La Femme invisible
Journal des débats et des décrets, Paris 13 february 1800, p. 2.
1 volume available
In the feuilleton, an anonymous piece entitled «La Femme invisible» invites the reader to a «small act of humility»: to climb to the fourth floor of no. 40 rue des Prêtres-Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, into a bare room, where one hears and questions the invisible woman without any splendid apparatus, and where one is told that there is no sorcery but only acoustics and optics. It describes a long tin case, glazed in places, hung from a very low ceiling by four small iron chains, with an acoustic horn insulated from the walls: the woman answers at once, blows on one's hand and names the objects presented at the mouthpiece (a watch, a snuff-box). For thirty sous, the author concludes, one discovers a place where all physical science founders: «there is almost some honour in failing against the Fantasmagorie», but against the invisible woman the journalist too has failed. On the same page, in the review of Le Délire at the Opéra-Comique, one goes to see the actor Gavaudan as one goes to see the invisible woman, «a show one must have seen, but which one does not see twice». Full transcription and Italian translation.
Language
French
