Graziella: A Story of Italian Love

From the intro: "THE story of Graziella is a leaf torn from the personal memoires of the famous French historian, poet and orator who wrote it,—brightened by his smiles and moistened with his tears. Had it not been for Graziella, “Les Confidences” of Lamartine might never have been published. Many years after this Italian romance of his youth as late as 1843 Lamartine went into retreat on the island of Ischia to write his “History of the Girondists.” He was in sight of the isle of Procida where Graziella had lived and he had loved, and his hours of recreation were passed under the shade of a lemon tree, writing out the recollections of this charming episode. It was while he was thus engaged one day, that his friend, Eugene Pelletan, surprised him with a visit. Pelletan was curious to know what Lamartine was doing, and the latter, on the impulse, read him a few pages from his journal. Pelletan was much moved at the recital, and, when he returned to Paris, told a publisher of that city he might make his fortune if he could secure these recollections of Lamartine’s youth. The following Autumn, when Lamartine had returned home, he received a letter from the publisher offering him any price he would name for his journal. Though the improvident author was then in embarrassed circumstances, he declined the offer. Some years before, he had purchased the estate at Milly on borrowed money, that he might die in the old homestead. He was now forced to part with a portion of it. A week after the first offer for the Recollections, came another letter from Paris importuning their publication. The second letter was received at the moment a notary was drawing the deed for the sale of the Milly estate; Lamartine was in a humor to accept any alternative rather than part with the house hallowed by so many sacred associations. He seized the deed from the table, tore it in fragments, and wrote to the Paris publisher: “I accept.” Omitting a brief sojourn in Rome, this little volume includes all of Lamartine’s first visit to Italy from the time he left his home at Milly,—a hamlet nestling in the valley of the Saone, on the road from Macon to the old abbey of Cluny, where Abelard died. He was traveling with a relative who was called to Leghorn on business, and it was intended that he should return home from there; but his strong desire to see Rome and Naples induced him to write to his father for permission to visit those cities. He was then but eighteen years old. Having written, he resolved to preclude disobedience by going without waiting for a reply. “If the refusal comes,” he said, “it will come too late. I shall be reprimanded, but I shall be forgiven; I shall return, but I shall have seen.” His impressions of Rome were vivid and his descriptions singularly picturesque, but as they are not pertinent to the story of Graziella they are omitted, thus offering alone what he has himself called “that mournful and fascinating presentiment of love.”