Giraudoux’ Approach to Tragedy

Extract

In his own style, in his own creation, Jean Giraudoux is an accomplished playwright. If the reader of his plays or the theatregoer is an addict of the Giraudoux manner of writing, he will be enchanted and stimulated as long as the reading or as long as the play lasts. But the opposite reaction is equally possible for the reader or the theatre-goer who finds such a style antipathetic.

Ever since his first book appeared in 1909, a collection of stories and sketches called Provinciales, Giraudoux has been explained by almost every critic who has referred to him, by the term “preciosity.” He has been called a précieux with the same monotonous regularity that Gide has been called a “sincere” writer and Cocteau a “tight-rope walker.” The word is applicable, without much doubt, and yet literary styles are not easily classifiable.