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FRENCH LITERATURE
OF THE GREAT WAR
BY
ALBERT SCHINZ
PBOFESSOK OF FRENCH LITERATtJBE
AT SMITH COLXEGE
. ^ » » • • 3
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
NEW YORK LONDON
1920
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72070
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D. APPLETON AND COJ^IPANY
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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
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Great heart of France which has withstood so well
The blasts of battle and the gates of hell
Our love is thine. . . .
Edmund Vance Cooke.
Oui, mon coq glorieux,
C'est toi qui fais lever I'aurore!
Rostand, Chantecleib.
FOREWORD
The output of French war literature has been
very great. This may not seem surprising when
one thinks of the importance of the crisis through
which France has just passed, but it is so when
one realizes how that country had to exert all
its strength to keep itself from being submerged ;
literature in such circumstances, is more than
ever a luxury.
How shall we define the scope of this study?
In one sense, w^e have been very broad in our
selection of material. Apart from works deal-
ing technically with the history of the war, and
which we have left out, we have surveyed all
kinds of books; for literature has no domain of
its own. According to time and circumstances,
it may include almost anything. With Ronsard
and Victor Hugo, it is poetry; with Comeille
and Racine it is drama ; but it is philosophy with
Descartes, Malebranche and Renan; ethics with
La Bruyere and Marmontel ; theology with Bos-
suet and Joseph de Maistre; medicine with
Claude Bernard and Pasteur; psychology with
Montaigne, IMarivaux and Le Sage ; history with
Voltaire, Michelet and Taine ; politics and politi-
cal economy with Fenelon, Montesquieu, Rous-
vii
FOREWORD
seau and Fustel de Coulanges ; etc., etc. War, —
and especially the Great War, — stirs up thoughts
along all these lines, and it would be very ar-
bitrary to decide which writings must be re-
garded as literature, and which must not.
In another sense, it has been necessary for us
to narrow our field by imposing upon ourselves
considerable restrictions. It has often been very
difficult to resist the temptation of including, —
for the sake of full treatment, and in order to
do justice to all, — many excellent works. Too
bulky a volume would have defeated the end
which we have in view. The following course
seemed the best one in the circumstances: To
make a first selection according to a general cri-
terion of excellence and originality. This was,
in many cases, an easy matter because excel-
lence and originality went together in the same
books, as, for instance, in Benjamin's Gaspard;
Barbusse's Le Feu; in the anonymous Lettres
d'un Soldat; in Erlande's En Campagne avec
la Legion Etrangere, Duhamel's Vie des Mar-
tyrs, Jaques Blanche's Cahiers d'un Artiste;
Y 's Odyssee d'un Transport Torpille; or,
on the stage, in Bernstein's Elevation; or, in poe-
try, in Verhaeren's Ailes Rouges, in Mercier's
Prieres de la Tranchee, and in Marc Leclerc 's La
Passion de Notre Frere le Poilu.
Very often, however, there were several ex-
viii
FOREWORD
cellent books representing the same important
trend of inspiration. In these cases we had to
eliminate with a view to avoiding monotony.
The writer believes that he has succeeded in
bringing in a new note with the treatment of
each new volume, but he frankly acknowledges
that the choice between works of a similar
nature has been determined at times by causes
imponderable. The determining factor may
have been the verdict of the French reading
public, or it may have been subjective preference.
For instance, the author would not care to be
called upon to account with scientific thorough-
ness for his selection of Thomas' Les Diables
Bleus and Pericard's Ceux de Verdun, in prefer-
ence to Belmont's Lettres d'un Officier de
Cliasseurs Alpins, Marcel Dupont's En Cam-
pagne 1914-15, and later, L'AUente,^ or Dieter-
len's Le Bois le Pretre, Dubarle's Lettres de
Guerre, Jubert's Verdun, etc. Again some may
think that Lieut. E. R. (Tuffrau's) Garnet d'un
Gomhattant, Roujon's Garnet de Boute, Paul-
han's La Guerre Appliquee, Julia's 3Iort du
Soldat, or many others, deserved just as much
1 Perhaps the reason why Dupont was not chosen is
because he is so good that no comment can be made
which is not superfluous. The sixty editions through
which his first volume ran before the close of the war
are a very just measure of the value of that remarkable
work.
FOREWORD
to be analyzed as Redier's Meditations dans la
Tranchee or Genevoix's SoVrS Verdun or Del-
vert's Histoire d'une Compagnie. The same
problem confronted us in dealing with poetry,
the stage, and the novel, although it was rather
easier to come to a decision in those cases than
when dealing with war recollections or analyses
of the psychology of the soldier.
Many readers are guided in the selection of
their books by the fame of the authors. At no
time is the name of an author a certain guarantee
of the excellence of the work, and in the special
case of war literature, it offers none whatever.
Indeed, none of the well known pre-war writers
have produced during the war anything that
commands attention as a masterpiece ; and this
is quite natural, for veterans in the field of
literature do not belong to the war generation
and can therefore hardly be its spokesmen.
Anatole France, Pierre Loti, Maeterlinck, Bour-
get, and Bazin have added nothing new to what
they had been saying for many years previously ;
Rostand's fame would suffer heavily if he was
judged by his writings since 1914; fortunately
for him his two best war-poems Cyrano de Ber-
gerac and L'Aiglon had been written long before
the war. Such men as Porto-Riche, Bataille,
FOREWORD
Abel Hermant have fallen below the mark they
themselves had set in the past. Some, like
Henri de Regnier, the war seems to have entirely
paralyzed.
The only two cases in which one may be
tempted to take exception to our statement —
that writers whose reputation was established
before the war have rarely done any original
work since 1914 — are that of Bernstein in his
drama L'Mevation,^ and that of Verhaeren,
stirred up to really powerful satire by the wrong
done to Belgium, his own country, in his Ailes
Rouges de la Guerre.
So the reader must expect to come across new
names chiefly. Indeed, one of the most interest-
ing features of the war literature is that it
acquaints us with many hitherto unknown but
admirable writers.
One more remark.
As everywhere else, war has created extraor-
dinary circumstances in the domain of literature ;
this is true not only as regards the contents of
the war books, but also as regards the forms in
which the writers presented their thoughts.
War literature created its own style. Quite
1 This play, however, has been severely judged by
several French critics.
xi
FOREWORD
naturally the traditional distinctions of de-
scriptive, dramatic, lyric, and epic styles were
disregarded. In most cases the form adopted
was that of War Recollections. By far the
greatest part of war literature is written in un-
conventional style and will be described in the
first part of the following work.
At the same time, in some cases, especially in
that of lyrism, and to some extent in that of the
stage, but less in that of prose fiction, the con-
ventional literary genres continued to obtain
with good writers. We will deal with these
products in a second part.
The reader will find at the end of the volume
additional data on the following points :
I. Indications where to find more detailed
bibliographical information than we could offer
in the text, concerning the literature of the war.
II. Documents relative to the war, not coming
within the domain of literature, but comple-
mentary' to it ; history of the pre-war period ;
chronicles ; discussions and comments relating to
special phases of the war; appreciations by
military critics; descriptions of great battles by
non-combatants; life in the trenches; the part
played by various branches of the service; psy-
chology of the soldier; military vocabulary and
xii
FOREWORD
slang; illustrated war-books, and war-news-
papers.
III. A catalogue — not a full one indeed, but
as carefully drawn up as seemed possible — of the
best French war-diaries and volumes of war-
recollections.
This book would not have been completed, at
least so soon, had it not been for the kind as-
sistance — which sometimes was almost a collabo-
ration — given by Professor Osmond T. Robert,
our colleague in the French Department at
Smith College. To him we owe most hearty
thanks.
Towards another of my colleagues, iNIiss Helen
Maxwell King, we feel greatly indebted for the
expert help which she gave in the ungrateful
task of drawing up the Index.
"We express our gratitude also to Professor E.
P. Dargan, of the University of Chicago, who
very kindly went over our manuscript, offering
valuable suggestions.
We wish further to acknowledge the courtesy
of the editors of various periodicals which al-
lowed us to make use again of material which
had appeared, above our signature, in their
columns: The Jonrnal of Philosophij, Psy-
chology and Scientific Methods; The American
xiii
FOREWORD
Journal of Psychology ; Medicine and Surgery;
Modern Philology; Publications of the Modern
Language Association of America. And per-
haps we ought to mention also the New Inter-
national Year-Book where we had recorded be-
fore — although in much briefer form — the out-
put of the French Literature of the Great War.
Albert Schinz.
XIV
CONTENTS
PART I
PAGE
T. Period of Emotional Reaction — Immedi-
ately After the Outbreak of the War . 5
II. Period of Documentation — Commencing
ABOUt the Spring of 1915 27
III. Period of Philosophical and Political
Considerations Suggested by the War
(More Especially Since the Beginning
OF 1917) 230
PART II
I. Poetry of the War 293
II. The Stage and the War 338
III. War-Time Fiction 363
Epilogue 381
APPENDICES
I. Bibliography 391
II. Documents Relative to the War .... 397
III. Catalogue, in Alphabetical Order, of Some
OF THE Best War Diaries and Recollec-
tions 405
INTRODUCTORY
It is possible to distinguish three periods in
the war literature of France between 1914 and
1918, The first was one of spontaneous, sudden
and strongly emotional reaction, following im-
mediately the first bewildering shock ; the second,
one of documentation on the causes of the war
and on the war itself; and the third, a period
of calm philosophical consideration of all that was
involved in the gigantic struggle, characterized
by a reconsideration of the past, a weighing of
the present, and especially an effort to prepare
for the future.
It needs scareelv to be said that although, —
a«! indeed wa'^ nnite natural, — the lyric and sa-
tirical notp nrednvninated in the first period,
memoir literature in the second, and philosophi-
cal es<;avs aiirl treatises in the third, no period
produced one tvDe of literature to the exclusion
of all others. A few philosophical writings be-
gan to appear very early in the war, and the
publication of documents of historical and psy-
chological interest by no means came to an end
when the theorists became more numerous;
neither, indeed, did thev cease to appear before
1
INTRODUCTORY
the end of the war and even after; and at all
stages of the conflict, there has been abundant
reason for emotional inspiration.
But, while fully conscious of those facts, we
have adopted the above classification, first be-
cause it does actually correspond, in a general
way, to what happened, and also for the sake
of clearness in discussing the subject.
PART I
FRENCH LITERATURE
OF THE GREAT WAR
CHAPTER I .
PERIOD OF EMOTIONAL REACTION— IMMEDI-
ATELY AFTER THE OUTBREAK OF
THE WAR
The war took almost every one by surprise.
The first expression of thought, after the imme-
diate danger was passed, that is, after the first
battle of the Mame, was an outburst of indigna-
tion at the treacherous attack which had been
made by the Central Powers, and also at the
blindness of the French people who had allowed
themselves to be lured into a fatal, sentimental
quietude by the stupendous hypocrisy of their
neighbors on the Eastern frontier. To this in-
dignation were soon added the anger, disgust
and horror caused by the atrocious application
by the German armj^ in Belgium and Northern
France, of the barbarian policy of terrorization.
These manifestations of burning patriotism
5
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
appeared in the few newspapers which did not
stop publication, or which did so only for a very-
short time : Le Temps, Les Detats, Le Figaro,
L'EcJio de Paris, Le Journal, Le Matin,
L' Homme Lihre, and then L'Homme Enchaine,
and the still less numerous periodicals like the
Eevue des Deux Mondes, Revue de Paris, V Illus-
tration, la Bevue Hehdomadaire, la Eevue, les
Amiales. Towards the end of the spring of
1915, as France began to return to more normal
conditions, the articles referred to above began
to appear in book form.
But the young men had dropped the pen to
grasp the sword, and the men who wrote were,
for the most part, well advanced in years.
Many of them, it is true, were men of high stand-
ing, whom France had learned to regard as the
intellectual leaders of the day; but the fact re-
mains that their books, in spite of their beauty
and stirring eloquence, are not directly repre-
sentative of that young France which was at
grips with the enemy ; and, as time passes, the
glory of those first productions will fade before
that of the more authentic works of the actual
fighters.
Nevertheless, those early books recorded the
pulse of France during the first weeks of the
6
EMOTIONAL REACTION
world-tragedy, and for that reason, some of
them, at least, deserve to be recalled here.
From the very beginning;, Henri Lavedan suc-
ceeded in giving a very lofty tone to his weekly
articles in I' Illustration. The re-issue of those
articles in book form under the title of Les
Grandes Heures, will remain the best expres-
sion of that rousing and cementing of the na-
tional spirit which every one now calls VTJnion
Sacree. In most other articles, one hears much
more often the harsh strains of intense an-
ger and of satire directed against Germanj^
than the harmony of the epic song of France's
heroism.
The titles of the following books give a very
clear idea of the nature of their contents.
Pierre Loti, La Grande Barharie (1915), La
Hyene Enragee (1916), Quelques Aspects du
Vertige Mondial (1917), and L'Horreur Alle-
mande (1918) ; Paul Margueritte (author of
Une Epoque), Contre les Barhares (1915), and
later, L'Immense Effort (1915-16) ; Jean Aic-
ard, Des Oris dans la Melee (1915) ; Jean Riche-
pin. Prose de Guerre (1915) ; Mme. Juliette
Adam (the famous editor of the Nouvelle Revue,
who boasts that she has never accepted the treaty
of Frankfort), L'Heure Vengeresse des Crimes
7
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Bismarkiens (1915). Paul Adam, Da7is I'Air
qui tremble (1915), and later. La Terre qui
tonne (1917) ; to which may be added Peladan's
L'Allemagne devant I'Humanite and Le Devoir
des Civilises (1915), with its, at times, brilliantly
eloquent anathemas ; and also two more objective
works which tell the story of the German atroci-
ties in the previous war: General Canonge's His-
toire de I'lnvasion Allemande en 1870-71, and
Gabriel Langlois's L'Allemagne Barhare. This
latter book contains a remarkable chapter relat-
ing how the anthropologist, Quatrefages, had re-
fused to believe the reports of German barbari-
ties, until he saw the enemy stupidly attempting
to destroy the magnificent scientific collections
of the Museum in Paris.
Even philosophical minds could not remain
calm in that hour of exaltation. In a lecture be-
fore the Academic des Sciences Morales et Pol-
itiques on September 14th, 1914, Bergson de-
nounces the philosophers of Germany as aiders
and abettors in the development of the ferocious
war organization of that country. Germany's
philosophy he regards as "only the transposi-
tion in terms of the intellect, of her brutality,
her greed, and vices." Neither is Anatple
France quite free from passion, although his
8
EMOTIONAL REACTION
style makes acceptable every page of his Sur la
Voie Glorieuse, and Ce que disent nos Moris.
Another French "sage," Remy de Gourraont,
calls his volume of essays Pendant I'Orage, and
a second volume, published after his death in
1915, bears the title of Datis la Tourmente.
