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The Six Greatest Novels of Anatole France
The Six Greatest Novels of Anatole France Author:Anatole France Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: OXTAINING IN A FEW LINES THE HISTORY OF A FRENCH FAMILY FROM 1789 TO THE PRESENT DAY ENEATH the shadow of St. Sulpice the ancient mansion of the d'Esparv... more »ieu family rears its austere three stories between a moss-grown forecourt and a garden hemmed in, as the years have elapsed, by ever loftier and more intrusive buildings, wherein, nevertheless, two tall chestnut trees still lift their withered heads. Here from 1825 to 1857 dwelt the great man of e iamily, Alexandre Bussart d'Esparvieu, Vice-President of the "ol of State under the Government of July, Member of the ademy of Moral and Political Sciences, and author of an Essay i the Civil and Religious Institutions of Nations, in three octavo tomes, a work unfortunately left incomplete. Bus eminent theorist of a Liberal monarchy left as heir to his "Be his fortune and his fame, Fulgence-Adolphe Bussart d'Espar- . senator under the Second Empire, who added largely to his toimony by buying land over which the Avenue de l'Imperatice B destined ultimately to pass, and who made a remarkable speech kvonr of the temporal power of the popes. Wgence had three sons. The eldest, Marc-Alexandre, entering army, made a splendid career for himself: he was a good aher. The second, Gaetan, showing no particular aptitude for iytiiing, lived mostly in the country, where he hunted, bred "o. and devoted himself to music and painting. The third son, ", destined from his childhood for the law, resigned his deputy- "P to avoid complicity in the Ferry decrees against the religious krs; and later, perceiving the revival under the presidency of sieur Fallieres of the days of Decius and Diocletian, put his and zeal at the service of the persecuted Church, the Concordat of 1801 down to the closing years of theSecond Empire all the d'Esparvieus ...« less