University of Oklahoma

Review: [untitled]
Author(s): Herbert S. Gershman
Source: Books Abroad, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Winter, 1972), pp. 69-70
Published by: University of Oklahoma
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40125884
Accessed: 20/03/2010 09:29

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 French
PierreBarberis.Balzacet le mal du siecle.
Contributiona une physiologiedu monde
moderne.I: 1799-1829.Une experiencede
Vabsurde:alienationset prises de consci-
ence. II: 1830-1833. Une experience de
Vabsurde:de la prise de consciencea Vex-
pression. Paris. Gallimard. 1970. 1,990
pages, numberedcontinuously.55, 75 F.
If Pierre Barberishas not written the defini-
tive work on Balzac, it is not for want of
trying. His 2,000-page opus entitled Balzac
et le mal du siecle is far more extensive in
scope than its title would imply. "Le mal du
siecle . . . c'est l'insatisfactioneternelle."Be-
ginning with this broadest of definitions,
Barberisenlargesthe concept of "le mal du
siecle" to embrace every aspect of life in
which the reality fails to match the dream;
he includes not only the changing literary
scene, but the entire historical, social, eco-
nomic, and political backgroundof France
during Balzac'slifetime. Consistentwith his
own pro-Marxistapproach,he sees "le mal du
siecle" as a void, a cultural impoverishment
and moral regression inseparablefrom the
ascendancyof bourgeois power and a con-
comitantof the capitalistsystemin its infancy.
ProteanBalzac,who assumesas many forms
as there are critics to interprethim, becomes
for Barberis an anti-bourgeoispro-revolu-
tionary whose active conception of liberty
and belief in the possibilityof constructinga
more just and equitablesociety lead him to
castigate and condemn middle-classvalues.
This is not a book for the casualreaderof
Balzac;it will be appreciatedby only a small
coterieof fanaticalBalzacians.The specialist
will not mind hacking his way through an
all but impenetrablethicketof facts and foot-
notes, to arriveat a treasureof new informa-
tion and insight. Among his rewardsfor per-
severancewill be a fascinatinginquiry into
the genesisand significanceof Balzac'syouth-
ful novels,with a perceptiveunscramblingof
themes that were subsequentlyto be devel-
oped in the Comedie humaine. Barberis'ac-
cess to unpublishedletters and manuscripts
and his scrupulouscomparisonbetweenearly
and later stages of the same text provide a
valuableclue to Balzac'schangingconception
of his oeuvre.
Thorough in its attention to detail, im-
peccablein its documentation,concernednot
merely with fact but constantly searching
out underlyingmotives and significance,Bar-
beris' work is an overwhelming ambitious
undertakingand a massiveachievement,sev-
enteen years in the accomplishment.Despite
its voluminouscontent,this two-volumestudy
coversonly the years 1799-1829and 1830-33,
respectively,and constitutesthe initial panels
of a "quadriptyque,"which will eventually
include two works now in preparation:"Le
monde de Balzac"and "Mythesbalzaciens."
Given fortitudeand staminaenough, we can
look forwardto the appearancein its entire-
ty of Pierre Barberis'mammothcontribution
to Balzacianscholarship.
GretchenR. Besser
LehmanCollege,CUNY
Jean-ClaudeChevalier. Alcools d'Apolli-
naire: essai d'analyse des formes poeti-
ques. Paris. Lettres Modernes. 1970. 280
pages.
Apollinaire is neither the best known nor
the most obscurepoet of the twentieth cen-
tury, yet with the exceptionof Valeryhe has
probablyput throughthe mouli-grindermore
than any of his predecessors,the best of
which are very honorably mentioned and
put to use- Decaudin and Durry among
others.A word of cautionis perhapsin order,
especially given the somewhat ambiguous
title: this is not an explication of all the
poemsof Alcools,but ratheran attemptto see
a structurewhere others have on occasion
been contentto see a collection.What makes
this specific work so valuable is its experi-
mental nature. Chevalieris convinced,as is
the reviewer,that certaininsights of modern
linguistics can be used to elucidate texts
which might otherwiseremainobscure.This
is not to deny- nor does he- the importance
of other data, biographicaland statistical,for
example,but the primaryconcernhere is the
text, the poetic "messages,"the unity and
diversityof Alcools. The only problemwith
such an approachis that sufficientlinguistic
informationis unfortunatelynot yet available
to permit a thorough analysis based on the
methods proposed. Chevalier must know
this, though he prudently refrains from
stressingit. So what we have here is a care-
fully reasonedcommentaryon one of the most
70 BOOKS ABROAD
influential works of poetry of this century,
using stylistic insights borrowed from Chom-
sky, Barthes, and even R.-L. Wagner; all
this is combined with analytical techniques
and data drawn from the world of literary
criticism. Scherer is quoted on Mallarme,
Borges is not forgotten, nor the recently pub-
lished anagrams of de Saussure. The author
being extremely well read and the approach
highly eclectic, the readings are regularly new
and interesting, less often completely per-
suasive. My major objection is that the very
eclecticism serves to disorient; Barthes is not
Durry who is surely not Breunig or Guiraud.