Among the books irf which the impeachment
of Germany plays so great a part, there are some
which are particularly moving because we know
that their authors have suffered more than
others. We refer to the books of Belgian and
Alsatian writers, such as Maeterlinck's Debris de
la Guerre, and Verhaeren's La Belgique Sang-
lanie and Parmi les Cendres. To this class also
belong Pierre Nothomb's Les Barhares en Bel-
gique (first published in the Revue des Deux
Mondes), and the works of I'Abbe Wetterle, the
distinguished and courageous representative of
Alsace-Lorraine in the Reichstag in pre-war days.
We commend to the reader's attention his Propos
de Guerre, — the second volume of which is in-
spired by stinging satire, — his VAllemagne qu'on
voyait et celle qu'on ne voyait pas, and, of
course, his Ce qu'etait V Alsace-Lorraine et ce
qu'elle sera (1915).
It is not our intention to dwell at length on
this emotional literature although it was fully
9
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
justified by the circumstances. We wish, how-
ever, to assign it an honorable, though small
place in the literature of the war; this, we can-
not do better than by quoting a very short ex-
tract from the Preface of Maeterlinck's Debris
de la Guerre. The few sentences express the
spirit of all the books above mentioned ; they do
so in the words of one, who, more than any
other, has a right to speak, not only because he
is a Belgian, but also because, — as he himself re-
marks, — he had been until then conspicuously
free from any harshness or ill-feeling towards his
fellow men: "The reader will find, for the
first time in the work of one who has hitherto
abused no man, words of hatred and of maledic-
tion. I would gladly have left those words un-
said ... I have been forced to utter them, and
I am as much surprised as I am maddened at
what I have been constrained to say by the
force of events and of truth. . . . There are
crimes which obliterate the past and close the
future. In eschewing hatred, I would have
shown myself a traitor to love. I tried to lift
myself above the fray; but the higher I rose,
the more clearly did I see the madness and the
horror of it, the justice of our cause and the
infamy of the others'. 7* is possible that some
10
EMOTIONAL REACTION
day, when time has dulled the memory and re-
stored the ruins, wise men will tell us that we
are mistaken, that our standpoint was not lofty
enough, that everything can be explained and
forgiven and that we must make an effort to
understand; hut they will say so only because
what ive know has been forgotten, and what we
behold has not been seen."
Two other writers who have also echoed the
emotions of the war, deserve special mention,
because, being younger than those whom we have
already discussed, they can be considered as
actually speaking for the war generation, and
also because, for quite a number of years, they
had been regarded as "leaders" of young
France. The first is Maurice Barres, a mem-
ber of the French Academy and of the Chamber
of Deputies, and the President of the Ligiie des
Patriotes. His almost dailj^ articles in the Echo
de Paris were, during the first weeks of the war,
a magnificent inspiration to the French people,
and fully justify the general title under which
they were re-issued in a series of volumes :
L'Ame Frangaise et la Guerre. The first vol-
ume of the series, L'TJnion Sacree, takes us from
July 12th to October 31st, 1914, describes the
11
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
political situation on the eve of the war, the
great retreat, and the battle of the Marne; the
second volume, Les Saints de la France, takes us
to the end of the year 1914, and tells the story
of the battles in Flanders and of the descent
into the trenches. The other volumes are: La
Croix de Guerre, Amities des Tranchees, Voy-
ages de Lorraine et d'Artois, Pour les Mutiles,
Le Suffrage des Morts. One of the finest utter-
ances of Barres is the lecture {Les Traits eternels
de la France) which he delivered in London, on
July 12th, 1916, to the members of the British
Academy, and in which he drew some very strik-
ing parallels between the French Knights of the
Middle Ages who fought for Christendom and
for the Church, and the modem heroes who are
fighting, in the same spirit of self-sacrifice, to
save a civilization in which love, and not vio-
lence, is triumphant.^
During the third year of the war, Barres
wrote, in addition to his chronicle of the war,
one of the most moving books imaginable on the
religion of the Soldier: Les Families Spirit-
1 An American edition, with excellent notes, was pre-
pared by F. Baldensperger and issued by the Yale Press
at the end of 1918. There is also an English translation
by Miss C'orwin ( Yale Press ) . The original title of the
lecture was: Le Blason de la France, ou ses Traits eter-
nels dans cette Chierre et les vieilles Epopees.
12
EMOTIONAL REACTION
uelles de la France (this work will be referred
to again later) ; and, in the fourth year a smaller
one, De la Sympathie a la Fraternite des Amies,
Les Etats-Unis dans la Guerre (Bibl. Franee-
Amerique).
The second of those younger authors is Andre
Suares: a man possessed of a genius akin to
that of Charles Peguy. AVhile Peguy was pour-
ing out his soul in fiery prose in the Cahiers de
la Quinzaine, Suares was, since 1909, the lead-
ing spirit of the Nouvelle Revue Frangaise; his
stirring, vigorous, mystic style, full of striking,
at time,s apocalj^ptic, images, was a perfect instru-
ment with which to arouse not only the intel-
lectual youth, but the whole of France. His ar-
ticles have been collected under the general title
of Commeniaires sur la Guerre des Boches. In
the first volume, Nous et Eux, he shows in clear
definite formulas, how fundamentally', how "ra-
cially" different are the French and the Ger-
man minds. In the second volume, C'est la
Guerre, he returns to his assertion of a real dif-
ference of "race," and describes the war as a
"zoological" contest. He can admit of no neu-
trals in this struggle between the powers of
darkness and those of light. One of the best of
his books is Ceux de Verdun (1916, 138 pp.), in
13
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
which he pauses, for a moment, in his virulent
attacks upon Germany to proclaim the glory of
the heroes of France. He relates the great epic
of Verdun in a terse, lapidary style, reminiscent
of the noblest passages in the ancient Hebrew
Prophets. The power of his beautiful rhythmi-
cal prose is irresistible.
But the intense patriotism of Snares does not
prevent him from being at the same time a
thinker of remarkable independence of judg-
ment. He reminds us at times of the late Remy
de Gourmont. He has published, from time to
time, in the elegant issues of the Nouvelle Revue
Frangaise, pamphlets which are stimulating to
an extraordinary degree. And Suares has the
courage of his convictions. A man must be bold
indeed, who dares to publish, while France is at
war with Germany, sentiments like those which
we quote below, and to which he gave expression
in the course of a discussion on the advisability
of discontinuing the study of Kant. His asser-
tion that Kant is Cartesian, that he has devel-
oped to their fullest extent the principles of Des-
cartes, we must leave to the judgment of meta-
phj'sicians; but the ethics of Kant, and his pol-
itics are of very general interest to-day. In Re-
marques IX, (December, 1918) Suares says in
14
EMOTIONAL REACTION
that connection: "To represent that great inde-
pendent mind as the type of Prussianism, to
make of him the philosopher of the German
State, is an act of deliberate bad faith ; or, to put
it more plainly, it is a lie.
"I find the answer to that lie in the first of the
Articles, where Kant has written : 'The political
constitution of each state must be republican.'
What a very Prussian trait that is, to be sure!
And here is another: Kant is blaming the gov-
ernment of kings for the barbarities of war and
he writes : 'the Sovereign glories in his power to
dispose according to his fancy, and without tak-
ing any great personal risks, of the lives of sev-
eral thousands of men who are ever ready to sac-
rifice themselves for a cause which is no concern
of theirs. ' " And then Snares, turning on one of
his own countr\Tnen, continues: "I know a
Prussian who is also a Roman Catholic ; a feudal-
istic Prussian ; a Prussian as to his ethics ; a
Prussian by his royalist and absolutist politics;
a Prussian in his views of peace and of war;
whose thoughts are Prussianly antagonistic to
the Republic, to the rights of men and to the
freedom of thought ; and who expresses those
thoughts in the very terms of Moltke and of the
German General Headquarters. That man is
15
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Joseph de Maistre. Kant is the very antithesis
of de Maistre. Kant represents the spirit of
eighteenth century France and of the Revolu-
tion. De Maistre is already dead 'up to his
throat.' The ax is poised above his head as
above the thick nape of Berlin ; but the spirit of
Kant still lives. ' '
* * *
Before bringing this chapter to a close, we
wish to speak of two men upon whom the war
has produced verj^ contrary effects: Gustave
Herve and Remain Rolland. Before the war,
Herve had preached with so much vehemence the
doctrines of socialism, internationalism and anti-
militarism, that he had been arrested on a charge
of treason, tried and condemned to prison.^
Very soon, however, after the outbreak of the
war, he acknowledged with a candor which does
him honor, that he had been mistaken. Herve
is a politician, but he is nevertheless upright and
sincere, and a stranger to the subtleties of polit-
ical arrivistes. He has turned with burning in-
dignation against the German socialists who have
2 It was Herve who, in lOl.^, wrote that famous book
Leur Patrie which assailed the idea of love for one coun-
try only, and which called forth Pe^y's beautiful Notre
Patrie. — A good article on Herve will be found in Andre
Maurel's Six Ecrivains de la Guerre (Paris, 1917), pp.
73-96.
16
EMOTIONAL REACTION
shown themselves to be false brethren. Since
the beginning of the war he has published three
books, — all of them reprints of his articles, — un-
der the titles of Apres la Marne,^ La Patrie en
Danger, and La MuraiUe. In this last book, he
preaches the gospel of "France" with all the
conviction and eloquence which formally charac-
terized his preaching of the gospel of "Human-
ity." His newspaper which, before the war, was
called La Guerre Sociale, has, since 1914, been
known as La Victoire^
As for Remain Holland, he has moved in a
direction opposed to that of Herve. In Jean
Christ ophe he had judged with some severity the
materialism, lack of taste, and industrialism of
3 In this first book, composed of articles which ap-
peared between November, 1914, and February, 1915, the
contrast with his former writings already comes out very
strikinjily. See especially the articles Jiisqu'au iout
(pp. 44-^7), A Sudekxim, Socialiste du Kaiser (pp.
294-297), and Le Pot aux Roses (pp. 310-315). The
titles of those articles indicate the spirit in which they
were written.
4 Herve had also written, some years before, a very
original Histoire de France pour les Grands (1904) in
wliich he avoided as much as possible mentioning the
names of kings and of battles, because civilization has
DO greater interest in kings than in any other people, and
because wars, far from furthering the progress of civ-
ilization, usually set it back. A number of teachers with
socialist leanings adopted the book in their classes, but
the government quickly took action, forbidding the use
of it in any school within tlie jurisdiction of the French
Republic.
17
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Germany; Jean Christophe was obliged to come
to France to find an atmosphere congenial to his
artistic temperament. It is true that he had not
found in the conventional artistic milieus of
Paris, any response to genuine art ; but his hopes
were with the people of France, the people who
had produced Joan of Arc . . . people of such
sterling moral qualities were to be found only
west of the Rhine. When the war broke out,
Rolland was shocked by the passionate outcry
against Germany which spontaneously arose in
every quarter of the civilized world. He tried
to retain his self-possession, but his too great
anxiety to remain impartial led him to make
such great concessions to the German point of
view, that he soon appeared to many of his coun-
trymen as a traitor to their cause. Even the
Manifesto of the ninety-three German intellec-
tuals, in which, deliberately or unintentionally,
many facts damaging to Germany were passed
over in silence, did not induce him to change his
attitude; nor was he affected by the failure of
the appeal which he addressed through Gerhard
Hauptmann to the German men of letters; he
stiU continued, after that, to sit in judgment
upon the contending parties. So convinced was
he of the correctness of his attitude, that in his
18
EMOTIONAL REACTION
Au-dessus de la Melee (1915-16) he asks men of
unprejudiced minds to pronounce between him
and his opponents.
Few publications have stirred up more resent-
ment in France, or created more misunderstand-
ing, than that book. The French people cannot
understand how it is that Rolland fails to under-
stand. And, indeed, it is strange that so intelli-
gent a man should remain impervious to all ar-
guments and explanations; for he pays not the
slightest attention to them; he simply ignores
them and continues to re-state, — eloquently
enough, it must be admitted, — the views which
he has held since the beginning of the war. It
seems as if the enormous success of Jean Chris-
tophe had to some extent impaired his judgment,
and as if he accepted in all seriousness the flat-
tering assurance of some of his disciples, that he
needs only to speak and the whole world will ac-
cept his words as gospel.
He did not or would not realize that it lay as
little in the power of the French people, as in
that of the Christian socialists or of the intellec-
tual elite or of any one else, to put a stop to the
fighting ; unless, indeed, France was willing to
yield, body and soul, to Germany. After the
first battle of the ]\Iarne, from Geneva (where he
19
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
has lived all through the war) Rolland took it
for granted that everything was over. On Sep-
tember 15th, in the article which gives the vol-
ume its title, and which has so endeared him to
the pacifists, he exclaimed in terms astonish-
ingly naive : "TJn grand peuple ne se venge pas,
il retablit le droit": a great nation does not seek
revenge, it reestablishes Right — as if that was
not exactly what France was trying to do in
keeping up the fight ; as if France, and England,
and, later, America, had not accepted the long,
wretched struggle which lasted four miserable
years, precisely in order to make possible that
"Haute Cour Morale," for which the heart of
Romain Rolland was yearning . . . away from
his country!
One cannot deny, of course, the lofty inspira-
tion of the author of Au-dessus de la Melee, but
neither can one close one's eyes to his remark-
able stubbornness. More than any of his oppon-
ents whom he constantly upbraids for their lack
of openmindedness, he deserves the reproach of
being prejudiced. He frequently commences his
articles with abuse of Germany, superabundant
sympathy for the French and very high praise
of their splendid courage and noble behavior;
and then continues : ' ' But . . . ' ' — that exasper-
20
EMOTIONAL REACTION
ating hut, which means: "Now that I have
patted you tn the back, listen to me who am able
to dispense words of supreme wnsdom." His
insistence on his point of view becomes, at times,
intolerable, and creeps into the very titles of his
articles: Inter Arma Caritas; Au Peuple qvH
sou f re pour la Justice; Notre Prochain, I'En-
nemi; etc.
Among the answers to Holland, two of the
most striking are Verhaeren's which appeared
in the Revue de Paris and which can be summar-
ized in his own words: "One must not try to
hold a scale when the enemy is brandishing a
sword"; and the forceful article by Benda in
V Opinion ^ in which this writer says : ' ' But you
exaggerate, Sir, when you say that Justice must
be free from passion. Passion for the just
cause, she must have." The sentiments of the
Catholics were expressed by H. Massis in his
pamphlet Rolland contre. la France. See also
Paul Hyacinthe-Loyson's Etes-vous Neutre de-
vant le Crime? If one wishes to have also a
poet's reaction, one will find it in the Sonate oon-
tre Romain Rolland, by Jean Fontaine-Vive, in
the volume Jeunesse ardente, quoted below.
5 Benda's article is to be found in his Sentiments de
Critias (1917), to •which we shall refer again later.
