How Sarah Bernhardt discovered the Theory of Evolution
A short extract from: Sarah Bernhardt: My Erotic Life (Amazon)
I sometimes wondered whether the stage was indeed my true calling. Perhaps by choosing the theatre I had underestimated my even greater talent for painting and sculpture. The road not taken, eh? At convent I was always drawing likenesses of my school friends and at home, the sisters, but was too shy to show them to anybody. Still I knew they were good. In my daydreams, I saw myself in a garret atop a decrepit old building, starving myself so I could buy canvas and colours, posing nude for the richer artists in order not to starve.
Maman never did any baking. ‘I don’t want to spoil my fine hands,’ she would say. Tante Rosine, on the other hand was an inveterate baker. I could live on her petits pains. I remember how whenever she was kneading, I’d pinch a bit of dough, and she’d chase me to try get it back. She loved games. Then I’d settle in a dark corner and make shapes. I’d begin with eggs which naturally became chickens. Then came my fish phase. From the fish came humanoids and then humans. I had discovered Darwin’s theory of evolution at a young age.
