NEW YEAR'S EVE
335
but without success to become involved in what Oliver termed amor–
ous interludes, concerning which he had stipulated only that she be
discreet and keep them a private and personal matter.
AS
Shenandoah conversed with Oliver, Delia surveyed the living
room, wondering against intelligent doubt if tonight might not be the
beginning of an amorous interlude.
Shenandoah and Oliver were discussing Gide's
] ournal
which
both had lately read. Shenandoah did not know French very well
and he may have been mistaken in his comments, which concerned
Gide's jealousy of Proust. This jealousy did not show itself directly,
but it seemed to Shenandoah to express itself in Gide's sentences
about Proust's grammatical errors and his irrational resentment that
Proust had chosen to conceal or invert the homosexuality of the
protagonist in
A la Recherch!(!l du Temps Perdu.
"... How foolish jealousy is, among authors," said Shenandoah,
after he had spoken of Gide, "Proust, Eliot, Rilke, Mann and Valery
all produced great works and received the recognition they deserved.
Literature is not like space and business. One great work does not
displace another great work ..."
This view irritated Oliver. Had he been in better health and had
he drunk less, he might have concealed his irritation. He was irritated
both because he thought that what Shenandoah said was untrue and
also because he wished with all his heart that he were able to believe
that it was true.
"Don't be naive," said Oliver, "it's obvious that authors compete
for fame. Not only that, Proust wrote the work which Gide should
have written and he took from Gide his hold upon the rising genera–
tions of intellectuals ..."
"I don't mean to deny the
hallucination
of competition," said
Shenandoah, intoxicated by the benevolence of his idea, "and I
certainly don't deny the existence of jealous feelings. But consider
how, after twenty years, both Gide and Proust are studied as great
authors. They do not get in each other's way and the rising genera–
tion reads the works of both with the same attention and admiration."
Oliver said nothing for the moment. He was trying to restrain
hi~
irritation. We are probably both wrong, said Shenandoah to him–
self, for this had often been true. Oliver passed to the possibility that
Shenandoah was denying the actuality of competition because he
feared the feelings of his rivals. Next, Oliver felt that what Shen–
andoah had said was an attack, however unknowing, upon his own
acute sense of rivalry. He had to decide that Shenandoah was right