21
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
But the most representative comments on Rol-
land's book are found in G. A. Henches' A
*
I'Ecole de la Guerre (1918). Commandant
Henches kept one of the best diaries of the war:
Few soldiers have felt more keenly than he the
horrors of the great tragedy; few have kept
themselves so completely under control. And
yet, this man who is generally so moderate even
when referring to the Germans, is very severe
toward Rolland. He denies him any right to
speak. Rolland may be right, but Rolland has
no voice in the matter, because, even if he is
right, he has not reached his conclusions by
means of valid premisses : Rolland has not seen
the war. He is like a man who, firing a rifle for
the first time, would happen, hy some chance, to
make a bull 's eye. That success would not make
a shooter of him ; and his claim to dogmatize on
matters of shooting would not be admissible.
The following are a few quotations from
Henches: "Rolland seems to me to be giving
himself airs of moral superiority and of de-
tachment which are distinctly out of place in
present circumstances. . . . After the war, more
than half the Germans, — if they are definitely
beaten, — will assert that they had nothing what-
ever to do with the crimes ; but, if by any chance,
22
EMOTIONAL REACTION
they had been victorious, how many, think you,
would have protested ? . . . The thoughts of Ro-
main Rolland, even if they be true, carry no more
weight than a ribbon or a trinket. You must
risk your life in times like these, to have a right
to uphold an idea, and those who have risked
only their position, or their fortune, or who
strive after notoriety, we regard as noxious. . . .
Hatred we must have : hatred of self-seekers, ha-
tred of liars, hatred of profiteers of every kind.
It is eas}', from a safe retreat, to utter words of
kindness. But if Romain Rolland had witnessed
the exodus of women and children on certain
September evenings in 1914; if he lived, as we
do, among graves, he would be ashamed that he
had dared to open his mouth. It may be that
his ideas do not differ from our own, he is none
the less guilty. We have a right to speak, he
has not. Only those have a right to forgive
who have suffered."
Commandant Henches was killed in action.
After some time the public had ceased to pay
any attention whatsoever to Rolland.
The attitude of Rolland was shared by an extremely
small minority in France during the war, and since
the cessation of hostilities things have not changed
23
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
much. There is, however, a manifesto of the "intel-
lectuels combattants frangais aux intellectuels com-
hattants du monde" which appeared in Le Cri du
Midi and was reproduced without comment in the
Mercure de France, in April, 1919, and from which
we quote the following extracts: "Our hands which
in spite of us were steeped in blood, are to-day eager
to take up, in hearty cooperation with you the task
of world reconstruction. . . . The din of battle has
never robbed our minds of their serenity. . . . Fight-
ing intellectuals of those countries which yesterday
were at war, we are impatient to renew with you
intellectual and friendly relations. Intellectuals of
the world, we know that those of you who share our
sentiments are numberless; we know that for fifty
months you have dragged out, behind the appear-
ance of serene wisdom, existences as miserable as
those of guilty souls. It behooves us to set to you
the solemn and good example of wise conduct. . . .
We alone in the clash of fire and steel have had the
courage to retain our faith in the illuminating and
civilizing power of reason."
Rolland, who had distinctly not been a "combat-
tant," co.uld. not sign this document ; the chief name
at the bottom of it is that of Barbusse, the author
of Le Feu, of which we shall speak presently. The
other eleven are men of much lesser note. In July,
however, Rolland wrote a manifesto himself, in the
very same spirit, and in which he seems as far as
ever from realizing the concrete problems which the
world has to face. He speaks of the "alliances hu-
miUantes de I'esprit/' of the duty of the intellectuals
24
EMOTIONAL REACTION
to "point to the polar star in the turmoil of dark
passions," "montrer Vetoile polaire au milieu du
tourbillon des passions dans la nuit," and then hails
the People of the future "one, universal, suffer-
. ing, stumbling but rising again," "unique, universel,
qui suujfre, qui tombe el se releve." . . . This piece of
-oratory has elicited a counter-manifesto which was
published in the Figaro of July 19 by a group of
patriotic writers, among whom was H. Massis (see
our chapter III, below, on Philosophy during the
■ Great War). They called it "Pour le Parti de Vln-
telligence" — distinguishing thus between themselves
and the "intellectuels" whose leanuags are towards in-
ternationalism and perhaps even towards Pnissian-
isra.
They want to build the future on distinctly na-
tional ideas, counting among these a return to the
leadership of the Catholic Church. This reply was
signed not only by nationalistic and catholic writers,
as Massis, Bourget and Francis Jammes, but also by
men like Henri Gheon and Binet-Valmer. All these
discussions when so much action is needed are some-
what disconcerting.
It may be interesting to recall here another mani-
festo, that written by Gerhard Hauptniann, in Ger-
many, who had refused ruthlessly to take the olive
branch extended to him by Romain Rolland in 1914.
In 1918, shortly after the armistice, his tone had
changed; "A terrible experience," he says, "has
proved to us that hatred does not pay. . . . Relent-
lessly and awfully, God's designs have triumphed
over those of men. . . . For a thousand years, the
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
German nation has lived through no experience com-
parable to that of these latter days." . . .
For further data relative to the Rolland contro-
versy, cf. Vic, Litterature de la Guerre, i. 349-351.
CHAPTER II
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION— COMMENCING
ABOUT THE SPRING OF 1915
Some Soldier Types in "War No\tls
We now come to those books which relate
much more objectively than those referred to
previously, the facts connected directly or indi-
rectly with the prosecution of the war.
As the conflict progressed and assumed for-
midable proportions, changing its character from
that of a war of nations in which national and
political aims strove for mastery, to that of a
world war in which great human principles were
involved, it was both inevitable and imperative
that the Ij^ric and epic notes should die down.
In the spring of 1915, the more intelligent had
already realized how helpless are strong emo-
tions to solve great problems; that the old
''cliches" had served their purpose and that it
was time to discard them ; what the seriousness
of the hour demanded then was a deep, clear,
practical, sober apprehension of the realities of
the hour.
27
FRENCH LITELATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
The most immediate interest, of course, was
foeussed on the soldiers who were waging the
war. Some men of letters soon began to make
use of what had been for many years the most
common medium of art, the novel. "We must,
however, beg leave to draw here a sharp dis-
tinction between two kinds of novels dealing
with the war.
The one we will call War-Novel proper, in
which the authors work up documents or per-
sonal experiences in order to make us see more
deeply the significance of war itself ; they apply
the realistic theory of art which has been so well
defined in Maupassant's Preface to Pierre et
Jean; their aim is to rearrange facts in a manner
which is more exact perhaps than reality but
more indicative of the internal order of things,
and with a view to bringing out more convinc-
ingly than mere contingencies have done, some
aspects of the war which seem to them worth
emphasizing.
The other we will call War-Time-Novel; it is
the novel in which the war has been used merely
as a background for some storj^ not necessarily
connected with it. And of course it cannot be
denied that war offers wonderfully dramatic
and romanesque situations ; but there is probably
28
PERIOD OF DOCmiENTATION
no love story, no tragedy, no idyll, or intrigue of
any sort which absolutely requires war as a back-
ground ; the separation of lovers, jealousies, even
the Enoch Arden theme, or the marriage with a
man who has become a cripple, have no organic
connection with war.
We are not concerned for the present with
such War-Time-Novels, however great their ar-
tistic value may be (they will be dealt with at
the end of Part II) but only with War-No veLs
proper.
In order to estimate rightly the value of war-
fiction as a contribution to our knowledge of the
war, two facts should be borne in mind : the first
is that no account of any event can ever be alto-
gether objective; even the most matter of fact
war-diary has required selection (and consequent
rejection) of material, in its composition, and
moreover presents that material from the stand-
point peculiar to some one author; that selection
and that standpoint constitute the subjective or
fictional element in the work. The second fact
is that in a work which purports to represent
and to explain the war, the element of fiction
must be reduced to a minimum. The distinc-
tion between the two genres — War-novels and
29
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
War-diaries — thus tends to disappear, and what-
ever actual fiction there is in war-novels may be
legitimately disregarded in estimating their
value. Indeed the reading public makes so lit-
tle of that distinction that it very easily regards
war-novels as war-recollections ; and very rightly
so when the authors have had personal experi-
ence of the facts which they relate either on the
firing line, or elsewhere.
At the same time, since the authors are aim-
ing at giving to war novels as much aesthetic
force and unity as possible — which they accom-
plish by developing or condensing, or at any rate
re-focussing such episodes as they have espe-
cially selected — they must, if they are successful,
produce something which from an artistic stand-
point is superior to the mere chronological rec-
ord of war episodes in memoirs and recollections.
* * *
Three War-novels stand out as the best at-
tempts to depict soldier types of the Great War.
All three have been widely read.
The first is Rene Benjamin's Gaspard (1915).^
^ As a literary product, this book will hold its
own, not only against the other more recent war
books, but long after the war. Gaspard will re-
1 It was awarded the Prix Goncourt for 1915, and the
Grand Prix du roman, by the French Academy in 1916.
30
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
main a type in French literature, like Moliere's
Scapin, Daudet's Tartarin, Hugo's Gavroche, or
Aicard's Maurin des Maures. Indeed, the name
"Gaspard" has already passed into the language
to designate the intelligent, alert man of the peo-
ple of France, or rather of Paris, the man of
perfectly unsophisticated mind, who has a genius
for acting kindly, is always ready to help, is do-
ing, without any trace of self-consciousness, the
most beautiful things; he is picturesque in
speech, droll in manner, sound in mind as a red
apple, transparent as glass, true as steel. This
is the French soldier which the general public,
especiallj^ abroad, likes to imagine — and per-
fectly legit imatelj^; Gaspards are more likely to
be found in the French army than elsewhere, al-
though nobody would think that all French sol-
diers are Gaspards."
The second book is Bourru, soldat de Vau-
^ quois^ (1916) by Jean des Yignes Rouges. It
2 In 1916, Benjamin published another book, Sous le
Ciel de France, and more recently a third: Le Major
Pipe et son Pere which is discussed further on in this
same chapter, and since the war still another. Grand-
goujon (1919).
3 Vauquois, a promontory, like a sentry between Ver-
d\in and the Forest of the Argonne, the only sector where
the French, in spite of the most vicious attacks of the
Germans, never withdrew one inch.
The book was crowned bv the French Academy.
31
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
corresponds to the second period of the war,
when the hell of the trenches rendered the life
of the soldier much harder and stripped war of
much of the hero'i-romanesque which would oth-
erwise, to some extent, extenuate its horrors. Of
course, in Gaspard we had not really much of
war itself; we had the mobilization period, and
just two episodes on the front; after the first,
the wounding, nursing, and convalescence of
Gaspard ; after the second, his return home as a
cripple. Gaspard was still a civilian, accident-
ally drawn into the war, but who had kept in the
service his attitude of everyday life. For
Bourru, civilian life is a dear memory only,
he has become a soldier through and through,
and very few pages of the book are not pictures
of war, and of war of the fiercest kind in one
of the worst sectors on the whole battle line.
Bourru, unlike Gaspard, the quick-witted shop-
keeper of Montmartre, is a peasant from Bur-
gundy. He possesses all the intelligence, energy
and quietness of disposition of his race, but lacks
the cheerfulness of Gaspard; he is bourru ("a
grumbler"), but as a soldier he is just as brave
and good as Gaspard; and perhaps because he
has not that cheerfulness to help him out in his
trials he is the more admirable in his behavior.
32
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
Although not as entertaining as Gaspard, he rep-
resents probably more truly the average fine sol-
dier of France.*
The third book is Barbusse's Le Feu? It pic-
tures the soldiers in the trenches when the third
year of war was in sight. If the soldier could
still be courageous in facing grim reality, no-
body could expect of him, nobody, indeed, would
accept as genuine, the everlasting cheerfulness
of Gaspard; to expect even the good-natured
grumbling of Bourru would be a great deal.
And indeed Le Feu is most depressing in tone
and in its presentation of what people call the
most realistic descriptions of trench warfare.
Le Feu is by far the most-discussed book of
the war. What aroused so much comment —
praise on the one hand and criticism on the
4 Some very interesting: information is given in the
book about tlie underground warfare carried on by the
sappers and miners (for which topic see also ha. Guerre
souterraine by Captain Danrit). Two other books were
published in 1917 by J. des Vignes Rouges: L'Ame des
chefs, and a novel : Andr^ Rieu, offider de France, a psy-
chological study of a young "sous-lieutenant"' of 20, a
man of refinement, a poet, who knows how to remain
above the ugly realities of the war while in the war.
Jean des Vignes Rouges is the nom de plume of Cap-
tain Taboureaii.
^ Le Feu was awarded the Prix Goncourt for 1916.
When the war ended, in November, 1918, that is two
years after the publication of the book, 230,000 copies of
it had been sold.
33
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
other — is the tone of the book, which appears to
many to be not only realistic (which would be
legitimate) but in part plainly cynical. There
are those who see in so brutal a picture a sane,
even a necessary reaction against the silly opti-
mism prevailing in many quarters. The stupid
representation of the French soldier as thor-
oughly enjoying life in the trenches — as eager
for nothing save to die for his country, as charg-
ing the enemy always in a state of sublime exal-
tation, or, when lying wounded in the hospital,
as burning with impatience to return as soon as
possible to sacrifice whatever limb was left to him
— seemed to them absurd, unjust, and immoral.
Thus Barbusse, they would argue, was fully jus-
tified even in overdrawing the picture in order
to counteract such misconceptions.
But there are those on the other hand who lay
stress on another aspect of the problem. The
book -came out, they remark, just at the darkest
period of the war, when France was finding it
very difficult to keep up the spirits of her chil-
dren in the terrific struggle. It was therefore
very wrong, in such an hour, to speak words of
discouragement. It is not right to tell the truth
to a sick man when the truth may kill him, while
34
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
mere abstention from saying anything may allow
him to pull through.
Moreover, Barbusse has been charged with
producing a book which was realistic only in the
sense of "shocking," but not in the sense of
"true." An army composed of men such as are
described in Le Feu could never have achieved
what the French army did achieve. Further-
more, the squad which Barbusse presents in his
book is composed entirely of unthinking men, not
one of whom is capable of grasping the meaning
of the struggle.'' French officers and soldiers
have repeatedly protested against what they con-
sider Barbusse 's misrepresentations of the
French soldier; and they surely speak with au-
thority. They have sometimes characterized the
book as "criminal." A vigorous protest by
Major L. C. Elkenfelder, an Alsatian, appeared
in the Chicago Tribune and was reproduced on
May 19th, 1918, in the Sunday edition of the
New York Times.''
c On tliis point the reader should consult Mauclair'a
several articles in the Hetnaine Litteraire of Geneva, in
the years 1916 and 11)17.
