The sun., 1910-07-17
roFF 'VB VOrT ,wsr LIsr.


d- iai- Aslsns sossl.i ass have bs=a toisr
sts-i. nsitch 90. tnsl-rusu.R H,s nse
t.sfui,aili-n .u,ili have ~0a FOE him N.
,iiI- a a b,rd - niaht which. yos MAJ
r-un-sni-r. sas appls-l - tho unhAppy
~" bY ravar'i raylos And th-n q woes.
fat. than n. Partisan saiat.acs mlaAi
have ov~rtaksn Nillisra n ~ had eoans
to the N~~ Nork hs 81 haaed to viai,
hs might have b~~n . s,i-r~saf,ll maGasin.
srit.r and h,. ind,ib,tahls seniaa Soslld
hav. be-n Srnotass-,i iy nsoataiy cnscks
Bnt hs oouldnt act ASay from PARIS
H- never had the ready money. A dream
- his ua- a. -. Thomas Ediaoa. % - hom
he wrote such -lOqu~at and imaginative
page For him Menlo Para vas a. tAs
Domain of Arnheim to Poe IL 10 difficull
o. p,cture the author of The I've % the
Future boarding . Ns~ Jersey train In
company ~ith the daily commntsr M
tremea meet IN hia tales. but that would
have bssn the mOat extraordinary. ex How
ever. he didn't come here. and 10 is not be
h. regretted, ~ would have been one more
, disilhislon IN life crowded with disil-
lusionments and sorrow and gripping
poverty
! At last he has a definitivs biography.
Tn which IL added a fairly complete bib
biography. IL has just been published In
Paris and ~ by =. de Rougemont. In
no sense critical study. this -yilliers
de llsle Adam il better than the life by
hls cousin Vicomte Robert du Pontavice
De Heussey. a highly colored book and not
altogether TO he depended upon. Fin
nish writer. Alexis Won kraemer. has thus
! far given us the critical estimate OF VII
liers IHelsingfors. 1901. While NJ de
Rougemont mentions several English
translations and articles ny Symons. Mrs
/ Barclay and others. he omits the admir-
able translation Of Tribulet Bonhomet's Q
adventure with the swans made by Philip
Hale ten years ago: also the article which
appeared in The Sun in 1903 on villiers
az dramatist. Furthermore NJ de
Rougemont did not first write OF the Won
Kraemer study. II was mentioned in the
above SUS article. It is interesting to
know that The Torture by Hope one OF
Nilhers's most thrilling and Poesque tales,
appeared in lses in the Strand Magazine,
the translator signing the story! (See
. STp. DE Rougemont's book
When Matthew Arnold told Sainte-
3euvs that he didn't consider the poet
I.amartins important" the great French
critic replied HE is important for us
The critical tIdc has turned IN the direc-
tion 81 Nilliers. and IL seems that he too
"a important for modern French litsra-
ture. There 10 to he q monument erected
TO hs memory Books and critical arti-
cles are multiplying about him lie bids
fair 10 be canonized in the great church
u French letters Yet one can read him.
adj eh u. A..
a writer of polished French Of the supple.
limpld order He has neither the charm
nor the sIbtlety of Anatole France or
Maurice BarrAs He 10 in art q lineal
spiritual offspring Of Edgar Allan Poe
and the Christian mystics Add 90 this
strange admIXture his passion for Wag-
,ner music and the combination is surely
exotic Exotic ~ the word that best de-
scribes this pro~ler Of the night. the man
Who told his hest stories across cafe tables
instead of writing them His IRONY. his
clarity Of diCtion. his singular powers Of
Improvisation made him welcome in all
circles II artistic bohemia Naturally
the waste ~ energy was enormous And
it s mistake To describe Nilliers as a
shiftless fellow who drank all night and
slept all day The catalogue OF his printed
works. tales. novels. plays. articles nearly
fills a dozen pages The truth. as his lat
-, hlograp pher discovered. is that he had
the application OF an ollse-sed man. and
obseSs.d he was He lived in a different
world from the everyday one OF Paris
lie was a dreamer His drelIns followed
him IN his waking hours. To rid himself
~ them he toiled furiously and then went
ont after his Balzaclike literary debauches
and forgot 20 return. He was never mad
a. vas Gerard de Nerval. or a drunkard
and drug eater like BaudelAire; but he had
a double personality. and 10 10 revealed not
alone by his method Of composition hut |
IN the themes and character of his dream |
drIzged dramss He carried at one and |
the same .ime the banner Of the ideal and !
the vitrIol Of ths aatirist He was a for |
midable antagop 81 when aroused
The present writer Confesses 10 taking /
more than usual interest in the biography |
II VI de Rougemont. for he knew Villiers
and often met him about 1879 at various
resorts in tho Batignolles and Clichy.
Perhaps the fact that he heard the poet
mprovisa half dozen times makes the
reading Of him betw cen covers lees attrac-
ltve NIlliers writes with verve. with q
Crystalline brilliancs. and discusses the
most depraved themes with fnes-e that
absolutely sets you wandering why q
nan Il such intellect. such poetic gifts.
'uuld run his nose into such slime. But
l- did u. To the Poe nuanoe of horror
lc suIreraddad the nuance of a frozen
asciviousnes-. His Eve Of the Future
= cold. damnably clever and quite impos-
Iible The irony withers. In the plays the
,ote of human sympathy is missing
The Revolt which before Ibsen stated
he problem Of Nora Helmer. is not via
,lr dramatic piece. neither is Eden nor
The New World the latter the queer
-st tumble ever put on the boards. II
vas played six times in Paris and the cast
yas ~ incompetent that the poet from 4.
he front row vigorously hissed.
but there is no mistaking the clairvoy-
mt power ot -Axel.- which In a closet 4
lrana u tho highest order. II IL ana
yzed Ivy Arthur SymOns in hts -Symbolist
Movement in Literature The -Tribulet .
IOnhomct- IL glacial humor. a new con- ,
emp,uous version Of NJ PrUdhomms and
Ionais yet tho humor touches not the