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AFTER the brilliant success which attended, in the spring of last year, our volume on The Fan—a success which was the result, as I cannot conceal from myself, much more of the original conception and decorative execution of that work of luxe than of its literary interest—I have determined to close this series of Woman's Ornaments by a last little work on the protective adornments of that delicate being, as graceful as she is gracious:
THE SUNSHADE, the Glove, the Muff. This collection, therefore, of feminine toys will be limited to two volumes, a collection which at first sight appeared to us so complex and heavy that a dozen volumes at least would have been required to contain its principal elements.
This, doubtless, on the one hand, would have tried our own constancy, and on the other, would have failed in fixing more surely the inconstancy of our female readers.
THE spirit has its freaks of independence, and the unforeseen of life ought to be carefully economised. Moreover, to tell the whole truth, the decorative elegance of a book like the present hides very often beneath its prints the torture of an intellectual thumbscrew.
Octave Uzanne (1851 –1931) was a 19th-century French bibliophile, writer, publisher, and journalist.
He is noted for his literary research on the authors of the 18th century. He published many previously unpublished works by authors including Paradis Moncrif and Benserade, Caylus and Besenval, and the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire. He founded the Societe des Bibliophiles Contemporaines, of which he was president.
His research produced a considerable literary output and frequent publications in newspapers such as L'Echo, Le Plume, Depeche de Toulouse, Le Mercure de France, Le Gaulois and Le Figaro of Paris. One of the topics his research focused on was the discussion of fashion and femininity in the French fin-de-siecle.
This took the form of monographs and works including Son Altesse la femme, Feminies and La Française du siecle. His own works include novels and fantasy books, such as Surprises du Caur (1882) and Contes pour les bibliophiles (1895).