T Here are the words of a man who has won great es-
teem among American scholars, Lucien Foulet: "Tlie
book contains some good, some bad; without entering
into any detail I will tell you that as far as the life of
35
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Our readers will of course recall the part
played by minister E,ichelieu, in the famous lit-
erary ' ' querelle du Cid ' ' ; the historian of the fu-
ture may have to examine the part of another
minister in the querelle du Feu. No secret is
made, especially in the last pages of the book
under consideration, of the author's disbelief in
the idea of patrie. The question then arose:
How was it that books much less outspoken on
much less paramount issues should have been
pitilessly censored while Le Feu was not ? And
how was it that this book belittling patriotism
should have been allowed to come out just at the
time when those very ideas were used by German
propaganda in a desperate attempt to create a
demand for peace in France? A plausible an-
swer was made repeatedly and openly: because
the minister of the interior was then Malvy,
who was later charged with treason; Malvy al-
lowed the book to pass (see the article in the
New York Times already mentioned).® A care-
the trenches is concerned, it is in no way a faithful ren-
dering. I have passed twenty-one months in the trenches
and I know wiiat it is. As for the language of the
'poilu,' he idealizes it from certain points of view, and
renders it extraordinarily vulgar at times." ( From a
private letter.)
8 Louis J. Malvy, Minister of the Interior in the Vivi-
ani, Briand and Ribot cabinets, was reckoned one of
the most astute political figures in France. It was in
36
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
ful reading of the book may, to some extent, ab-
solve Barbusse of any active intention to aid the
enemy. While, theoretically, he is opposed to
purely national pursuits and advocates human
ideals (he has again said so since the war is over.
See above, end of chapter I, pages 23-24), yet in
this concrete case of the Great "War he believes
that France is waging a just fight. In other
words, unless new arguments are brought for-
ward, one can only make this statement, that
German propagandists may have used the book
of Barbusse in a way of which he himself may
have disapproved. As far as the writer knows,
Barbusse never took the trouble to answer the
critics. This may be due to pride.**
July, 1917, that his position was first assailed. At that
time M. Clcmenceaii, later French Premier, charged that
M. Malvy was spreading "defeatist" propaganda among
the troops, and Malvy's resignation of his post as Min-
ister of the Interior was announced early in August.
In November, 1917, Malvy introduced in the Chamber of
Deputies a bill demanding that he be tried before the
high court, and the Chamber appointed a committee of
thirty-three to inquire into the merits of the case. This
committee submitted its report calling for Malvy's im-
peachment. On August 6, 1918, Malvy was found guilty
of holding communication with the enemy and sentenced
to five years' banishment. The sentence, however, did
not carry with it civic degradation.
9 Concerning the success of the book in America the
situation is about the same as in France, namely, that
it is quite possible that German agents helped in ad-
vertising Le Feu; but Under Fire was published by a
37
i
2070
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
The literary historian of the future will have
to take into account another fact when he comes
to discuss the case of Barbusse. It is that the
attitude which he assumes toward the soldier is
an effect of his morbid temperament. It was
Barbusse, it must be remembered, who a few
years before Le Feu, wrote L'Enfer (1908),
which is surely as morbid and impure a book as
any man might care to handle. There are many
ways of expressing views of life which bespeak
despair and disgust. Examples of this are
afforded by the literatures of all ages, from
Buddha and Omar-Khajyam to Leopardi,
Schopenhauer, and Baudelaire. But why
should Barbusse choose the most repulsive? It
seems natural enough that a man of his tempera-
ment should write about the heroes of the
trenches whom the war had thrust upon his at-
tention, in the same abnormal manner which he
had adopted in describing the repulsive, though
perhaps real, creatures of his former work."
firm (Button) which has shown strong pro- Ally tend-
encies and could therefore be blamed only for lack of due
caution. It was unfortunate that the translation came
out just at the time when American public opinion had
to decide whether or not America should enter the war;
it did not, however, affect the issue.
10 It is regrettable that, on strength of the success of
Le Feu, an American firm should have recently brought
out a translation of L'Enfer (under the title Inferno).
38
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
The writer would go even farther. Surely a
large part of the responsibility for the regret-
table popularity of Le Feu, in France as in this
countiy, rests with the public. It is partly an
effect of the modern craze for the sensational,
the abnormal, and the morbid. One thinks nat-
urally of a woman as a charming, graceful, kind
creature, and one considers it the duty of
"real," "true," "original" art, to represent her
as willful, masculine, and cruel. The normal
idea of a clergj^man is that of a conventional,
sincere, and honest man, but he becomes "artis-
tically" interesting only when he is represented
as unconventional, shrewd, satanic. Likewise,
the picture of a soldier which comes first to
mind is that of a vigorous, high-minded, heroic
fellow, but a book which represents him as shock-
It is still more regrettable that in a somewhat bombastic
preface, an American critic should have spoken of Bar-
busse as one of "the most distinguished contemporary
French writers" ("notorious" would have been better),
and of L'Enfer as of a "spiritual" book, one through
which "a cleansing wind is running." Naivete has its
limits; such judgments would certainly cause French
critics to smile. What is more serious, however, in this
matter is that the morbid scatology of the work is likely
to produce a very false impression, on the American
mind, of the type of novel which is welcome by the
French public, "it is a well known fact that many repul-
sive novels which have passed as French works, were
of German origin, and in the spirit of an insidious prop-
aganda, were intended to dishonor the name of France.
39
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
ingly non-heroic, homesick, and shirking hard-
ships, is regarded as the work of the "original,
superior artist " ; it would be terribly bourgeois
not to accept that distressing picture, and the
opportunity is good for one who feels within him
the soul of a Philistine to make himself appear a
person of superior judgment.
The reader who looks for strong sensations in
war literature because he thinks that the terrible
and the sickening are inseparable from that kind
of literature, need not read Barbusse's Le Feu
which leaves so distinctly unpleasant an after-
taste.^^ There are many others which one might
suggest in preference. Let him take up at ran-
11 At the beginning of 1919, Barbusse published an-
other war-novel entitled Clarte (Flammarion) , which
shows conclusively that he lias not paid the slightest
attention to all that had been said of his first war book.
Indeed, in many ways, it seems to be only a new edition
of Le Feu. The hero of the book is one Simon Pavilin,
a small clerk and a perfect Philistine, who takes life as
it comes, allowing himself to be led by society as at pres-
ent organized without protest or conscious reaction.
The war breaks out; he is called to the colors, and an-
swers the call ; he then sees and goes through all the
horrors pictured in Le Feu and repictured once more in
Clarte. As he lies wounded and delirious on the field
of battle, the thought comes to him that the people hav.e
always been led like cattle. That passivity of the peo-
ple, — not only in his own country, but in all nations in-
cluding Germany, — irritates him, and he dreams there-
fore, of destroying all national emblems and of working
towards the establishment of a Republic of the United
States of the World.
40
1
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
dom an}' of the war diaries which we mention
below, and he will not be disappointed. But he
will soon notice that although no writers who
have had experience of the war, can consistently
refrain from speating of its horrors, — and this
is true even of those who like Commandant
Henches and the author of Lettres d'lin Soldat
take up their pen with the deliberate purpose of
getting away from the atmosphere of war into
that of serene and quieting meditation, — yet
there is not one who has systematically taught
that war has no redeeming features; not one
who has failed to acknowledge that the war has
brought out beautiful traits in human nature,
and that even the humblest soldier participates
in that moral uplifting which human suffering
brings to every man, however lowly his station
in life.
Barbusse, apparently, would have us believe
that his language is that of an unprejudiced
philosopher. Let us now examine the work of a
man who might put forth a similar claim and
with better reason ; a man who is just as anxious
as Barbusse to avoid jingoistic talk. "We shall
see then what the attitude of an ante-war "in-
41
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
tellectual" can be when he has not the peculiar
bent of a Barbusse.
Adrien Bertrand's novel L'Appel du Sol
(1916) ^^ will never appeal much to the general
public because in addition to magnificent battle
scenes — some of which would not suffer by com-
parison with even such classics as Merimee's
Prise de la Redoute, — it contains long chapters
devoted entirely to philosophical discussions.
But the reader who is interested in ideas will
pronounce L'Appel du Sol superior to any of the
three books we have already mentioned.
In some respects it reminds one of Le Feu.
It is composed with marked artistic care; we
mean that its scenes are not mere photographic
or gramophonic reproductions of picturesque or
telling episodes, but are minutely and exquis-
itely worked out. The characters, too, are not
merely real, they are composed of traits care-
fully selected and skillfully worked up into con-
sistent unities ; and the whole work, like Le Feu,
answers thus perfectly to our definition of war-
fiction, as an artistic rearrangement of facts with
a view to bringing out, more vividly than real-
ity, some aspect or other of the war. Like Bar-
12 It was awarded a Prix Goncourt in 1916, — for 1914
when none had been awarded.
42
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
busse again, Bertraiid maintains philosophical
unity by grouping a few men who present not so
much ditrerent points of view as different as-
pects of the same general point of view. But
here we have reached the parting of the ways.
Barbusse has rather narrow socialist or anar-
chist inclinations, while Bertrand is an intellec-
tual of a much broader type. He does not, un-
der pretext of doing away with all sophistry or
hyprocrisy, pick out as sole representatives of
the soldiers men of no education whose words are
mainly expressions of distress at their material
privations or of revolt at the appalling slaughter
which arrests in them all thought, and reduces
them to the state of passive instruments of war.
Bertrand also reproduces the thoughts of the
common soldiers, but the words which he quotes,
even when the speaker is uneducated, do not sug-
gest an utterly ignoble philosophy. "When, for
instance, Angielli grumblingly remarks after a
fierce battle: "Ce n'est rien de mourir, mais
c'est dur de ne pas manger," his philosophy
(and there is a world of it in that short sentence)
is by no means of a sordidly materialistic kind,
nor is his attitude one of surly revolt against the
government which demands of him military serv-
ice. And, as we have elsewhere remarked, one
43
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
can give any coloring to the war philosophy of
the common soldiers by the selection which one
makes of their reported utterances.
But Bertrand introduces men of culture.
They are the officers who are allowed to con-
tribute a large part to the discussion of the prob-
lems which the war has raised. And, indeed,
why should they not ? Why should only the ig-
norant have a right to speak, as in Barbusse?
There is an interesting parallel drawn between
the two chief figures among those officers, Lucien
Fabre, a very young " Saint-Cyrien, " soldier
by profession who becomes philosopher by the
accident of the war, and Vaissette, ''agrege de
Philosophic, ancien normalien et Professeur de
lycee, ' ' philosopher by profession and soldier by
the accident of war. This Vaissette who repre-
sents the ''intellectual" in the war, Bertrand has
portrayed in a masterly way.^^ And then, there
is another clever parallel between Nicolai who
has learned warfare in colonial service, and the
young man (Fabre) who has acquired his knowl-
edge through courses at Saint-Cyr. These offi-
cers discuss of course chiefly topics related to the
13 Since Bertrand's book, that type has appeared often,
either in novels like Marcel Berger's (see below), or, es-
pecially, in war-recollections: RMier, Genevoix, Fri-
bourg, Malherbe, Delvert, etc.
44
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
war; they discuss the soldiers of Marathon, of
Cannae, of the First French Republic, of Mari-
gnan, or the courage of the Christian martyrs.
Their symposiums take place after or before, and
sometimes even during, an encounter. After
one of the great battles, our group of philos-
ophers walk to a cemetery, some distance away,
to talk over the slaughter that had just taken
place. Vaissette especially "was thirsting to
exchange ideas with some one in order to make
his own ideas clearer to himself" (p. 70).
It is interesting to notice how, all through the
book, Bertrand (who, before the war, had writ-
ten in a cynical vein Le Jardin de Priape, and a
play, La Premiere Berenice) endeavors to main-
tain an attitude of detachment, and eagerly
seizes upon incidents calculated to convince the
reader that he is not cheaply j-ielding to the ever
present dramatic note ; e. g., as the squad is about
to take part in a dangerous attack in which many
men are bound to die, Vaissette, in the course of
a discussion why the men are willing to lay down
their lives, remarks that they are all "sound
asleep"; the inference being that the determin-
ing factor in the momentous decision which they
take, is not the moral struggle within them, not
the sense of duty to the country which demands
45
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
the supreme sacrifice, but their physical fitness
or exhaustion at that time. Elsewhere, the dis-
cussion brings to light how easily the best and
most carefully laid plans may be rendered in-
effectual by the accidental interference of some
unthought of, and in itself unimportant event,
and seems to point to the conclusion that chance
is, after all, the ultimate cause of success or of
defeat in battle . . . Yoltaire's " pyrrhonisme de
rhistoire." The soldiers do not willingly accept
the idea that their readiness to die is not attrib-
utable to some purpose clearly realized by them ;
but when they try, each in his own way, to define
that "cause" of their devotion, one feels uneasy
in observing that they do 7iot seem to know why
they sacrifice their lives ; some say that they are
fighting because they were attacked, others that
it is to win back Alsace-Lorraine, others again
that it is to put an end to war itself, or not to be
worried again by the Germans, or because
France cannot be wrong. Again, it is evidently
not by an oversight that Bertrand left with-
out definite conclusion the following discussion
between two officers :
''My Voltairian soul has long doubted the ex-
istence of God," said Vaissette, "but this war
46
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
has helped me to pass from doubt to the cer-
tainty of his non-existence."
" — You would not say, I imagine, that this
war is a proof of the triumph of reason in the
world . . . ?"
This was from Captain le Gueri, who had just
joined the group ; and the conversation contin-
ued under the serene sky as the Captain added :
"You see in the war a condemnation of my
creed [belief in God], and I see in it a condemna-
tion of yours. This war means the bankruptcy
of reason! . . . The one thing that is certain
is that religion and reason have both proved
themselves unequal to the task of preventing this
gigantic folly of men, I mean this mad slaugh-
ter" (p. 250-1).
Bertrand goes no further with his argumenta-
tion, but the skeptic within him is compelled to
yield at last. In the magnificent chapter Pa-
roles avant la Bataille, we notice the first conces-
sion of the "intellect" to the moral beauty of
the great wave of sacrifice which the world-ca-
tastrophe had favored. Although he finds no
rational explanation of what he sees, his admira-
tion wrings from him the admission "qu'on pent
tout obtenir de I'etre humain" (p. 183) ; and
47
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
that ''tout" means heroism and sacrifice. And
before we reach the end of the book, we find
Bertrand adopting the metaphysical formula,
"Ce qui les dirigeait tons, c'etait I'appel de la
terre frangaise" (p. 245) ; this is as far as he
allows himself to go.
After the last battle described in the book, we
see Vaissette dying of his wounds. The philos-
opher in him is still on his guard lest his intel-
lect be deceived by sentimentality, emotionalism,
the hypocrisy of politics, or what not. When, at
that supreme hour, he asks the stretcher-bearers
for news of his fellow soldiers and officers, and
receives in reply to each inquiry the same mo-
notonous and tragic: "killed! . . . killed! . . .
killed!" his only answer at first is: "And so
am I ! " But soon his body is shaken by a con-
vulsion, and then, opening his eyes with great
effort, he murmurs as he closes them again for-
ever: "But France lives on."
# * *
A few words ought to be devoted at this point
to two belated war novels — of 1919 — which are
of the same order as the two just discussed.
