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The Journal of the De Goncourts; Pages from a Great Diary, Being Extracts from the Journal Des Goncourt

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The Journal of the De Goncourts; Pages from a Great Diary, Being Extracts from the Journal Des Goncourt UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO 3 1822015838899 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO 3 1822 01583 8899 THE JOURNAL OF THE DE GONCOURTS Central University Library University of California, San Diego Note: This item is subject to recall after two weeks. Date Due UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME. THE GREAT BOER WAR. Arthur Conan Doyle. COLLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS. G. W.E.Russell. FROM THE CAPE TO CAIRO. E. S. Grogan. SPURGEON'S SERMONS. Sir W. Robertson Nicoll, LL.D. SIR FRANK LOCKWOOD. Augustint Birrell, K.C., M.P. THE MAKING OF A FRONTIER. Colonel Durand. LIFE OF RICHARD COBDEN. Lord Morley. LIFE OF PARNELL. R. Barry O'Brien. MEMORIES GRAVE AND GAY. Dr. John Kerr. A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 5. Reynolds Hole. AT THE WORKS. Lady Bell. MEXICO AS I SAW IT. Mrs. Alec Tweedie. PARIS TO NEW YORK BY LAND. Harry de Windt. LETTERS OF DR. JOHN BROWN. JUBILEE BOOK OF CRICKET. Prince Ranjitsinhji. BY DESERT WAYS TO BAGHDAD. Louisa Jebb. SOME OLD LOVE STORIES. T. P. O'Connor. FIELDS, FACTORIES, & WORKSHOPS. Prince Krototkin. PROBLEMS OF POVERTY. Dr. Chalmers. THE BURDEN OF THE BALKANS. M. E. Durham. LIFE AND LETTERS OF LORD MACAULAY. I. & II. Sir George O. Trevelyan, Bart. WHAT I SAW IN RUSSIA. Hon. Maurice Baring. WILD ENGLAND OF TO-DAY. C. J. Cornish. THROUGH FINLAND IN CARTS. Mrs. Alec Tweedie. THE VOYAGE OF THE "DISCOVERY." I. & II. Captain Scott. FELICITY IN FRANCE. Constance E. Maud. MY CLIMBS IN THE ALPS AND CAUCASUS. A.F.Mummery. JOHN BRIGHT. R. Barry O'Brien. POVERTY. B. Seebohm Rowntree. SEA WOLVES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. Commander E. Hamilton Currey, R.N. FAMOUS MODERN BATTLES. A. Hilliard Atteridge. THE CRUISE OF THE "FALCON." E. F. Knight. A. K. H. B. (A Volume of Selections.) THE PEOPLE OF THE ABYSS. Jack London. GRAIN OR CHAFF? A. Chichele Plowden. LIFE AT THE ZOO. C.J. Cornish. THE FOUR MEN. Hilaire Belloc. " CRUISE OF THE ALERTE." E. F. Knight. FOUR FRENCH ADVENTURERS. Stoddard Dewey. A REAPING. E. F. Benson. FIFTEEN CHAPTERS OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Russell. 15,000 MILES IN A KETCH. Captain R. du Baty. KNOWN TO THE POLICE. Thomas Holmes. THE STORY OF MY STRUGGLES. Arminius Vambfry. THE CITY OF THE WORLD. Edwin Pugh. THE PANAMA CANAL. /. Saxon Milis. THE ISLAND. Richard Whiteing. THE PLEASANT LAND OF FRANCE. R. E. Prothero. THE RIVER WAR. Winston Churchill. TRUE TALES OF MOUNTAIN ADVENTURE. Mrs. Le Blond. Etc., etc. Others to follow. The Journal Je Goncourts PAGES FROM A GREAT DIARY BEING EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL DES GONCOURT EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION, BY JULIUS WEST THOMAS NELSON AND SONS LONDON, EDINBURGH, DUBLIN AND NEW YORK INTRODUCTION. IF Edmond de Goncourt (1822-96) and his brother Jules (1830-70) are at present in a sphere in which literary interests are permitted, the relative dis- repute into which their works have fallen must be a matter of sorrow, or, at any rate, of regret at the incalculability of the things of this life. There are few writers who have something new to say, or who have found some new way of saying some old thing, who expect immediate recognition. Stendhal predicted that his turn would come about seventy years after his death.* And there are few innovators, on the other hand, who do not believe that recognition will come, sooner or later. The de Goncourts fervently believed that they would be applauded both in their lifetime and after it, and they were almost completely wrong from either point of view. The genius of the sur- vivor of the two brothers, after forty years of hard work, was recognized in two banquets, and that was nearly all. * Vie de Henri Brulard. 6 JOURNAL OF THE DE GONCOURTS. Yet Edmond and Jules did a great many things that had not been done before, and, on the whole, they did them well. They are principally known as novelists; and their claims to be the completest expression of modernity are, if extravagant, far from baseless. They claimed to have introduced realism into French literature in one novel ; in another, they claimed to have invented that un- pleasant child of realism which Zola afterwards brought up as his own, and which is known as naturalism. In a third novel, they professed that symbolism had made its debut, and so forth. There was something in all this, as we shall see later. But not content with introducing new points of view into fiction, they did their best to educate the French public along other lines. In the first place, they introduced Japanese art and of it nursed the the appreciation into France ; they cult of it all their lives, and the last book written by Edmond was about Hokusai, the great Japanese artist Outa- ; he had already published a work on maro. Another very considerable department of their activities was consecrated to the eighteenth century, French society during that period, and especially the women thereof. In this branch ' Edmond took a predominant part, and himself wrote four books of biography about forgotten INTRODUCTION. 