Babolain

by Gustave Droz

Excerpt from To live one's own life, however humble it may be, is a triumph. To have an instrument of one's own and play upon it with ease! And to think that so many people have merely had the trouble of breathing into this instrument to draw forth the most charm ing airs, while I have not even been able to find the mouth-piece.

326 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1872

About the author

Antoine Gustave Droz (1832-1895), French man of letters, son of the sculptor J. A. Droz (1807-1872), was born in Paris. He was educated as an artist, and began to exhibit in the Salon of 1857. A series of sketches dealing gaily and lightly with the intimacies of family life, published in the Vie Parisienne and issued in book form as Monsieur, Madame et Bb (1866), won for the author an immediate and great success. Entre Flous (1867) was built on a similar plan, and was followed by some psychological novels: Le Cahier Bieu de Mile Cibot (1868), Autour Dune Source (1869), Un Paquet de Lettres (1870), Babolein (1872), Les Etangs (1875) and L'Enfant (1885). His Tristesses et Sourires (1884) is a delicate analysis of the niceties of family intercourse and its difficulties. Droz's first book was translated into English under the title of Monsieur, Madame and Bebe (1887).