Barbusse had few disciples ; he had some, how-
ever, probably the most original of them being
48
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
Leon Werth, who in his Clavel Soldat shows
with much brilliancy the same spirit of anni-
hilation as regards principles of patriotism, and
other bourgeois conceptions of life; moreover,
having done all his duty as a soldier, he feels
a right to speak and he does not hesitate to
say that war is as ugly as anything can be and
that there is no need to try and lie about it by
telling of the heroisms of all sorts which it en-
genders. Clavel, who thus wages war on war,
has found a volume of Rousseau's Confessions in
the trenches, and he reads about the idyll of
the Charmettes; he thinks: "this is life in-
deed"; . . . but he fails to reflect that the war
was fought by the Allies to bring about the pos-
sibility of- such a life.
The second of those novels is Jean de Gran-
villier's Le Prix de V Homme. But both the
content and the form would rather class it with
Bertrand 's Appel du Sol. The hero— really the
author as well — Lieutenant Miguel de Larreguy,
is a young man full of ardor who has been long-
ing for something that would make life worth
living: he finds the something in the trenches.
That is to say, he comes to the conclusion that
there is no condition in this world like war, to
49
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
call forth the best that is in a man. The ac-
counts of actual war experiences are equal to
many of the best in the best war books.
The same spirit of enthusiasm for the oppor-
tunities of war, with almost a mystic note added
to it, is found in Ch. Briand's novel, Le Sang
(1919).
* * *
There is in Marcel Berger's Le Miracle dii Feu
a delicate love affair interwoven with the ac-
count of the first weeks of the war ; but the main
interest of the work lies in the author's very keen
psychological analysis of a soldier's mind.
While Gaspard, Bourru de Vauquois, and the
men of the squad in Le Feu, are all uneducated
men who have sprung from the common people
of France, Berger's hero, a sergeant named
Michel, like Bertrand's, belongs to the class of
the intellectuals. But A^aissette, it will be re-
membered, had always studied life in the dis-
interested spirit of a philosopher and theor-
ist; Michel, who is also an educated man, had
used his knowledge and refinement for the at-
tainment of purely selfish ends. His attitude
when the war breaks out is frankly that of a
cynic. He has a good position which affords him
plenty of leisure, and he leads a comfortable, un-
50
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATIOM
eventful, sel:&-eentered life^ Emotion he has
banished as a disturbing factor ; he has remained
a bachelor because marriage imposes responsibil-
ities which he does not wish to assume. When
he is called to the colors, he joins his regiment
with some reluctance ; not, indeed, through any
sense of duty, but because by not doing so he
would bring trouble upon himself. Once in the
army, he is very anxious to avoid all unneces-
sary work ; he is friendly toward his soldiers not
by natural inclination, but because it is the
best way to avoid trouble; he strongly resists
any temptation to be carried away by patri-
otic sentiments ; the first daring deed which he
witnesses on the battlefield he explains away:
"a man who has no nerves." He watches over
himself, is ever mindful of the safe principle:
"each for himself in a fray like this"; he even
commits ungentlemanly acts, as, for instance,
when he stealthily exchanges his leaking can-
teen for a sound one which he takes from one of
his fellow soldiers. But, very gradually, and
very slowly, the sight of human suffering around
him, the courage displayed by the men, and the
genuine kind-heartedness of his humble compan-
ions, make him change his attitude; he deeply
realizes the tragedies caused by the death of
51
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
heads of families and of recently married men;
he is affected by the help that religion will bring
to some poor dying fellow ; and although he still
likes to think of himself as of a superior intel-
lectual being, he is already a changed man. His
beha\dor in the heroic days of the Mame (sector
of Ourcq) , shows how great has been the change.
He is wounded ; loses one leg ; and for some time,
in the hospital where he lies helpless, his old self
takes hold of him again; he revolts against life.
But the gentle consolation of a loving woman dis-
pels the threatening cloud, and his better self
triumphs in the end.
This is certainly one of the most painstaking
and thorough products of literature of the war
in the form of a conventional novel. It is the
best presentation of that theme, moral regen-
eration through suffering, which has so often
been treated since (in novels and in soldiers'
diaries, and on the stage) that it has become
not only commonplace but almost exasperat-
ing at times. This recurrence, however, can
certainly be taken as an indication that the war
has actually rescued many, — especially among
the intellectuals and the artists, — from a life of
discontent and gloom; that it has shattered the
dreams of some who had set themselves an unat-
52
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
tamable goal, has inspired others who were liv-
ing aimlessly, and, to all, has offered a definite
and beautiful task.^*
One of the most refreshing of the war novels,
— and one which the public received with evi-
dent pleasure, — ^is Marcel Nadaud's Chignole'^^
(1917). Chignole is a yomig Parisian, and, —
what is more significant — a child of Montmartre ;
Le Goffic called him appropriately enough,
"Gavroche avec des ailes. " He is intelligent
and witty ; and, conscious that his versatility wull
stand him in good stead in all circumstances, he
never worries. His philosophy can be expressed
in a very few words: '^Ne pas s'en faire."
From early boyhood he had had a vague interest
in mechanics ; he therefore went to work in a bi-
cycle shop ; later, following the movement of the
1* Berger's book was heavily censored, but two remark-
able passages wliicli were allowed to remain deserve to
be pointed out. Tlie first is Berger's definition of the
skeptic's attitude towards the war, in a speech which he
puts in the mouth of Fortin, one of Michel's fellow sol-
ders (pp. 87-94); the other showing the "miracle du
feu," in Michel's own words, just before a striking de-
scription of the offensive of the Marne (pp. 391-395).
15 A chignole is a special tj-pe of brace which aviators
frequently have occasion to use in all kinds of adjust-
ments of their machines. In Xadaud's book the word is
applied, as a nickname, to a picturesque young aviator
on account of his wonderful resourcefulness.
53
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
times, he obtained employment successively in an
automobile, and in an aeroplane factory. He
was just twenty when the war came with all its
splendid opportunities for a youth of his type.
The pilote who is supposed to be writing the book
has just raised Chignole from the rank of a me-
chanic (mecano) to that of observer. That
means, of course, that Chignole is going to fly;
and his enthusiasm, his energy, his taste for all
the most extraordinary and foolhardy adven-
tures, make him a figure worthy of the pen of
the writer of The Three Musketeers. Chignole
is at once wonderfully clever, magnificently he-
roic, profoundly touching and picturesquely ab-
surd, and retains withal a delightful childlike
simplicity.
Chignole could best be described as the Gas-
pard of aviation. Although the work was pub-
lished as late as 1917, — that is the same year as
the gloomy Le Feu, — Chignole has the same
spirit, the same irrepressible cheerfulness as
Benjamin's hero. The explanation lies in the
fact that the extraordinary vitality and alert-
ness needed for aviation work kept the men in
those units from experiencing the depression to
which the men in the trenches fell victims.
Every day they played with death, and there-
54
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
fore had no fear of it. Indeed, their foolhardi-
ness won for them the reputation of being, one
and all, crazy fellows;^*^
* * #
It is not to be wondered at that, after the war
had lasted three years, and its men and arms had
been celebrated in many books, the reading pub-
lic should feel that the theme of the hour, though
inexhaustible in itself, might, perhaps, be re-
newed with advantage by some fresh method of
treatment, or by laying stress on some aspects of
the war which had hitherto been neglected.
Several writers attempted that renewal. They
left the main stream of warlike events in which
the real fighting soldiers are winning glory, suf-
fering, conquering and dying, to explore what
may be called the backwaters of the war: the
very necessary, but much less glorious activities
behind the lines.
16 Chignole was not Nadaud's first work. Before the
war he' had written Coups de (Iriffe. . . . Pattes de
Velours, and Tendresses. . . . Tristesses. He has also
recorded his experiences in the Aviation Service in En
plein Vol, Slouvemrs de Guerre Aerienne, 1017, a book
which has had enormous success. More recently still, he
has published Les derniers Mousquctaircs, and Frangi-
pane et Cie — tolling the death of Chignole; and a biog-
raphy of Guynemer which, however, is much less elabo-
rate than the one written by Henri Bordeaux.
Of the same order as Chignole, is Badigeon, aviateiir,
by Lieut. G , pilote (loii)).
55
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Of the two novels we are going to take up here,
one deals with a half soldier, an " auxiliaire, "
the other with a man even farther remote from
military activities, a war-reporter — whose very
slight connection with military matters per-
mitted of his being smuggled into a war-novel.
The first is Marcel Berger's Jean Darhoise,
Aiixiliaire^'' (1918). It is a very long novel.
As we have already had occasion to notice in
studying Le Miracle du Feu, J\I. Berger has not
the gift of brevity. But the work is nevertheless
interesting, were it only as a document. Dar-
boise is a soldier who after being wounded at
Verdun, has recovered but is not well enough to
be sent back to the front ; he must therefore join
an auxiliary corps. In civil life he was an artist,
a designer, and he suffers greatlj^ at being kept at
tasks which might just as well be done by the
most unskilled laborers. He is sent to Dunkirk,
an industrial city and sea port in the North of
France : a place absoluteh^ devoid of interest for
a man of his mentality, and which, during the
war was frequently visited by German raiding
aeroplanes. His life there is minutely described
1" Auxiliary troops are composed of men who are phy-
sically unlit for duty on the firing line, but who are
valid enough for all kinds of fatigue work.
56
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
in all its wretchedness. The barracks are unat-
tractive; he therefore takes some poor lodgings in
town ; and from morning till evening, for the
glory of France, he unloads ships, helps in the
making of bread for the army, or does occasional
work in some factor^' or other. It is all dirty,
brainless, purely manual work. There is not
among his fellow soldiers a single congenial man.
They are the dregs of the armj^, ''rien que des
faces d'abrutis ou de brutes, les deux grandes
categories," and the officers who command them
are not much better than the men. To a soldier
who has known Verdun wnth all its horrors and
perils, but with its tragic beauty too ; for a man
who has enjoyed the companionship of the splen-
did troops of Verdun, the situation is well nigh
intolerable. After 150 pages, however, the pic-
ture is pretty well completed, and we enter then
into a regular psychological novel, or we should
say rather into two novels.
The first one is the romance of his love for his
family. One day, it is true, he becomes un-
faithful to his wife as a consequence of the de-
moralizing etfect upon him of that deadly dull
locality. His wife cannot understand, and they
are, for a time, estranged from each other.
57
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
The second is the story of the intense suffer-
ing of Darboise's soul. So great indeed are
those sufferings, that he can bear them no more
and he rebels against his lot and against the mil-
itary authorities. He is cast into prison from
which he is delivered by an attack of pneumonia.
In the hospital to which he is taken, he meets a
good and kind non-commissioned officer (whose
little romance also appears in the book) who
saves him from despair and reconciles him with
his lot and, later, with his wife.
All things considered, Jean Darhoise is a novel
of the same type as Le Miracle du Feu. It is
the story of the conversion of a snob to a man
of courage and worth. But since the conditions
under which an "auxiliaire" lives are less in-
spiring than those of a soldier of the Marne, the
final moral victory of Darboise is even greater
than that of Michel, the hero of Le Miracle du
Feu. Nevertheless the fact remains that Dar-
boise will never inspire the reader with the same
interest as Michel. In that respect, he remains
the victim of his surroundings; for the descrip-
tion of a dismal manufacturing town in war time
can never have the fascination of the relation of
battles and of other experiences of a soldier of
the first line. Even Jean Darboise of Dunkirk
58
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
compares unfavorably with Jeau Darboise of
Verdun/^
In spite of what has been said, — and even if
one takes into account the fact that a war cor-
respondent has necessarily a lesser claim to in-
terest than a soldier on active service — Rene
Benjamin's Le Major Pipe et son Pere (1918) is
distinctly inferior to Gaspard. A young jour-
nalist has shown a little more than contempt for
England's part in the war. One day, his duties
as war correspondent take him to the British
front, and later to England. He is received
with cordiality, nay more, he is treated with con-
sideration, and very soon he is won over by the
solid, comfortable organization of the English
18 If the whole truth is to be told, it must be said that
although the "will to live" and to suffer for one's coun-
try is the note with which the book closes, the disquiet-
ing thought thrusts itself upon one tliat the author has
inserted his conclusion rather as a matter of duty than
of conviction. One cannot help noticing tliat on page
203 he makes one of his characters say in reference to
Barbusse's Le Feu: "It is the sincere cry of a man of
genius, to which the heart of all France eagerly re-
sponded" (un genial cri de sincerite, accueilli dans toute
la France avec un immense soulagement) .
P. Coutras has also written a novel of the same
gloomy inspiration, Les Tribulations d'un Auxiliaire
(1916). The bitterness in the tone of Coutras's book
has been traced by some to personal experiences of the
author as a "soldat auxiliaire."
59
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Army and Navy, by the generous British way
of doing things, and by the simple, sincere,
hearty hospitality which is offered him. When
he returns to his own country, not only is he a
sincere Anglophile, but he is convinced that he
has "discovered" England. More than that, he
develops something which savors of a certain
contempt for the treatment which the French
government metes out to its soldiers. Those
thoughts he communicates privately to his wife.
It must be confessed that Benjamin has
yielded a little too readily, in this work, to his
taste for satire. It was not necessary that the
representative of the French press should be
represented as so vain and provincial. A more
delicate satire would have been quite as effec-
tive — even more so. At the same time, it was
a good idea to use that scheme to familiarize
the French public — who was even in 1918 in
need of enlightenment upon that subject — with
some aspects of the organization of the British
army as compared with that of the French."
The same criticism would apply to Grand-
goujon, a novel published by Benjamin after the
close of the war (1919). The adventures and
19 Cf. M. J. Aulneau, Au Front Britanmque, Tableaux
et recits d'un Observateur (Payot, 1919).
60
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
experiences of that Frenchman of forty, who
does not know very well whether he is in or out
of the army, is more the caricature of a type
than a real type.
# «: #
We would go far beyond the limits we have set
ourselves if we were to deal at any length with
the numerous volumes of short stories in which
types of soldiers are sketched — most of the time
by soldiers themselves. But we ought to men-
tion, by title at least, some of the best collections,
as Claude Farrere: Histoires de Quatorze Sol-
dats; H. Bordeaux: Jeimesse Nouvelle; Conies
Veridiques des tranchees,' par un groupe de
Poilus; Nouveaux Conies Veridiques, by the
same, and a third collection, Sous I'Ohus; Les As
peinis par eux-memes; since the war (1919), the
remarkable volume by Vignaud, Les Sauveurs
du Monde "contes suggeres par d 'horribles vi-
sions"; A. Arnoux, Le Cdbarei.
