The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-01-12
L,Homme Femme.

M. Alexandra Dumas is 80 renowned for his
social dssections that no one was surprised to
learn that in his recent volume, entitled
eel Homme Femme" the only use which he
could find to put married woman to, who
was so utterly vicious as to seem irreclaimable,
was to kill her The husband was to take the
law into his own hand, and, after trying every
method which his genius, his culture, his
knowledge OF human nature and his expert
ence among women previous to his marriage
dictated. was, if all these remedies proved
unavailable, to punish her spoliation Of the
seventh Commandment by breaking the sixth
himself These two immense wrongs were to
scoalesce into one ineffable right, as two
noisome gases interpenetrate till they become
one soft, sweet-smelling Whit.
Perhaps there is a subtle Nemesis in the fact
that the son of great writer, who spent
Large part of his life in counting the combina-
tions upon adultery's rafting dice, should
ceaselessly perplex his brains and his readers
with speculations as to how the evil is to be
cured. Without protesting to offer any speci-
fc oursef, we venture to doubt the efficacy of
the younger Dumas. His eye is Implying,
his hand unsparing; and though he would not
probably have thrown the first stone at the
woman in the synagogue, it is pretty certain
he would have flung the last. He makes the
man not only the husband of the woman but
her hierarch; not merely her judge but her
executioner. Whence the experience was gain
ed on which he bases his theories it were vain
10 conjecture, for lectures like ''Naked Truth"
are not delivered in France, and the favorite
beroines of opera boute become virtuous in the
last act. And, besides, NJ. Dumas neglects
the important point of what retribution shall
be melted out to the irreclaimable husband
Such beings exist-even in Paris. A French
man unfaithful to his wife is not precisely a
myth or novelty there.
It is not unnatural to conclude that. in time,
M. Dumas theory will expand into the dimen-
sions of a five-act play, in which society will
be vivisected, and the world, complacently
witnessing the writhing of the victim, shall
have the opportunity Of judging how far the
dramatist has progressed since 'The Ideas OF
Madame Aubray" emanated from his pen. If
in the chord Of the decalogue the adulterous
note is to predominant we know no touch that
can give it a more mysterious and fascinating
prominence than that of Dumas. Considered
ns social puzzle, as picturesque attrition Of
those sensuous questions which charm rich
and easily kindled temperaments, M. Dumas
Eve act dramatic problems will always attract
o wide circle to their solution, even among
men who mock at his morality and suspect his
aspirations But M. Dumas possesses none of
that logical precision, that wide range of
knowledge, that purity Of emotion, that eleva-
ton and control of passion, and that vital
earnestness of purpose which entitle man
to rank among reformers. He is more than a
dueHante and less than pioneer. He stirs the
water, but does not filter it; and the emo
tional pool he waves his magic wand over is
no Bethesda, where the moral invalid may
wash and be clean.