in Edmond About's "Le roi des montagnes" may be said to be the forerunners of a marked improvement in French works of fiction dealing with Anglo-Saxon characters. Before Jules Verne and Edmond About, the British and Yankee creations of French authors were quite as ridiculous as the caricatures still seen on the stage of the minor Parisian music-halls. The study of the English language is now regarded as an important subject in all French public schools, and translations of the best works of contemporary British and American novelists are an important feature in the principal Parisian publishers' catalogues. He has often The most cosmopolitan of all contemporary French novelists is M. Paul Bourget, who is not only one of the leaders of the psychological school, but is also a great traveller. expressed the greatest sympathy and admiration for England and the English, and his "Etudes anglaises, fantaisies, pastels, dix portraits de femme" (published in 1889), is a good sample of his sincerity. His most characteristic novel is that entitled "Cosmopolis," and in it we are introduced to a combination of those lights and shadows of cosmopolitan life which none but a citizen of the world is qualified to give us. The various personages, with the single exception of the Legitimist Marquis de Montfanon, frequent the same shady society in Cosmopolis (which, according to the author's interpretation, means Rome), and there is an entire absence of that effeminate softness which pervades the ordinary French novel. A Venetian noble middle-aged lady, the Countess Steno, a licentious and degraded character, has two lovers, a Polish Count Gorka and an American artist named Maitland. The count is married to an English lady, who is not in the least suspicious of her husband; and the wife of the American artist is a French girl with negro blood in her veins, who delights in mischief-making. The daughter of the Countess Steno is a virtuous girl, and the brother of Mrs. Maitland is a man of honor. The other characters include a rich Jewish baron, his daughter Fanny; a ruined Italian Prince Ardea, who is desirous of marrying the Jew's daughter; and a French author named Dorsenne. This description of the characters almost explains the action of the novel. In what is called the world of fashion, capricious and changeable as it is, there will always be new follies and new vices to engage the attention and provoke the animadversion of the moral observer. M. Bourget presents an animated and perhaps a too correct picture of modern manners in a certain class of society, and the novel-reader of either sex may draw many useful and important lessons from the scenes he exhibits to their view. There are also some clever portraits of English and Americans in M. Edouard Rod's "Scènes de la vie cosmopolite." In M. Henri Rabusson's "Sans entraves," one of the characters, Yvonne, a worthless woman, has an English drunken husband, who turns up at awkward moments. There is also a beautiful and wealthy American girl, who is by no means happily married to a French nobleman. There are several other well-drawn characters in this novel, and the author has been no less successful in painting the fastidious extravagances of thoroughbred women of fashion. The late "Claude Vignon"" has presented some marvellous pic 1 "Claude Vignon" was the nom de plume of the first wife of M. Rouvier, the French politician and ex-president of the Council. As "Claude Vignon," Madame Rouvier was well known in journalism, literature, and art. Her real name was Noëmie Cadiot, and she was married in early life to M. Constant, an ex-priest. After his death she marríed M. Rouvier, who was much attached to her. Owing to her political, literary, and artistic connections, Madame Rouvier had many foes who were jealous of her reputation, and were in the habit of saying malicious things about her. Only bitterest opponents taunted her with having been a few days before her death one of her husband's on the Secret Service List of Napoleon III. She sent works of sculpture to the Salon on many occasions, and, besides, contributed to the pages of various French and Belgian newspapers. wrote several novels, which, if they revealed no touches of genius, were at least very readable, from the fact that their characters, according to some, were taken from real life. She tures of English and Americans in the novel "Une etrangère," There is an American adventuress, who foists a supposititious child on an English peer, and, after a series of experiences, finally takes refuge in injections of morphia. The plot is interesting and highly dramatic. With boldness char unless it be distinguished by some quality which no other class of the community