. Aude, from Chanson de Roland;
7. Charlotte Corday, from Ponsard;
8. Sylvie, from Gérard de Nerval;
9. Silvia, from The Game of Love and Chance, from Marivaux;
10. Virginie, from Bernardin de Saint-Pierre;
11. Françoise Fadet, from La Petite Fadette, from George Sand;
12. Camille, from You Don't Play With Love, by Alfred de Musset;
13. Gracieuse, from Ramuntcho, by Pierre Loti;
14. Cosette, from Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo;
15. Marie, by Brizeux;
16. Julia de Trécœur, by Octave Feuillet;
17. Suzel, from L'Ami Fritz, by Erckmann-Chatrian;
18. Suzanne de Villiers, from The World Where You're Bored, by Pailleron;
19. Mathilde de la Mole, from The Red and the Black, by Sthendhal;
20. Eugénie Grandet, by Balzac.

This list shows that the readers of the magazine know their literature; It also shows, apart from the choice of two or three "young French girls", that they give preference to sentimental heroines.