Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-04
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

| The study Of the literature of a ma
people and the everyday workings OF
| their minds.
Perhaps too much time can be put
by an ambitious student on histories
and not enough on the fiction Of a
people.
In an amazing way, over a stretch of
several hundred years, the writers OF
fiction, poetry. general literature, can
portray the heart of their nation.
! There Is no fixed plan, no program,
| no general purpose, perhaps, but the
I sum total of their work Is at once in
elusive and incisive.
We thought of this recently in con-
nection with the discussion of the pre-
posal for the suspension Of intergov-
I ornamental debts.
| 1t Is impossible to understand the
mind and the heart Of France without
some knowledge of her literature. one
/ of the greatest in the world and GER
tainlv one of the most interesting.
With q reading acquaintance with
her writers, an American Is in a fair
way of knowing something about the
soul of that people.
| Without that knowledge he Is lost,
although he may have been to France.
and may have walked the bouleyards OF
Paris, and been held up by taxi driver.
Many persons indulge in a lambasting
of France and the French people who by
no means have the background for any
but a superficial grasp of that nation
and its interesting history, life and
people.
| Such persons go to France. and. TAX
ing nothing with them of real knowl-
/ edge Of the country. its customs, his
tory. ideals, are easily repulsed by the
first person they meet who might treat
them as no doubt they have been treat
ed many times before by persons in
! their own country
! They go to France to be impressed,
and alas, sometimes are impressed the
wrong way, mainly because they have
carried no deep impressions with them.
Instead OF going to Paris to place a
wreath on the tomb of Alexandra
! Dumas, or that of Emile lola, great
! writers in their manner, they permit
! themselves to go there to be miffed
| at the first touch" Of a grasping per-
son who never heard Of either one OF
his own celebrated compatriots.
\ \
No one can know France who has
not read Zola's La Terre," or Dumas
Three Musketeers," or Hugo's Les
Miserables." or Frances Penguin Is
land or Moliere's Bourgeois Gentle
men," or Rousseaus Confessions" or
De MaupaSsant's lightest sketches, THE
Sundays OF a Partisan" and similar
| things.
The American who has read Balzac's
stupendous Human Comedy" will feel
that he knows something about the
French which nobody who merely goes
there as sight-seer can know, or even
know enough to realize exists
That massive trilogy of Zola's,
| 'LAssommoir, Mana" and lie De-
| bacle," gives the reader something out
of the very life of q people which few
more staid works could.
| There is an unforgettable scene In
La Terre" CThe Earth. in which an
educated peasant is reading 10 a group
1t Is from book aiming to reconcile
the peasants to their lot. Jacques Bon
homme. the generic name for peasants,
| is told how happy he ought to be.
But the listeners we're thinking their
own thoughts. Was the book making
fun of them?" they asked themselves.
Nothing in the world was worth while
except money, and they were poverty
stricken"
And there one has flash Of illurni-
nation which goes long way toward
explaining many things.
| It is so with all nations. II you want
to get at England and the English. you
would do better to read her literature
than her history, her fiction than her