Daughter of a famous mid-19th-century French author and critic, Judith Gautier grew up in a highly literary milieu and became well known for her own poetry, plays, fiction, essays, and translations from Chinese. In the second volume of her three-part memoir she describes life in the busy house in Neuilly, west of Paris, where her family moved in 1855, when she was ten. Artists, musicians, and writers come calling.The Goncourt brothers, Gustave Doré, Baudelaire, and other illustrious Parisians turn up at Thursday evening salons. A boating adventure on the Seine goes awry; friends, family theatrics, and daily life in a prominent family are described. A fascination with the East will tempt Judith to consider a proposal from a handsome Persian general. This is the first English translation of volume two of Judith Gautier’s three-part memoir, Le Collier des jours. The translator is Judy Harter.