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British Criticism of Daudet, 1872–97
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Frequently it has been said that, of all the Naturalists, Alphonse Daudet was the most kindly received in England. Such a statement tends to place emphasis on the very element of Daudet's work which English critics did not favor during his lifetime—namely, Naturalism. It is the purpose of this study to trace the sentiments of British reviewers and critics in the literary periodicals from 1872 to 1897 towards the works of Daudet and to show that there Daudet's naturalistic qualities hindered rather than aided his reception. Daudet possessed other distinctive qualities which were in accord with English literature of the period —qualities which saved his works from the fate of other French novels of the time. Yet Daudet did not immediately acquire a kindly public abroad. If his early works, including the Tartarin, had at first created little stir in France, in English reviews before 1874 but one solitary mention of them was made, though these same works were later to become Daudet's most widely read books across the channel.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1937
References
page 528 note 1 Reaffirmed in a recent article by Clarence H. Decker, “Zola's Literary Reputation in England,” PMLA, xlix (1934), 1149.
page 528 note 2 Emile About, “Notes from Paris,” Athenœum (Nov. 14, 1874), 644.
page 528 note 3 “Fromont Jeune et Risler Aîné,” Ath. (Nov. 21, 1874), 672.
page 528 note 4 Emile About, “Notes from Paris,” Ath. (Jan. 2, 1875), 19.
page 528 note 5 “Jack,” Ath. (Feb. 12, 1876), 226.
page 528 note 6 “Jack,” Saturday Review, xli (June 3, 1876), 721.
page 528 note 7 “Alphonse Daudet,” SR, xliv (Sept. 1, 1877), 266.
page 528 note 8 “Jack,” SR, XII (June 3, 1876), 721.
page 528 note 9 “Alphonse Daudet,” SR, xxiv (Sept. 1, 1877), 266.
page 528 note 10 H. de Lagardie, “French Novels and French Life,” Macmillan Mag., xxxv (Mar. 1877), 386.
page 528 note 11 “Jack,” SR, xli (June 3, 1876), 722.
page 528 note 12 “Daudet's Nabab,” SR, xlv (Mar. 2, 1878), 281.
page 528 note 13 “Alphonse Daudet,” SR, xiäv (Sept. 1, 1877), 267.
page 528 note 14 Ibid., p. 266.
page 528 note 15 H. de Lagardie, op. cit., p. 387.
page 528 note 16 “Alphonse Daudet,” SR, xliv (Sept. 1, 1877), 266.
page 528 note 17 W. E. Henley, “Le Nabab,” Academy, xiv (Aug. 24, 1878), 187.
page 528 note 18 “Le Nabab,” SR, xlv (Feb. 2, 1878), 160.
page 528 note 19 “A Satire on the Second Empire,” Spectator, lii, Part i (Feb. 15, 1879), 215.
page 528 note 20 Ibid., p. 214.
page 528 note 21 “Le Nabab,” Ath. (Dec. 9, 1877), 732.
page 528 note 22 “Daudet's Nabab,” SR, xlv (Mar. 2, 1878), 282.
page 528 note 23 Ibid., p. 281.
page 528 note 24 Ibid., p. 282; and Spect., iii, Pt. I (1879), 215.
page 528 note 25 Henley, op. cit., p. 187.
page 528 note 26 “My Brother Jack,” Acad., xiii (Apr. 6, 1878), 298.
page 528 note 27 “The Novels of Alphonse Daudet,” Blackwoods, cxxv (Jan. 1879), 94.
page 528 note 28 “Le Petit Chose,” SR, xlix (Apr. 3, 1879, 457; “Théâtre,” SR, xlix (June 5, 1879), 738; and “Numa Roumestan,” Ath. (Oct. 22, 1881), 526.C
page 528 note 29 “Provençal Idylls,” Spect., liv, Pt. i (Feb. 19, 1881), 252.
page 528 note 30 Ibid., p. 253.
page 528 note 31 “Les Rois en Exil,” Ath. (Nov. 8, 1879), 595.
page 528 note 32 Andrew Lang, “Les Rois en Exil,” Acad., xvi (Dec. 6, 1879), 401.
page 528 note 33 “A Few French Novels,” Black., cxxx (Dec. 1881), 703.
page 528 note 34 “Numa Roumestan,” SR, lii (Oct. 22, 1881), 520.
page 528 note 35 “A Few French Novels,” Black., cxxx (Dec. 1881), 706.
page 528 note 36 R. B. Brett, “Daudet's Numa Roumestan,” Acad., xx (Dec. 10, 1881), 436.
