Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-04-29
LITERATURE IN FRANCE.
40 Authors OF First-Rate Importance
Since Hugo,s Death.

40 Authors OF First-R Rate Importance
Since Hugo's Death,
It can not be said that the state Of
contemporary literature in France Of
fefs many consultations to the patriotic
and glory-loving citizens OF the nation
which has suffered the greatest humili-
ations Of any people " modern times.
Grecian literature dominated tho world
long after the Greek nation had become
a mere vassal Of Rome. A similar
statement can hardly be made in regard
to the literature of France since the
war with. Prussia. Since the death Of
Victor Hugo, who moreover for all
practical consideration belonged
wholly to the epoch preceding the war,
1t would be hard to name any living
French author of first rate Importance
in the domain Of pure literature.
Renan, Taine, and lola, these are I'M
doubtedly the three strongest writers
in France to-day, yet no one of this
trio can be regarded as Of the first
rank. Renan, as critic in the field of
religious history, commands respect
throughout the learned world, Yet even
now the current OF reaction has strong
" Get against his peculiar theories. A
similar statement can be made in regard
to Tame. In suggestiveness, in nerve,
and entrainement of style he is unsur-
passed His strength lies in the mar
Vicious ability with which he has applied
one central idea at the basis OF his cri-
tique for the explanation of the various
phenomena of psychology, Of art, and
of literature. But where lies bis
strenth, there also lies his weakness.
1t is because of the extremes to which
he has pushed his philosophical theory
of necessity Originally developed by
him from the theory of MilD, that
scholars to-day have to put themselves
on their guard in reading his works.
Besides, Renan and Taine are great
merely as critics, and criticism can
never hold the first rank in liter
attire. The third is lola. One
can see, too, that the reaction against
lola has already begun. Indeed, it be-
gan before his advent into notoriety
had fully taken place, for lola himself,
as head of the realistic school, repre-
sents merely the extreme development
OF movement itself become extreme
the movement of the so-called TO-
mantle school, which has dominated the
literature of Europe during the great
or part of the century. There are not
wanting signs nowadays, especially in
England, that the great romantic move
ment has run its course, and that wo
are beginning to see a new literature,
especially in poetry, which is as yet un-
named, but which will be more akin
with the classical than with the roman
tic school. Fiction, possibly, will I'M
dergo further development in the d.
rection of realism before the change
with it begins. 1.-THE days of evil for
tune are upon US, and the men of my
generation will probably carry with
them down to the grave their incura-
BILE grief" wrote the French historian,
Duruy, after the Franco Prussian war,
and his forebodings seem to be real
lied for the French nation in the do
main of literature, as in the domain of
politics. just at the present day
France appears to be passing through
period OF passivity, if not, as harsher
writer's might say, period of barren
ness and stagnation, but we know that
no other people of Europe is possessed
OF greater vitality, of greater recuper-
alive powers than the French. Hence
in the matter of literature l believe that
the same is true in France at the pres
ent moment which Mr.. Stedman, in his
recent book, holds to be true in Amer
ica,-after the great period of Hugo,
De Musset, Dumas pere, and Balzac on
the one side, and of Longfellow, Bry-
ant, and of the living representatives of
the same school-Whittier, Holmes,
and Lowell-on the other, it is but nat
ural that there should come period of
quiet recuperation, during which the
national genius, SO to say, for time
lies fallow.-Cor. Springfield Republi-
can.