The Arcades Project - Operi

It is worthy of note that the preface to Mademoiselle de Maupin' already seems to
be pointing the way to I 'art pour l'art. "A stage play is not a railroad train:'
[d2a,S]
Gautier on the press: "'Charles X alone has understood the question rightly. In
ordering the suppression of the newspapers, he rendered a great service to the arts
and to civilization. Newspapers are akin to courtiers and go-betweens, those who
interpose themselves between artists and the puhlie, hetween the king and the
people . ... These perpetual yelpings . .. create such an atmosphere of mistrust
that . .. royalty and poetry, the two greatest things in the world, hecome impossihIe.
?? Cited in A. Michiels, Ilistoire des idees litteraires en France au, XIXe siecle
(Paris, 1863), vol. 2, p. 445. This attitude earned Gautier the friendship of Balzac.
[d3,!]
""In the transports of his hatred [for the critics], M. Thcophile Gautier denies all
progress, especially in the area of literature and art, as does his master, Victor
Hugo." Alfred Michiels, Histoire des idees litteraires en France au XIX" siecle
(Paris, 1863), vol. 2, p. 444. [d3,2]
"'Steam will conquer cannon. In two hundred years-well before, perhaps-great
armies from England, France, amI America . .. will descend upon old Asia under
the leadership of their generals. Their weapons will consist of pickaxes, and their
horses will hc locomotives. Singing, they will fall upon these uncnltivated, unused
lands . ... It is thus, perhaps, thnt war will be waged, in the future, against all
unproductive nations, hy virtue of that axiom of mcchanics which applies to all
things: there mnst he no wasted energy!" Maxime Du Camp, Les Chants modernes
(Paris, 1855), p. 20 ("Preface"). [d3,3]
In the preface to La Comedie hwnaine, Balzac dedarcs himself on the side of
Bossuet and Bonald, and affirms: '''I write by the faint light of two eternal verities:
Religion and Monarchy." [d3,4]
Balzac on the press, in the preface to the first edition of Un Grand Homme de
province a, Paris: ""The public is unaware of how many cvils heset literature in its
commercial transformation . .. , In the old days ? newspapers . , . requircd a certain
numher of eopies . , , This was over and ahove payment for artides attractive
to . . , hooksellers-payment often made without any guarantee that these articles
would appear in print. . , , Today, this douhle tax has been driven up by the
exorbitant price of advertising which costs as much as the actual production of
the hool(, ... One can only conclude that newspapers are fatal for mod.ern writers.
' Cited in Georges Batault, Le Pontle de fa dhnagogie: Victor Hugo (Paris,
1934), p. 229. [cI3,5]
In the dehate in the Chamher on Novemher 25\ IH48-June repression-Victor
Hugo voted against Cavaignac. [d3,6]