'I am not sufficiently fond of dissertations, of eternal analysis, of eloquent bubbles, to be a warm partizan of Mde de Staal [sic]. Between friends - but don't mention it - I yawned over her Allemagne - and yet, here and there, was electrified by a flash of sublimity. Do you agree with me in thinking, that with all her brilliant varnish, she is corrupt at heart? Had Satan himself written "Pauline", one of the stories published with "Zuma", he could have produced nothing more offensive to decency, more detestably disgusting'.