Jacques Riviere, one of Claudel’s converts, writes:

The French have the dramatic instinct better developed than the rest of us, to judge by their power of staging things. Lourdes from day to day is a good instance of the ease which only instinct can give in the setting out of thought or prayer in action. The French also work harder at the things of the mind, and their literature is central, that is, they can get all the thrills they want at home, and when they desire to add to their store, they assimilate the great things from abroad, and leave the trivial. Their Ecoles moyennes study Milton better than ours. They as a nation know much more about Dante than the English, whose national comprehension has been increased, for good or ill, by Dore’s illustrations.