One special word about Pawlowski's Signaux
a VEnnemi (1918).2«
Cleverly illustrated by Gus Bofa, this little
volume of 225 pages has an originalitj' all its
own. It is a collection of very simple stories, the
20 For Pawlowski's other works, see chapter III, sec-
tion 3. ^
61
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
atmosphere of which has every appearance of
being more genuinely ''poilu" than that of any
other book that has come under our notice. The
pictures which the stories present are certainly
most "plausible," and, if one may be allowed
to use once more that much abused word, thor-
oughly "human." The principal story (which
gives its title to the collection) is an amusing
account of the excitement caused in a canton-
ment on the firing line, by the strong suspicion
that a spy signals to the enemy whenever one of
the men go up into an observation tower. Who
is the spy? Finally, but not before one of the
men has been arrested as a suspect, it turns out
that each time that some one goes up into the
tower, a number of frightened crows take their
flight from the roof into the open sky, and the
Germans have need of no other signal to inform
them that it is time to make a target of the tower.
War Recollections and Diaries
Introductory
If Bacon's definition ars homo naturae additus
be accepted, the war diary must be admitted to
rank much lower as a literary genre than the
war novel. Its artistic inferiority, however,
62
PEHIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
does not deprive the war diary of its title to 'be
regarded as the most characteristic li.erary
product of the war, and the most trustworthy-
source of information regarding certain aspects
of it.
War literature, as we have already .said, like
the war itself which gave it birth, is something
exceptional, abnormal ; and as Balzac has pointed
out in his preface to La Comedie Ilumaine,
nature, especially in times of great crises, is
vastly more prolific of what we regard as ex-
traordinary situations, than the most vivid im-
agination of any man could ever be.
The soldiers who saw some part of the war,
and who were able to handle a pen, realized
that truth and acted accordingly. Their man-
ner of recording their experiences is not, of
course, uniform, but the very large number of
volumes of war recollections is evidence enough
to show that the natural tendency of writers
was to "record" their war experiences rather
than to "re-create" them in the interests of
art. Moreover, writers took it for granted not
only that they might, but that they should speak
in the first person ; it was indeed important that
the "ego" of the soldier of 1914 should be re-
vealed with as little artistic draping as possible ;
63
PREl CH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
far f:*om marking any lack of modesty, that
simple self-revelation betrays rather a genuine
desire to be as truthful as possible; again most
of those recollections are less those of individuals
than of groups of individuals; they are, as it
were, impersonal recollections. As to the reader,
the times were too serious, the subject too im-
portant for him to be satisfied with anything less
than the whole truth ; he would have resented as
an act of bad faith any partial concealment of
the soldier's "reactions" whether good or bad,
whether heroic or disheartened. And now if
the picture which we obtain from a perusal of
those war recollections is on the whole a bright
one, that brightness must be attributed to the
inspiration which the men received from their
intense patriotism and from the consciousness of
the justice of their cause.
France produced during the war an ample
and beautiful harvest of war recollections. In
this she was faithful to her ancient traditions,
for it was from France that, at the dawn of
Modern Civilization, came those first and fairest
of epic poems which bore as their motta: Gesta
t>ei per Francos; and in subsequent centuries,
France has counted among her most famous cap-
64
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
tains men who also took rank among her most
famous Avriters; the old classic Brantome,
Agrippa d'Anbigne, La Rochefoucauld, de Retz,
Marbot, Stendhal and others, to say nothing of
men like Ronsard, Honore d'Urfe, and Descartes,
who, although they did not write on military
matters, had wielded the sword before they took
up the pen.
* * *
Among the military writers of the past, there
is one who has appealed particularly to the
soldiers of the present war, and whose works,
we are told, have been read more than those of
any others in the trenches (for the French
soldiers did a great deal of reading in the
trenches) — Alfred de Vigu}-. This popularity
of Vigny was due not only to the fact that he
was a shining light during one of the brilliant
periods of French literature, but because in his
classic Servitude et Grandeur Militaires (1836),
he had approached in a remarkably modern
spirit all the great problems which the war has
again thrust upon the attention of thinking
men ; such, for instance, as the questions whether
the idea of a citizen army as opposed to a mer-
cenary army is Utopian ; whether war is to last
65
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
forever or whether peace can be made to do so ;
and questions relative to the nature of patriot-
ism, of military honor, etc.
* * *
The first of these topics, — citizen armies, —
had been foremost in the minds of French
officers for several years before the war. The
first time since Vigny's days that the subject
had been presented to the French reading public
in such a manner as to create a deep impression,
was in Pingot et moi (1893), a very remarkable
work by Art Roe.^^
Pingot et moi immediately established the
author's reputation as an authoritative writer
on military topics. And Art Roe himself attrib-
utes his military writings to the inspiration of
Vigny's little book. He reminds us how clearly
Vigny had stated the great problem which con-
fronts all governments in this democratic age,
when he wrote on the morrow of the French
Revolution: "On ne peut trop hater I'epoque
ou les armees seront identifiees a la nation, si
elle doit acheminer au temps ou les armees ne
seront plus, et ou le globe ne portera plus qu'une
21 Art Roe (pseudonym for Patrice Malion) was born
at Lons-le-Saulnier, Jura, in 1865; he was a lieutenant
in the French army when Pingot et moi appeared.
66
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
nation unanime enfin sur les formes sociales";
and, after inquiring Avhat has been done since
1870 to re-form and re-create the army, he con-
cludes: "Le voeu d 'Alfred de Vigny est accom-
pli; notre armee n'est plus que la nation en
armes. "
Indeed it would be difficult for any one truly
to understand the modem French army, the
army that fought the Great War, without read-
ing Art Roe. The admirable spirit of coopera-
tion of chiefs and soldiers, which has been so
often and apparently so justly praised since
1914, finds its explanation in Art Roe's works.
It is that cooperation which differentiates the
French army not only from the German in which
the human rights of the individual soldier seem
so much neglected, but, to a very large extent
from the British army also, if the reports of
many Americans who have had opportunities of
observing conditions during the war are to be
trusted. And this achievement is the result of
much arduous, consistent and sustained thought
and effort. The title Pingot et moi is a program
in itself. Pingot is the orderly of the lieutenant
who relates the story; he is a good fellow "aux
bons grands yeux honnetes, aux levres volontiers
souriantes"; he is moreover an excellent soldier.
67
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Pingot is well treated by his superior who under-
stands that he is not a professional soldier and
not a "mercenary," but a man who has been
torn away from civilian life. In return for that
human sympathy, Pingot shows himself a de-
voted servant, ever ready to do anj'thing that
his chief desires him to do. He enjoys nothing
more than to be allowed to carry out an order in
his own way, and thus he develops a very good
spirit of initiative. The book does honor to the
great heart of the man who wrote it. Art Roe
takes up the same problem in his second book:
Mon Regiment Russe (1899). He is sent on a
mission to study the Eussian army, and is in-
terested to find how the famous general Drago-
mirov has solved the problem of developing the
soldier without suppressing the man. "Ou
trouver un systeme d 'education militaire respec-
tueux de la personne humaine et qui tende a
accroitre I'homme en I'homme?" (p. 166). It
will be seen from this that the problem, as under-
stood by our author, is not merely that of not
harming the man during the process of making a
soldier of him; he wants the officers to handle
the training in such a manner that it will actu-
ally have been of advantage to the man later on
when he returns to civilian life. There are in-
68
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
tensely interesting passages in Roe's second
book; that, for instance, in which he says that
Dragomirov's work in the Russian barracks
brought back to his mind a certain passage of the
Gospel : '' Je me suis souvenu de cette parole du
Christ: qui donne son dme pour I'amour de m&i,
la retrouvera" (p. 181).--
« * *
The importance of Art Roe's work cannot be
exaggerated. Fingot ct moi is the common an-
cestor of those officers' diaries which, together
with the diaries of the private soldiers, are our
most important sources of documentation on the
army's part in the war. During the twenty-one
years that elapsed between the publication of
Pingot et moi and 1914, quite a number of offi-
cers had succeeded in interesting the public in
their recollections and in their years of service
in the colonies. Baratier's Epopees Africaines
(author killed at Verdun) and Capitaine Cor-
22 The problem of the Russian officers is very different
from that of the French. Art Roe has expressed that
difference in the following manner: The Russian officer
has to develop the personality of the soldier by drawing
it out of the Russian mass, while our problem in France
consists in the making of a compact, tightly knit, homo-
geneous mass out of elements which are distinct and
strongly individualistic (p. 362). In both countries the
end in view is the same: that, namely, of forming an
army.
69
•.
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
net's La Conquete du Maroc are two of the best
known publications of that kind.
* * *
Two other works, written by much younger
officers, and dealing with the psychology and
philosophy of military life, were attracting a
great deal of attention on the eve of the war.
The first is Psichari's L'Appel des Armes (1913)
which, although it is presented in the form of a
novel, is nevertheless full of personal recollec-
tions. The mystic note of those pages, in which
the author exalts the profession of the soldier
to the point of saying ' ' War is divine, ' ' is very
striking.^^ The other is Nolly 's Gens de Guerre
du Maroc (1913) ^* which is, all told, a more
sober, and also a more solid work ; and one which
will probably replace Psichari's Appel des
Armes in the memory of men. Nolly is the
more direct continuator of the work of Art Roe.
His sympathetic study of the French soldier is
remarkably relevant, objective and keen. There
was absolute certainty in his mind after 1911,
that war could not be averted, but his confidence
23 This mystic note is even stronger in a posthumous
novel of Psichari's, La Teillee du Centurion, published
at the end of 1914.
24 Nolly is Capitaine d'Etanger's nom de plume.
70
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
in the sterling qualities of the army in which he
was serving was no less absolute.
"To those who know not the worth of the
sword of France because they have not seen it
thrust and slash ; to those who timidly waver, we
say: We have seen it, and we know. Take
heart ! We have tried the force which you en-
trusted to our care, and we vouch for its high
excellence. Some day it will work wonders in
order that the home of beauty and of good may
abide forever. . . . Lift up your heads ! ' '
No prophecies concerning the war have re-
ceived such astonishing confirmation from the
events as those of Nolly's Gens de Guerre du
Maroc.^^.
I. Philosophical Type — First Phase
The three men whom we have just mentioned
died very early in the war: Patrice Mahon
(Art Roe), who was then a lieutenant colonel,
fell at Sainte-]\Iarie-des-Mines, in the Vosges, on
August 22nd, 1914 ; Psichari was killed the same
25 For a detailed study of Psichari's and Nolly's pre-
war writings, and other pre war literature dealinor with
the war, the reader is referred to our study of "Le
Roman Militaire en France de 1S70 j\ 1914" {Publica-
tions of the Modem Language Association of America,
March 1919).
71
FKENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
day during the great retreat to the Marne, and
Nolly after being first wounded on August 10,
and again on the 31st of the same month, died
on September 3rd. They wrote nothing, there-
fore, regarding the war itself; but there were
many others who, at that time, were ready to
continue their work with pen as well as with
sword.
One of the first of the diaries to appear was
Paul Lintier's Avec une hatterie de 75, Ma Piece.
Souvenirs d'un Cannonier de 1914 (1915). This
work was at once recognized as one of excep-
tional and lasting value, as may be judged by the
fact that it ran through 53 editions before the
end of the war. Its author was promptly
awarded the Prix Monthyon by the French
Academy.
Paul Lintier was born in 1893. He was there-
fore only 21 when he wrote Ma Piece. After
being trained for a business career, he decided
to take up law, and while still in his teens began
to write. In 1912, he was enrolled in the 44th
regiment of Artillery and was made a quarter-
master in 1914. He was severely wounded on
September 22nd, 1914, but recovered and re-
turned to the front as lieutenant in July, 1915.
He was killed at Jeandelincourt, in March, 1916.
72
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
The freshness of impressions is what dis-
tinguishes his book from all others of the same
kind, for it was written before the intense emo-
tions of the first hours of the war had had time
to subside. It is indeed remarkable how, in later
writers, a familiarity of even a very few weeks
with the events of the war sufficed to dull the
keen edge of their sensibility, so that impressions
were received and registered with less conscious-
ness of horror, admiration or enthusiasm.^®
But in Ma Piece we still have the full vibration
of a young soldier's whole being; and because
that "being" is a noble instrument, we are abso-
lutely thrilled as he describes that first battle
(pp. 75-88) with its first dead; those first cries
and moans of the first wounded ; the tragic sud-
denness of the adjustment which the men had to
make to new conditions when they passed with-
out transition on that first morning, from the
enjoj'ment of the peaceful countryside and quiet
villages through which they had marched, to the
roaring of guns right ahead of them, and to the
sight of burning houses and long trains of dis-
tressed fugitives. . . . And, the next day, when
26 That remark is true even of Lintier's second book
which is a sequel to Ma Piece: viz., Le Tube 12S3, Sou-
venirs d'un Chef de Pidce, published after his death by
Plon, 1915-1916.
73
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
the men were running their "75" into position,
they heard the forlorn cry of a little girl, alone
and lost in that hell: cries of "Maman!
maman!" and they were distraught with grief
because they had to go by, and might not stop to
comfort the child (pp. 168-169) . . . Then it
was the retreat day after day, that long retreat
in which they were never beaten but never al-
lowed to make a stand; and it was the physical
exhaustion, and the need of sleep, and the de-
moralization due to days of incessant rain, and
the ghastly sight of long trains of wounded, and
the fixed idea, in the minds of some of the men,
that they were betrayed by their chiefs. . . .
And then, at last, it was the order to stop on the
Marne, and the wave of superhuman strength
that came upon the men (p. 209) . , . But
then, again, there came the vast fields of
slaughter, and the harrowing tales, in the
liberated villages, of the savage outrages of the
Huns (how they deserved the name!) so that
when some one in the battery suggested that the
war might last three months, he was greeted by
an angry; "Three months! but long before that
we shall all be creves de misere."
And nevertheless the "misery" lasted for
four years and a half !
74
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
• Let us quote this one passage (p. 166) :
"Ah! if I survive this hecatomb, how well I
shall know how to live ! I had never thought
that there was joy in the mere facts of breathing,
of opening one's eyes to the morning light, of
absorbing it, of feeling warm or cold, or even of
suffering. I thought that only certain hours in
life were worth living, and I let the others go
by. If I should see the end of this war, I shall
know how to detain each passing hour; I shall
make it a point to get out of each second of life
every sensation that it can yield; and it will be
to me like the feeling of delightfully cool water
passing through my fingers.
"It seems to me that I shall stop then at any
time, interrupt a sentence, stay a gesture, just
to repeat to myself : ' I am alive ! . . . I am
alive! . . .'"
The voung officer who wrote that did not live ;
neither did nearly two million of his countrymen
who surely felt as he did, although they had not
his powers of expression.
