The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1922-09-10


novel Mort de quelqu'un" CThe, Death Of
a Nobody it was called in the English
translation). This recounts the death of
human being as lacking in force as possible
as weak in character as in his liens upon
other men. Nevertheless, the blotting OF
even so insignificant a personality is not
without its effect upon others. AS a SYM
pathetic critic of this novel has put it:
"This poor man is the center of network
of humble thoughts on which he pulls. as
he leaves the world -. He will live
again in the thought of the janitor who
first takes cognizance of his death; in the
thought OF his unknown neighbors; in the
thoughts, also, of every one whom the news
will reach, some taking it indifferently.
some taking it with emotion. He will live
again in the passer-by, who haphazardly
lifts his hat the hearse goes by" Jules
Romans has. as We see. acquired a lively
sense of the interrelations of lives and per-
sonalities.
further result of Jules Romains's ex-
periments in describing the group soul is
the peculiarly striking manner in which
he presents state of consciousness. Though
now dealing not with groups but with in
dividuals, his hero or heroine is not so
much this man or that woman as it is his
or her moods. feelings or thoughts. AS
the author presents these they are almost
Independent of the persons who bear them.
They are entities in and of themselves.
with a life and characteristics of their own
resembling to a certain degree, at least
the unattached soul of the group around
the omnibus steps. In other words,
Jules Romans, with a view to vividness,
ignores considerations of logic, of cause
and effect He cuts out, he shortens up.
he eliminates whatever is explanation, def
milton or transition. Catching US unawares,
he startles our attention with the sudden
presentation of unprepared results. To
see fields, woods and ponds running fast
behind building is, if presented to us
without preparation, a startling sight that
compels our attention: we examine it with
curious and eager eyes; but we pass it
by with indifference. if we have already
been informed that we are sitting in the
of moving train.
"Lucienne" with its strange omissions
developments of uncommon material owes
its originality to just these traits. De-
spite the nature of the fundamental data
of this novel, we are initiated to no inner
struggles. The men and women of whom
we read are hardly known to us. 1t would
seem that they have no minds to make
up. no wills to use or neglect, no passions
of which they are themselves sensitively
conscious. Madame Barbelenet and Cecile,
although they originally had quite differ
ent plans. help Lucienne to marry Pierre
at the end of the book; yet only by
guessing can we know the reason for this
change of front. CAS- a matter of fact,
| personally cannot even guess the mo-
tives of Madame Barbelenet) Lucienne
the heroine. she who finds herself in so
difficult position, does not explain her
feelings to us, nor does Jules Romans do
so for her. She seems merely to recog-
nize a vague consciousness of herself.
somewhat sensuous in it's attributes and
hanging like an atmosphere around her.
1t would be mistake, however, to con-
slider this lack of character drawing or
motivation as a weakness on the part of
the author which he would overcome were
he sufficiently able. One of the results of
this is as we have just seen, a vividness
of presentation which was evidently in
territorial. Another result is the oppor-
tunity it gives Jules ROMANS to stress
the same element in human life which in
terested him in Mort de quelqu'un." He
is evidently a psychologist and good psy-
chologist at that. If he has sacrificed