JULES CLARETIE.
CLARET1E may be taken as the embodiment of what
I • is best in contemporary French literature. While the author of" Le Million" is inferior in talent to no one of the younger French writers, he surpasses them all in width of range; as a playwright of some promise, a historical writer of real talent, a novel-writer of the first class, M. Claretie has been eulogised respectively by Theophile Cautier, by Michelet, by Sainte-Beuve. Besides all this, he is one of the ablest of French journalists, and his private character is most estimable. Yet neither is his many-sided talent so eminent, nor his goodness of heart so singular, as in themselves to entitle him to the notice of Englishmen, were it not that in virtues, as in shortcomings, he is a peculiarly good representative of. the best tendencies of his race in our time. Now, just as we were compelled to notice, when defining the position of Challemel-Lacour, that he was obliged to find a door of escape out of the individualistic philosophy of Humboldt, so, before speaking of M. Jules Claretie, we shall be forced to remark upon the individualism of the first half of this century in its influence upon literature. For M. Claretie represents far more completely than does Challemel-Lacour the break-away from tho past and the power of a new current of influence. In France, as elsewhere, the tide of feeling is now making towards equality, and not, as in the past, towards liberty ; patriotism is beginning to restrain selfishness.
That the old belief had been pushed too far, that the isolation of the individual has resulted in universal dislocation fast becoming anarchical, is now a truism in social politics ; but the influence of the old mot d'ordre upon literary and artistic pro- ductions, though just as obvious, is not so generally acknow- ledged. Yet the egotism of the individual in social matters finds its counterpart in literature in naked realism, and the earliest professor of the realistic analysis of character was Balzac. Bat, taking it for granted that the individual is a separate world complete in itself, and that his sensations, emotions, and thoughts should be presented as realistically as possible, it is still necessary, were it merely for the sake of true perspective,
to decide whether the animal instincts or the reason should be looked upon as the mainspring of the human mechanism. The authoritative decision in favour of the animal was the next step ; and this step, too, Balzac was the first to take. Speaking of his last novel, "Lee Parents Pauvres," Sainte- Benve, after noticing it as a new departure, says, "Vice is the mainspring and social depravity the subject-matter of this novel. Here the current of the impure overflows its banks." But in "Les Parents Pauvres " there were still "a few elevated and pathetic scenes which might move to tears," and such scenes were held to be idealistic and absurd by the immediate followers of the great novelist. "More realism !" was the cry ; and the "Madame Bovary " of Flaubert supplied the demand, It was reserved for our day, and for M. Zola and his disciples to go lower still, and to describe nothing but greeds, desires, stupidi- ties, and hates ; to depict all women as vile, all men as bestial. The literary style, too, of the school would be disgusting, were it not ludicrous. It was in Figaro, we think, that M. Zola was pictured as a pion or usher, teaching a crowd of children in a village school. "Go to the blackboard, and write the word pore according to my method," is the order. The boy goes and writes cochon. "Very good !" exclaims the usher; "now write chair." The boy obeys, and viande is the result. These self- styled naturalists seem to think that all excellence of style con- sists in using "le mot propre d'autant plus volontiers, gull est malpropre."