And the occasional reference to A.-J. Greimas
and Co. is at best distracting. Many stylistic
studies are ponderous in style and frivolous in
result. Chevalier suggests he is going to try
to break the pattern, but somewhere along
the line he realized, given the state of the
profession, that a compromise among the
several approaches would be preferable. It
is. The end result, while not always easy read-
ing, is sufficiently valuable to merit the at-
tention of all serious scholars.
Herbert S. Gershman
Washington University
Michel Contat, Michel Rybalka. Les ecrits
de Sartre. Chronologie, bibliographie com-
mentee. Paris. Gallimard. 1970. 788 pages.
All students or dartre at whatever level will
be deeply indebted to this monumental piece
of research. To be given a virtually exhaustive
list of Sartre's writings and their various edi-
tions up to the end of 1969 is alone a matter
for gratitude; to have it associated with what
amounts to an engrossing intellectual biog-
raphy is a matter for rejoicing. Almost every
reference is perceptively and economically
situated not only in Sartre's own development,
but often in the context of contemporary in-
tellectual and political history. For instance,
where a particular work gave rise to contro-
versy, references, sometimes with quotations,
are given to the pronouncements of Sartre's
adversaries.
The entry for La nausee suggests the range
of commentary involved. Apart from the
purely bibliographical data, it includes Sartre's
priere d'inserer for the first edition, short
accounts of the novel's genesis (with refer-
ences enabling one to follow up this docu-
mentation), of the circumstances of its pub-
lication, and (again with quotations) of its
early critical reception. There follows a brief
but suggestive attempt, with supporting refer-
ences to Sartre's later views, to place the novel
in his intellectual evolution; the commentary
closes with a number of cross-references to
other relevant listed works.
Relatively minor works are often given
equally comprehensive treatment; indeed, a
number of brief and fairly inaccessible ones
are reproduced in full at the appropriate
chronological point. Even more valuable,
however, is a long appendix reproducing
much more substantial and elusive works.
One notes particularly the entire text of the
early play "Bariona," and a fragment of Sar-
tre's war diary (largely lost, alas,) which
gives valuable insight into the composition of
parts of Les chemins de la liberte (see BA
21:2, p. 180). This dynamic and readable
bibliography, this "true portrait," as Sartre
calls it in his Lettre-Preface, must be unique
in its genre.
Rhiannon Goldthorpe
Oxford
Samuel Beckett. Le depeupleur. Paris.
Minuit. 1970. 55 pages.
Depeupleur, Assomoir, Inferno, you name it!
Beckett's brief prose piece depicts a world at
once primitive and hypermodern. The people
who dwell there live cramped in niches in
large cylinders connected by corridors, biding
time on the ground or on ladders while they
seek places to lie down or sit. The whole
place is like an immense erector set and the
niche-dwellers seem to be in "durance" in a
kind of cyclotron atmosphere. The beings
themselves are dehumanized in this environ-
ment and move about without apparent emo-
tion or sex differentiation. Throughout my
reading of Beckett's book I was reminded of
Abner Dean's wonderful drawings of naked
people moving compulsively but aimlessly
through drawingroom or landscape. That we
are dealing with a definition of Hell is evident
by the very nature of the place and the sense
of eternal sameness and repetition, by the
similarity to such existential hells as that in
Sartre's Huis-dos, and by the fact that Beck-
ett mentions by name the author of our liter-
ary proto-Inferno:
Ce sont paradoxalement ces sedentaires qui
troublent le plus par leurs violences le calme du
cylindre. Quatriemement ceux qui ne cherchent
pas ou non-chercheursassis pour la plupart contre
le mur dans l'attitude qui arrachaa Dante un de
ses rares pales sourires.
Within this Hell, second cousin to the
geodesic dome, people have different defini-
tions of the exit they have heard tell of but