Jacques Riviere

STUDIES IN MODERN EUROPEAN LITERATURE AND THOUGHT - FORE WORD When Jacques Rivitre died of typhoid fever in 1925 at the early age of thirty-eight, European literature was deprived of one of the ablest and most interesting minds of our time. He was known to a small circle of English readers as the distinguished edit r of the JVouuelle Revue Fmngaise and as the author of a number of remarkable critical studies which had appeared in its pages but the bulk of his work did not appear in book form until after his death and it can safely be said that he has never had the recognition that he deserved in this country. He was one of the most characteristic representatives of contemporary French intellectual life and it is difficult to think of any other modern writer who can contribute more to the understanding of the French mind or explain more clearly the French contribution to civilisation. His field was a wide one. It included religion and the novel as well as literary and political criticism. Since his death he has become something of a cult in certain circles in France. Pious hands have unearthed and published fragments of theological speculation, a large number of letters and an unfinished novel in addition to his critical essays. All his work bears the impress of a distinguished mind, but it is probable that his literary criticism will be considered his most lasting achievement. It must therefore be a cause for regret that the critic seems to have been largely overshadowed by the theologian, and we may doubt whether the criticism has been fully appreciated on the continent any more than in England and America. Rivi re, wrote a Belgian author, would never have claimed to be regarded as aliterary critic. l Whether he would have claimed to be regarded as a literary critic or not, he seems to me to be one of the most distinguished of all modern French critics and to be at his best a far better critic than Rimy de Gourmont, though he never enjoyed the same influence as that writer. For this reason, I intend to deal more fully in this essay with his criticism than with his other work. I do not wish, however, to minimise the interest of his religious writings or their value as a document. A writers work must be seen as a whole. We cannot hope to understand him if we pick and choose, and we shall find that the peculiar virtues of Rivitres criticism are only comprehensible in the light of what must be regarded as the limitations of his work as a Christian apologist. M. T. All notes and translations of passages quoted in the text will be found in the Appendix on pp. 59-42. 5 CONTENTS I . Portrait of a Writer . . . . . . . . . . I1 . The Religion of a Writer . . . . . . . . 111 . The Politics of a Writer . . . . . . . . . IV . The Novelist . . . . . . . . . . . . I . AimCe . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 . Florence . . . . . . . . . . . . . V . The Literary Critic . . . . . . . . . . Appendices Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . Biographical Note . ...