Family writings

Letter from François Guizot to his daughter Henriette on punctuation.My dear Henriette, I must once again do battle with you over punctuation; there is none, or almost none, in your letters. The sentences follow one another without any distinction or separation, like the words of a single sentence. Even if this had no other drawback than to cause, at every moment, a kind of perplexity and surprise in reading your letters, that would be reason enough for you to mend your ways and punctuate like everyone else. But there is a more important reason, and one you will understand, I am sure. You have a very quick mind; you understand quickly and you act quickly. And as soon as you have understood or done something, you do not pause at all; you want to move on that very instant to something else. […]

Pauline Guizot’s account of her flight to England. I wanted, my dear sister, to write down for you our memories of those sad days we went through together, from 22 February to the end of March; that month held enough to fill many years, and I thought that ten years from now you would like to find a trace of the emotions, the anxieties and the joys we felt. I know that in describing my impressions I am describing more or less your own, for, as Mme Tastu[1] told us, “We have the same faith, the same hope, the same love”; and I like to think that later on, whether we are apart or together, you will take pleasure in seeing this little notebook written by someone who loves you more than she says, perhaps more than you believe. […]

“My Family”, by Cornelis de Witt. In the pages that follow I have gathered some recollections of my parents, both from the point of view of their family and private life and in connection with the part they may have played, during the second half of the nineteenth century, in the general life of the country. If I have included in this account some details of my own life, it is because they are bound up with the history of a cause whose success, as my forebears had taught me, would hasten the recovery of France, and with that of a Prince, the representative of this cause, to whom, with the respect he inspired and with all my heart, I gave my ardent devotion.” […]

Bibliographical essay on Henriette de Witt-Guizot, written by Catherine Coste, a descendant of François Guizot. Through this introduction to the published correspondence between François Guizot and his daughter Henriette (Perrin, 2002), we discover François Guizot as he was in the intimacy of his family: sensitive, generous and attentive.