Part 17

or so of volumes to which they sometimes actually extend. Of this purely narrative kind, which hardly even attempts anything but the boldest character drawing, the best of them, such as _Les Trois Mousquetaires_, _Vingt ans apres_, _La Reine Margot_, are probably the best specimens extant. Dumas possesses, almost alone among novelists, the secret of writing interminable dialogue without being tedious, and of telling the story by it. Of something the same kind, but of a far lower stamp, are the novels of Eugene Sue (1804-1857). Dumas and Sue were accompanied and followed by a vast crowd of companions, independent or imitative. Alfred de Vigny had already attempted the historical novel in _Cinq-Mars_. Henri de La Touche (1785-1851) (_Fragoletta_), an excellent critic who formed George Sand, but a mediocre novelist, may be mentioned: and perhaps also Roger de Beauvoir, whose real name was Eugene Auguste Roger de Bully (1806-1866) (_Le Chronique de Saint Georges_), and Frederic Soulie (_Les Memoires du diable_) (1800-1847). Paul Feval (_La Fee des greves_) (1817-1877) and Amedee Achard (_Belle-Rose_) (1814-1875) are of the same school, and some of the attempts of Jules Janin (1804-1874), more celebrated as a critic, may also be connected with it. By degrees, however, the taste for the novel of incident, at least of an historical kind, died out till it was revived in another form, and with an admixture of domestic interest, by MM. Erckmann-Chatrian. The last and one of the most splendid instances of the old style was _Le Capitaine Fracasse_, which Theophile Gautier began early and finished late as a kind of _tour de force_. The last-named writer in his earlier days had modified the incident novel in many short tales, a kind of writing for which French has always been famous, and in which Gautier's sketches are masterpieces. His only other long novel, _Mademoiselle de Maupin_, belongs rather to the class of analysis. With Gautier, as a writer whose literary characteristics even excel his purely tale-telling powers, may be classed Prosper Merimee (1803-1870), one of the most exquisite 19th-century masters of the language. Already, however, in 1830 the tide was setting strongly in favour of novels of contemporary life and manners. These were of course susceptible of extremely various treatment. For many years Paul de Kock (1793-1871), a writer who did not trouble himself about Classics or Romantics or any such matter, continued the tradition of Marivaux, Crebillon _fils_, and Pigault Lebrun (1753-1835) in a series of not very moral or polished but lively and amusing sketches of life, principally of the bourgeois type. Later Charles de Bernard (1804-1850) (_Gerfaut_) with infinitely greater wit, elegance, propriety and literary skill, did the same thing for the higher classes of French society. But the two great masters of the novel of character and manners as opposed to that of history and incident are Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) and Aurore Dudevant, commonly called George Sand (1804-1876). Their influence affected the entire body of novelists who succeeded them, with very few exceptions. At the head of these exceptions may be placed Jules Sandeau (1811-1883), who, after writing a certain number of novels in a less individual style, at last made for himself a special subject in a certain kind of domestic novel, where the passions set in motion are less boisterous than those usually preferred by the French novelist, and reliance is mainly placed on minute character drawing and shades of colour sober in hue but very carefully adjusted (_Catherine_, _Mademoiselle de Penarvan_, _Mademoiselle de la Seigliere_). In the same class of the more quiet and purely domestic novelists may be placed X. B. Saintine (1798-1865) (_Picciola_), Madame C. Reybaud (1802-1871) (_Clementine_, _Le Cadet de Colobrieres_), J. T. de Saint-Germain (_Pour en epingle_, _La Feuille de coudrier_), Madame Craven (1808-1891) (_Recit d'une soeur_, _Fleurange_). Henri Beyle (1798-1865), who wrote under the _nom de plume_ of Stendhal and belongs to an older generation than most of these, also stands by himself. His chief book in the line of fiction is _La Chartreuse de Parme_, an exceedingly powerful novel of the analytical kind, and he also composed a considerable number of critical and miscellaneous works. Of little influence at first (though he had great power over Merimee) and never master of a perfect style, he has exercised ever increasing authority as a master of pessimist analysis. Indeed much of his work was never published till towards the close of the century. Last among the independents must be mentioned Henry Murger (1822-1861), the painter of what is called Bohemian life, that is to say, the struggles, difficulties and amusements of students, youthful artists, and