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XXVI. Maurice Barrès as a Romanticist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Frederic D. Cheydleur
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Extract

During the last two and a half years France has lost three great writers, Pierre Loti, Anatole France, and Maurice Barrès. Loti, because of his impressionistic novels of the most artistic kind which record his tireless quest of sensations in all countries of the world, France, because of his epicurean philosophy and Voltairean wit expressed in two-score works of the most finished style, and Barrès, because of his triple rôle of author, politician, and leader of traditionalism in France,—all three have left a profound influence on the contemporary literature of their country. Of these three, Barrès, in spite of the conceit of his early egotism, the narrowness of his nationalism, and the occasional arrogance of his confidence in the superiority of French culture, is by far the most highly endowed and representative; and on this account his work will receive more and more attention from serious students of the political, social, and literary movements of the last thirty years in France. He was one of the first to make his voice heard against the extreme naturalism of Zola and his school; he founded a group of enthusiastic young writers striving toward a new order of things; and, after a period of hesitation, he stood forth as the champion of the best traditions of his country. The purpose of this paper is not, however, to make a comparative study of the relative greatness of these three writers, but rather to trace the struggle between the classical and romantic elements in Barrès' composition, and to show that the latter were not only predominant in his first writings but continued to the end of his life as a strong undercurrent in his novels and books of travel.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , June 1926 , pp. 462 - 487
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1926

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References

1 E. Gaubert: Maurice Barrès, Paris, p. 19. Cf. V. Giraud: Les Maîtres de l'Heure: Maurice Barrès, Paris, 1922, pp. 25-26. L. Bérard: “Discours sur Barrès,” L'Echo de Paris, Dec. 9, 1923.

2 R. Jacquet: Notre Maître Maurice Barrès, Paris, 1900, pp. 3-4. A. France: La Vie Litteraire, IV, 224 and 230. V. Giraud: Op. cit., pp. 110-111. E. Josse: French Profiles, p. 287.

3 V. Giraud: Op. cit., pp. 156-157. M. Barrès: Les Traits Eternels de la France and Chronique de la Grande Guerre.

4 Barrès: Sous l'Oeil des Barbares, Paris, 1922, p. 273.

5 Ibid., pp. 14-15.

6 Ibid., pp. 16-17.

7 Op. cit., p. 28.

8 Barrès: Un Homme Libre, p. 181. Cf. Barrès: Le Jardin de Bérénice. Paris, 1921, p. 140.

9 Op. cit., pp. 223-230. Cf. M. Barrès: Vingt-cinq années de vie littéraire, Paris, 1912; Introduction by Henri Bremond, p. xxv.

10 Barrès: Le Jardin de Bèrènice, pp. 67-68.

11 Ibid., p. 141.

12 M. Barrès: Vingt-cinq années de vie littéraire, Introduction by Henri Bremond, p. XI. Cf. E. Gaubert: Op. cit., pp. 16-20.

13 Ernest Gaubert: Op. cit., pp. 40-41.

14 M. Barrès: L'Ennemi des Lois, Collection Gallia, Crès, Paris, Avertissement provisoire, p. VI.

15 Ibid., pp. 165-166.

16 Curtius; Maurice Barrès und die geistigen Grundlagen des jranzösischen Nationalismus, Bonn, 1921, p. 61.

17 Barrès: L'Ennemi des Lois, pp. 200-201.

18 Barrès: Vingt-cinq années de vie littéraire, Introduction by Bremond, pp. XXXI-XXXIV.

19 Barrès: Du sang, de la volupté et de la Mort, Paris, 1910, pp. 27-83.

20 Ibid., pp. 123-138.

21 Guérard: Five Masters of French Romance, London, 1916, p. 220.

22 Barrès: Du sang, de la volupté et de la mort, p. 28.

23 Ibid., pp. 209-219.

24 Ibid., pp. 265, 268.

25 Ibid., pp. 223-255.

26 V. Giraud: Op. cit., p. 55.

27 Barrès: Du sang, de la volupté et de la mort, p. 238. Cf. Barrès: L'Appel au soldat, p. 27.

28 Maurice Barrès: Vingt-cinq années de vie litteraire, Introduction by Bremond, pp. V-VI. Cf. René Jacquet: Op. cit., pp. 222-225.

29 Maurice Barrès: Op. cit., pp. XLII-XLV. Cf. Maurice Barrès: Les Déracinés, the chapter “Au tombeau de Napoléon,” Nelson ed., Paris, pp. 209-236.

30 Winifred Stephens: French Novelists of To-Day, First Series, London, 2nd ed., p. 200.

31 E. Gaubert: Op. cit., p. 26. Cf. V. Giraud: Op. cit., p. 68. Cf. M. Barrès: Vingt-cinq années de vie litteraire, Introduction by Bremond, pp. 52-53.

32 Léon Guérard: op. cit., pp. 222-226. Cf. M. Barrès: Scenes et doctrines du nationalisme. Cf. M. Barrès: L'Appel au soldat, see chapter “La vallée de la Moselle.”

33 E. R. Curtius: op. cit., p. 132. Cf. R. Jacquet: op. cit., p. 245. Cf. H. Massis: Jugements, Paris, 1924, part III, “Maurice Barrès ou la génération du relatif.”

34 Barrès: L'Appel au soldat, p. 323.

35 Barrès: Amori et Dolori Sacrum, nouvelle edition, Paris, 1917, pp. 20-21.

36 Ibid., pp. 51-52.

37 Ibid., pp. 6, 7.

38 Ibid., pp. 263, 267.

39 Ibid., pp. 258-259. Cf. W. Stephens: op. cit., p. 217.

40 Curtius: op. cit., pp. 168-179.

41 Barrès: Les Amitiés françaises, Paris, pp. 255, 249.

42 Barrès: Au Service de l'Allemagne, Paris, 1923, Avant-Propos, p. 14.

43 Ibid., p. 13.

44 Curtius: op. cil., pp. 168-185. Cf. W. Stephens: op. cit., pp. 211-217.

45 L. Guérard: op. cit., pp. 227-230. Cf. E. Gaubert: op. cit., pp. 30-31.

46 Op. cit., pp. 1-3.

47 Op. cit., Preface, pp. 24-28.

48 Op. cit., pp. 149-150.

49 See the chapter, “La Vallée de la Moselle.”

50 Op. cit., pp. 209-210.

51 E. R. Curtius: op. cit., p. 182. Cf. V. Giraud: op. cit., pp. 91-95.

52 H. Massis: Jugements, Paris, 1924, part III, “Maurice Barrès ou la Génération du Relatif.” Cf. L. Guérard: op. cit., pp. 234-248.

53 Barrès: Le Voyage de Sparte, Paris, 1906, pp. 278-279.

54 Giraud: op. cit., pp. 96-100. Cf. Stephens: op. cit., p. 220.

55 Barrès: op. cit., pp. 282-283.

56 Barrès: Greco ou le Secret de Tolède, Paris, 1912, pp. 154-155.

57 R. Lalou: Histoire de la Littérature Française Contemporaine, Paris, 1922, p. 306. Cf. Guérard: op. cit., pp. 232-234. Cf. H. Massis: op. cit., p. 242.

58 Op. cit., pp. 26-29.

59 Barrès: La Colline Inspirée, 5e édition, Paris, 1913, pp. 423-424. Cf. George Sand: Les Maîtres Sonneurs, Paris, 1923, p. 295.

60 Cunliffe and De Bacourt: French Literature During the Last Half-Century, New York, 1923, p. 161.

61 Barrès: Autour des églises de Village, Paris, 1913, pp. 23-24, 47. The above material was incorporated in La Grande Pitié des Eglises de France.

62 Op. cit., 16th edition, 1917, p. 248.

63 Ibid., p. 188.

64 Op. cit., Paris, 1919, pp. 2-3.

65 Barrès: L'Appel du Rhin: La Minute Sacrée, Société Littéraire de France, Paris, 1919, p. 46. This work is incorporated in vol. XIII of Chronique de la Grande Guerre, Paris, 1924 (see pp. 236-237 for citation given).

66 R. Benjamin: Le Soliloque de Maurice Barrès, Paris, 1924, p. 136. Cf. Massis: op. cit., pp. 266-280.

67 R. Lalou: op. cit., pp. 308-309.

68 M. Barrès: Une Enquête aux Pays du Levant, Paris, 1923, I, Dédicace, p. ii.

69 Op. cit., pp. ii and iii.

70 Ibid., II, 50.

71 Ibid., vol. II, p. 165.

72 Op. cit., vol. 1, Chapts. II, IV, V, VII, XII.

73 Ibid., chapt. VI; vol. II, chapt. IV.

74 Ibid., I, pp. iii and 4; II, pp. 156 and 238, note 17.

75 V. Giraud: op. cit., p. 156. Cf. Cunliffe and De Bacourt: op. cit., p. 166.

76 Curtius: op. cit., chapters IX-XII incl. Cf. Massis: op. cit., chap. III.

77 Pierre Troyon: Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 Sept. 1924, article on Barrès' Chronique.