Guillaume Apollinaire, one of the few great poets who were also charming, has a delightful book of essays, Le Flaneur des deux rives (The Stroller Through Paris), about his walks through the quarters on both sides of the Seine. He meets a library buff, a chap who has sampled libraries all over the world.One such was the St. Petersburg Library, where "one could see young girls (gamines) age twelve who were reading Sc…
SOURCE: John Simon at 11:03PM on September 14, 2012