But before these depths of absurdity in style and of sensu- ality in subject-matter were explored, the reaction had already set in. It will be doing no injustice to the purity and tender- ness of feeling of Victor Hugo to point to the works of Henan as the first-fruits of the better time. But these works did not, even in France, exercise the influence for good that might have been expected from them. The time was not fully ripe. French- men had to drain the cup to its very dregs before even the abler men among them would acknowledge that the moral law cannot be transgressed with impunity. For fifty years selfishness had been preached as the only commandment, and the lesson was carried into practice during twenty years of wide-spread corruption. Then came national disaster and national disgrace, and the new generation learnt by suffering what the preceding one bad re- fused to learn of reason. Since 1870, the individual is required to abate something of his demands, for patriotism is recognised as being a condition necessary to national existence. Clearly, too, this sentiment has come to emphasise the teaching of Renan, that love must fill a larger place in the social life of the future. The consequences of this change of feeling are every- where to be noticed. In literary productions the ideal is now respected, instead of being ridiculed as absurd, and writers are no longer ashamed of depicting men and women who aim at conquering their lower nature. In very many points, M. Claretie belongs to the new era. For instance, his own words may be cited in evidence of his patriotism. Speaking of his treatment of historical subjects, he says, he has followed Michelet in trying to depict" the very sonl of the fatherland." "I would," he goes on, "give proof, if needs were, of chauvinisme ; it is an honourable failing." Nor is his desire to portray char- acter idealistically less pronounced. "I have composed novels," he writes, "for the purpose of putting in high relief all that is consoling and progressive in realism." To ask how far he has succeeded in this aim would be to attempt a criticism of all his works, for which there is here not sufficient space. It will be enough to consider briefly his latest and best novel, "Le Million." It is a description of the consequences of the present individualistic form of society, of the effects of extreme competi- tion upon the character and the morals of a nation. On the one hand, Claretie introduces us to stockbrokers, and depicts the unbridled greed of the Bourse; we see the successful promoter or speculator winning immense sums, and courted of nearly all men. On the other hand, a bourgeois family is sketched, the head of which is brought daily nearer to bankruptcy by the fluctuations of commerce. Destitution as the reward of labour and honesty, riches obtained by cunning and dishonesty,—the contrast is somewhat too complete, even for purposes of art. But it must be remembered that the book was written immediately after the crisis on the Paris Bourse which was caused by the failure of the Union Gen6rale. The character-drawing is in the main excellent, and shows a great advance upon any previous work of the author. Louis Ribeyre may be taken as the best type of the modern Frenchman; the laugh of Figaro has become somewhat sarcastic, if not bitter, in our modern struggle for existence. Genevieve Ribeyre is an almost perfect picture of the Parisienne of to-day. In her the longing for luxury and ease constantly tempt a somewhat sensualistic nature ; she resists, but does not drive the temptation from her, and yet her affection for her husband is strong enough to win pardon for her weakness, when her punishment is taken Into account. Emile Guillemard, the "promoter," is well drawn, as is his daughter, la cousineffe. The language, too, of the book deserves praise ; although some- what too realistic for our taste, it has conspicuous merits of simplicity and clearness. Yet, high as this novel stands among contemporary productions, it only affords additional proof of the assertion that a chef d'oeuvre of art is not to be looked for at present.
To-day is the day of the practical hero, of him who transmutes ideas into realities. No man can escape what must be called the necessities of the age. M. Claretie's novel is really an essay on social politics. As might be expected, when a man so mistakes his real function, the work done is inferior to the workman. It is as a man, and not as an artist that Jules Claretie is most interesting. He tells us that in his youth Janin ad- vised him "to try to merit a grand burial;" and he takes the counsel seriously. For, "to merit a noble burial," he writes, "is to have merited by the dignity of a life's labour the regret of those who outlive ; it is to have been loved and esteemed, never to have repulsed an outstretched hand, nor dis- appointed a trembling hope, never to have closed the ear to the appeal of weakness, nor the door to any misfortune ; it is to have encouraged all beginners, to have given pity to all the conquered." Just as the tendency of our time is towards equality, so its practical mission is to raise the lower classes, to aid the weak, to console suffering. It is M. Claretie's peculiar merit that, in his own line of wolk, he has been one of the first, as writer and as critic, to carry this creed into practice. "To sue," he writes—and every one who knows the man or his works will attest his sincerity—" kindliness is one of the proofs and one of the forms of talent." Exactly as self-assertion belonged of right to tbe individualism of the past, so sympathy is the key-note of the nationalism of to-day. Self-respect is the dis- tinctive virtue of the one creed ; respect for others, the dis- tinguishing feature of the other. Our age must aim at prepar- ing the way for the reconciliation of the two in a higher unity, which shall include the merits of both ; its proper and iseculiar task is to embody in practice, and so realise, this feeling of sympathy for others which makes for equality, by raising the poor, aiding the helpless, reinstating "the dispossessed." Among the most notable in this new order of chivalry. the motto of which may be taken from Erekmann-Chatrian's last drama, Les Ranfzau, 'L'amour est plus fort sine la haine,"— among the most notable, and not the least worthy, is M. Jules Claretie.
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