Evening star., 1928-10-30
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
I. G.. M.

Had you chanced to be in the Gene.
terry of Pere Lachaise on that late
September day of 1915. you might have
stood witness to the impressive rites
of burial with which France honors her
distinguished men of letters.
Today, walking about Paris, you may
happen upon a certain public garden
marked by statue of Ren1y de Gour-
mont. Or. threading the Rue des
Saints-Peres, you may suddenly face
upon a house that bears plaque COM
memorating it as the one in which
this man used to live.
Regrettably, these public testimonials
of recognition and homage came too
late to serve their object either in the
way Of living support or in that of a
deeper inspiration toward greater effort.
For Remy de Gourmont had moved on
ahead of this professional of praise.
out where even no echo of 1t could
reach him. However. leaving the most,
and the best, of himself behind him,
as every man of achievement is bound
to do, Gourmont is now m nigh tide
Of recognition. acclaimed not only in
his own France, but otherwise besides
as vital contributing force in the
leaven of new literary outlook upon
what is, in effect. brand-new world
of thought and general activity. The
personal loss, rooted in the usual
common stupidity and uncharity, is
deeply lamentable, accusatory even.
Yet, the gain to letters by way of this
man may atone-ar,d that Is cow
ardly, contemplate conclusion.
However, the balance in account of
Reny de Gourmont and modern let
ters stands in substantial and un-
deniable claim on his part for high
service to the new literary movement
which is also an inalienable part Of
the outward surge Of all world matters
toward a passion for truth, actuality,
fact. A part merely-a by-product, If
you will-of the spirit of science itself
holding the search for truth In every
field to be the paramount quest of life
holding, too, the courage to face such
truth to be the supreme obligation of
tutored and civilized mankind.
Brought across from the French into
English by Richard Arlington, here is
the life of Remy de Gourmor1t, the life
of the man brought into the open chief
ly by way of the sum and character of
his own writings. Into these 2 VOL
umes Mr.. Arlington has gathered the
essence of the 80 that represent a lit
tie more than the same number OF years
devoted to creative literature. Reading
here, one soon becomes enthusiastic in
support OF the plan of making ones
considerable work tell the story of his
existence. Set out In the order of their
publication, one finds here the story, the
legend. the poem, the essay, the glimpses
of shifting philosophy. These become
mirrors throwing back the changing
moods and points of view Of the man
himself. the varied play of his fancy,
the drifting colors of emotion, Of feeling,
of conviction upon a host of themes all
component parts OF the tormenting
mystery which life itself Is.
Mr.. Arlington makes a point of this
variety in the work of Gour1nont de-
Tending the man from the suspicion of
Superf1ciality and from the charge that
man could hardly write so much and
do it WELL He compares him with Vol
taire in this respect--both of them
"polygraphes," to use the term here en-
ployed. "The personality of Voltaire is
not very complex; he was man of re-
inarkable intelligence and opportunist
character. whose expansive energy SIM
ulated a complexity which. on analysis,
proves to be only variety. The complex
ity of Gourmont is real and inherent.
The mind of Voltaire is like perfectly
WI AiCN u OdkAs CfCd OAA WIG AOkA cbAlNA
continuously achieving the most accu-
rate and pleasing angles: the mind of
Gourmont Is like the same ball carved
by Chinese artist into nest of highly
fretted spheres one within the other,
made Heaven knows how and quite USE
less for the practical game of life. You
may take two pieces Of Voltaire's prose,
one written in I720 and the other in
ITO, and at once you will recognize
them as products of the same mind; but
compare Gourmonts work in 1890 with
his work in f905-is the sensual, mystic
idealist of 'Sixtine' the author of the
skeptical Nietzschean Dialogues des
Amateurs'?" An advancing mind. this,
whose every, stage Of progress not only
contributes permanent and enriching
element to that mind, but which as well
boldly rejects the outworn permanencies
of yesterday. A contradiction of mind,
as life itself Is a succession of denials
and retractions, even as an inherent
part of its progress. And so there rises
"a Gourmont problem" It's solution is
left to the reader, Mr. Arlington being
wise enough to state 1t, merely, in the
terms of Gourmont's own work, leaving
to the reader the JOY Of adventure and
discovery.
In this introduction Of such finely
helpful substance Mr. Adlingtcn says:
ITO one long familiar with Gourmont's s
work 1t becomes certainty that he was
potentially greater writer than in fact
he ever became. There is already q
considerable amount of waste matter in
his published work; already his stories
and novels are in part superannuated,
his poems seem dated, his plays abortive
experiments In an art for which their
author was singularly unified. What is
more serious, one cannot point to any
book or books of his and assert hon.
eStly that 1t Is complete, successful
and permanent masterpiece. Yet, one
has an even stronger conviction that the
name of Remy de Gourmont will not
perish, that his mind was not only curl
Gus and complex, but a permanent ad0i-
ton to the vast gallery of European in
telligence, that there are gifts both of
artistry and thought scattered through
his 80 or 40 volumes, which are orig
inal, powerful and animating. Writing
was Gourmont's life; he adored it, and
when he was not writing or reading for
the purpose of writing, he was bored. He
was as perfect type of the man of let
ters-taken in its highest sense-as one
could discover"
Mr. Arlington shows us something of
the man hirnself-how he looked, how
he lived, who were his friends and
associates. A recluse in effect. driven
in upon himself by virtue of diffidence
and reluctance to bring certain physi-
cal shortcomings into association with
a robust world. One likes to forget this
picture, and does forget 1t as soon as
the reading of Gourmont becomes an
absorption. An analytical Frenchman
and temperamental pagan come to-
gether here for the creation of many
beautiful things while a political rebel
against any sort of compact except that
of complete individualisrn plays havoc
with altruistic designs for the we'll being
Of the great majority-a hopeless lot
according to Gourmont. HE was a
great individualist, one of the last and
boldest defenders of individual liberty
against the increasing tyrannies Of de-
mocracy and socialism"
Here is bit of general summary by
Mr.. Arlington las a novelist I think
him certainly inferior to Flaubert. but