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PARTISAN REVIEW
tain she watched the course of her own end with melancholy,
scientific, philosophical interest. Surprisingly, she bequeathed
Petite Plaisance
intact to the town as a museum, and she is buried
in the local cemetery. I do not believe that many pilgrims will
visit her memorials in Mount Desert Island.
I have chosen to close this memoir with a bow to
Petite
Plaisance
(palace of a kind), by quoting from Marguerite
Yourcenar's inspired serenade to the
Chateau of Chenonceaux:
A visit to old houses can lead to points of view we did not
*
anticipate.
*"Ah Mon Beau Chateau," from
The Dark Brain of Piranesi and Other Essays.
By
Marguerite Yourcenar. New York: Farrar, Straus
&
Giroux. 1984.
