Introductory material

“Though the descendant of a king, I have been a beggar, a servant, a mantua-maker’s apprentice, and the favourite of royalty.... The names of a great queen and of a prince-cardinal unhappily united with mine have spread a blaze around it to attract general notice; and as if I was doomed to be the victim of painful splendour, the ingenuity of my enemies have found means to forge the chains of my dishonour out of a Diamond Necklace.”—“Life of the Countess de la Motte, by herself,” vol. i. p. 267, and p. 6 of Preface.

“Faites attention à ce misérable Collier, je ne serais nullement surpris qu’il renversât le trône.”—Talleyrand to Chamfort. “Histoire Monarchique et Constitutionnelle de la Révolution Française,” par E. Labaume, vol. ii. p. 139.

“I would caution them to despise those who, hacknied in systematic scandal, feast upon the bleeding reputations of their sisters mangled and torn by calumny; let them demand of those who convey such vile insinuations some proof of the circumstances which they relate; let them sift them thoroughly to the bottom; let them inquire the character of the tale-bearer; let them ask how, where, and when, and whether she knows the woman whom she has so eagerly attempted to disgrace.”—“Life of the Countess de la Motte, by herself,” vol. ii. p. 410.

“Do not the critics teach us: ‘In whatsoever thing thou hast thyself felt interest, in that or in nothing hope to inspire others with interest.’ In partial obedience to all which and to many other principles shall the following small Romance of the Diamond Necklace begin to come together. A small Romance let the reader again and again assure himself, which is no brain-web of mine, or of any other foolish man’s, but a fraction of the mystic ‘spirit-woven web’ from the ‘Loom of Time.’ It is an actual Transaction that happened in this Earth of ours. Wherewith our whole business is to paint it truly.”—“Carlyle’s Critical and Miscellaneous Essays,” vol. iv. p. 5.