* * *
Maurice Genevoix's Sous Verdun, Aout 1914,
with a preface by E. Lavisse, (I9I5), was pub-
lished shortly after Lintier's Ma Piece.^^ Gene-
27 The reader will not, of course, expect to find in this
75
FRENCH LITERATURE OE THE GREAT WAR
voix 's talent is equal to that of Lintier ; he lacks,
however, Lintier 's spontaneousness ; but being
a more practiced writer, he compensates by
his consummate skill in working up his ma-
terial, for the relative lack of the direct pres-
entation of immediate reactions. Moreover,
Genevoix relieves by occasional flashes of healthy
humor the depressing gloom of the picture of
war. He relates many episodes in which cheer-
fulness gets the better of exhaustion, hunger,
suffering of all kinds, when the men heroically
make light of the most searching and painful
tests of their endurance; and we must bear in
mind that this was at a time when they were
not yet hardened to their new life; when they
were still keenly conscious of the horrors of the
war; when lying wounded on the field they
would still yield occasionally to despair, crying
out for their mothers, or imploring the stretcher-
bearers to remove them from the field, or to kill
them at once. Genevoix gives us also the bright
picture of a noble comradeship between two offi-
cers, men of very different types : the Normalien
Genevoix and the Saint Cyrien Porchon. The
general idea which the book brings out — that
book a description of the great battle of Verdun, for this
began only in February, 1916.
76
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
war, with all its hardships and cruelties, calls
forth manifestations of beautiful traits in human
character, and leads at times to a noble moral
exaltation, — is perhaps best summed up in the
naive language of honest Pannechon, the
author's orderly: "War is not so simple a mat-
ter as one would have thought at first. There
are some good things in it, and there are some
bad. There are especially bad things . . .
though, of course, one comes across some good
ones. Only, the bad, in war is first-class bad;
it is terrible, I would like to say . . .; and that
is why a little bit of pleasure is enough at times
to bring back to you a taste for life. One feels
that one could not stand suffering all the time.
One must nurse one's strength, for, after all, one
hasn't so much of it that one can afford to waste
it. We are only men, aren't we, Sir?"
We may remark here that as the war pro-
ceeded, the cheerful note grew fainter and
fainter in the volumes of war recollections;
humor either lost its lightness and became grim,
or it disappeared altogether in the same manner
as we have already noticed it gradually disap-
pear as we passed from Gas par d to Bourru, and
from Bourru to Le Feu.
The last words of the book inform us that
77
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Lieutenant Genevoix is about to leave for an-
other sector : Les Eparges. That word is suffi-
cient, for it is full of terrible associations. It
was there that his friend Porchon was killed
Februarj^ 20th, 1915. If the reader wishes to
follow the author in his later war experiences,
he should read his Ntiits de Guerre (1917), and
Au Seuil des Giiitounes (1918).
* * * *
Another early war book which met with im-
mediate success was the correspondence pub-
lished anonymously -^ under the title Lettres
d'un Soldat, Aout 1914 — Avril 1915, to which
Andre Chevrillon contributes a preface (1915).
Many of the letters had previously appeared in
the Revue de Paris. They are those of a young
soldier who after eight months and one day of
warfare, "did not return from an attack." He
was an artist in civilian life ; and all his inclina-
tions, all his education, all his aims in life, were
diametrically opposed to that which the war de-
manded of him; and these pages which he ad-
dresses to his aged mother reveal in what spirit
28 The author is said to be Eugene Emmanuel Lemer-
cier, who had earned before the war an enviable reputa-
tion as an artist. Cf. E. E. Lemercier, Peintures, Des-
sins et Croquis, with a preface by Andr4 Michel. Chape-
lot, 1919.
78
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
he accepted the task which was imposed upon
him.
Though evidently frail in body, he is mag-
nificent in moral strength. All his energy is
gathered up in an effort to resist the temptation
to moral relaxation in the midst of physical
fatigue. He must be very exhausted indeed to
fail to send home at least a short note whenever
the opportunity presents itself; and he keeps
constantly in touch, by his reading, with the
great minds of the world: Spinoza, Yerlaine,
A. France and the Song of Roland. He re-
members music with pleasure, not excepting Ger-
man music. Andre Chevrillon pertinently re-
marks in his preface that it was also during war-
time that Marcus Aurelius wrote his immortal
Meditatio7is.
While Lintier moves us by the relation of
striking war episodes, the anonymous author of
the Letters moves us by his determined effort to
get awav from the somber realities of the war
whenever he is off duty, and to re-temper his
soul by contact with what is neither low, nor
unclean, nor terrible, " J'ai eleve mon ame a une
hauteur ou les evenements n'ont pas eu prise
sur elle" (p. 23). And for a long time, this
artist, surrounded by what is repulsive, ugly,
79
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
revolting, triumphantly struggles : ' ' Take cour-
age, " he says to himself, "this, after all, is a
question of adaptation: a test of our higher
nature. ... I have made resolute vows to re-
main always in communion with God" (p. 27).
He neglects no opportunity of admiring na-
ture, which remains ever serene and beautiful.
It is remarkable, indeed, how often, in the midst
of the horrors which must have been harrowing
to a soul so delicate and refined, the word beauty
comes under his pen. He clings to beauty, and
where it is not, his painter's imagination creates
it for him. Once, when a severe bombardment
had driven his squad underground, and kept it
there for several hours, he catches sight, through
the narrow opening by which the dug-out re-
ceived ventilation, of a "beautiful tree" out-
lined against the sky, the sight of which brings
him comfort and renews his strength. . . . "Do
not think that I am indifferent to the awful sad-
ness of the sights which at all times surround
us . . . that sadness is the very reason for which
I cling to the higher consolation" [beauty]
(p. 52). "The beauty of the snow was deeply
moving" (p. 114) . . . " My heart was strength-
ened by triumphant beauty" (p. 119). "There
are hours of such beauty that those who see it,
80
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
are, for tlic time, immune to death" (p. 121)
. . . "the unspeakable beauty of certain sights"
(p. 122). And beauty, again, is the last word
which he uses in writing to his mother on that
sixth day of April, 1915, a few hours before he
was reported missing, just before the launching
of an attack the hazards of which he fully real-
ized : "Whatever happens, life will not have
been without its beauty" (p. 164).
It would probably be difficult to find in any
book a more convincing demonstration of how
suffering brings out the noblest qualities of man.
And our anonymous artist knows it and he is
profoundly' grateful for the intense suffering
which taught him to know his better self: "It
is paradoxical, as you say, but I have just lived
the most beautiful hours of my moral life. . . .
Be assured that there will always be beautj- on
earth, and that man will never be wicked enough
to stamp it out. ... I have gathered enough
experiences to fill a whole life. ^lay destiny only
give me time to bring all that I have gathered to
fruition. . . . There is one thing that no one can
take away from us, it is the treasure of the soul
which we have won" (p. 19). He expresses
sentiments which, in their loftiness, are truly
Christian: "Tell M that if fate strikes the
81
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
best, it is not unjust: the wicked who survive
will be made better thereby" (p. 23).
It seems, therefore, sad beyond expression that
this noble, energetic soul, after months of intense
physical suffering, should be made to feel that
moral heroism has its limits after all. He man-
fully refuses to acknowledge it to himself, but the
iour comes when the pressure put upon him is
too great, and, reading between the lines, we
see that his strength is waning : ' ' Dear Mother, ' '
he writes, "after weeping tears of revolt
[against the 'atrociousness of the situation'], to
which I have yielded all these days, I am again
able to say : Thy will be done! yes, I am regain-
ing composure" (pp. 128-129); and again:
"How comes it to pass that such horrors should
be?" (p. 137) and yet again, after telling her,
in order to give her pleasure, that he is to be
promoted to the rank of sergeant, and that he
has been commended for conspicuous bravery:
"But, dear Mother, how long the war has lasted !
too long, indeed, for such as felt that they surely
had a mission in life. . . . Will they not with-
draw me from here so that I may accomplish
something elsewhere? Why should I be sacri-
ficed while others who have not my gifts are in
safety? I had something to accomplish which
82
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
was worth while, but since it is not the will of
God that the cup be withdrawn, then, His will
be done!" (p. 139). No one who realizes the
intense moral anguish that this sensitive nature
had to endure, will blame him though he allowed
himself to pen the following sentences at the
close of a battle : ' ' Our losses have been fright-
ful; those of the enemy, worse. You cannot
imagine. Mother dear, what man is capable of
doing to his fellow man. For five days, now,
my boots have been greasy with human brains;
when I walk, I crush in chests ; I am now looking
upon scattered bowels; our men lean against
corpses to eat their scanty rations. The regi-
ment has behaved heroically. We have lost all
our officers. They all died gallantly. Two
good friends of mine are among the dead. One
of them had sat for one of my last portraits.
... I discovered his body on the battlefield that
night; white and magnificent under the moon-
light. I sat beside him for a while. The beauty
of things reawoke within me after a time. . . .
At last, after five days of horror, we have been
withdrawn from that scene of abominations.
Duty, effort" (pp. 135-136).
That man, so gentle, so refined and generous,
long refrained from any reference to his feeling
83
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
with regard to the Germans. He liked some of
their writers, and admired their music. But at
last he is driven to admit : ' ' Unfortunately, this
contact with the German race has spoiled for-
ever my opinion of it" (p. 147). Early in the
war, his indignation had once shown itself.
Commenting on the German practice of forcing
French hostages to march in front of their ad-
vancing columns, he had written: "If these
notes should be read by any one, may they arouse
in honest hearts a feeling of horror at the foul
crime of those responsible for the war. There
will never be enough glory to cover all this
blood and shame" (p. 16).
* * #
We feel that we ought here to mention, al-
though very briefly, a book which in some
respects may be regarded as a companion volume
to Lettres d'un Soldat: Major J. S. Benches'
A I'Ecole de la Guerre, Lettres d'un Artilleur,
Aout WU—Odolre 1916 (1918).^^ It affords
painful reading, for although Henches is a pro-
fessional soldier, the war with its attendant evils
29 Major Henches was killed in the Somme sector Oc-
tober 16, 1916. He had four times been commended for
bravery. He had specialized in anti-aircraft gunnery
and believed that the Zeppelin raids on Paris could have
been prevented.
84
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
is a source of intolerable suffering to him. He
declares himself incapable of grasping the im-
mensity of the senselessness which precipitated
the conflict. His words are not inspired by
anger, but rather by poignant, crushing grief.
His only hope is that the horrors of the war will
open the eyes of men and will serve to bring
about a permanent peace.
But he is a real stoic nevertheless. His
courage is equal to every trial. Very quietly,
and with never a word of complaint about his
lot, but with great admiration and sympathy for
his men, he goes about his work. His unit is
sometimes kept in action during eight long con-
secutive days from four o'clock in the morning
till eight in the evening, yet they never falter.
"What he prizes even more than the splendid
showing of the army, is that France, as a nation,
has arisen in arms, and has gone forward in a
fine unity of spirit.
We find repeated here the experiences of the
author of Lettres d'un Soldat. As the war goes
on, Henches' abhorrence of the Germans in-
creases :
"There are cases like the one of the infantry-
man whose wife has written telling him that she
is big with child as the result of having been
85
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
forced by a German, and asking him what she
must do: whether she should commit suicide or
whether she may live. ... It is possible to for-
give arson; one may account for murder by an-
ger, by fatigue, by a prolongation of the frenzy
of battle; but there is no absolution for rape.
, , . They had hoped in their pride and coward-
ice that they would meet with no resistance. . . .
I shall never, so long as I live, be able to suffer '
a German in my presence: they are all guilty!
That is the worst of war: it scatters seeds of
hatred" (p. 40).
"Are the Germans still to be regarded as
human beings?" Benches himself has ceased
to do so ; but he hardly knows what his feelings
towards them should be: "What seems to me
stranger still, is that I remember distinctly that
in the inferno of battle, I felt no hatred toward
the adversary. It seemed to me as a struggle
against a blind, brutal force in the reducing of
which that war machine, the gun, could alone be
of use, there seemed to be no call whatever for
any kind of sentiment" (p. 49). This idea oc-
curs in several war-diaries.
How one can remain "neutral" is more than
he can understand: "The sinking of the Liisi-
tania has filled me with horror. I am wondering
86
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
what is the matter, mentally and morally, with
those nations which do not rise up to destroy a
power capable of such atrocities" (p. 70).
And this Aristides, this just man, places on
record his appreciation of the attitude of the
Pope: "I have read that the Pope, in the in-
terests of religion, has refused to make any pro-
nouncement upon the justice of the cause of the
belligerents. As if religion had anj^thing to gain
by courting immoral beings. "What cowardice !
What an insult to Christ!" (p. 46). ^^
* * #
The next book which deserves to arrest atten-
tion is Lieutenant A. Redier's Meditations dans
la Tranches (1916).^^ It was written by a
young philosopher during the long drearj^ hours
in the trenches. There was no lack of time,
then, for thinking, for classifying one's thoughts,
for deepening them. Redier is a man endowed
with the loftiest qualities of soul, and with a
mind Avhich predisposed him to draw from the
war the highest teaching that it can yield. He
is, of all the writers upon the war, the most
direct successor of Alfred de Vigny. The title
30 Henclies' remarks upon Romain Rolland are quoted
elsewhere (end of Chapter I).
31 Crowned by the French Academy.
87
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
which he gave to his work is significant. The
Meditations in the Trenches are upon such topics
as Duty, Freedom, Glory, Power, the God of
Battles, Courage, Honor, Patriotism. , . . His
chief interest is the discovery of what moral good
F'rance can derive from the war, to compensate
in some degree for its abominations. He finds
that all is not loss; that the war has served
already to remind the French of their indebted-
ness to the founders of their present civilization ;
"In reviving former hatreds, the enemy has
forced us to think more of our dead and to get
into touch again with our past as far back as the
days of Joan of Arc and of Saint Louis." Then
the war has taught the French the better to ap-
preciate their own people : the brilliant educated
classes, and also the so-called lower classes, those
morally magnificent men who form the bulk of
the army. He protests against the term
"poilu" as uncomplimentary, because wit, alert-
ness, fine understanding are the distinguish-
ing qualities of the soldiers of the Great War.
Further, Redier emphasizes, as manj^ others have
done, of course, the remarkable fraternity of
feeling existing between officers and men : they
are really "Brothers in Arms." (In this he
shows himself a follower of Art Roe and of
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PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
Nolly rather than of Alfred do Vi^y.) In his
meditation upon Power, he develops the idea
which he states at the beginning of the chapter:
"that the war reminds us that Power is a
virtue."
One thought preoccupies him more than any
other; it is the thought of death, and avc find
it expressed on the very first page of the volume.
"I wanted to-night during my watch, to keep
my mind awake. I therefore meditated upon
death, and hence upon duty. I could have
meditated upon glory, but I wished not to be
dazzled by words. We are exposed here every
minute to a death which is glorious, it is true,
but which is nevertheless death." What is the
meaning of ' ' dying on the field of honor ' ' ? The
answer is offered him by a soldier who lies dy-
ing in great pain, his mind filled with thoughts
of wife and children: "The heroism of that
soldier consisted in the acceptance with resigna-
tion of his destiny" (i.e. death). This is all
that we need say. The slacker who hides in
some office at the rear is "harassed by the fear
of death," while the men who seek a glorious
death, — and there are many such, — are after all
merely satisfying a personal aspiration. That
kind of death is not the noblest. The death that
89
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
counts is that which is suffered ''for duty's
sake." The soldier must discipline himself to
serve some higher purpose.^- To accept this
moral discipline is of paramount importance:
"The first fruits of this slaughter will be a
knowledge of, and a taste for, our duties, ..."
