Pour et contre le romantisme. Bibliographie des travaux publiés de 1914 à 1926. by HenriGirard; Henri MoncelReview by: Maximilian RudwinModern Language Notes, Vol. 43, No. 5 (May, 1928), pp. 346-347Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2914159 .

Accessed: 28/06/2014 10:46

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toModern Language Notes.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.31.195.34 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 10:46:47 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

346 M. L. N., XLIII, 5 (MAY, 1928)

Pour et contre le romantisme. Bibliographie des travaux publieis de 1914 a 1926. By HENRI GIRARD ET HENRI MIONCEL. (Etudes frangaises fondees sur 1' initiative de la Societe des professeurs frangais en Amerique. Ile cahier.) Paris: Societe d' edition "Les Belles Lettres," 1927. 94 pp.

This bibliography is limited to books written in French and published in book-form. Periodical literature and critical matter written in other languages than the French are, with very few ex- ceptions, carefully eschewed. The three books written in English (Nos. 34, 36, 39), which appear in the section "Influences etrangeres," and which form an exception in this all-French biblio- graphy, are at least published on French soil. Of these three, only the last, E. Partridge's thesis, The French Romantics' Knowledge of English Literature, fits into this bibliography. Miss Gilman's dissertation, Othello in French might be allowed, inasmuch as it treats in part with Romantic imitations and adaptations of the Shakespearean play, but how can we justify the presence of Clark's book on Boileau and the French Classical Critics in Eingland (No. 34) in a list of books dealing with English influence exerted on French Romanticism? Biographical and critical studies of English and German writers, such as Byron (Nos. 41 and 42) and Lavater (No. 30) might be tolerated inasmuch as these books probably also deal, though incidentally, with the influence which these foreign authors exerted on French Romanticism, although the compilers should have given the pagination for those parts of the books listed which have a bearing on the subject, but we fail to comprehend what a book such as Gcethe en Angleterre (No. 29) is doing in a section dealing with Germany's influence in France. Neither is it clear what induced the authors to list Professor Reynaud's Histoire generale de l'influence francaise en Allemagne (No. 31) under this rubric, for it is devoted to German influence in France and not to French influence in Germany. The compilers came once out of their exclusiveness and included a study on The'ophile Gautier written in French, though published beyond the French frontiers (No. 290).

Ml. Baldensperger has written a preface for the book, in which he defines the " message " of Roman-ticism for the present genera- tion. The compilers themselves present, in an Introduction, the con- temporary controversy between the admirers and adversaries of Romanticism. In their eagerness to claim victory for Romanticism, they often overshoot the mark. It is doubtful whether the founda- tion of the Victor Hugo Chair at the Sorbonne could be interpreted as a triumph for the school of which he was the spokesman.1

The first incumbent of the Victor Hugo Chair was, by the way,

This content downloaded from 185.31.195.34 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 10:46:47 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

REVIEWS 347

The book under review is almost free from typographical errors.; Notwithstanding its deficiencies, it is a very important bibliogra- phical contribution to the Romantic period, for which all students of the subject should feel deeply grateful.

MAXIMILIAN RUDWIN. Baker University.

Germany Ten Years After. By GEO{RGE H. DANTON. Boston anc New York: Houghton Muifflin & Co., 1928. Pp. x+295. $3.50.

Mr. Danton's book is the result of a year's residence and travel in Germany. He condenses his impressions and observations in seven chapters, which-although necessarily overlapping here and there but on the whole well rounded in their presentation- take up definite problems such as political and economic reactions, the schools, the universities, etc. The first chapter strikes the dominant cords, varied thoughout the book: counteraction against years of intellectual isolation, taxation and lack of funds, ' Abbau,' attainments and shortcoming,s of the reorganization in progress. Through constant comparison with conditions in the orient and in America the author succeeds in throwing the peculiar character of the German people and their institutions into relief and a keen and yet sympathetic eye enables hinm to distribute light and shadow with accuracy and justice as far as an evaluating study, which does not aim at giving historical evolution, permits.

Allowance must, of course, be made for present unsettled con- ditions, leaving room for divergfent interpretation and prognosti- cation. The best chapters are, no doubt, those on the universities and schools, which stress the spirit of seriousness, thoroughness, and responsibility still pervading the whole system of German educational institutiens as well as the attitude of their teachers and students. In regard to the pedagogical methods of academic teachers a more franklv critical reaction, to my mind, would not have been amiss. The secondary schools have realized their task and are actually trying to lessen the gap between their upper grades and the first university year while no relief has yet been attempted from above. If Mr. Danton prefers the shortcomings of

Fernand Gregh and not the Catholic poet, Henri Gh4on, as has been erroneously stated by Professor Albert Schinz in his article on French literature in the International Year-Book for 1926.

2 A serious misprint will be noted in Baldensperger's quotations from Goethe: "Le classique est le saint (read: sain), le romantique est le malade."

This content downloaded from 185.31.195.34 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 10:46:47 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions