From a review of Romanticism and Its Discontents ,
a book by the late Anita Brookner —
"Despite a novelist like Zola, who personified
'Romanticism as energy,' the final word is given
to the 'constitutionally depressed' critic Sainte-Beuve."
Brookner reportedly died at 87 on March 10, 2016.
A passage quoted in this journal on that date —
Sainte-Beuve in 1834:
"Modern society, once it is somewhat more settled . . .
will also have its calm, its corners of cool mystery . . . ."
Context:
"La société moderne, lorsqu'elle sera un peu mieux
assise et débrouillée, devra avoir aussi son calme,
ses coins de fraîcheur et de mystère, ses abris
propices aux sentiments perfectionnés…."
— Portraits de Femmes , Sainte-Beuve, éd. Gallimard,
coll. Folio Classique, 1998 , Madame de Souza, p. 82