The Project Gutenberg EBook of Marie Bashkirtseff (From Childhood to
Girlhood), by Marie Bashkirtseff

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Title: Marie Bashkirtseff (From Childhood to Girlhood)

Author: Marie Bashkirtseff

Release Date: November 1, 2004 [EBook #13916]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration]

MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF

(From Childhood to Girlhood)

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
BY MARY J. SAFFORD

PREFACE

THE SOUL OF A LITTLE GIRL

Marie Bashkirtseff, beginning at twelve years old, wrote her journal
ingenuously, sincerely, amusing us by her whims, thrilling us by her
enthusiasms, touching us by her sufferings.

We have gone through these note-books bound in white parchment,
slightly discoloured, like the winding sheet in which sleeps a
memory, and have already gathered a volume, precious, not because it
describes such an entertainment or such an event, but because it
reveals the mentality of a young girl.

This time we have been especially interested by the first books,
written in a large, unformed hand, dashing, variable, following the
successive impressions of a changeful, sensitive nature.

Very few documents exist concerning children, in whom the nineteenth
century alone began to interest itself.

In fact the real personality of the child is very secret, for it
distrusts these comprehensive and authoritative beings, "grown-up
people." And it hides its ironical observations, its dreams, all the
ardour of its little soul.

Children play. They have built, with sand and twigs, a fantastic
world peopled with their familiar toys: a grey cloth elephant, a
multi-coloured duck as big as that white plush bear. And they are in
the jungle, tracking, hunting, killing. Then they dance round to a
secret rhythm. Stop to look at them, the game will end. The little
mouths will become silent. The child will always hide the ingenuous
observations it makes with its clear eyes.

Therefore it seems to us very interesting to show a little girl's
existence, not told from the distance of past