IV INTRODUCTION

truth of his characters and of hîs plots to the moralizîng of his fable. He tried to make the novel serve a noble purposc and sought to elevate the soûl and render it capable of the highest virtues. Vice was répulsive to him ; he was désirons of fighting on the side of virtue, of inculcating noble lessons, and of encouraging high ideals along moral and religions lines.

The dominant idea and principal interest of his beautif ul and pleasing stories, is love, real love, that love whîch overcomes ail obstacles. In scènes representing a conflict between love and honor, real dramatic power is often displayed, as, for example, in the famous scène at the Tower of Elven. His lovers often expérience upon first acquaintance a kind of mutual aversion and secret hostility to each other. They meet with many barriers which seem at first to be însuperable. The story of love told in the charming Roman d'*un jeune homme pauvre^ whîch belongs to Feuillet*s first manner, is the most characteristic perhaps of his talent. The story is almost a fairy story, with its scène laid in those old Breton f orests, the home of so many of the primitive romances of chivalry. Hère were the " wild woods of Broceliande," forever mémorable for the adventures of Vivien and Merlin. Maxime Odiot, the aristocratie hero of the story, whose ancestors lived in this f airy-land, is a distinguished prince, " beau^ bienfait^ habile à tous les exercices du corps et de V esprit^'* like the princess of the fairy taies. As one reads this story one feels that the hero is favored by the higher powers, above ail by the novelist, who was an ingénions artist, " possessed of an infinité art and considérable artifice," one feels that the characters know beforehand what expériences they are going to hâve, and that somehow the hopeless lover will eventually marry the one he loves. Ail this makes the foUowing story an excellent example of the romanesque novel.

The editor acknowledges his indebtedness to the critical Works of Brunetière, Doumic, Pellissier and Petit de Julleville, as well as to the various éditions of the novel. j. d, b.