CANDACIS

“Candacis” is part of a modern translation of Rococo diaries and letters previously released as part of the Sacred Heart Diaries collection, comprised of the letters and journals of France’s well-born daughters in the final days of the Ancien Regime.

Orphaned at sixteen, Candacis was sent to a small convent in the countryside, where she found herself surrounded by other young noblewomen. Having lived an isolated life of titled poverty, Candacis was fascinated and appalled by the whispered stories of these privileged girls. She listened in silence for several years but, in the spring of 1787, as France's troubles were worsening, Candacis wrote to her cousin, Philipe, with an unusual proposition - to take the letters and diaries she transcribed from the papers of the young women at Sacred Heart and publish them in what would become the larger part of the Rococo Diaries - Invitation to Ruin.

The letter that follows is the last sent by Candacis to her cousin.

***

Philipe, my beloved cousin,

You have been most generous, not only with your financial support, but with your praise and approval. But what will you think when it is my own story I send to you? Yes, it is true. The words that follow are about me, about my lusts and adventures and disappointments.