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LPHONSE DAUDET, the finest of living French novelists, was born at Nîmes. His parents were poor, and, after studying in the Lyceum at Lyons, he became an usher in a school at Alais—a life of misery and suffering which two years afterwards he depicted in the pages of the Figaro with such vivid power that, from that time, his literary career was an assured success. Then, having taken up his residence in Paris, he began to write novels, plays, and articles for various publications, particularly the Monde Illustré and the Figaro, in which appeared his "Lettres de mon Moulin," a book which has been widely translated, and is well known in England. His greatest novel is "Fromart jeune et Risler aîné"—written at thirty-four—to which the French Academy awarded the Jouy Prize, and which was subsequently put on the stage with great success. His short stories (two of which appeared in our first number under the title of "Scenes of the Siege of Paris") are among the most finished and popular specimens of his work. In addition to his work as an author, M. Daudet is the theatrical critic of the Journal Officiel.