Paul Bourget.
By Ernest Dimnet. (Constable and Co.
is. net.)—At a time when the revival of patriotic and religious feeling in France is being watched over here with so much interest, M. Dirnuet's sketch of Paul Bourget's intellectual development is particularly welcome. For Bourget's position to-day, in spite of the extremist character of his Conservative, Royalist, and Catholic opinions, and of his sympathies with that uncompromising body, l'Action franraise, is in many ways characteristic of the new France. As an active influence, too, in moulding the new generation his importance is not to be denied, though his personality, as revealed in his writings, is less sympathetic and attractive, and consequently less stimulating to the young, than that of such a writer as M. Barres. English readers will find Bourget's merits alike as a writer and as a thinker impartially discussed in M. Dimnet's excellent little book. It is of equal value as a piece of literary criticism or a psychological record.
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