Amiel's Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Opening of the book

AMIEL’S JOURNAL
By Henri-Frédéric Amiel
The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel
Translated, With an Introduction and Notes by Mrs.
Humphrey Ward
CONTENTS

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
In this second edition of the English translation of
Amiel’s “Journal Intime,” I have inserted a good many new
passages, taken from the last French edition (Cinquiéme
édition, revue et augmentée.) But I have not translated
all the fresh material to be found in that edition nor
have I omitted certain sections of the Journal which in
these two recent volumes have been omitted by their French
editors. It would be of no interest to give my reasons for
these variations at length. They depend upon certain
differences between the English and the French public,
which are more readily felt than explained. Some of the
passages which I have left untranslated seemed to me to
overweight the introspective side of the Journal, already
so full—to overweight it, at any rate, for English
readers. Others which I have retained, though they often
relate to local names and books, more or less unfamiliar
to the general public, yet seemed to me valuable as
supplying some of that surrounding detail, that setting,
which helps one to understand a life. Besides, we English
are in many ways more akin to Protestant and Puritan
Geneva than the French readers to whom the original
Journal primarily addresses itself, and some of the
entries I have kept have probably, by the nature of
things, more savor for us than for them.
M. A. W.
PREFACE.
This
translation
of
Amiel’s
“Journal
Intime”
is
primarily addressed to those whose knowledge of French,

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