Realism, Naturalism, and Symbolism Modes of Thought and Expression in Europe, 1848-1914 Avolume in DOCUMENTARY HISTORY oE WESTERN CIVILIZATION - REALISM, NATURALISM, AND SYMBOLISM Modes of Thought and Expression in Europe, 1848-1914 edited by ROLAND N. STROMBERG Palgrave Macmillan 1968 ISBN 978-1-349-81746-7 ISBN 978-1-349-81744-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-81744-3 REALISM, NATURALISM, AND SYMBOLISM Introduction, notes, compilation, and translations by the editor copyright © 1968 by Roland N. Strom berg Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1968 978-0-333-04058-4 First published in the United States 1968 First published in the United Kingdom by Macmillan & Co 1968 Published by MACMILLAN & co LTD Little Essex Street London w C 2 and also at Bombay Calcutta and Madras Macmillan South Africa (Publishers) Pty Ltd Johannesburg The Macmillan Company of Australia Pty Ltd Melbourne PERMISSIONS GRANTED BY: Penguin Books, Ltd., Harmondsworth, Sussex, England, for L. W. Tancock's translation of Zola's Germinal and for David Magarshack's translation of Dostoevsky's The Devils Oxford University Press, London, for Robert Baldick's translation of The Goncourt Journal The Foreign Language Publishing House, Institute of Philosophy, Academy of Sciences, Moscow, U.S.S.R., for L. Navrozov's translation of Alexander Herzen's From the Other Shore The Harvill Press, London, for Alexander Dru's translation of Charles Peguy's Clio I Contents CHRONOLOGY VI INTRODUCTION IX I. REALISM I. The disenehantmem of 1848. Alexander Herzen, From the Other Shore (1849) 2. The pessimistie view. Arthur Schopenhauer, "Govern- mem" (185 I) 9 3. Seienee, the new god. (a) Ernest Renan, The Future of Seien ce (1848-49) 25 (b) Emil du Bois-Reymond, Natural Science and the History of Culture (1878) 27 4. The bourgeois world. (a) WalterBagehot, TheEnglishConstitution (1867) 30 (b) Charles Baudelaire, Intimate Journal (185 I) 34 (e) John Ruskin, "The Study of Arehiteeture in Our SchooIs" (1865) 36 5. The reaIism of Flaubert. Baudelaire, "Madame Bovary" ( 18 57) 38 6. Optimistie realism. Robert Browning, "Fra Lippo Lippi" ( 18 55) 46 7. Russian realism. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Devils (187 I) 48 8. Soeial realism. Edmond and Jules Goneourt, Prefaee to Germinie Lacerteux (1864) 68 9. Soeial realism and Soeialist realism. (a) Edmond Goneourt, Journal (1870-7 I) 7 I (b) Kar! Marx, The Civil War in France (1871) 91 IV CONTENTS 11. NATURALISM 10. The continuing march of science. David Masson, Recent British Philosophy (1867) 107 11. The book of despair. Winwood Reade, The Outcasts (1875) 118 12. Life in the raw. Emile Zola, Germinal (1885) 120 13. The natural history of morality. Friedrich Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals ( 1887) 134 14. Naturalism and moralism. George Bernard Shaw, The Quintessence of I bsenism (1891) 146 15. Painting: The impressionists. Emile Zola, "Naturalism in the Salon" (1880) 154 16. A critique of naturalism. Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1878) 163 17. Human nature in politics. Graham Wallas, Human Na- ture in Politics (1908) 166 18. The natural history of the soul. Sigmund Freud, The Origin and Development of Psy choanaly sis (19 I 0) 180 111. SYMBOLISM 19. The poet as seer. (a) Arthur Rimbaud, Letter to Paul Demeny (187 I ) ; "The Drunken Boat" (187 I ) 188 (b) Charles Baudelaire. Two poems from Les fleurs du mal 196 (c) Paul Verlaine, "La lune blanche" (1870) 198 20. The mystery of poetry. (a) Stephane Mallarme, "Art for All" (1862) 200 (b) Stephane Mallarme, "Herodiade" (1887) 202 2 I. A critique of symbolism. Leo Tolstoy, What is Art? (1897) 208 22. Against the Grain. Joris K. Huysmans, Against the Grain (1884) 220 23. The aesthetic ideal. Walter Pater, Conclusion to The Renaissance (1873, 1888) 227 CONTENTS V 24. The decadence. Holhrook Jackson, The Eighteen Nineties (1913) 23 1 25. Some Wilde epigrams. Oscar Wilde (1890-1895) 243 26. The influence of Richard Wagner. (a) Baudelaire, "Richard Wagner and Tannhäuser" ( 1869) 245 (h) Max Nordau, Degeneration (1895) 259 27. Just hefore the war. (a) Nietzsehe, The Joyful Wisdom (1887) 270 (h) Gahriele d'Annunzio, The Triumph of Death ( 1896) 273 (c) A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad (1896) 286 (d) Charles Peguy, Clio (1910) 287 (e) Rupen Brooke, "The Busy Heart" (19 13) 289 BIBLIOGRAPHY 291 Chro1201ogy 1848 Revolutions in France, Germany, Austria, Italy. German national constitutional assembly at Frankfurt Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Communist Manifesto 1849 Alexander Herzen, From the Other Shore John Ruskin, Seven Lamps of Architecture Richard Wagner, Art and Revolution Ernest Renan, L'Avenir de la seien ce 185 I Crystal Palace Exhibition in London: age of industrialism and bourgeois rule. Schopenhauer's Essays Napoleon III's coup d'etat in France 1852 Charles Dickens, Bleak H ouse Leo Tolstoy, The