possesses. Distinction is the basis of aristocracy. If you permit only one class of the population, for example, to bear arms, they are an aristocracy; not one much to my taste, but still a great fact. That, however, is not the characteristic of the English peerage. I have yet to leara they are richer than we are, better informed, wiser, or more distinguished for public or private virtue. Is it not monstrous, then, that a small number of men, several of whom take the titles of duke and earl from towns in this very neighborhood, towns which they never saw, which never heard of them, which they did not form, or build, or establish-I say, is it not monstrous that individuals so circum acteristic of the author, the American woman and the English peer are taken into strange quarters and meet with strange companions. Around the central motive is woven a most ingenious fabric of love, adventure, crime, and retribution, constructed in a bold and M. Jean most picturesque manner. Malic's "Flirtage" is a volume of amusing short stories. The heroine of the first is an American young lady called stanced should be invested with the highest of conceivable privileges-the privilege of making laws?" Miss Millie Lobster. The freeborn glishman, and the Frenchman departs There are also several French novels wherein millionaire Yankees and travelling heiresses from New York are conspicuous by their absence, and English lords and ladies shine in all their glory. To many French readers of fiction an English lord is of higher rank than a foreign duke or marquis, "But, sir, is not the aristocracy of England,” said Coningsby, "a real one? You do not confound our peerage, for example, with the degraded patricians of the Continent?" "I do not "Hum!" said Millbank. understand how an aristocracy can exist. This passage from Lord Beaconsfield's political novel has been paraphrased by more than one contemporary French novelist, and some of their characters are not unlike those to having chosen that of "Lord Lovely" nobleman are quite as amusing as "Max O'Rell's" works. The Comtesse de Castellana-Acquaviva's novel, "Le mariage de Lady Constance," is more satisfactory from an English point of view. In fact, it could pass very well for a French translation of a modern English novel. The comtesse has evidently mixed freely in English society, and studied the best authors and authorities. M. Georges Ohnet has also invented British titles for his novels. In "Noir et rose," the proud representative of the House of Lords is the Marquis of Mellivan Grey. He has a daughter named Daisy, and the plot deals with her romantic love story. M. Georges Duval in "Master Punch" describes the history of Lord Madigan, his son William, and that son's beloved, Margaret Stent. It Romano from a mountain grave in the Pyrenees. The French lover, Etienne Pelletier, is a thorough scoundrel, and the Englishman manly and noble. is not often that we find a French novelist bold enough to show a countryman to disadvantage and a son of "Perfidious Albion" to advantage. In M. A. de Bernard's novel, "Les épreuves d'une héritière," the wicked suitor is an Englishman, and the good one is an Italian. The heiress is an English young lady, who has sixty thousand a year. The young lady is naturally a "prize-packet," and the jealous rivals are not afraid of spilling blood to win her. Some interesting English characters will also be found in M. Gustave Genevoix's "Duel féminin," Madame Jeanne Leroy's "Roman d'Arlette," Th. Bentzon's M. Alfred Sir(Madame Blanc) "Miss Jane," and M. Hector Malot's "Sans famille." ven introduces into his new novel, "La Femme du Fou," an English duke, who leaves the following will:— I bequeath to the Blue Lady my total income for one year-namely, three millions on my capital deposited in the Bank of England, which have received orders in Duke Harris-Harrison. consequence. The author also informs his readers that The experiences of French people in England, especially London, as depicted by French novelists, have not been so satisfactory as their description of British subjects sojourning in "la belle France." This is partly owing to the fact that Parisian authors have frequent opportunities of studying British tourists in the gay capital, while their own visits to the metropolis Colney Hatch is an establishment which have been of short duration, and often greatly resembles our Bicêtre. It is situated three miles from London, in the middle of a vast and verdant meadow; the air is healthy and strengthening. This contributes not a little to the recovery of the patients, who for the most part have had their brains deranged by the disgusting and putrid fogs of the great city. We may now pass from lords and dukes