The sun., 1880-02-22
A satirical French Novelist.


A Sntiricnl French Novelist.
II sarcasm could avenge Sedan, and the
loss OF Strasbourg be offset by epigrams. then
NJ. VICTOR TIssoT would deserve well OF his
country. He claims to know Germany well. and
his opinion OF German morals and manners is
not favorable. Ho has travelled. he tells US.
from Basle to k0nigsberg and found all barren.
The old Teutonic virtues of probty. sobriety.
and chastity have vanished as completely ma the
sentimental literature which portrayed them.
and are replaced by rampant animalism and
rascality. Without being careful or specially
felicitous writer. NJ. Tissot has neat, crisp way
of putting things, and he has the advantage of
framing his indictment in a cosmopolitan Ian
guage. The result is that his books have had
remarkable circulation. not only in all parts OF
the Continent but in England and the United
States. His Voyage aux Pays des Mil
liards." for example. has run through some
fifty editions and two succeeding volumes. Les
Prussiens en- Allemagne" and Voyages aux
Pays AnneX6s" seem likely to attain equal cur
rency. These somewhat crude but pungcnt bits
OF satire having failed to slake the appetite OF
his French readers. the author has laid aside tho
role OF traveller for that of novelist and in two
volumes. forming n consecutive tale. undertakes
to produce a broad. coherent. and veracious
picture OF German civilization. These recent
ventures Of NJ. Tissot in q new field are entitled
La COnteSSe de Montretou and Les MYSTERIES de
Berlin Paris: E. Dentu). which collectively set
forth the strange adventures OF a young Flem-
ing, one Gaspard van der Comm. in the recon-
structed German empire. Regarded as novels.
these books are total failures. Neither in char
acterization nor in construction have they merit
enough to keep the reader awake They have
already passed. however. through upward OF Il
dozen editions. not by reason OF the story they
purport to tell. but on account OF the more less
authentic disclosures. the minute and piQuant
biographical details. touching some OF the most
distinguished or notorious figures In German
public and social life.
The author himself claims for these books
that they are not so much novels as Glim pses
OF contemporary history; that the persons
who speak and act in his narratives are not
imaginary creations. but boinGs OF lssh and
blood. whom he has himself seen and studied
at first hand. He maintains that there is nothing
fantastic exaggerated in his picture of
ubiquitous corruption among the rich. OF pow
erty and desperate resolve among the poor
He points out that since the attempts OF H0de
and Modelling. tho German newspapers them
selves have made significant admissions con-
=
The National Zei,0o. for instance referring to
the tutelary genius Of the German people. por
trayed as standing under a Christmas tree, il
lumined and wreathed with flowers. said it
could recognize in her tho " blonde Germana."
but how profoundly changed. Now her cheek
is pale and her brow anxious: she casts a dole
ful glance on tho last years gown she is still
wearing" Eight years ago Germania lay
down on a bed Of triumph and OF gold. and
now she is waking up on wretched
pallet OF straw. in house crumbling
into ruins. We supposed ourselves. says an
other journal, on the eve OF new epoch, u
golden age. The dream OF power and happi-
ness has vanished. and left behind the sombre
reality OF hunger and OF anguish. We may add
that the cynical corruption prevailing among
the higher classes in the aristocratic and tinan-
cial world is not a whit more acrdly depicted
by NJ. Tissot than by the Austrian novelist
Sacher- Masoch. The latter's Legacy OF Cain"
is even more conspicuous as a mordant and
venomous arraignment OF German society than
the " Mysteries do Berlin" 1t must be owned
too that even the works OF such an ard ent pa
trot as Spielhagen afford too much ground for
the assertion that the mornls of we'll born Ger
man ladies are sadly wanting in that specific
virtue assigned by Tacitus to their country
women. 1t is not. however. the French novel
lists exposure Of the vices and Weaknesses Of
the German nristOcracyto which we would draw
attention. We would rather mark, here and
there. certain polamical passages in which the
authors view of German customs and manners
il amusingly set forth, and bestow particular
notice on the most carefully executed portraits
in these volumes. those namely Of Bismarck and
Of Ferdinand Lassalle. We may say. further,
by way OF preface that while the scene OF the see
ond novel is announced in its title. the Com
tesse de Montretout" conducts us through
central and southern Germany. and contains
an elaborate account OF ono OF those petty prin-
nipaitios which Offenbach has satirized in the
Grand Duchy OF Gerostein." NJ. Tissot's
" "Himmelstein" has been variously identified
With Bavaria Wurtemburg. Hesse- -Darmstadt
aud other minor States but from tho divertinG
illusions to its rulers genealogy we should
aaY that SaXc-WeimRr was in the authors
mind. although some OF the sovereign's traits
such as his love OF scclusion ana passionate
devotion to Waguer's music. are obviously
copied from the King Of bavaria.
An episode OF his story taking place Mt Nau
helm, NJ. Tissot points out that this town. like
lts ncighhor, HombourR. and other German
watering places has greatly altered for the
worse since the war. The grace and elegance
pi Parisau ladies is no longer seen there. and
tho towns have lost that air OF consummato lux
ury and supreme fashion which transformed
Baden, for example. into vast drawing room,
transported amid n bright oasis OF verduro.
flowers. and shade. Everything In these places
we are told. is to-day ragged and shabby; even
the Aower beds are i'll kept. and the fountains
muddy. An invnrbe ennu seems to brood over
outward nature. md the heavy pedantie tone of
German conversation is not calculated to afford
distraction within doors. One Of NJ. Tissots
chapters ia assigned to a chronicle Of the dis
course with which the guests at Nauheim hotel
"nliven the table dhote The most persistent
and instructive talkcr is n DR.. Qurnus Bosn.
Professor at the University OF Himmcstein. who
mas been engaged for thirty years in studying
the customs OF certain domestic animals, and is
now engaged on the thirteenth volume OF his
monograph on the " Louso in the Two Worlds. "
Next to this scientist was seated distinguished
naturalist who had been an enormous traveller.
and the two are described a. plunxIna Into v