PREFACE

I feel very happy and proud to hâve the good fortune of introducing some of the works of Jules Lemaître to the American students of French. In the choice of them I hâve been guided by the interest which they can best afford to the readers. In the first part, Critique littéraire, I hâve chosen the essays on the French writers whose names ought to be familiar to every one, and who are the best représentatives of the modem literary schools.

The fîrst article on Renan, written in 1885, was the steppingstone of Jules Lemaître's famé, which has been increasing ever since with wonderful rapidity. It then created a great sensation and revealed to the literary world that a new writer, full of the charming impulses of youth, extremely clever and witty, eager to understand everything, to enjoy everything, to see everything with his own eyes, and to judge for himself, had come to join their phalanx, and to introduce a new spirit into the old schools o^ criticism.

In the second part, Critique dramatique, I hâve chosen the critiques on Ibsen and Maeterlinck, because their names are well known hère, and because it will be interesting to see how thèse men and their works appear when judged by a critic so essentially French in his éducation, his tempérament, and his habits.

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I should hâve liked to give a great many more of the exquisite Billets du Matin, and of the Contes, so simple, yet so beautiful, and written in the purest and most classic French, with a savor of the modem spirit, but space did not allow.

As for Jules Lemaître's plays, they are so modem in their subjects and in the characters they depict, that they could scarcely be presented in their entirety in such a book as this. The act of the play I hâve chosen, JRévoltée, will, I hope, give the reader an idea of the liveliness of the dialogue, of the deep psychology of the characters, and of the sound morality always to be drawn from every one of his comédies.

With the author's permission I hâve shortened some of the articles or suppressed a few passages, such as the analysis of some of Maupassant's Contes or of Zola's novels, which could not hâve found place hère.

In preparing the Notes, I hâve been guided by my expérience of several years of teaching in America, and I hâve thought it best to translate, or, at least, to give the équivalent of many sentences and words which are used with a meaning différent from that found in the ordinary dictionary. In such Jules Lemaître's writings abound. I hâve tried to be accurate in référence to biographical and literary allusions so often to be met with in his pages, and in this I hâve been helped by Jules Lemaître himself, who, either in writing or orally, has most kindly and obligingly answered my numerous questions. To him chiefly my thanks are due for the interest he has shown in the work, for the help he has given me, and for the " Introduction " he has so kindly prepared for this book.

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I am also deeply indebted to Professor A. N. van Daell, of the Institute of Technology in Boston, for his valuable suggestions in référence to the notes, and his kind assistance in the laborious work of reading the proofs.

M. Paul Meyer has written a few notes for me. on the subjects of which he is a master, and on the École des Chartes, where he is the directeur, and also on the Collège de France and on the Institut, to both of which he himself belongs.

It is also a pleasure for me to express hère my best thanks to M. Adrien Baret, professor of English literature at the Sorbonne, and to M. G. de la Quesnerie, professor of English at the Lycée Saint-Louis, who hâve given me most valuable suggestions for some of the notes, and to Miss Mary A. Bryant, teacher of psychology and of English. in Ogontz School,