The Arcades Project - Operi

Le Boheme-was, at first, the organ of the proletarianized intellectuals of Delvau's
generation. [dI8,1]
Bourget on Balzac: Certain of his characters were more true-to-life in 1860 than
in 1835." A. Cerfherr and J. Christophe, Repertoire de la Comedie huma,ine
(Paris, 1887), p. v (introduction hy Paul Bourget). [d18,2J
Ta killg a cue from Hofmannsthal (Versuch uher Victor Hugo ,
pp. 23-25), one could provide an account of the birth of the newspaper from the
spirit of rhetoric,'" and emphasize how the spirit of representative political discourse
has conformed to that of empty chatter and civic gossip. [d18,3J
On the feuilleton: '"Avid for gain, the editors of the hig newspapers have not
wanted to demand that their fenilletonists write criticism founded on conviction
and on truth. Their convictions have too often changed." This the judgment of the
Fourierist press. H. J. Hunt, Le Socialisme et le romantisme en France: Etude de
la presse socialiste de 1830 ,1. 1848 (Oxford, 1935) . [d18,4J
Lamartine's politico-poetic program, model for fascist programs of today: "The
ignorance and timidity of governments ... has the effect, within all the parties, of
disgusting one hy one those men endowed with breadth of vision and generosity of
heart. Each, in his turn, disenchanted with the mendacious symbols that no longer
represent them, these men are going to congregate around ideas alone . ... It is to
help hring forth conviction, to add one voice more to this political gronp, that I
temporarily renounce my solitude." Lamartine, "Des Destinees de la poesie" [second
preface to Les Meditations], in Les Grand Ecrivains de la France: Lamartine,
vol. 2 (Paris, 1915), pp. 422-423. [d18,5J
On the serial novel in Sue's day: "'The need to which these fantasies respond is that
of discovering some relation among events that appear to he utterly random. Ohscm'ely,
the imagination persuades itself that all these inequalities of sodal existenee,
these downfalls and ascents, constitute one and the same great action-in
other words, that they proceed from a single cause and are eonneeted one to
another. The development of the serial novel parallels the creation of the social
scienees." Cassou, Quarante-huit (Paris < 1939» , p. 15. [dI8,6]
Casson on the "demolratie lyricism of Lamartine": '"We discover in this a secret
thought: our possessions, along with all their train of spiritual delights, accompany
us to the very threshold of immortality. Hardly broached in Milly, Oll fa terre
natale, this theme hursts forth in La Vigne et ia maison, expressing Lamartine's
supreme desire-that of living on in a realm of physical immortality where every
ohject preserves its perfect and savory reality. This eschatology, no doubt, differs
a little from t.he pure spiritualism of La Mort de Soc rate, with its 'Platonic inspiration
. ... But it reveals the profound nature of this aristocratil landowner."" Jean
Cassou, Quarante-huit (Paris), p. 173. [d18a,l]