Episode 25 - Carpeaux and the Second Empire

"Those who have seen it have not forgotten the magnificent tipsy laugh of the figures in the dancing group on the front of the Opera; you seem to hear it, as you pass, above the uproar of the street." Is this remark from Henry James praising Carpeaux's masterpiece The Dance, or damning it? Yes. But whether a person loved or hated the sensual rhythms of The Dance, it and its creator could not be ignored.