THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH CULTURE
By D. R. GILLIE
MR. HAROLD NICOLSON in his recent remarkable lecture on Franco-British relations at the French Insti- tute in London made one remark which is certainly truer of the French situation as it was ten years ago than it is today. He suggested that young Englishmen follow French literature more closely than young Frenchmen do English literature. The modem English novel now enjoys considerable prestige in France. Translations of old and young are frequent ; they are noticeable both in shop windows and in the hands of readers. Aldous Huxley, Charles Morgan, Rosamund Lehmann, E. M. Forster, Richard Hughes, Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence are amongst the English names to be met with in French literary discussion, some of them indeed very frequently. James Joyce has probably more students in France than any French writer of comparable obscurity has in England. The French continue to delve amongst our classics. Tom 'ones and Vanity Fair in new French editions sold well as summer holiday literature last year. Meredith is being translated novel by novel ; the last to appear, The Amazing Marriage, is not remaining on the booksellers' hands. (How many copies of that book have been sold in England during the last five years?) A selection of the works of Swift has just been published in French.
It is important to note, however, that this French interest in England is predominantly aesthetic, and that references to English thought or institutions are infrequent in the political and intellectual discussion of young malcontents. Interest in England's institutions was indeed notably greater only a few years ago. When M. Doumergue was Prime Minister in 1934 his proposal for the amendment of the constitution was largely discussed in terms of the English practice with regard to the dissolution of Parliament. A little later a trial in Britain arising out of the murder of a French woman was followed by the French with very close interest no less in the strange procedure than in the crime itself. When M. Blum came into power there was also much discussion of political problems in the light of British parallels notably with regard to libel law. Such references play very little part in the vigorous sombre discussions now being carried on in the luxuriant jungle of French periodicals. The only group of malcontents which seems really interested in England is that centred about the fortnightly Nouveaux Cahiers, whose contributors would like to draw upon English ideas and methods in remoulding France as a vast liberal-minded Scandinavia. This group includes a number of young men but its leader- ship is distinctly middle-aged.
On the other hand M. Armand Petitjean, who is under thirty and is certainly not ignorant of English culture, since he produced the Swift volume already referred to and is one of the French students of James Joyce, scarcely mentions England when discussing the problems and hopes of his own generation in France (as, for instance, in the June issue of Europe or the July Nouvelle Revue Francaise).
The other younger groups in France, such as the demo- cratic Catholics grouped about Esprit, the right-wing Catho- lics of Combat or the young anti-Fascists who use Les Volontaires as their organ, all seem to adopt instinctively the same negative attitude to Great Britain. She is taken for granted as an ally and a democratic Power, but she seems to be making no contribution to the political, social and philosophic problems which preoccupy these men's minds.
The changed attitude of the French towards their own Parliament is no doubt in part responsible for this. While they were preoccupied with trying to repair their own parliamentary structure they were vitally interested in the fact that ours still functioned. Now that they are simply ignoring their Parliament the British Parliament takes rank with the British monarchy as a peculiar national institution doubtfully applicable to other countries.
This change is linked with the much greater part played in the French than the British outlook by the idea of revolution, i.e., of a great and sudden change in the national life. French intellectuals, at least, seem more profoundly impressed than the English with the high probability that the present crisis, however it develops, will be one of the greatest turning-points in the history of Europe. In these circumstances, as Mr. Nicolson has pointed out, British optimism, based on the supposition that things will con- tinue essentially as before, seems singularly to miss the point ; it is sharply contrasted with the French form of self- confidence, which is above all a conviction that by a mixture of prudence and courage one will remain the master of one's fate, whatever the circumstances.
At the present moment the young Frenchman is peculiarly conscious also of the fact that he is a fully trained soldier who may be mobilised for the front at any moment ; the barrier between civil life and actual fighting is a thin one of a few hours only, whereas for the great majority of young Englishmen it has the thickness of months of training yet to come. This fact in itself makes the Englishman's attitude often seem amateurish and irresponsible to the Frenchman. It is a ground of misunderstanding which will tend to dis- appear.
As far as intellectual discussion is concerned the difference in the religious life of the two countries has a deep influence in preventing useful cross-fertilisation. In both countries the gravity of the situation has led to a religious revival. In France this mainly takes a catholic form and the emotional side of religious life is immediately linked with a vast intellectual structurf and, at the present moment, intense intellectual activity. \The French Catholic intellectual enjoys the respect of and has a common language with the in- tellectual unbeliever. Both Catholic and non-Catholic thought is coloured and enriched in consequence. Although opinions are usually more intransigently stated in France than in England, there is common ground of discussion bridging the gulf between theologian and communist- militant. There is no English religious thinker enjoying the same respect in non-religious circles as the French Thomist philosopher Jacques Maritain. In England, on the other hand, the development of the Group Movement, having few intellectual claims and despised, as the Catholic Church is not, by its opponents, seems to have contributed to an unnatural prolongation of the joint reign of Mr. H. G. Wells and Mr. Bernard Shaw over British reason.
A further difficulty between the two countries lies in the relative poverty of Britain in serious and cheap periodicals. Instead of four " heavy " monthlies ranging in price from zs. 6d. to 3s. 6d. France has a score of admirable monthlies and fortnightlies available at very cheap 'subscription rates (several at Jos. a year or less) which can carry on at length very lively discussions, that in England have to be cramped into the inevitably narrow correspondence columns of a few weeklies. How and where are you to discuss general ideas with an Englishman?
It may be argued that the lack of close co-operation between the intellectuals of the two countries is unimpor- tant, if there is cordial comradeship in arms. The lack of community of ideas in the years that followed the last War is certainly one of the reasons why both countries are now facing the prospect of another one. This is not a case in which government propaganda can do much. It is for the common reader to acquire such understanding of his neighbour that he can speak to him in terms which he will understand when they have occasion to meet and co-operate.
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