men of letters. In this peculiar style, which may perhaps be regarded as an irregular descendant of the picaroon romance, Murger has no rival; and he is also, though on no extensive scale, a poet of great pathos. But with these exceptions, the influences of the two writers we have mentioned, sometimes combined, more often separate, may be traced throughout the whole of later novel literature. George Sand began with books strongly tinged with the spirit of revolt against moral and social arrangements, and she sometimes diverged into very curious paths of pseudo-philosophy, such as was popular in the second quarter of the century. At times, too, as in _Lucrezia Floriani_ and some other works, she did not hesitate to draw largely on her own personal adventures and experiences. But latterly she devoted herself rather to sketches of country life and manners, and to novels involving bold if not very careful sketches of character and more or less dramatic situations. She was one of the most fertile of novelists, continuing to the end of her long life to pour forth fiction at the rate of many volumes a year. Of her different styles may be mentioned as fairly characteristic, _Lelia_, _Lucrezia Floriani_, _Consuelo_, _La Mare au diable_, _La Petite Fadette_, _Francois le champi_, _Mademoiselle de la Quintinie_. Considering the shorter length of his life the productiveness of Balzac was almost more astonishing, especially if we consider that some of his early work was never reprinted, and that he left great stores of fragments and unfinished sketches. He is, moreover, the most remarkable example in literature of untiring work and determination to achieve success despite the greatest discouragements. His early work was worse than unsuccessful, it was positively bad. After more than a score of unsuccessful attempts, _Les Chouans_ at last made its mark, and for twenty years from that time the astonishing productions composing the so-called _Comedie humaine_ were poured forth successively. The sub-titles which Balzac imposed upon the different batches, _Scenes de la vie parisienne_, _de la vie de province_, _de la vie intime_, &c., show, like the general title, a deliberate intention on the author's part to cover the whole ground of human, at least of French life. Such an attempt could not succeed wholly; yet the amount of success attained is astonishing. Balzac has, however, with some justice been accused of creating the world which he described, and his personages, wonderful as is the accuracy and force with which many of the characteristics of humanity are exemplified in them, are somehow not altogether human. Since these two great novelists, many others have arisen, partly to tread in their steps, partly to strike out independent paths. Octave Feuillet (1821-1890), beginning his career by apprenticeship to Alexandre Dumas and the historical novel, soon found his way in a very different style of composition, the _roman intime_ of fashionable life, in which, notwithstanding some grave defects, he attained much popularity and showed remarkable skill in keeping abreast of his time. The so-called realist side of Balzac was developed (but, as he himself acknowledged, with a double dose of intermixed if somewhat transformed Romanticism) by Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), who showed culture, scholarship and a literary power over the language inferior to that of no writer of the century. No novelist of his generation has attained a higher literary rank than Flaubert. _Madame Bovary_ and _L'Education sentimentale_ are studies of contemporary life; in _Salammbo_ and _La Tentation de Saint Antoine_ erudition and antiquarian knowledge furnish the subjects for the display of the highest literary skill. Of about the same date Edmond About (1828-1885), before he abandoned novel-writing, devoted himself chiefly to sketches of abundant but not always refined wit (_L'Homme a l'oreille cassee_, _Le Nez d'un notaire_), and sometimes to foreign scenes (_Tolla_, _Le Roi des montagnes_). Champfleury (Henri Husson, 1829-1889), a prolific critic, deserves notice for stories of the extravaganza kind. During the whole of the Second Empire one of the most popular writers was Ernest Feydeau (1821-1873), a writer of great ability, but morbid and affected in the choice and treatment of his subjects (_Fanny_, _Sylvie_, _Catherine d'Overmeire_). Emile Gaboriau (1833-1873), taking up that side of Balzac's talent which devoted itself to inextricable mysteries, criminal trials, and the like, produced _M. Le Coq_, _Le Crime d'Orcival_, _La Degringolade_, &c.; and Adolphe Belot (b. 1829) for a time endeavoured to out-Feydeau Feydeau in _La Femme de feu_ and other works. Eugene Fromentin (1820-1876), best known as a painter, wrote a novel, _Dominique_, which was highly appreciated by good judges.

