Paris dans la ``Comédie humaine'' de Balzac by Norah W. StevensonReview by: Carlos Lynes, Jr.Modern Language Notes, Vol. 55, No. 2 (Feb., 1940), pp. 157-158Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2910155 .

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REVIEWS 157

les maitres allemands avaient su discipliner les esprits. N'oublions pas en effet que le philologue a autant besoin de la precision que de l'imagination et que celle-ci ne peut jouer que quand elle a ete sous le joug de celle-la !

Parmi les nouvelles contributions scientifiques je salue particu- lierement I'article d'A. Nascentes sur les alterations de senhor(a) au Bresil-on aurait aime voir le port. seu tunante! avec son seu " article depretiatif " inclu dans cette liste et on aimerait savoir si ce seu despectif existe a co4te du sia senhora de meme nuance au Bresil-et celui de R. Oroz sur l'element affectif dans 1'espagnol chilien: I'auteur distingue trois traits de ce volgare, les interjec- tions, les hyperboles et les euphemismes.

Quelques remarques: on aurait aime voir citer h propos des interjections obscenes les articles de Munthe, Wagner et les miens.-P. 39: Puchas Diego! ne contiendra pas digo mais diablo (v. Wagner, Zeitschr. XLIX, 2 sur un don Diaguito pour diablo chez Quevedo, et probablement aussi tomar las de Vitladiego 's'enfuir ').-P. 44: je pense que corria que se fue diacha ne contient pas de hacha, mais diacha = esp. diache, mall. dianxa (diable), cf. le fr. courir comme le diable ainsi que l'esp. tomar las de Villadiego.- P. 44: una fiesta est6 que se arde n'est pas a l'origine le renforcement d'un adjectif, mais = esta ardiendo, cf. REE, XII, 72.

LEO SPITZER

Paris dans la " Come'die humaine " de Balzac. By NORAH W. STEVENSON. Paris: Courville, 1938. Pp. 238.

Three elements may be distinguished in Balzac's Paris: the physi- cal aspect of the city, the psychological and sociological portrayal of its inhabitants, and the more intangible element of the personifi- cation of the capital as a vast entity, full of mystery and strange powers-a creation rising above realistic description of milieu and mrceurs to fire our imagination and implant in our consciousness a fantastic conception of the city which Mr. Roger Caillois has likened to an ancient myth. This thesis for the Paris doctorat d'universite is concerned almost exclusively with the second of these elements. Ingeniously, if sometimes arbitrarily, Miss Stevenson contrives to present her tableau of Parisian manners and her analysis of the well-springs of Parisian character under four chapter headings: "c L'Argent," " L'Esprit," " Le Cceur," and " L'Enfer parisien." There are some lacunae: for example, the treatment of love in its varied manifestations overlooks the important-and extremely Balzacian--theme of love in older men (Baron Hulot, Crevel, etc.). And Balzac's Paris "theory," expressed in prefaces, in the Davin introductions, and in the Avant-propos to the Comredie humaine, should not have been neglected. In general, however, the tableau is conscientiously and acceptably drawn up.

But when Miss Stevenson attempts to go beyond the classification and presentation of material from Balzac's writings, the results are

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158 MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES, FEBRUARY, 1940

less happy. Whether through excess of caution or faulty under- standing of the methods of literary history, she seems to think it sufficient merely to set down the opinions of the critics and then, without weighing the evidence herself and often without even showing a choice among judgments by critics of unequal authority, to leave the reader to his own devices. Partly as a result of this defect, the thesis fails to answer the questions which we should expect a serious study of Balzac's Paris to clarify. How much does the author of the Come6die humaine owe, in his portrayal of Paris, to literary tradition? What was the influence of the conventional attitude toward the capital? Does his depiction of Paris consist chiefly of a mass of accurate details-" petits faits significatifs" conforming closely to the actual Paris of the period, or do the author's creative imagination, intuition, and powers of synthesis play the more important role? Why is it that the Paris of the Comredie humaine impressed itself so strongly upon readers that it seemed-and perhaps still seems-more " real " than the actual, material city of every-day experience ?-For these and, other questions which occur to the student of Balzac's works Miss Stevenson has no answer, nor does she present all the material necessary for the reader to find the answer himself.

On the whole it must be concluded that this important subject- of which the interest is matched only by the complexity-has not vet received definitive treatment. Miss Stevenson has assembled a considerable body of documentation from Balzac's writings and arranged it in an acceptable tableau of the psychological and soci- ological aspects of his Paris, but it cannot be said that she has interpreted this material in such a way as to contribute very much to our understanding of Balzac and his art.

CARLOS LYNES, JR. Princeton University

Hommes et (Euvres du XX" siele. Par HENRI PEYRE. Paris, Editions Correa, 1938. Pp. 345. Francs 36.

A collection of isolated lectures almost always strikes the reader, less indulgent than the auditor, as insufficient or arbitrary. But when the lecturer, in addition to his charm on the platform, possesses as intimate a knowledge of the texts and as sure a taste as does Professor Peyre, he has nothing to fear from the cold eye of the reader. To be sure, his volume would have gained in homogeneity if he had omitted the essays on Victor Hugo and on D. II. Lawrence, both depayses in the midst of these penetrating discussions of con- temporary French literature. Despite the limitations of the lecture form, the more general subjects are excellently treated: the contrast between pre-war and post-war, the keen evaluation of the modern

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