PAUL BOURGET

Paul Bourget was born in 1853. His first literary efforts were three volumes of poetry : La Vie Inquiète, Edel, Les Aveux. He then published a séries of critiques under the titles of Essais de Psychologie Contemporaine, Études et Portraits. His novels show great talent ; they deal with dramas of conscience and moral scruples. Arnong them we shall name : Cruelle Énigme, Crime d* Amour, André Cornêlis, Mensonges, Le Disciple, Un Coeur de Femme, Terre Promise, Cosmopolis; Outre-Mer is a séries of studies "written after his visit to the United States.

Page 72. — 1. Me déroutent: puzzle me. Dérouter, v. a., properly speaking, means to take some one out of his way, to mislead.

a. Un mièvre : finical, affected. Mièvre : " L'origine de ce mot n'est pas claire. Gaston Paris a proposé dans la séance de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, 18 mai, 1872, de rattacher ce mot à alt-hoch-deutsch.

Smerli, 'émerillon,' se fondant sur la forme ancienne (Littré) esmièvre, dont le sens était * vif, éveillé.' " (Paul Meyer.)

3. Mais . . . entier : but this picture is far from giving a true idea of his whole personality.

Page 73. — 1. Des . . . pâmé: a nicety and squeamishness of expression.

Page 74. — 1. M. Taine. See (second) article Renan, page 18, note 2.

2. Nisard (1806-1888). The most classical of critics and author of an important Traité de Littérature française.

3. Sainte-Beuve. A great cri tic, a novelist, and a poet. He studied medicine for a short time, but soon af terwards devoted himself to literature. He wrote in the Globe, became an intimate friend of V. Hugo, and adopted the théories of the new Romande school. His réputation as a critic was established after the publication of Tableau historique et critique de la Poésie française au seizième siècle. Then he wrote in the Revue de Deux Mondes and in the Constitutionnel, where his famous séries of literary studies and portraits first appeared under the title of Causeries du Lundi. They won him great success and famé. His other works are : Chateaubriand et son Group littéraire sous P Empire, Nouveaux Lundis, Histoire de Port-Royal. As a poet he published Poésies de Joseph Delorme and Consolations. He was one of the finest writers of the first part of this century and certainly the best critic.

Page 77. — MM. Schérer, Montégut, Brunetière. Names of literary critics of the présent day. Brunetière (1849), tne most famous of them, is professor of French literature at the École Normale Supérieure, and gives lectures at the Sor bonne ; he is also the editor of the Revue des Deux Mondes, and a member of the French Academy. He is one of the best représentatives of objective criticism, and the author of many literary books; several of them hâve been rewarded by the Académie: Études Critiques sur l 'histoire de la Littérature française, La Littérature française au Moyen-âge, Pascal, Mme. de Sévigné, le Roman Naturaliste, etc. An excellent judge of classic authors, he is somewhat prejudiced in his judgments on modem writers.

Page 78. — 1. Mallarmistes. Name given to the followers and disciples of Stéphane Mallarmé, the Pontiff of the Symbolist school. Mallarmé (1842) is also a professor of English at the Collège Fontanes in Paris. Jules Lemaître wrote of him : " Mallarmé est un homme original et doux. Il a de l'esprit. Sa conversation se distingue par un tour imprévu et charmant ; il y emploie, du reste, les mêmes mots que tout le monde, et dans le même sens ou à peu près. Dès qu'il écrit, c'est autre chose. Pourtant il a commencé par faire des vers très beaux, et malgré quelques singularités,

très intelligibles, sans quoi je n'aurais pas osé dire très beaux, car je ne me moque pas des gens." Mallarmé has given a translation of the poems of Edgar Poe, which is looked upon as excellent.

a. Beaucoup . . . souffrir : a great many people of mature âge, especially among the partisans of epicurism and easy moral s, cannot bear him. " Par Gaulois, j'entends les partisans de l'épicurisme gai et de la morale facile. Il y a de grands Gaulois : Rabelais, Montaigne, La Fontaine. Il y en a de petits : Marot, Desperriers, Regnard, Bé ranger, etc." (Note given by Jules Lemaître to the editor of this book.)

3. Les frères de Goncourt. See article Alphonse Daudet, page 51, note 2.

4. Stendhal. Henri Beyle, a critic and novelist, better known under the name of Stendhal. He is one of the fathers of the Naturalisée school. His most famous works are : L'Amour, a psychological study, La Chartreuse de Parme, Promenades dans Rome, Le Rouge et le Noir, Histoire de la Peinture en Italie. Beyle is one of the most original minds and writers of this century. He died in 1853.