Chapter VI

THE NOVEL OF STYLE--GAUTIER, MÉRIMÉE, GÉRARD DE NERVAL, MUSSET, VIGNY 208

Gautier: his burden of "style"--Abstract (with translations) of _La Morte Amoureuse_--Criticism thereof--A parallel from painting--The reality--And the passion of it--Other short stories--Gautier's humour: _Les Jeune-France_--Return to _Fortunio_--And others--Longer books: _Le Capitaine Fracasse_ and others--_Mlle. De Maupin_--Mérimée--Carmen--_Colomba_--Its smaller companions: _Mateo Falcone_, etc.--Those of _Carmen_; _Arsène Guillot_--And _L'Abbé Aubain_--_La Prise de la Redoute_--The _Dernières Nouvelles_; _Il Viccolo di Madama Lucrezia_--_Djoumane_--_Lokis_--_La Chambre Bleue_--The _Chronique de Charles IX_--The semi-dramatic stories: _La Jacquerie_--_Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement_, etc.--Musset: charm of his dramatised stories; his pure narration unsuccessful--_Frédéric et Bernerette_--_Les Deux Maîtresses_, _Le Fils du Titien_, etc.--_Emmeline_--Gérard de Nerval: his peculiar position--_La Bohême Galante_, _Les Filles du Feu_, and _Le Rêve et la Vie_--Their general character--Particular examples--_Aurélia_--And especially _Sylvie_--Alfred de Vigny: _Cinq-Mars_--The faults in its general scheme--And in its details--_Stello_ less of a novel, but containing better novel-stuff--Its framework and "anecdotes"--The death of Gilbert--The satiric episode: contrast--The Chatterton part--The tragedy of André Chénier--_Servitude et Grandeur Militaires_--The first story--The second--and third--The moral of the three--Note on Fromentin's _Dominique_: its altogether exceptional character.

CHAPTER VII

THE MINORS OF 1830 281

Sainte-Beuve: _Volupté_--Its "puff-book"--Itself--Its character in various aspects--Jules Sandeau and Charles de Bernard--Sandeau's work--Bernard's--Sue, Soulié, and the novel of melodrama: _Le Juif Errant_, etc.--Melodramatic fiction generally--_Le Château des Pyrénées_--_Les Mémoires du Diable_--Later writers and writings of the class--Murger--The _Vie de Bohême_--_Les Buveurs d'Eau_ and the Miscellanies--Reybaud: _Jérôme Paturot_, and Thackeray on its earlier part--The windfall of Malvina--The difference of the Second Part--Not much of a novel--But an invaluable document--Méry--_Les Nuits Anglaises_--The minor stories--_Histoire d'une Colline_--The "Manchester" article--Karr--Roger de Beauvoir: _Les Cabaret des Morts_--Ourliac: _Contes du Bocage_--Achard--Souvestre, Féval, etc.--Borel's _Champavert_.

CHAPTER VIII

DUMAS THE ELDER 323

The case of Dumas--Charge and discharge--Morality--Plagiarism and devilling--The collaborators?--The positive value as fiction and as literature of the books: the less worthy works--The worthier: treatment of them not so much individually as under heads--His attitude to plot--To character--To description (and "style")--To conversation.

CHAPTER IX

THE FRENCH NOVEL IN 1850 343

The peculiarity of the moment--A political nadir--And almost a literary zenith--The performance of the time in novel--The _personnel_--The kinds: the historical novel--Appearance of new classes: the historical--Other kinds and classes--The Novel of Romanticism generally--The "ordinary"--Discussion on a point of general novel criticism.

CHAPTER X

DUMAS THE YOUNGER 365

Division of future subjects--A confession--His general character--_La Dame aux Camélias_--_Tristan le Roux_--_Antonine_--_La Vie à Vingt Ans_--_Aventures de Quatre Femmes_--_Trois Hommes Forts_--_Diane de Lys_--Shorter stories: _Une Loge à Camille_--_Le Docteur Servans_--_Le Roman d'une Femme_--The habit of quickening up at the end--_Contes et Nouvelles_--_Ilka_--_Revenants_--_Sophie Printemps_--_Affaire Clémenceau_--Story of it--Criticism of it and of its author's work generally--Note on Dumas _fils'_ drama, etc.--Reflections.

CHAPTER XI

GUSTAVE FLAUBERT 397

The contrast of Flaubert and Dumas _fils_--Some former dealings with him--His style--The books: _Madame Bovary_--_Salammbô_--_L'Éducation Sentimentale_--_La Tentation de Saint-Antoine_--_Trois Contes_--_Bouvard et Pécuchet_--General considerations.