The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-03-25

may wei tt AtEsahtA as aAsANAsH sAAAN "a
any man was ever fortunate in having for
his biographers those who could write
knowingly and sympathetcally of his life
and works such a man was the author of
"Sapho'' and OF the immortal Tartarin
series. It is hardly just to place the TWO
works in close relation. They are as dis
similar as Algiers and Paris. They are as
far removed one from the other as the
east is from the west. The lewd Paris
ienne appeals to the salacious tastes of
a superficial public and becomes at once
famous and infamous. The Tartarin stories.
with all the soft tints of the South and
the grotesquerie which was, II possible.
an improvement on the model which Ger
vantes created, gives us an insight of the
real heart and soul of the sunny South
erner who infused into the best of his
works the fervor and color of his native
Provence.
1t was Lord Byron who said that If a
certain incompetent should write his life
Il would take his" Those who have writ
ten the life of Daudet were very different.
He would have given his life for them.
They were his brother and his son, and
they have performed their respective tasks
not only con amore, but with a rare power
vi dudINSlS AlNu 4tNtdiS " Nut LfdhNl
the heart and soul, as well as the details of
the daily life of the subject of heir
sketches
The public has long been familiar With
the more or less enthusiastic monograph
of Daudet, written nineteen years ago by
his brother Ernest. II was published when
the celebrated realist was, TO use the
words of his biographer. lat the height of
his renown." The tender Partially with
-. II .
can be understood only in the light of a
full knowledge of the self-sacrifice and
devotion with which the elder brother
made himself the guide, philosopher, and
friend Of the fraternal rival who was des-
tined to excel him in the struggle for
fame and fortune in the literary world.
From the day when LIE Petit Chose the
young Alphonse, arrived in the French
capital with forty sous 10 his pocket. a
masterful ambition in his heart, and an
unappeasable hunger in his gastronomic
regions, to the day when "Sapho' Melted
him million francs. his warmest ad-
mirer and most substantial assistant was
the man who afterward gave us Mon
Frere ct Moi" This well-known work has
been translated and appended to a new
and timely study of Daudet written by
his son, whose chief claim to the atten-
tion of the public has hitherto consisted
in the infelicities of his married life with
the granddaughter of Victor Hugo. The
two works have recently been brought
out in single volume, entitled "Alphonse
Daudet: Memoir. by Leon and Ernest
Daudet." The translation has been made
with a fidelity unmarried by a rendition
too idiOmatic for the average reader, by
Charles de Kay.
The chief defect with the volume under
discussion is, as has previously been indi-
Gated. the fact that il is the work of two
men who could not, in the very nature Of
things, be impartial. We have a livelier,
breezier. more satisfactory account OF
Daudet from his own hand. in Thirty
Years of Paris" while Robert Sherard has
given us the story Of his friends career
with the low lights as well as the high.
For instance We read in the Memoirs"
the somewhat startling statement that
there was nothing which Daudet so much
detested as he did lie. 1t was hardly
necessary thus 10 call attention to the fact
which VI. Sherard has recorded, that
Daudet. even in the ordinary intercourse Of
his daily life. was guilty of a degree and
frequency OF mendacity which was not only
painful TO his friends but even disturbed
his own conscience when he realized the
enormity of his offences. However much
the mendacious romanticist may be eX-
cused on the grounds of his imaginative
temperament and meridional exuberance.
the whole matter is delicate affair which
had better be passed by in silence.
But. II the present volume has been
written by partial hands. it cannot be de-
MED that IL gives us wealth OF informa-
ton concerning the coterie of men who
constituted the school of realists flourish
ing at the time and now represented by the
one survivor. lola. The De Goncourts
have gone. Tourguenef has passed away,
Flaubert has long since entered into rest
The author Of ''L'Assommoir' alone re
ma rs
l. was 10 this school that Daudet he
longed but he was. after all, rush light
compared TO the master. He was born ten
years after Balzac had died and grew up
with the Coincide Humane" as a beacon
before him With all his ambition and en-
ergy however, he could never attain to
the perfection in analysing ana classifying
the types Of society encountered on the
boulevards that had been achieved by the
Touranian Saul. Daudet was happy to
make pastels. Balzac was not content with
anything less than life-size portraits
Daudet has given us studies Balzac has
given US a cyclorama Of life. IL was the
great aspiration OF the pupil 10 reproduce
with Photographic accuracy the manners
and customs OF the times. and we find in
Mon Frere ct Moi many illusions to the
success which is alleged TO have crowned
these efforts; but that success exists only
In the mind of a biographer whose discern
ment is warped by bro,herly affection.
II is to the credit of Daudet, however
that he held in contempt the spawn of the
symbolistic school who have insisted on
painting life with the features of a gar
goyle and have daubed the emotions with
the colors of the rainbow. He had no sym
pathy With purple loves and beryl hopes
and pea green envies. The disciples OF this
school were TO him, as they are TO every
other sane mind. merely children suck
ing their thumbs" He was always on the
side Of what he called concise lucidity"
and ne illustrated his views by the per-
spicnity which characterized ali his work.
style" he said, lis a state of intensity.
The greatest number Of things In the few
est number of Words
We may catch here and there In The
pages OF his Tomances certain touches OF
character which indicate that Oludet must
have been one Of those who know how TO
suffer and be strong" But f. is only
when we become more intimately familiar
with him through the detailed annals of
his struggling youth; II is only when we
see him as a martyr TO the maladias which
kept him constantly on the rack even dur
ing the periods of his greatest productivity,
that W can realize how much of real man
hood and strength there was in his nature
and how uniustly he is judged by those who
regard hin merely as the author Of deb2s-
ing tales. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
s2.e0)
The Author of the EIegy.
There is a breath OF the learned and
leisurely days Of correspondence in the
Letters Of Thomas Gray" and
We are given portraiture Of
the latter part of the eighteenth CEN