The New York herald., 1922-12-10


expect of the author of "LIncertaine," of
"Au-dessus de la Vile" and Les Pro-
fondeurs de la Mer' Whatever his subject,
his expression is dominated by steady
and highly particular art sense which
nothing can put to rout. Whether Jaloux
be working in the realm of the moral or
that of the physical, no emotion is such
as to check its action. In the middle of an
intense scene, at moment when the mar
rator's wife accuses him of caring for an
other woman, he nevertheless succeeds in
finding a comparison characteristically con-
crete and by no means obvious: so far
the words of Huguette. l must confess it,
slid off me like bullets on the hide of a
rhinoceros."
One of the most striking passages of
'L'Incertaine," a passage which sticks in
the memory, is the description of night
"A broad moonlight drinks in the garden
and fills it with the weirdest of shadows.
The very material of the night is, so it
seems, spun by some spider from another
planet Every thread shimmers and slips
and vibrates with the air of silk, rose work
and intercrossed designs on all sides
radiance is dense and fills all space; this
intangible veil seems nevertheless capable
of being touched, like the skin of the jelly
fish or the enclosing of hoarfrost In
this unbroken shimmering the world be-
comes the work of u master glassmaker.
blowing with his long pipe the caprice of
a Chinege poet" There is something of
this Chinese poet" in Jaloux and of the
Chinese artist in general. the painter and
the potter of centuries ago.
The subject of LES Profondeurs de la
Mer" is a man. or type of man. Claude
Lothaire is eager, turbulent, passionate,
appealed to by all sorts of things, always
impatient and always filled with desire.
Possessed of personal charm and literary
talent, he is constantly in quest of new
emotional excitement AS result of this
temperament he indirectly causes the
death of the woman in whom he sees,
when more than 40 years of age. his last
chance for happiness. for that mirage. that
stimulation of his energy and imagination
which represents real living in his eyes.
As the result of this death he undergoes a
change and understands as he himself ex-
plains, another attitude toward life. In the
last pages of the volume he says: Be
tween the ages of II and 90 man fixes his
own fate through the confused desires of
his adolescence; he imagines what he will
become; at that age I could not under
stand that there existed in life anything
but love- reputation and ambition. And
until yesterday the whole object of my life
was to carry out these dreams of a
youth. They have followed me all my life.
1 have not yet been a man: 1 have been
the projection of still half childish mind.
And now as / reach my maturity | see
there is something else to look for.
To-day 1 begin to see that every
thing is much simpler than that. Yes.
. to-day need but to know that
exist for my heart to be full of gratitude.
1 am satisfied TO love, to understand this
body of sacred laws and mysterious phe-
nomena called life"
Such is the main ngure of LES Pro-
fondeurs de la Mer.' Everything else that
appears in this book. the secondary figures
and even the physical setting of the ac-
ton. including the weather are created
and treated with only one end in view: TO
set off and explain this main figure
Claude's young son Jack rejecting very
much his fathers feelings throws into re-
lief the immature character of the urge
that drives Claude ahead AS a contrast
to the frenzy OF Claude the slave of the
desire to be active and to possess. Jaloux
introduces David Grove the sad eyed dis
ciple of the Hindus. who aspires to Mir
yubo de<yirec pofhipp hrrt ract and e