During the last decade of the Second Empire there arose, continuing for varying lengths of time till nearly the end of the century, another remarkable group of novelists, most of whom are dealt with under separate headings, but who must receive combined treatment here; with the warning that even more danger than in the case of the poets is incurred by classing them in "schools." Undoubtedly, however, the "Naturalist" tendency, starting from Balzac and continued through Flaubert, but taking quite a new direction under some of those to be mentioned, is in a manner dominant. Flaubert himself and Feuillet (an exact observer of manners but an anti-Naturalist) have already been mentioned. Victor Cherbuliez (1829-1899), a constant writer in the _Revue des deux mondes_ on politics and other subjects, also accomplished a long series of novels from _Le Comte Kostia_ (1863) onwards, of which the most remarkable are that just named, _Le Roman d'une honnete femme_ (1866), and _Meta Holdenis_ (1873). With something of Balzac and more of Feuillet, Cherbuliez mixed with his observation of society a dose of sentimental and popular romance which offended the younger critics of his day, but he had solid merits. Gustave Droz (b. 1832) devoted himself chiefly to short stories sufficiently "free" in subject (_Monsieur, madame et bebe_, _Entre nous_, &c.) but full of fancy, excellently written, and of a delicate wit in one sense if not in all. Andre Theuriet (1833-1907) began with poetry but diverged to novels, in which the scenery of France and especially of its great forests is used with much skill; _Le Fils Maugars_ (1879) may be mentioned out of many as a specimen. Leon Cladel (1835-1892), whose most remarkable work was _Les Va-nu-pieds_ (1874), had, as this title of itself shows, Naturalist leanings; but with a quaint Romantic tendency in prose and verse.

The Naturalists proper chiefly developed or seemed to develop one side of Balzac, but almost entirely abandoned his Romantic element. They aimed first at exact and almost photographic delineation of the accidents of modern life, and secondly at still more uncompromising non-suppression of the essential features and functions of that life which are usually suppressed. This school may be represented in chief by four novelists (really _three_, as two of them were brothers who wrote together till the rather early death of one of them), Emile Zola (1840-1903), Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897), and Edmond (1822-1897) and Jules (1830-1870) de Goncourt. The first, of Italian extraction and Marseillais birth, began by work of undecided kinds and was always a critic as well as a novelist. Of this first stage _Contes a Ninon_ (1864) and _Therese Raquin_ (1867) deserve to be specified. But after 1870 Zola entered upon a huge scheme (suggested no doubt by the _Comedie humaine_) of tracing the fortunes in every branch, legitimate and illegitimate, and in every rank of society of a family, _Les Rougon-Macquart_, and carried it out in a full score of novels during more than as many years. He followed this with a shorter series on places, _Paris_, _Rome_, _Lourdes_, and lastly by another of strangely apocalyptic tone, _Fecondite_, _Travail_, _Verite_, the last a story of the Dreyfus case, retrospective and, as it proved, prophetic. The extreme repulsiveness of much of his work, and the overdone detail of almost the whole of it, caused great prejudice against him, and will probably always prevent his being ranked among the greatest novelists; but his power is indubitable, and in passages, if not in whole books, does itself justice.

MM. de Goncourt, besides their work in Naturalist (they would have preferred to call it "Impressionist") fiction, devoted themselves especially to study and collection in the fine arts, and produced many volumes on the historical side of these, volumes distinguished by accurate and careful research. This quality they carried, and the elder of them after his brother's death continued to carry, into novel-writing (_Renee Mauperin_, _Germinie Lacerteux_, _Cherie_, &c.) with the addition of an extraordinary care for peculiar and, as they called it, "personal" diction. On the other hand, Alphonse Daudet (who with the other three, Flaubert to some extent, and the Russian novelist Turgenieff, formed a sort of _cenacle_ or literary club) mixed with some Naturalism a far greater amount of fancy and wit than his companions allowed themselves or could perhaps attain; and in the _Tartarin_ series (dealing with the extravagances of his fellow-Provencaux) added not a little to the gaiety of Europe. His other novels (_Fromont jeune et Risler aine_, _Jack_, _Le Nabab_, &c.), also very popular, have been variously judged, there being something strangely like plagiarism in some of them, and in others, in fact in most, an excessive use of that privilege of the novelist which consists in introducing real persons under more or less disguise. It should be observed in speaking of this group that the Goncourts, or rather the survivor of them, left an elaborate _Journal_ disfigured by spite and bad taste, but of much importance for the appreciation of the personal side of French literature during the last half of the century.

