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Émile Montégut as a Critic of American Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Reino Virtanen
Reino Virtanen*
Affiliation:
University of Tennessee
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Extract

Although Emile Montégut's work on American writers has been given some attention, there has been little attempt to assess the validity and significance of his criticism. It is an interesting fact that American literature received its first extensive treatment in France not from an admirer of American democracy, but from a political conservative, an opponent of the French Revolution. A modest and retiring person, who saw only grounds for pessimism in the political trends of the nineteenth century, who felt a nostalgic longing for a supposedly more stable and well-ordered past, who feared the progress and consequences of industrialism, Montégut might seem the least likely of critics to judge American literature rightly and with sympathetic understanding. Yet his writing on English literature is of recognized merit, he has been highly praised by men like Victor Giraud and George Saintsbury, and his complete Shakespeare is one of the major French translations of the poet. When such a writer devotes more than a score of articles to American literature and life (1847–76), his contribution can scarcely be overlooked.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 63 , Issue 4 , December 1948 , pp. 1265 - 1275
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1948

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References

1 Giraud, Portraits d'âmes (Didot, 1929), pp. 91–107; Saintsbury, History of Criticism and Literary Taste in Europe (Edinburgh, 1904), iii, 444–447; A. Laborde-Milaà, Emile Montégut 1825–1895 (Escoffier, 1922); P.-A. Muenier, Emile Montégut, étude biographique et critique (Gamier, 1925); J. W. Skinner, “Some Aspects of Emile Montégut”, Revue de Littérature comparée, iii (1923), 283–288; Ruth Elizabeth Brown, “A French Interpreter of New England's Literature, 1846–1865”, New England Quarterly (June 1940), pp. 305–321. Part of the Shakespeare translation has reappeared recently: Les Sonnets de William Shakespeare, traduits par E. Montégut, avant-propos de Gilbert Lely (Les Phares: Le François, 1947).

10 Following is a list of Montégut's writings on the United States:

1 “Un Penseur et un poète américain: Ralph Waldo Emerson”, Revue des Deux Mondes, xix (Aug. 1, 1847), 462–493.

2 “De la littérature en Europe et en Amérique, oeuvres de Henri Wadsworth Longfellow”, RDM, iv (Oct. 15, 1849), 316–333.

3 “Du Culte des Héros, Carlyle et Emerson”, RDM, vii (Aug. 15, 1850), 722–737.

4 Essais de philosophie américaine, par Ralph Emerson (Charpentier, 1851)—translation of Essays, i, and “Uses of Great Men”, with Introduction nearly identical with No. 1 of this list.

5 “Les Femmes Poètes de l'Amérique”, RDM, x (May 15, 1851), 733–744 (review of Griswold's Female Poets of America).

6 “Margaret Fuller”, RDM,xiv (April 1,1852), 37–73 (review of Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli).

7 “Les Etats-Unis en 1852”, RDM, xv (July 15,1852), 322–354.

8 “Le Roman aboiitioniste en Amérique”, RDM, xvi (Oct. 1,1852), 155–185 (review of Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin).

9 “Un Roman socialiste en Amérique”, RDM,xvi (Dec. 1, 1852), 809–841 (review of Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance).

10 “Le Général Franklin Pierce”, RDM,I (Feb. 1, 1853), 609–616 (review of Hawthorne's Pierce).

11 “Homes of American Authors, par Curtis, Bryant, Griswold”, RDM,m (Aug. 1, 1853), 632.

12 “Divers auteurs américains”, (Chronique littéraire), RDM,rv (Oct. 15, 1853), 399–403 (on Curtis and Hawthorne).

13 “Le roman de mœurs, The Lamplighter”, RDM, vii (Dec. 1,1854), 876–911.

14 “Scènes de la vie et de la littérature américaines, II”, RDM, IX (Jan. 1,1855), 84–140 (review of Reminiscences of a Retired Physician).

15 “Types américains, le Puffiste”, RDM, x (April 1,1855), 169–191.

16 “Israel Potter”,RDM, xi (July 1,1855), 5–57.

17 “Le Mormonisme et sa valeur morale”, RDM,I (Feb. 15,1856), 689–725.

18 “La Question de l'Esclavage et la vie des Esclaves aux Etats-Unis”, RDM, II (March 15,1856), 269–295.

19 “La Presse aux Etats-Unis”, RDM, iii (June 1,1856), 557–591.

20 “Le roman populaire et le rôle du romanesque en Amérique”, RDM, iv (July 1, 1856), 181–200 (review of Fanny Fern).

21 “Le Caractère anglais jugé par un Américain”, RDM, vi (Nov. 15, 1856), 274–300 (review of Emerson's English Traits).

22 “Une Légende des prairies de Longfellow”, RDM, ix (June 1, 1857), 689–705 (review of Hiawatha).

23 “Une Conversion américaine”, RDM, xv (May 1, 1858), 197–219 (review of Brown-son's Convert).

24 “Un Romancier pessimiste en Amérique”, RDM, xxviii (Aug. 1, 1860), 668–703 (review of Hawthorne's Marble Faun).

25 “Nathaniel Hawthorne”, Le Moniteur universel, June 27, July 11, Aug. 11, 27,1864.

26 “La Vie américaine”, RDM, lxxv (May 1,1868), 181–222.

27 “Les Conflits des races aux Etats-Unis”, RDM, xv (June IS, 1876), 785–826.

28 Essais sur la littérature anglaise (Hachette, 1883), contains under the title “Du caractère anglais” No. 21 of this list.

In addition to these, there are seven articles of documentation and statistical data on the United States in the numbers of the Annuaire des Deux Mondes from 1850 to 1857. They are unsigned. On the attribution of these studies to Montégut, see Laborde-Milaà, p. 343. 2 Cf. Muenier, p. 18. Montégut, No. 2 (in note la), p. 332.

3 Chasles, Ettides sur la littérature et les mœurs des Anglo-Américains au XIXe siècle (Amyot, 1851), pp. 298–299; Quinet, Le Christianisme et la Révolution française (Au Comptoir des Imprimeurs, 1845), pp. 290–295; Mickiewicz, Les Slaves, cours professé au Collège de France, 1842–44 (Paris, 1914), pp. 78,96,121.

4 “Etudes contemporaines: Emerson”, Revue indépendante, iv (July, 1846, 2e série), 195–209.

5 See Maurice Chazin, “Quinet, an Early Discoverer of Emerson”, PMLA, xxviii (March 1933), 147–163; “Extracts from Emerson by Edgar Quinet (1844–5)”, Revue de littérature comparée, xv (Jan.-April 1935), 136–149,310–326.

6 Montégut, No. 1, published as “Introduction” to Essais de philosophie américaine, par Ralph Emerson, trad, par Montégut (Charpentier, 1851), p. xiv.

7 “Introduction”, pp. xxx f.

8 Ibid.,p.xlv.

9 Ibid., p. li.

10 Montégut added two paragraphs at the end, cut a few quotations.

11 Ibid., pp. v, liii.

12 “Les Symptômes du temps”, RDM, xxiii (1848), 300–306, xxiii (1848), 106–120; “De la maladie morale du dix-neuvième siècle”, RDM, ii (1849), 674–683; “La Révolution et les révolutionnaires de février”, RDM, vii (1850), 528–531.

13 Op. cit., p. 163.

14 Laborde-Milaà, pp. 179–180.

15 See Montégut's translation, “Héroïsme”, p. 148; “Art”, p. 44.

16 Montégut, No. 3, p. 722.

17 Cf. Montégut, “Thomas Carlyle, sa vie et ses écrits”, RDM, ii, (1849), 314; No. 2, p. 327; also A. C. Taylor, Carlyle et la pensée latine (Boivin, 1937), pp. 19, 59,91, 146, 385.

18 No. 3, p. 725.

19 Ibid., p. 737.

20 No. 28, pp. 3–7.

21 Cf. H. E. Mantz, French Criticism of American Literature before 1850 (Columbia University Press, 1917), pp. 142,157; Robert Mahieu, Enquêteurs français aux Etats-Unis: 1830–1837 (Paris, 1934).

22 Charles Baudelaire, Prefaces to translations of Poe's tales.

23 Sainte-Beuve, Thomas Jefferson et Tocqueville, ed. by Gilbert Chinard (Princeton University Press, 1943). See also Chinard's Introduction.

24 No. 7, p. 354.

25 No. 9, pp. 811–812, 830–831.

26 Forgues translated The Scarlet Letter (La Lettre rouge, Gouet, 1853; Hachette, 1865) and The House of Seven Gables (Maison aux sept pignons, Hachette, 1865). His article on Hawthorne: RDM, xiv (April 15,1852), 339–365.

27 No. 24, pp. 687, 690; L. Etienne, “Les Conteurs américains: Nathaniel Hawthorne”, Revue contemporaine, xxxi (May 30,1857), 653.

28 No. 9, p. 839.

29 No. 24, p. 679.

36 Nos. 8,6,13.

37 No. 2, pp. 329–330; No. 22, p. 70S; Chasles, op. cit., p. 299.

38 No. 16; E. D. Forgues, “Moby Dick, La Chasse à la Baleine”,RDM, i (Feb. 1, 1853), 491–514. Writer on Poe (RDM, Oct. 15, 1846), on Hawthorne (supra), Forgues also reviewed O. W. Holmes' Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (RDM, July 15, 1860). Chasles' article on Melville was written before Moby Dick (RDM, May 15, 1849), reprinted in Chasles. In L'Annuaire des Deux Mondes, vi (1855–56), the article on the United States, presumed to be by Montégut (cf. Laborde-Milaà, p. 343), refers to Melville's Piazza Tales as not “à la hauteur des précédentes productions de cet ingénieux écrivain” (p. 768).

39 No. 23, p. 197.

40 Laborde-Milaà, p. 138.

41 Nos. 15 and 19.

42 Chasles, pp. 297–298; Mantz, pp. 123–125.

43 No. 2, pp. 325–327.

44 Ibid., p. 237; North A m. Rev., lxxxviii (1859), 225–227.

45 Quesnel, “La Littérature aux Etats-Unis”, La Nouvelle Revue, xvi (May 1, 1882), 131. Quesnel, who also wrote on Bryant and others in “La Littérature d'imagination aux Etats-Unis” (La Revue politique et littéraire, xii [Feb. 14,1874], 779), could end his 1882 article (p. 154) with the statement: “This review of American literature shows that the American is not a pale reflection of English literature.”

46 No. 7, p. 354.

47 No. 6, p. 72.

48 No. 10, p. 611.

49 No. 15, p. 191.

50 No. 26, p. 22; cf. “Où en est la Révolution française”, RDM, xciv (Aug. 15,1871), 892.

51 No. 27, p. 825.