The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-03-26
M. BRUNETiERE'S VIEWS.
A Talk About the Prospects of American
MISUNDERSTANDING and Art-Con-
nection between the Literary Future and
the Problems of Education.
New York Evening Post. J

Revue des Daux Mondes, and ore of the
most prominent of living scientific critics
of Literature, talked informally today,
before leaving for Baltimore, about the
thoughts and impressions that had eoTue
TO him on his first sight of this country
severe as he is as a critic and entirely
lacklng in the desire to please everybody,
which makes SO many foreign visitors
natter America, his feeling about the
nrst glimpse of our life and his predic-
tlons for our literary future were mnoh
more encouraging than would be expect
ed by the superficial reader of his books,
who might naturally suppose That a Guilt
waited ana rather austere critic would
speak of the udities of New York at
hrst as its most salient elements M.
Brunetiere did not palliate them, but to
him these details became insignificant
in the general Impression. His talk
about these topics of the day is of special
interest now, because in the course OF
lectures which he gives in Columbia CON-
temporary subjects will be discussed ex-
olusively, the Ieriod covered being that
from 1875 to 1897, and the 81 bjects of the
five lectures being the poetry, the stage,
the novel, the history, and te Criticism Of
those twenty two years in France. His
position is we'll enough known to make
it certain that the fads of the day will
be treated with severity and the sane and
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Of present French
literary work brought fairly before his
hearers Although ii Is not possible to
give verbatim an informal conversation
carried on in another language, the .sfol-
lowing report reproduoes closely what N.
Brunetiere said:
My first Impressions of New York are
entirely differently from those was led to
expect by the accounts which some other
travellers have brought away from here.
Instead of finding everything foreign
see almost nothing which does not re-
mind me of something In Europe. AS l
walked around the streets yesterday af-
ternoon the gayety of the scene made me
think of Marseilles .
Madame Blanc, whose last trip to
America led to her book on the women
OF the United States, here explained that
sheshad shown NJ. Brunetiee Broadway
In the late afternoon, when the street
was packed with the crowd, and again
in the evening when it was alive with
lights, and that he had been stirred with
pleasure and had said that he, with his
excitelnent-loving temperament, could
work in this country and make it his
home with satisfaction. ~ felt none of
the sense of being crushed which III.
Bourget spoke off, M. Bruentiere added.
" I felt helped by the rush Of every
thing" !" 1t is not ugly either, but beau.
tlful, said Madame Blanc, "when the
details are lost in the whole" Yes"
tall buildings are not bad aesthetically.
Some, of course, are very ugly, but those
which are rectangular in construction,
with proportions fairly harmonious, are
not displeasing. and 1t is interesting to
be in the upper stories, open to the Rlight
and the air. and to see the city below
and.to work In perfect quiet.
The subject of criticism In various
nations was. then rtaken up. Germany
and France are .the only two countries
where the important books alone are re-
viewed, and where those are criticised
adequately. An Italian was recently
making the same complaint about criti-
cism in his country which you make
about it here, that books of all sorts,
no matter how unimpor tant, khave to be
noticed, SO there is no distinction and no
condition could be changed as long as
advertisements played SO important a
part in our journals, and M. Brunetiere
laughed and said that question was too
hard for him to solve. Nine. Blanc sug-
gested that another fault in American
criticism was too great leniency, espeo-
tally to ones friends. M. Brunetiere
then passed on to the general subject of
literature in a democracy. II believe
that the effect of democracy on literature
Is going to be very good. Mind you, it
is not good yet. I only say it will be
some time. just now fyour literature Is
very crude; 1t desoendS too much to the
level Of an uprefned body Of readers;
but when your public ia educated the
literature will be the better for being
democratic, for it will escape the side
tracks, the diletta nteism, the mere
rhetorical ornament, that usually encum-
Der it where 1t is the product and the
expression of a class. 1t differs in this
from the other arts, like painting, which
even atLtheir hest are something apart
from the people. representing ideas
which they do not have, while literature
should take subjects of Importance to
the whole nation; it should express
broad social conditions, and so touch
everybody. If talk to you about the
matte rs which are Of interest to all class
es and you use better words make
stronger sentences, and give more
earching views on this common topic,
you have already made literature.
Demosthenes did nothing but state the
common causes the lawsuits of the pso-
pie, and he made great literature, which
il thus indistinguishable from the whole
life of the community
Madame Blanc raised point which will
give especial interest I to the talks at
Colunbi when she remarked that the
last principle explained by NJ. Bruno
there was lost sight of by some Glasses of
Americans, who produced books here
which seemed to be, mere little artificial
conceits, and who read the men in
France who are mere fads, like Hugs
mans. One Of the satisfactory results of
her book on women in the United States,
she said, was that it had taught the
French that a large class of American
women bring real intelligence to bear on
true social interests, whereas the travell-
ing class best known in France had led
that country to look upon ou- women as
generally superficial and ridiculous.
NJ. Brunetiere's first lecture will he at
Johns Hopkins this month son "The
Epioa Poetry of the Middle Ages At
Harvard later he VIII take up Molliere
and perhaps some of the other seven
th-centnry dramatists. His lectures
in New York will begin some time In