The New York herald., 1922-06-11
THE OPINIONS OF ANATOLE
FRANCE. Recorded by Paul Gsell.
Translation by Ernest Boyd. Alfred
A. Knopf.

public to wider and better
knowledge of Anatole France and a
fuller appreciation of his great Inn
portance as a commanding figure in
the world of letters of our day is
welcome. This record by his friend
and disciple, Paul Gsell, is doubly
valuable since the greater part of it
is made up of the actual words of
"the Master" himself, uttered in con-
versation. at ease, and faithfully re-
ported. M. Gsell is. in fact. some
thing of Boswell both in his man.
ner and his fidelity, and there is so
much OF the veritable sparkle and
warmth of France himself in the
book that it is practically a neces-
sary pendant to any edition of his
work. The comparison halts there,
however, since. while Boswell to-day
has a hundred readers to one who
goes to the writings of his master,
Anatole France will be read and
diligently and lovingly studied in at
there survives any one who can read
French. And one might almost add
that parallel immortality is assured
for good English versions of some
of his masterpieces.
For there is no exaggeration or
affectation in greeting him as fe
mditre. 1t is no complimentary title.
but merely an accurate appellation.
He is the one undisputed living mas
ter, par excellence. of style, of the
perfection of expression in his own
tongue. He is also great deal more
than that. for he is an original
thinker. a philosopher of keenly
penetrant mind. and, furthermore.
he is a very incarnation of PeSprit
GauloiS-a phrase that loses some
thing of its flavor in any translation
Perhaps itswill do to paraphrase it
by saying that he is, intellectually
and artistically, just what the rest
of the world expects the finest type
of modern Frenchman to be the
clear seeing. understanding mind,
logical, exact, uncompromising i'm its
vision, coupled with the most delicate
sense of beauty. and with complete
power of expressing both perceptions
and emotions. If such a mind lacks,
possibly, something of the depth of
the greatest minds of the English
thinking races. and if such a per-
sonality has not the active, dynamic
quality of-for instance---our own III.
G. Wells. it nevertheless has a place
of the greatest Importance in the
scheme of things and furnishes
something which we Anglo Saxons
cannot parallel.
M. Gsell's delightful book gives us
intimate glimpses OF this vivid per-
sonality. so to speak. in dressing
gown and slippers. And as NJ. Gsell
correctly points out, ''the superior
quality of great men is not always
attested in their most labored works
=. The best of their genius often
lies in what they never think of writ
ing down. but reveal in instructive
outbursts. in thoughts long matured,
which come out involuntarily, with
out their noticing it," 1t is a rich
harvesting of such treasure that We
have in these pages. garnered, most
of IT, in the years just before the war
at the weekly gatherings at "the
hermitage of the sage" the Villa
Said. on the edge of Paris. where
France was wont to receive
curiously variegated company.
Among other matters the book
tells, with unrestrained joyousness,
of the Academy. of it's politics. its
elections and it's amusing anecdotes,
many of them hitherto unpublished.
For example, lovers of Rabelais will
prize the story of the malicious trick
France played upon old Henri Bor-
nier in the matter Of Hans Carvel's
ring; but one must go to Pantagruel
himself for the full story. M. Gsell
also gives us a good deal on the
"credo of skeptic." which is use
fully corrective of certain wrong es-