Chapter 2


Photograph

No caption given.

Thackeray describes the “Adventures of a French Count”

After the collapse of The National Standard, Thackeray returned to Paris to study art. He frequently visited the home of British journalist and historian Eyre Evans Crowe, who was then working as a foreign correspondent for the London Morning Chronicle. Just as he told stories while sketching to entertain Ned Torre, Thackeray also created similar entertainments for the Crowe children. Shown here is a page from an album Thackeray filled with the humorous “Adventures of a French Count.” The quixotic count is tortured by Spanish soldiers for refusing to denounce Protestantism, but escapes his captors, and attempts to seduce a housemaid disguised as a queen.

HEW 12.12.6. Harry Elkins Widener collection.