meaning. It is true that, in the
world
in
which we live, the mean–
ingless object occupies more space
than the novel had hitherto indi–
cated. But, what the school of
Robbe-Grillet failed to perceive is
that, whatever the truth of such
statement, the peremptory conclu–
sions which it drew from them
were sterile, if not false, for the
simple reason that one cannot
make literature out of meaningless
objects and inauthentic remarks. A
synthesis
has probably
been
achieved, and with great talent, in
a book which I've already had oc–
casion to mention,
La M odifica–
tion,
by Michel Butor. Without re–
nouncing the psychological novel,
without depriving himself either of
the creation of characters or of the
author's right to intervene through
his characters ("like a police–
man," as Sartre would say), Bu–
tor has given a good deal of space
to the meaningless object.
But the result has been the op–
posite of what the theory antici–
pated. For, in the psychological
and
interior
context of Butor's nov–
el, the objects which we thought
meaningless have recovered their
meaning, but with a new weight
and a new presence. So that,
thanks to him, the writers of the
"zero degree of writing" and of
the "anti-novel" have rejoined the
masters whom they deny, but to
whom they owe much: Joyce, and
even Proust.
Jean Bloch-Michel
(Translated from the French
By
Celia Kaplan)
The Art
of Travel
By
HENRY JAMES
Edited
&
with an Introduction
471
by Morton Dauwen Zabel
I
N this unique book readers
will find selections from
Henry James' travel writings,
most of which have been
out of print for many years,
that provide a panoramic
tour through America, Eng–
land, France, Italy and back
to America again at the turn
of the century. The Art of
Travel is not only a vivid rec–
ord of famous places, shrewdly
and elegantly observed; it is a
record as well of James' pro–
gressive maturity and of his
gradual understanding of him–
self as an American in rela–
tion to Europe.
Cloth-bound, 567 pages, $5.50
The
COlDi~
Tradition
in
AlDeri~a
Edited by KENNETH LYNN
IN
this unique book, readers
cal anthology are drawn
almost entirely from the 19th–
century, the "great age of
American humor." Included are
the satires of Henry James,
Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe,
and Benjamin Franklin; the
dialect humor of Joel Chandler
Harris' Uncle Remus and
James Russell Lowell's Hosea
Bigelow; tales of Davy Crock–
ett; fantasies of Washington
Irving; and varied selections
from American folk humor by
Melville, Hawthorne, Dunne,
and many others.
Cloth-bound, 463 pages, $5.00
At all booksellers
DOUBLEDAY
&
COMPANY, Inc.
Garden City, N. Y.
