The New York herald., 1920-01-11
GONCOURT PRIZE
AWARD SETS ALL
PARIS TO TALKING
Intended to Aid Young Writ.
ers, 1t Is Given to Marcel
Proust, Fifty.
Herald Bureau,
No. 40 Avenue de fOpera,
PnriS Dee ID

| The awarding of the Concourt prize to
Marcel Proust has brought out the fact
that the recipient is fifty years old. This,
! in itself is nothing remarkable, but in
connection with the award OF tins par
J ticular prize. which was primarily in
tended by the Goncourt brothers for young
and impecunous authors of talent, II has
been pointed out that Mr.. Proust is neither
lyoung nor impecunious. When Leon Hen
lnique was president of the Goncourt
Academy it was suggested once that the
annual prize be conferred on the work
of an author of thirty years. to which
Mr.. Hennque replied Thirty years! That
is too old. We must find a young man,
one of twenty, If possible"
Mr.. ProuSt was elected by ballot OF six
to four, Leon Daudet. the son of the great
writer, being the leader of the Proust
contingent, and Lucien Descaves and three
others resolutely holding out for q second
candidate, Mr.. Roland Dorgeles,, the au-
thor of moving and beautiful story Of
the war. 1.-THE Cross OF Wood" II is in
teresting to note that since the awarding
lof the Goncourt prize. THE Cross of
Wood" has been selected for distinguished
notice by an organization Of the women
writer's of France.
The book by Mr.. Proust which gained him
the prize is a part Of voluminous romance
In course Of preparation under the general
title of I'm Search of Lost Time" and this
particular part is called ITO the Shade OF
lGirlhood." An earlier number has been
published under the title of In the Neigh
borhood Of Swann's." Even those critics
who regretted the defeat OF Mr.. Dorgeles
do not deny the Originality and delicate
power Of observation" displayed in Mr..
Proust's book but they feel that the
wishes of the Goncourt brothers regard
ing the youth and impecuniosty Of the
candidates should have been followed. If
practicable, and evidently many believe
that they could have been legitimately
followed in the case Of the author of The
Gross of Wood"
on the other hand. the champions OF
NJ. Proust claim that the Academy Con
court has never been more wisely inspired
than in the present award. and point out
the marked psychological powers of the
writer, combined with a scrupulous at
tention to detail which is neither cold nor
wearisome i'm it's result. The critic of
Excelsior" says
Not since Stendhal perhaps has there
been any one in France who has occupied
himself so carefully with the study of
the part which love plays in the history
Of man. which. after all is the only matter
of much Importance in this world 1T is
amusing to picture the controversy which
the statement i'm the last sentence would
bring forth i'm an Anglo-Saxon country.
but IL is safe to predict that the ''Ex-
celsior' will not be the recipient OF any
letters OF protest from its readers to
whom. doubtless, the novels OF Stendhal
are the evangel of the grand passion" as
they are TO the majority of educated
trenchmen.
The same critic calls attention. TO the
portraits OF women I'm the pages of Mr..
Proust and asks, "Who can contemplate
them without emotion. without being
"a = 70 Of - Il. -.N
constituent and a kind of happy dsen-
chantment which their charming visages
evoke in his heart? The author Is not
content TO show us only the details OF
sentiment; he enters into it's very nature
without brusuueness. but with a profound
care and analyses from the interior out
ward. lie is literary anatomist. not
la romanticist"
The portrait OF Mr.. Proust by the dis
tinguished French painter. Jacques Emile
Blanche, shows youthful looking subject
with oval face, delicate moustschc. finely
pencllled eyebrows, rather full lips. dark
hair parted In the middle and slender
figure