page 528 note 37 To complete the account of the reception of Numa Roumestan in Britain, the following uncomplimentary review from the Spect. (Sept. 13, 1884), “M. Daudet's Artistic Masterpiece,” lvii, 1208 must be added: “Numa has no back-bone and therefore could hardly be a more contemptible creature in Anglo-Saxon eyes. … Why does not M. Daudet stick to genuine comedy and tragedy, the one pervaded, the other tempered by the sunshine of his own Provençal nature, and leave the moral crétins of Paris to themselves—and to M. Zola?”
page 528 note 38 Ath. (Nov. 8, 1879), 595; Acad. (Dec. 6, 1879), 401; and SR, xlviii (Dec. 6,1879), 707.
page 528 note 39 “Mon Frère et Moi,” SR, liii (Apr. 1, 1882), 408.
page 528 note 40 “M. Daudet's Reminiscences,” Spect., lxi, Pt. I (Mar. 24, 1888), 417.
page 528 note 41 “M. Daudet on Himself,” SR, liii (Jan. 28, 1882), 109.
page 528 note 42 “The Old Saloon,” Black., cxliv (Sept. 1888), 422.
page 528 note 43 For a complete account of the Dickens-Daudet question see Florias Delattre, Dickens et la France (Paris, 1927), p. 133 et seq. In the last analysis this Dickens-Daudet influence would seem to be far more decided than Daudet or his son Léon would lead us to believe. Though the childhood of the two authors was similar to a surprising degree, thereby engendering in both their characters sympathy and pity for the humble, nevertheless, the many outstanding parallelisms already alluded to by the early English reviewers themselves point at least to a very marked unconscious imitation. While Ernest Daudet says that his brother read Dickens only after he arrived in Paris, we do not know in what year he commenced this reading; if we recall that this arrival took place in 1857, that Le Petit Chose was published only in 1866, and that Alphonse Daudet himself reports that he was acquainted with a part of Dickens' works by the time he was writing Fromont in 1874, we see that there could well be discrepancies in Daudet's assertions. As M. Delattre points out, “Il y a en Daudet un ‘côté Dickens’ qui est une des composantes seulement de son oeuvre, mais une de celles qui importent le plus. Et c'est ce ‘côté Dickens’ que Daudet a opposé constamment au naturalisme et par lequel il s'est le plus nettement séparé du groupe de Médan.” Rather than to hold this similarity against the French author, let us remember that these Dickensesque qualities induced Daudet's popularity in Britain while the Médan group were still unwelcome and unaccepted across the Channel.
page 528 note 44 “L'Évangéliste,” Dublin Rev., xvii (1883), 496.
page 528 note 45 “L'Évangéliste,” SR, lv (Feb. 3, 1883), 163.
page 528 note 46 “Sappho,” Westminster Rev., cxxv (Apr. 1886), 600.
page 528 note 47 “Tartarin Again,” SR, lx (Dec. 19, 1885), 812.
page 528 note 48 Arthur Davidson, “Alphonse Daudet,” Macmil., lxxviii (1898), 180.
page 528 note 49 Cited by Decker, op. cit. —For further account of this trial see E. A. Vizetelly, Emile Zola (London, 1904), p. 257 et seq.
page 528 note 50 “Sapho,” Ath. (June 7, 1884), 725.
page 528 note 51 “L'Immortel,” Ath. (July 21, 1888), 92.
page 528 note 52 In May, 1883, Daudet had asked Zola and De Goncourt whether he should present himself for the Academy and within seven months he gave De Goncourt a sketch of L'Immortel. cf. Journal des Goncourt 1883 mardi ler mai, and 1884 vendredi 18 janvier.
page 528 note 53 “M. Daudet on Evolution,” Spect., lxiv (June 7, 1890), 791.
page 528 note 54 “Parisian Darwinism,” West., cxxxiii (1890), 166.
page 528 note 55 “The Struggle for Life,” SR, lxx (Sept. 27, 1890), 372.
page 528 note 56 George Saintsbury, History of the French Novel (London, 1917–19), ii, 424.
page 528 note 57 Arthur Symons, “Alphonse Daudet,” Ath. (Dec. 25, 1897), 888.
page 528 note 58 Arthur Symons, “Alphonse Daudet,” SR, lxxxiv (Dec. 25, 1897), 739.
page 528 note 59 “Mr. Sherard's Daudet,” SR, lxxviii (Dec. 1, 1894), 576.
page 528 note 60 Hannah Lynch, “Alphonse Daudet,” Fortnightly Rev., lix (1898), 949.