The New Student's Reference Work/Récamier, Jean Françoise Julie Adelaide Bernard

Récamier (rā̇′kȧ′myā̇′), Jean Françoise Julie Adelaide Bernard, was born at Lyons, Dec. 4, 1777. She grew up a girl of remarkable grace and beauty, and at 15 married Jacques Récamier, a rich banker of Paris, three times as old as herself, and immediately entered upon a career of social triumph almost without a parallel even in France. Her salon was soon filled with the brightest wits of the literary and political circles of the day, and, fortunately for herself, she was possessed of a temperament that saved her from temptation and almost from scandal. She had a warm affection for Madame de Staël. When the latter was banished by Napoleon, Madame Récamier did not fail to give the exile her warmest friendship and sympathy. In 1806 the ruin of her husband's fortune caused her to visit Mme. de Staël at Coppet, in Switzerland, and while there she met Prince August of Prussia, who is said to have been the only one of all her admirers that ever touched her heart. A marriage was arranged between them, provided a divorce could be secured. Récamier gave consent, but his mild remonstrance so affected the wife that she declared she could not leave him in his adversity. Madame Récamier died at Paris of cholera, a disease of which she always had a special dread, May 11, 1849.