The French Romantics
IN this sound, well-documented survey of French social doctrines, Dr. Evans does much to destroy the popular conception of Romantic ideology. Indeed, he lets the Romantics destroy it for themselves. The suggestion that they indulged in escapism or eloquent abstrac- tions, unaware of reality or indifferent to contemporary problems, is answered in Les Chtitiments. If the poet lives in the clouds, then' Soit. Le tonnerre aussi." As Dr. Evans says, the Socialist thunder of Hugo in Les Miserables and Les Pauvres Gens affected the public conscience more than many volumes of Saint-Simon doctrine ; and while Mrs. Browning wrote The Cry of the Children and Hood ex- pressed himself in The Song of the Shirt, Hugo fiercely exposed the condition of the poor in Milancolia. Dr. Evans also discusses the social significance of George Sand's novels, the influence upon her of Lamennais, Ballanche and Sainte- Beuve ; indeed, she was sufficiently interested in Saint Simonism to be invited to be its woman Messiah. This offer (which she refused) was one of many strange nineteenth-century projects. Some, like Fourier's Traite de l' Unite Universelle, arouse only amusement today ; others, like Enfantin's commonwealth at Menilmontant, suggest a combination of histrionics and genuine community spirit ; but the Icarian venture to America, the decision to create the dream city, recalls the bold exploits of the early settlers. This adventure is only recalled by a few ruined shacks on an American prairie, and an otherwise unintelligible line of Baudelaire ; indeed, Dr. Evans finds many clues to Baudelaire's social romanticism in Les Fleurs du Mal, and one of the poems, he suggests, implies a criticism of the new industrial world.
The social importance of the preface to Hernani, and the purpose of La Chute d'un Ange and Chatterton, are among many points raised for discussion. Were the French Romantics more conscious than their English contemporaries of a mission in society ? Was their work more effective than the campaign of Shelley or the moralising of Wordsworth or of Dickens ? It remains a provocative and debatable question. From Dr. Evans' survey, however, we learn at least the truth of Saint-Simon's maxim : " Pour faire de grandes
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