The New York herald., 1922-10-01
ITALIAN BOOKS.

countries rarely KNOW. 1nefe Is also an
other class. the 'intellectuals," who de
hberately turn their backs on worldly pur
suits and by dint of sheer sacrifice Sc
themselves to the preservation and exten
sion of culture. But there is also tn,
bourgeois and the petty bourgeois" tn,
act as Intermediates between the grea
world that produces and the great worlC
that consumes. These are the men of en-
ersy, of ambition. of initiative, who a!
failures sink to the social bottom and a.
successes climb 10 the seats of power
Stendhal. just a hundred years ago, anC
looking wistfully back from Napoleon's err
upon the joys of the old regime. predicted
the growth of just such class in just such
competitive world-a world in which
there would be little spontaneous gayety
SO absorbing would the struggle for life
and power become. once equality of op-
portunity We're a fact. For the revolution
of the nineteenth century in Europe would
set hmitless appetites free upon territory
OF limited resources. Where there would
not be enough for all. the prize would 60
to the shrewder or TO the stronger: and
the rule of life would be hatred and COM
bat
The type OF human being resulting from
the fulhllment OF Stendhars penetrating
guess is hardly known to newer lands like
America: so much so tiat the term
bourgeois comes to US from the jargon of
Socialism. whose principle doctrine of the
class struggle" has been the most obvious
OF European facts during the last hundred
years Our natural resources have saved
US from developing, or at least from ideal
izing. the maneater. the shark. the '.pesce-
cane" who. speaking in broad terms. is a
typical product of the Continental business
world.
One Of these types we find nodded in
mastery fashion in "Farfui': Edoardo Fal-
conaro is friend of Lorenzo Moro. and
from the latter he takes first his wife.s
love. then his business. and finally hi,
life. all in a perfectly fair manner. aIwavs
remaining in the right
This bourgeois. and especially the petlt
bourgeois. world is the one that Zuccoli
studies best. Its restless ambitions. its
jealousies. its timidities. its conventions. its
numberless virtues. form the background
OF all his best worked canvases. And II is
the premise. as Well OF much OF ZuccoIi'S
inner sentimentality For, after all what is
TINS situation" around which the boureeois
mover OF Europe is commonly constructed?
In world where every one is comnetipe
struggling To rise in social standing IN
attain this objective or +l,. ..
money. gain more power, win the sirI. even
'hat man with more power or more
money Is likely to capture. the individua,
Is the important thing tRomanticism) and
the individual is more often a failure than
a success (Realism) One element ~. he
heFe. in determining the popularity of tn.
unhappy ending in European literature i,
the spiritual necessity competitive worIe
feels TO steel itself against succumbinr anf
TO cultivate a host of paIIiatives against
failure. In an undeveloped semi-barbarous
East 'huSSia) We have sentimentality
OF rebellion and protest; in the decadent
West. We have a sentimentality without
purpose, save mystic one; rsdeeminp
pity.
FOR Auccoh's case We can illustrate witt
MS last two novels as well as with an,
others. "Loredanas Affair." is with a gan.
tieman Of the Venetian aristoc-acy "a pic,
ture of Venetian social life-which we find
personally. trifie pallid-with IN excur.
sion TO the Lake OF Garda). This match i.
broken on by social pressure upon tn,
young count and by inherent weaknesses
IN MS own character. Conventions accord.
ihsiy are saved. but at a price-the happi.