Adolphe Thiers

Overview

Adolphe Thiers (Marseille 1797 – Saint-Germain-en-Laye 1877), historian and statesman; head of the executive power in 1871 and second president of the French Republic from 1871 to 1873, forced to resign in May 1873. (Source: Wikipedia, «Adolphe Thiers»; Mon Journal indexes t.1, t.4, t.8, t.10, t.11, t.13: «Thiers (Adolphe), homme d'État».)

Relevance to Marie

Marie sees him once, in the crowd. On 28 October 1874 «Thiers après sa captivité chez les bandits italiens et sa descente aux enfers est arrivé ici» (025.0019): in Nice, where the Hôtel de la Méditerranée, in which he stays, is illuminated, an orchestra plays, the sea is covered with lantern boats, and when «l'illustre vieillard paraissait sur le balcon on criait: Vive Thiers, vive Thiers !» (025.0020–0021). She is in the crowd with Angel (Mme Angel), Bihovetz, Nina and Pâris, and afterwards eats ices at Rumpelmayer's. The «bandits italiens» and the «descente aux enfers» are Marie's ironic allusions; the diary does not explain them and no source consulted does.

References in Diary

• 1874-10-28 (025.0019–0021). The t.4 index lists pp. 71 and 188–189, t.8 p.329 and t.10 p.329–334 for other pages; those are not tagged here.