Theophile Gautier 
Mademoiselle De Maupin [PDF ebook] 

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. For my own part, not being accustomed to look at statues in certain places, I thought, like other people, that the vine leaf carved by the chisels of the superintendent of the fine arts was the most ridiculous thing in the world. It appears that I was wrong, and that the vine leaf is among the most meritorious of institutions.