New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-09-28
TjiE fRENrH NOfFL

| question ~ tue itHNiH'l'F ~ lN' il'H'H H'F'I
by the so-callcd enterprise of American pub
lishcrs aud the increasingly bold assumptions
! of the new school of art Several years ago The
late W. Il. Greg wrote an essay on the subject
in which be- cited Dumas's la Dame aux Camel
las and Fcydcau's " Fanny as sounding the
| lowest dccps of sham sentiment and real
nastiness. But that was before IOla's time,
and il may also be doubted whether
Mr. Greg had ever made seri-
Gus examination of the French fiction
of his own era or of the era preceding it. For
the characteristics of the French novel which
most surprise and disturb pure minded stu
dents are assuredly not a recent evolution. One
NAV 90 back to the beginnings of French litera-
ture and find there the distinguishing marks of
the fiction of to-day. And while at that time
the habit of gross diction was not merely
| French but European, it continued in
France. whereas other parts of Europe out
! grew it. II may be true that the English dram
! atists of the Restoration. and later such writer's
! as Aphra Benin, are fit to rank with Scarron and
| Crebillon fills and LOuyct but in England the
| liberation of that kind of fiction ended ut the
close of the last century while in France not
| only has IT continued to the present day but it
| is encouraged and justified by a school whose
undenabe talent and dialcctical skill have
seemed, in the eyes of too many superficial
thinkers, to Gid and make respectable the filth
in which they deal
Now to assume that the grossncss of the
French novel indicates some strange evil
eamor operating upon French writers,
would be a mistake The truth is that the
argument; of the realistic school are founded
upon real knowledge of national character
and that they simply insist upon their right to
represent that character rs it is. What this
position involves they do not recognize, for they
are being Frcnchmcn, we'll assured that the
world can have no subllncr object OF study
| thuthcir comultrio's. no matter what phase Of
/ the national life IL put upon the canvas. 1t IS
true that there are French authors who can and
do write q purely and wnolcsomcly asany Eng
/ li-h or American novelist. but the mass Of
French novels are foul reading, and the multi
pic1ton Of this cast Of books proves thc taste
OF tine public to bc vile. And this Kind Of tic
ton t. bad art, whoever asserts the contrary.
For true ari ~ concerned with tine beautiful
and the good. aud mere fidelity to a hidcou7
model can never Justify IFS selection, Nor is it
nenoss alone which is lhcaltraciion to French
noyclists. II f. not merely The roulucss of n-
digcncc and squnlor which Il thrust into notice,
bat upon that is ongurtcdHbrual luH which ia
clplplc of dolilnecycn the gullcrsoi Pui+. ana
which faint nearly nl French fiction with an
iuoradcablc tiint OF so degrading chIr,c-
ter is this ucculilr Gilic lubricity That there
H. scarcely n modern French novel which can
b. put in The original in the hands of pure
girl OF boy without uluug thrm; without
Grating IN them debating ideas and pugeH-
nou4 auI many of the worst OF l"sr srtrct-
liou4 nto the effect of tho most pliuatIhius,
elaborate bat l,lac nrt
We. who have baicucd upon rouud whole
somc lngli.h fiction who,c imaginative cdurn
lion has been cnitird on bY the help ol Scott
and Dickens aud ihlcaruy and Eliot Cooper
and Irving md Holmes, and all the Ion array of
contemporary ENGLISH and American authors
who have known how 10 interest
without dcbauching, are in no con-
d,tion perhaps to appreciate the men
tai and moral state of a nation which de-
maud, and auphuds such ccu'ou,nc,, as the
French novel cmbodies but If We are wise wc
shall not encourage the acclimation OF that in
,titution among IL. What il has helped to do
Tor France all the world can know. Ii has cul-
tVatcd lrTcXcrCnCe lOi women II mas money
combrd French society with immortality; it has
encouraged a cynicism which is earthly. sem
sual. dcyilish. II has never elevated popular as
uirations, for it has given them in the place
of the living examples which come OF belief in
HIGHER things.a thi@ and spurious scntlmcntality
an emotion more apt to display Itself over the
death of Camille than over the Selt-cOnqucStS
of real hero. Such a literature Is death in
life to any people and for people content with
Such 4 literature tn re can be small hope of any
real progress. The most significant tendency
of this period is a movement away from the
stagna'ng scientific materlaiism of the day
toward a lJfjcr and more comprehensive
phrosophy, and one which pegceiyes in
this HE only means to an end.
A. the zero of intellectual growth
stand, the mental condition in which all that is
Least worthy of rcvcrcncc.all that Is most igno-
BE-. sN -hat tcul, to brItliiz. aAi cuchlln ito
mind in the bonds of an animal Scn~lai,m. is
accepted and dpprovel aal th, symbol OF this
condition j, the French novel. I j. to tins that
the champions of art for Az, >1oe' have
brought th-irc1orts. Surely the concrete IL
m,tritioa~ O their hvpo,h Isl, wAichis,un daily
fromPuieln pic,,c, furnish is most conc'u-
.iyc !rtutatlou.