to knights and baronets, who are fairly well represented in contemporary French fiction. It would be impossible to mention all of them in this paper, but here are two. The hero of M. Armand Ocampo's novel, "Une passion," is Sir W. Albert Stone, and that of M. A. Rassetti's "Rosa Romano" is Sir Richard Ashley. The hero of the last named novel is a sympathetic personage, and he rescues Rosa do not extend beyond a mile of Leicester Square. Even a brilliant critic and journalist like the late M. Auguste Vitu, who was not inclined to romancing, has written equally absurd descriptions of London manners. In one of the volumes of the "Mille et une nuits de théâtre" he informs his readers: Since the year 1850, thirty thousand Frenchmen at least annually visit England; the Strand and Regent Street are quite as familiar to us as the Boulevard des Italiens and the Rue de la Paix; one can speak and eat French in Charing Cross, in Pall Mall, at the Royal Coffee, at Dieudonné's, at Morley's Hotel, and everywhere. in The Figaro is sold. Leicester Square like here in the Rue de Croissant, and musical criticism, which 1 M. Vitu means the Café Royal. has become ambulatory, now only requires a long step from the Boulevard des Italiens to Covent Garden, to follow the theatrical movement of the season. But those who go through the pleasantries, difficulties, and perils of a similar voyage, must be prepared for the bitterness of the beer, and the indigestibility of the venison with jelly, which has only an archæological value, and tastes very much like the contents of an old tin of preserves forgotten in a pantry. The author of the novel "Bérangère," M. Edouard Delpit, evidently belongs to the class of gay boulevardiers who have ventured once in their lives across the Channel for a short sojourn in the neighborhood of Soho. His "hero," the Baron de Chazeuil, is a very wicked man, who has committed all sorts of dreadful crimes in "la belle France." His subsequent adventures are but links of the same chain, and when the continental police are seeking for him in every direction, he is very glad to avail himself of the hospitality of "perfidious Albion." He arrives in England with a pair of red whiskers, and adopts the name of Mr. Pernett. This new subject of the queen naturally very soon takes to the national drink of the country of his adoption, and is a large consumer of "des pots de gin." This leads to grave results, and Mr. Pernett, in a fit of drunken rage, sets fire to his English home. He stands on the balcony with a revolver, and prevents his daughter from leaving the burning house. The London firemen and the crowd of cockneys are unable to render any assistance, but fortunately a gallant French officer in full uniform, who has been presented to the queen of England at a Drawing Room, arrives on the scene, and rescues the heroic maiden from the flames. The brother of the author of "Bérangère," M. Albert Delpit, has also laid some of the scenes of his novel "Passionnement" in England. The heroine is a Mrs. Maud Vivian, who is "connected with the best English families," and the hero is a Frenchman, "wellborn and loyal." The greater part of the novel consists of satirical sketches of extreme temperance people, but the author rather oversteps the mark when he says, "In spite of temperance societies ladies get drunk like porters" in England. A more creditable production concerning English customs is "La jambe coupée," by the barrister-novelist, M. Masson-Forestier. It is a story with a purpose, for explaining the differences of the British and French laws as applied to the crews of the merchant service. It seems that French seamen are able to claim damages against shipowners in several cases where a British subject cannot. M. Masson-Forestier plainly shows that the captains of vessels of uncertain or mixed nationality, starting from Havre or Bordeaux with a cargo belonging to a French merchant, generally come to one of the British ports and re-engage the seamen, so as to bring them under the British act of Parliament. There are some clever descriptions of English life in M. Fortunio's "Roman d'une Anglaise." M. Jules Claretie, the present manager of the Comédie Française, also belongs to the race of French novelists who have crossed the Channel for their scenes and subjects. His work, “La fugitive," is a romance of the slums of London. It was written some years ago, when "slumming" was considered a fashionable occupation. M. Claretie, however, has certainly executed his task with great ability; he illustrates his design by numerous examples, and he has rendered his characters and incidents in the highest degree amusing. Some of the characters-for instance, Lord Harrison and his