Editing Marie Bashkirtseff (section)

==The diary==
From approximately the age of 13, Bashkirtseff kept a journal, and it is probably for this that she is most famous today. It has been called "a strikingly modern psychological self-portrait of a young, gifted mind",<ref name="eb" /> and her urgent prose, which occasionally breaks out into dialogue, remains extremely readable. She was multilingual and despite her self-involvement, was a keen observer with an acute ear for hypocrisy, so that her journal also offers a near-novelistic account of the late nineteenth century European [[bourgeoisie]]. A consistent theme throughout her journal is her deep desire to achieve fame, inflected by her increasing fear that her intermittent illnesses might turn out to be tuberculosis. In a prefatory section written toward the end of her life, in which she recounts her family history, she writes, "If I do not die young I hope to live as great artist; but if I die young, I intend to have my journal, which cannot fail to be interesting, published." Similarly: "When I am dead, my life, which appears to me a remarkable one, will be read. (The only thing wanting is that it should have been different)."<ref name="diary" /> In effect, the first half of Bashkirtseff's journal is a [[Bildungsroman|coming-of-age story]] while the second is an account of heroic suffering.<ref name="sw" />

Bashkirtseff's journal was first published in 1887, and was only the second diary by a woman published in France to that date. It was an immediate success, not least because its cosmopolitan confessional style was a marked departure from the contemplative, mystical diaries of the writer [[Eugénie de Guérin]] that had been published in 1862.<ref name="sw" /> An English translation appeared two years later under the title ''Marie Bashkirtseff: The Journal of a Young Artist 1860–1884''. Translated by Mary J. Serrano, it was heavily abridged and bowdlerized, her relatives seeing to it that a good deal of material they considered unflattering to the family was removed.

[[File:Bashkirtseff.jpg|thumb|''Self-portrait with a Palette'', 1880]]
[[File:Marie_Bashkirtseff_-_portrait_of_Mme_X.jpg|thumb|Marie Bashkirtseff - portrait of Mme X]]
British Prime Minister [[William Ewart Gladstone|William Gladstone]] referred to her journal as "a book without a parallel",<ref name="weg" /> and another early admirer was [[George Bernard Shaw]]. The late nineteenth century English novelist [[George Gissing]] read the original French version over eight days in June 1890.<ref>Coustillas, Pierre ed. London and the Life of Literature in Victorian England: the Diary of George Gissing, Novelist. Brighton: Harvester Press, 1978, p.219-20.</ref> It remained popular, eventually spinning off both plays and movies based on her life story, including ''[[The Affairs of Maupassant]]'', directed by [[Henry Koster]] and released in the United States in 1938.<ref name="nyt" /> Her diary was cited as an inspiration by the American writer [[Mary MacLane]], whose own shockingly confessional diary was written a bare generation later, and it was mentioned as a model by later writers who became known for their diaries, including [[Pierre Louÿs]], [[Katherine Mansfield]], [[W.N.P. Barbellion]], and [[Anais Nin]].<ref name="sw" />

Her letters, consisting of her correspondence with the writer [[Guy de Maupassant]] (which she had begun under an assumed name) were first published in 1891.<ref name="eb11" /><ref name="homage" />

Until recently the accepted date of Bashkirtseff's birth was 11 November [23 November [[Adoption of the Gregorian calendar#Adoption in Eastern Europe|New Style]]], 1860. After the discovery of the original manuscript of Bashkirtseff's journal in the {{Lang|fr|[[Bibliothèque nationale de France]]|italic=no}}, however, it was found that her journal had been abridged and censored by her family in its first editions. Her date of birth (1858 not 1860) was falsified by her mother to make Bashkirtseff appear even more precocious.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}} An unabridged edition of the complete journal, based on the original manuscript, has been published in French in 16 volumes, and excerpts from the years 1873–1876 have been translated into English under the title ''I Am the Most Interesting Book of All'' (see editions listed below).[[File:Bashkirtseff-grave.jpg|thumb|right|Marie Bashkirtseff's grave, [[Passy Cemetery]], Paris]]<gallery>
Image:Bashkirtseva Autumn.jpg|''Autumn'', 1883
Image:Bashkirtseff - The Meeting.jpg|''The Meeting'', 1884
Image:Marie Bashkirtseff - Der Regenschirm - 1883.jpeg|''The Umbrella'', 1883
Image:Marie Bashkirtseff 2.jpg|''Spring'', {{Circa|1884}}
</gallery>