7 actresses of that age, while in collaboration with his brother a great many more books on the sub- ject were written. The two interests, art and the eighteenth century, united in the production of three more volumes about the French artists of that time. A couple of plays, not to mention a large number subsequently adapted by Edmond de Goncourt from the novels of the two brothers, the biography of Gavarni, the famous caricaturist, and one of their great friends, notes on a journey to Italy, and various literary odds and ends com- plete the very considerable tale of their activities. But with the de Goncourts the manner is of infinitely greater importance than the matter. Style preceded everything, followed closely by accuracy to detail. The rest mattered little. The attitude taken up by the brothers was largely this : other writers may do their utmost to present eternal truths, but if we succeed in rendering a humble dog-fight in such a way that the memory of it will put those eternal truths in the shade, we shall have done as much as man may do. The attitude was one of bravado, one which naturally demanded a lack of proportion and an eye for effects, and, perhaps' because it required an intense con- centration upon a certain class of effect, it led its possessors to the creation of something distinctly new. 8 JOURNAL OF THE DE GONCOURTS. But novelty is not everything. It is easy to shock people, and, by shocking them, convince them that they are under the influence of a new sensation. When Baudelaire, bent upon shocking, entered a cafe, fantastically dressed, and observed, in a loud " tone of voice to his neighbours, The night I killed my father, I remember, . ." he shocked, it is true, but the novelty soon wore off. One can do a great deal with a reputation for parricide, as the Playboy of the Western World discovered, but it does not do to be found out. The prob- lem the de Goncourts set out to solve was just this, how not to be found out. They answered it the only possible way by being sincere. If they strained the French language to breaking- point, it was because they sincerely aimed at effects of which the language was hardly capable. If they achieved curious effects, and made some novels convey the impression that they had been written in paragraphs loosely fitted together, like an in- complete jig-saw, it was because they sincerely believed that by such means their novels would convey truth in a manner altogether convincing and inexpugnable. We therefore arrive at the curious fact that the de Goncourts were both impressionists and realists ; indeed, some of their most realistic novels, INTRODUCTION. g bearing the unmistakable traces of their authors, have many of the qualities of an impressionist picture. In La Faustin, for example, an extra- ordinary study of an actress, the descriptive matter is laid on in brilliant patches which do not, at first, appear connected or suggest continuity of purpose. .It is only when we have finished reading the novel that the separate portions slip into their proper places and we get an idea of the perspec- tive values of the various ingredients of the book. Yet side by side with the effects of this class, the de Goncourts always aimed at the most complete accuracy of detail. Perhaps no more convincing illustration of this can be adduced than the fact that Marcel Schwob, a French critic of consider- able importance and discernment, found that the novels of the de Goncourts had much in common with those of our own Daniel Defoe, who may well be regarded as the master of realist fiction. But the de Goncourts went further than Defoe in their " quest for realities. They sought for the docu- ment." They studied their characters and their actions with all the minuteness made possible by the most painstaking personal investigation. Lest their imaginations should lead them astray when they invented characters and their actions, they refrained from putting their inventive faculties to io JOURNAL OF THE DE GONCOURTS. " " such a purpose, and drew upon the document instead. In this connection it is interesting to " note that the very expression human document," now safely acclimatized in the English language, was first used by the de Goncourts. They drew their raw material, in the first place, from their own surroundings. The original of Germinie Lacer- teux was one of their servants ; Madame Gervaisais was an aunt. Many of the characters of Charles Demailly and most of their conversation were also ready-made.
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