Cossacks 1857 Charles Baudelaire, Les fleurs du mal Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary Herzen begins publication of The Bell 1859 Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection George Eliot, Adam Bede 186 I Wagner's opera "Tannhaüser" performed in Paris 1862 Herbert Spencer, Synthetic Philosophy 1863 Renan, Vie de Nsus "Salon des refuses" of painters in Paris 1864 Edmond and Jules Goncourt, Germinie Lacerteux 1865 Paul Verlaine, Poemes saturniens Matthew Amold, Essays in Criticism 1867 Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment Marx, Capital Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution 1868 Robert Browning, The Ring and the Book Vll CHRONOLOGY 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War; siege and civil war in Paris 187 I Dostoyevsky, The Devils Emile Zola begins Rougon-Macquan novels Arthur Rimbaud, Illuminations; Le bateau ivre Ruskin, Fors Clavigera 1872 Eliot, Middlemarch 1873 Walter Pater, T he Renaissance, first edition Rimbaud, Un saison en enfer Tolstoy, Anna Karenina 1874 Impressionist movement in painting 1876 Stephane Mallarme, Apres-midi d'un faune 18n Flauben, Trois contes 1878 Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human 1879 Ibsen, A Doll's House 1880 Zola, Le roman experimental Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov 188 I Verlaine, Sagesse Ibsen, Ghosts 1882 Nietzsche, The Gay Science 1884 Joris K. Huysmans, A Rebours Tolstoy, The Death of lvan llyitch Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra 1885 Pater, Marius the Epicurean Zola, Germinal La Revue Wagnerienne begins. 1886 Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil 1887 Goncourt brothers, lournal Publication of MallarmC's Herodiade Publication of Mallarme's Herodiade 1888 August Strindberg, Miss lulie I 890 Ibsen, H edda Gabler 1891 Huysmans, La Bas George Bernard Shaw, The Quintessence of lbsenism Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles Oscar Wilde, Portrait of Dorian Gray Theodore Raabe, Stopfkuchen 1892 Gerhart Hauptmann, The Weavers Wilde, Salome Stefan George, Blätter für die Kunst CHRONOLOGY Vlll 1894 Yellow Book (published 1894-1897) George Moore, Esther Waters 1 895 Theodor F ontane, E ffie Briest Sigmund Freud, Studies on Hysteria Max Nordau, Degeneration Hardy, Jude the Ohscure Trial and imprisonment of Oscar Wilde 1896 Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad Gabriele d'Annunzio, The Triumph of Death 1897 Mallarme, Divagations Maurice Barres, The Uprooted Tolstoy, What Is Art? 1898 Zola, J'Accuse; Dreyfus case at peak Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra; The Perfect Wagnerite 1900 Freud, Interpretation of Dreams Cahiers de la quinzaine begins. 1901 Death of Queen Victoria 1902 Maxim Gorki, The Lower Depths 1903 Thomas Mann, Tonio Kröger Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard 1905 Einstein's first theory of relativity 1908 Graham Wallas, Human Nature in Politics I9IO Charles Peguy, Notre jeunesse; Clio Georgian poets 1911 Exhibition of post-impressionist paintings 1913-1914 First novels of Marcel Proust, D. H. Lawrence, James J oyce Imagism Introduction I R EALISM, naturalism, and symbolism, three styles or moods in the arts and literature, coincide roughly with three generations of Eu­ ropean history from 1848 to 19 14. Realism can be said to have lasted from 1848 to 187 I, naturalism from 187 I to 1890, symbolism from 1890 to 19 14. The dates are approximations, as is always the case in establishing historical periods; there is some overlap and there are many exceptions. But they are adequate generalizations. These three literary movements may be said to have reflected changing taste, in accordance with the proposition that each gen­ eration feels a need to express itself in a new way. The nineteenth century was dynamic and turbulent. During its first few decades, romanticism had overturned the traditional restraints and rules of classicism, introducing a need for constant change and ever-grow­ ing subjectivity which some keen observers predicted could only end in anarchy. Ir is possible to read modern Western history as a re cord of the breakdown of order leading toward disintegration. Whether or not that is true, nineteenth century writers certainly found re pose in no single style, but had to experiment constantly. If it is true that each generation is impelled to assert its individuality, and each individual his uniqueness, it was above all true in the rest­ less century that followed the French Revolution and the romantic revolution. Literary-artistic ~chools interacted with political, social, eco­ nomic, and intellectual developments in this vigorous era. The revolutions of 1848 are a turning point; after them nothing could be the same. In a paroxysm of "social romanticism," writers and intellectuals had thrown themselves into politics and actually led x REALISM, NATURALISM, AND SYMBOLISM the