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This blog makes liberal use of AB's journals, letters, travel notes, and other sources.


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Wednesday 5 September 2012

French disappointment

Monday, September 5th., Villa des Nefliers, Fontainebleau.


Finished yesterday the first 8,000 words of "Seeing life in Paris". I shall now leave it for a time. We cycled down to see Madame Bourges on Saturday, but naturally she had gone to Paris days ago. Afterwards I went to bed with influenza, but found that I hadn't got it.

I read yesterday a lot of Capus "Les Deux Ecoles". Bright "footlingness".
(OED: Footling adj. - That footles or trifles; ‘drivelling’, ‘blithering’, trivial)

Alfred Capus
Absolutely unoriginal but with passable wit and levity. Always the same monotonous tedious subject. Neither the subject nor the characters have the slightest importance or power or real interest. They are trifling and that is what would be 'up' with the play even if Capus had ten times the talent he has.




Alfred Capus (November 25, 1858 – November 1, 1922) was a French journalist and playwright, born in Aix-en-Provence and deceased in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

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