A Day in London (Une Journée à Londres, 1842)

Gautier, Théophile (1811–1872), translated by Kline, A. S. (contact-email)

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Gautier made the first of a number of visits to London, in March 1842, in order to assist in staging the ballet Giselle, the libretto of which he had written in collaboration with Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges. In the first performance, on March 12th at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Carlotta Grisi danced the title role, which had brought her instant fame in Paris the previous summer. Gautier gives here his initial impressions of the city, written as a report to his friend Fritz, his nickname for Gérard de Nerval, and published in the collection Zigzags, in 1845.

This enhanced translation of Une Journée à Londres has been designed to offer maximum compatibility with current search engines. Among other modifications, the proper names of people and places, and the titles given to works of art, have been fully researched, modernised, and expanded; comments in parentheses have been added here and there to provide a reference, or clarify meaning; and minor typographic or factual errors, for example incorrect attributions and dates, in the original text, have been eliminated from this new translation.

Author Details

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Kline, A. S.

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