In 1880 Zola, who had by this time formed a regular school of disciples, issued with certain of them a collection of short stories, _Les Soirees de Medan_, which contains one of his own best things, _L'Attaque du moulin_, and also the capital story, _Boule de suif_, by Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893), who in the same year published poems, _Des vers_, of very remarkable if not strictly poetical quality. Maupassant developed during his short literary career perhaps the greatest powers shown by any French novelist since Flaubert (his sponsor in both senses) in a series of longer novels (_Une Vie_, _Bel Ami_, _Pierre et Jean_, _Fort comme la mort_) and shorter stories (_Monsieur Parent_, _Les Soeurs Rondoli_, _Le Horla_), but they were distorted by the Naturalist pessimism and grime, and perhaps also by the brain-disease of which their author died. M. J. K. Huysmans (b. 1848), also a contributor to _Les Soirees de Medan_, who had begun a little earlier with _Marthe_ (1876) and other books, gave his most characteristic work in 1884 with _Au rebours_ and in 1891 with _La-bas_, stories of exaggerated and "satanic" pose, decorated with perhaps the extremest achievements of the school in mere ugliness and nastiness. Afterwards, by an obvious reaction, he returned to Catholicism. Of about the same date as these two are two other novelists of note, Julien Viaud ("Pierre Loti," b. 1850), a naval officer who embodied his experiences of foreign service with a faint dose of story and character interest, and a far larger one of elaborate description, in a series of books (_Aziyade_, _Le Mariage de Loti_, _Madame Chrysantheme_, &c.), and M. Paul Bourget (b. 1852), an important critic as well as novelist who deflected the Naturalist current into a "psychological" channel, connecting itself higher with Stendhal, and composed in its books very popular in their way--_Cruelle Enigme_ (1885), _Le Disciple_, _Terre promise_, _Cosmopolis_. As a contrast or complement to Bourget's "psychological" novel may be taken the "ethical" novel of Edouard Rod (1857-1909)--_La Vie privee de Michel Tessier_ (1893), _Le Sens de la vie_, _Les Trois Coeurs_. Contemporary with these as a novelist though a much older man, and occupied at different times of his life with verse and with criticism, came Anatole France (b. 1844), who in _Le Crime de Silvestre Bonnard_, _La Rotisserie de la reine Pedauque_, _Le Lys rouge_, and others, has made a kind of novel as different from the ordinary styles as Pierre Loti's, but of far higher appeal in its wit, its subtle fancy, and its perfect French. Ferdinand Fabre (1830-1898) and Rene Bazin (b. 1853) represent the union, not too common in the French novel, of orthodoxy in morals and religion with literary ability. Further must be mentioned Paul Hervieu (b. 1857), a dramatist rather than a novelist; the brothers Margueritte (Paul, b. 1860, Victor, b. 1866), especially strong in short stories and passages; another pair of brothers of Belgian origin writing under the name of "J. H. Rosny"--Zolaists partly converted not to religion but to science and a sort of non-Christian virtue; the ingenious and amusing, if not exactly moral, brilliancy of Marcel Prevost (b. 1862); the contorted but rather attractive style and the perverse sentiment of Maurice Barres (b. 1862); and, above all, the audacious and inimitable dialogue pieces of "Gyp" (Madame de Martel, b. 1850), worthy of the best times of French literature for gaiety, satire, acuteness and style, and perhaps likely, with the work of Maupassant, Pierre Loti and Anatole France, to represent the capital achievement of their particular generation to posterity.

Sainte-Beuve.