BOOKS
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special knowledge of Flaubert's secret purpose and real iniquity he
might have won his case.
He did not win it, of course; and Flaubert, the savage critic of
an age only less savage than ours, will be eternally brought to trial,
in books like
The Novel in France,
by readers who cannot distinguish
between his vices and the exemplary thing he made of them through
persistence and genius. Our times are worse than Flaubert's but the per–
sistence and genius are rarer. Even the ability to appreciate his qualities
is
failing among those who prefer to pipe shrilly in the dark. And
in
condemning with such emphasis the pessimism of Flaubert or of the
whole "insane" French tendency, Mr. Turnell pretends to be as–
sociating literature with morality but is actually, it seems to me, as–
sociating it with morale. It should be added that he labors to be just
to Flauhert as an artist, or rather as what he calls a "literary engineer."
His justice, nevertheless, is of the kind that leaves the disputed baby
in
halves; and the more he dislikes something the more surgically
exact is the process of dismemberment. "The last fifty pages of
[Madame Bovary]
possess the same qualities as the first fifty."
In the chapter on Proust, the last of his novelists, Mr. Turnell is
in a far happier relation to his subject, even though he does commit
himself to the astonishing opinion that no "community of feeling"
existed between Proust and Flaubert, and even though he does give us,
in the form of scruples and qualifications, nearly as much of his own
quality as he does of Proust's. When he is not too busy saying "But it
remains true that" and
"It
can hardly be claimed that," he is as
perceptive a critic as Proust has had. Above all it is pleasant to find
him engaged with a writer of whom he can say cheerfully, "his out–
look, for all its peculiarities, was more adult than theirs." We need not
worry because "theirs" refers to Balzac and Flaubert. Peace
to
all that.
Let us be happy that Mr. Turnell, a worthy representative of a worthy
tradition, has himself returned to adulthood.
F. W. Dupee
OF HERESIES AND FALLACIES
A GLOSSARY OF THE NEW CRITICISM.
By
William 8ton. The Modern
Poetry Association. $1.
Mr. Elton's pamphlet is a lovely piece of satire. With remark–
able consistency of donnish tone and only occasional lapses into Eng–
lish, he has collected the most pretentious jargon to be found
in
con-
