This is the first volume of a memoir by Judith Gautier (1845–1917), published in France in 1904. She was a prolific French poet, novelist, journalist, and translator. She had many famous relatives and friends, and played an influential role in European artistic and literary circles. In this memoir she recounts her early childhood in the countryside near Paris, her abrupt placement in a Parisian convent, and her eventual reunion with her family. This is an English translation of volume one of her three-part memoir, Le Collier des jours. The translator is Judy Harter.