son, Sir Charles Harrison, and Miss Eva Perkins-may seem to English readers rather remarkable specimens of the aristocracy on this side of the Channel, but they are quite as lifelike as many French counts and barons introduced into modern English fiction. M. Lafontaine's novel "La servante" runs on nearly the same lines as M. Claretie's work. Both novels begin with scenes of wild-beast taming, and many of the incidents are similar, but there can be no charge of plagiarism, as both were published within a few weeks of each other. There are some remarkable pictures of life in England, as depicted by French novelists, in M. G. Boutelleau's "Méha" and M. F. Depardieu's "Nina," and the description of London club life in M. G. Joliet's novel, "Les mains blanches," is really wonderful. The author describes the restoration to health of a Bohemian with a shattered constitution. to a club in Hanover Square, where turtle soup, grilled salmon, boiled mutton, vegetables, cheese, and rhubarb tart are all served at the same time. For this dinner, which was washed down with several jugs of beer, a halfSovereign, a crown-piece, "des schillings et des pièces de sixpence" were returned to the consumer out of a sovereign. The author evidently studied "life" at a workmen's club, and mistook it for one "patronized by royalty and nobility." M. Odysse Barot, the author of a meritorious "Histoire de la littérature contemporaine en Angleterre, 1830-1874," has written a novel, "Les amours de la duchesse." He is evidently acquainted with the South London districts, as his heroine is called the Duchess of Kennington. The noble lady has a son, Mr. John Marcy, who is certainly a smart journalist, but rather inconvenient as a son. The author's descriptions of English society are, on the whole, drawn with skill and fidelity. This fidelity, however, does not constitute the distinguishing charm of "Le mariage de Londres," written by an anonymous novelist. We are told that the coast of Sussex is in front of Woolwich. The leading nobleman is Lord Sydney Pontypool, a member of the House of Lords, who is very much interested in the Claimant, poor "Lord Tichborne." The novel contains some observations on English music, and the French readers are informed that "Rule Britannia" and "British (?) will never be slaves" are two separate songs. The hero of M. Gustave Haller's novel "Vertu" is an extraordinary gentleman named Mr. James Trimmin, who is not only a captain in the Guards, but also an "Evangelical teetotaller," Republican, His hero is introduced and Socialist. Mr. Trimmin lives in a "tiny house in Portland Place," and some of his acquaintances go about the streets of London with daggers in their pockets. Another important personage is Sir William Delmase, a City merchant, who resides in "Williams street, Lowndnes Square." Poor Sir Delmase deserves every sympathy, as his wife, Antonie, has for a lover a Hindoo lord, who prays every afternoon at the golden altar of St. George's, Hanover Square. The raison d'être of this novel, M. Gustave Haller informs his readers, was to enlighten those who are unable to spend in England those long years which are necessary for gaining a thorough knowledge of English customs and habits. It cannot be said that the author's efforts have been crowned with success. The sudden outburst of French sympathy for Irish Home Rule in 1844,1 when Ledru Rollin declared that the democracy of his country "had not forgotten the Irish Legion which fought by the side of their ancestors, nor were they ignorant that the politics of the present day drew the two nations together," though no longer within the pale of practical politics, is by no means forgotten by the generation of to-day. It is, therefore, not surprising that Irish grievances, real and imaginary, and Fenianism should be utilized as subjects by contemporary French novelists. A notable example is the novel "Confession d'un amant," by M. Marcel Prévost, a young author, one of whose earlier works, "Mademoiselle Jaufre," reminded M. Jules Lemaitre, the eminent critic of the Journal des Debats of Georges Sand. "Confession d'un amant" shows a great deal of the analytical power of Ma The 1 Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, in "Young Ireland," says: "The feasibility of an invasion of Ireland was a frequent text of the (French) journalists, and her wrongs were described in language of remarkable vigor. One tragic sentence still lingers in my memory: 'Like Ixion at his wheel,the Irishman eternally traces the same circle of woes, and meets at every infliction of his jaded round a torture the more, always repeating his bloody struggle for deliverance, and finding that each but leads to fresh agonies.'" |