Madame Adam (Juliette Lambert), la grande Française

A biography traces Juliette Lambert’s life from a revolutionary family childhood through active opposition to the Second Empire, the 1870 war, the siege of Paris and the Commune, to her later years. It describes her evolution from spirited youth to influential salon hostess and founder-editor of a prominent review, her close connections with leading writers and statesmen, and her steadfast republican and nationalist convictions. The account examines her advocacy on foreign-policy questions, ambivalence about colonialism, reverence for military strength, and eventual return to religious observance, based on memoirs, letters and contemporary testimony.