"We used to seek for what life had to offer us
in the way of pleasure; and we consumed our
strength in the quest for comfort and well-
being" (p. 8). There is nothing nohle in that.
Returning to the same subject in another
chapter, he tries to be even more explicit : "To
what purpose shall we turn this discipline ? To
the acquiring of more freedom ? — No, for we had
too much freedom already ; we were cursed with
freedom. We were free to make what use we
thought fit of our lives, but we were slaves to our
comfort and to our habits.^^ We ought never to
have forgotten that all men are dependent upon
other men, or laws, or circumstances of all sorts."
"It is not a question of freedom but of order"
(p. 53). "We should not, however, go to the
32 In another chapter, however, Redier pays homage
to those who die for glory: "All do not fight for dis-
tinctions and medals; but all admire those who do; and
it is right that they should: how many there are who
have less exalted aims in life!"
33 This idea will be taken up again by Duhamel who
gives it much fuller development (see below).
90
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
other extreme: the choice lies between French
discipline — not freedom — and German tyranny"
(p. 52). "If France profits by the war, it will
be through a mental uplifting, by setting its
heart upon other things than its traditional pur-
suits" (p. 58), That is what must be achieved.
"Since 1914, nine French Department,s have
been paying a heavy price, in the form of cruel
slavery, because we freed ourselves of our obli-
gation to cultivate order and discipline during
the last forty years" (p. 59).^*
The idea that the war might teach the French,
who are so pieturesqueh' individualistic, a lesson
on the wholesomeness of discipline, is constantly
recurring in war books. And no thoughtful
person was surprised to see the same theme re-
peatedly taken up in America when the Amer-
ican youth were subjected to army discipline.
Indeed, the value of army training, apart
from any use that may be made of it in actual
war, lies in the mental training which it afford's.
This had, moreover, been emphasized by officers
long before the war, and particularly by Art
Roe who in 1893, in Pingot et Moi, had made the
34 The author develops similar ideas later in his
Tioyel Le Capitaine (1919).
91
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
following statement: "Militarj" discipline, once
accepted, becomes the law of a nobler life, and
leaves behind it that very Carthusian discipline
which Pascal opposes to it" (pp. 79-80). That
comparison of the part played by the Army in
teaching self-control with that which is played
by the Church, is not to be considered as a pass-
ing fancy on the part of Roe; he is speaking
with knowledge and deliberation. He fully
acknowledges the importance of the influence of
the Church on the life of the nation, but he
thinks that it is insufficient at times. Referring
to the days after 1871, when the Church had lost
so much of its prestige by having cast in her lot
with the Second Empire (which had led France
to Sedan) he bluntl}^ asks: "What was it, then,
that saved France from impending ruin ? I say
that it was the army!" (p. 94). Many people
have been inclined to think that the alliance of
Church and Army was one of worldly interests
only, but it would probably not be very hard to
prove that this principle of mental discipline
which is common to both institutions is the
deeper reason of that alliance. It may be more
than mere chance, and something altogether
apart from theological beliefs, that Joffre and
Foch and Castelnau and other great chiefs of
92
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
the allied annies should be faithful Catholics.
It was again that consciousness of the co-
operation of Church and Army which directed
that perfectly independent thinker, Adrien Ber-
trand, in his Appel du Sol (which we have al-
ready discussed) to put in the mouth of the
Catholic Captain de Gueri the following words:
"I welcome this war. Our country was in need
of it : for ever\i:hing at home was freedom, dis-
order and anarch}'. The pursuit of the war and
the government of the State show how necessary
it is that we should have order, discipline and
authority. The Germans had learned from our
fathers the value of these things ; and therefore
their country, where William II is as absolute
as our Louis XIV was in his day, plays in
Europe to-day, the part which France did in the
seventeenth century. To wield power as it
should, a state must be as orderly as the gardens
of Versailles. Nothing is permanent which has
not been consciously weighed. The Germans ac-
cepted that limitation of their liberties, with the
result that they have been marvelous organizers,
as we were in the past, as were the Romans whose
sons we are. . . . And if their powerful organi-
zation does not bring them victory, it is because
they are not yet sufficiently civilized. They are
93
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
still nothing but barbarians. , . . They have
not yet been sufficiently fashioned by the idea.
. . . They are not really pious" (pp. 142-3).
We have stated in the Preface of this work
why it was necessary for us to limit our studies
to a few books which must represent whole
classes of similar works. We shall therefore
cast only a cursory glance at two others belong-
ing to this group.
The first is Lieutenant Marcel Eteve's Lettres
d'lin Comhattant, Aout 1914 — Juillet 1916
(1917). This very young man, a student of the
Ecole Normale, started as a recruit, and died as
a lieutenant in an action so brilliant that it was
mentioned in army orders.^^
Eteve was one of those innumerable French-
men who are gifted in all sorts of ways; his
pages remind one of the Lettres d'un Soldat.
Like the anonymous author of the Lettres, he
addresses his mother; like him also, he finds in
music and in art a relief from the long night-
mare of the war ; and he too — although his style
is not uniformly grave, being occasionally even
quite picturesque and outspoken — finds at times
35 Three quarters of the company, including all com-
missioned and non-commissioned officers, were killed.
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PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
that the strain is "too much for human reason" :
"Blessed are those who have 'got their billet'
[les zigouilles] for their troubles are at an
end ! " ; and to avoid being overwhelmed with
despair, he takes refuge in the army order "not
to try to understand." Moreover, in his inmost
soul, he knows that he is fighting to put an end
to war, and he feels that if he escapes with his
life, he will have a right to be a pacifist.^*'
The other book that must be at least briefly
referred to is Dr. Emile Francois Julia's La Mort
du Soldat (Perrin, 1918). As days of warfare
are added to daj's, and months to months, and
years to years, the admiration of this soldier,
who is also a thinker, goes less to the great gen-
erals and strategists at the rear, and more and
more to the men in the field, and to the officers
who accompany them : to the fighting soldiers,
the "soldats soldatants." Those are the ones
who act; their thinking is not deep, but it is
adequate: "as for us we do our duty, that's
all" {Nous autres, on fait son devoir, vaila tout) .
36 Et4v<s sppnt much of lii^ spare time in readine, and
some of his literary appreciations are interestinj;. For
instance, although he is very far from being irreligious,
he judges with severity E. Psichari's VeilMedit Centurion
as lacking in genuineness, and he speaks with little rev-
erence of L'Appel (les Amies: "That one,"' he says,
"grates terribly on my nerves."
95
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
And that duty is to defend the fields, the home,
the loved ones, and also — for the soldier realizes
it, though only vaguely perhaps — "to defend
the universal conscience which Germany has out-
raged." Julia's hatred of war is as deep, per-
haps deeper, than that of earlier writers we
have mentioned.^'^
* * *
A book which belongs to the same general
class as the preceding, but must be dealt with
separately on account of a ver}^ great difference
in tone, is Georges Bonnet's L'Ame d'un Soldat.
The book was much praised by some when it
came out early in 1917, but it has since fallen
into comparative oblivion. It was written at a
time when the war had lasted a few months,
but not long enough for one to realize what an
enormous strain it would put upon the endur-
ance of France and her allies; at a time when
to some people like Romaiii Rolland, an attitude
37 If space allowed, here would be the place to study
also two books of war recollections and letters, which are
interesting as coming from men of strongly religious
bent: one destined to become a Catholic priest, the other
a Protestant clergyman. The first is I'Ahbe Chevoleau
(Ambulancier) , caporal au 90' d'Infanterie, by Emile
Bauman ; the other is Roger Allier, sous-lieutenant au
lie Chasseurs Alpins, in Memoriam (1917); they are
the young man's letters published by the family. Both
died during the war.
96
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
of detachment seemed a mark of greatness; in-
deed, L'Ame d'un Soldat seems in some of its
parts, to be a kind of new edition of Au-dessus
de la Melee.
The author discusses the mental pictures
which people have formed of the soldier of the
great war, and also those books describing the
**soul of the soldier," which have helped to form
those pictures. The attitude of a judge which
Bonnet assumes and evidently enjoys, causes the
destructive part of his work to outweigh the
constructive. His business is to destroy
"legends." Does the "heroic soldier" dear to
the imagination of civilians exist ? — No ! Does
the conventional ' ' Boche ' ' exist ? No ! Is there,
as some have said, a revival of the religious
spirit among soldiers? — No! Some maintain
that the soldiers now despise those republican
institutions which were powerless to avert war;
is it true? — No! . . . And yet, after this holo-
caust of cherished beliefs, Bonnet admits that
the French soldier is not a coward, that the
Boche is not always gentle, that the seriousness
of the times has led the soldiers to give thought
to the mystery of human destiny and to the
problem of death ; he admits also that the soldier
hates autocratic rule, etc. . . , All considered,
97
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Bonnet is simply a man who refuses to grow
enthusiastic over paradoxes, but who, at the
same time, does not wish to think like everybody
else; so that his love for the distinguo prevents
him from making any forceful or really helpful
statement. He does not even deal fairly with
the questions which he is discussing. For in-
stance, he writes : ' ' cruel, unintelligent, in-
capable of initiative, always ready to run away
from danger, such is the classical picture of the
Boche. " But is that the conception generally
accepted? Surely no intelligent man ever be-
lieved it ; there was therefore no need for a long
refutation of what no one believed who really
counts.^^ And what is to be thought of the fol-
lowing commonplace? — "Will the soldier, when
he returns, be selfish in consequence of his sol-
dier 's life which favors self -centered thoughts ? ' '
— "There is no need to entertain fear on that
score," says Bonnet, "for while the returning
soldier will work with more eagerness for him-
self, he will be better able to contribute indi-
rectly to the general welfare." If, therefore.
Bonnet's book has not the dogmatic tone of some
other war time publications (see Benda, Lote,
38 It would have been much more interesting if Bonnet
had named some of the books at which he was aiming.
98
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
Sageret, Lysis, etc., in the following chapter),
neither has it the vigor nor the originality of
these. Bonnet will be liked by people who have
no taste for strongly expressed opinions. His
book affects one as would the report of a
psychologist who, watching his own daughter die,
had set aside his paternal sentiments in the in-
terests of science. If Bonnet is not a monster of
indifference, he surely cannot escape the reproach
of being an insufferable pedant.
II. Philosophical Type — Second Phase
In 1917 the war entered upon a new phase.
It was at first thought that it would last a few
weeks, then a few months, then possibly a year,
then two years, then three; until, finally, all
attempts to guess how long the war might still
last were given up for fear of inability to bear
another disappointment. Nerves seemed to be
the only thing that "kept one going"; and at
the same time they were the very thing that
rendered the situation unbearable.
America had now joined the Allies ; but it was
impossible yet to gauge the time or the extent of
her cooperation upon the battlefield. Mean-
while, the submarines wrought havoc on the
transportation of food and munitions; and the
99
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
pacifists were wailing out their sinister gospel,
helping the perpetrators of brutal crime, and
doing their worst to dishearten those who were
fighting for justice.
Literature, of course, could not but betray the
dreadful state of mind of the French people.
It was inconceivable that authors should retain
a calm philosophical attitude. They did not.
But neither did they wish to appear to be weak-
ening. — Better, then, say nothing at all? — But,
of those who set their teeth and still chose to
write, some made their readers mistake their
grim expression of suffering for a smile, while a
few others kept on describing the state of their
souls; but they described them as they were, i.e.,
as keyed up to a point which seems beyond the
powers of human endurance: they showed that
their capacity for pain had increased by long and
incessant training, so that their system had be-
come like a most sensitive instrument registering
even infinitesimal waves of pain brought about
by the eruelest of irresistible and senseless fates.
* * *
Adrien Bertrand was one of those who as-
sumed the tone of the smiling philosopher, in
the volume which followed his alert and vigor-
ous Appel du Sol It was in 1918 that appeared
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PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
his Orage siir le Jardin de Candide, a book of
recollections and comments in the form of phil-
osophical essays reminding one of Diderot's
Romans or Renan's Dialogues, keen, racy
and full of grace. The first essay is in the form
of a symposium attended by Candide, I'Abbe
Coignard, Yaissette (of the Appel du Sol), Pick-
wick, Don Quixote, Faust (the ''boche") and
x\chilles. The title indicates clearly that Ber-
trand was attempting the Voltairian style.
What did he mean? Had the sincere and fear-
less writer really become a cj'nic ? No, indeed, —
for intense suffering renders superior beings bet-
ter, not worse ; moreover, after all the appar-
ently light comments, his closing word uttered
by Candide as he looks at the devastated garden
is Travaillons! But let us recall the circum-
stances. Bertrand had been wounded beyond
all hope of recovery,^" and it was on his hospital
cot, and in the full consciousness that day by day
his life was ebbing, that he wrote his Orage sur
le Jardin de Candide; he knew that his country-
men had hailed him as one of the promising w'rit-
ers of younger France ; and thus he was passing
away with fame, sweet fame, ready to smile upon
39 A wound in the clu'st had been followed by pul-
monary tuberculosis from which he slowlv died.
101
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
him. To assume in such circumstances the style
of a cjTiic was heroism ! It was, on his part,
a wager with death ; a wager that the gloomy
prospect would not crush his spirit. This vol-
ume reminds one of the cry of the famous stoic :
''Pain, Pain, thou dost not constrain me to ad-
mit that thou art an evil. ' ' ^^
* * *
Some one might perhaps be inclined to offer as
explanation of the supercilious tone of Bertrand
(in 1918) that he had ceased to be an eye wit-
ness of the horrors of the battlefields. We do
not think that that explanation could be re-
garded as psychological!}^ sound, in view of the
ever present image of impending death. At
any rate such an argument would not hold in the
case of the best example of that kind of writing,
Jean Giraudoux's Lectures pour une Onihre
(1918)."
Giraudoux had signed in 1912 a book which
had the grace and elusiveness of morning mists ;
its humor consistently light, was sometimes keen,
40 After his death a book of verse by Adrien Bertrand
wag published, Yierge de Cypris, of which it is not pos-
sible to say with certainty whether it was written before
or after the commencement of the war.
41 The book is dedicated to "Andre Dufresnois, dis-
paru," who is probably the "shade" for whom the "read-
ings" were prepared.
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PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
but more often subtle; it was appropriately
called L'Ecole des Indifferents. Since and
throughout the war, Giraudoux maintained that
same attitude of detachment. His Lectures
pour une Ombre are neither boisterous nor grim,
nor do they depend for their effectiveness on any
exaggeration. If at any time he shared the emo-
tions of France and of the rest of the world, he
does not betray them.
At the outbreak of hostilities, he joined his
regiment and went through the tragic first six
weeks of the war with a smile on his face. The
trials of the flesh seem to have been non-existent
for him ; in the midst of blood, fire, mud, and the
roaring of guns, he remained perfectly serene.
Giraudoux made notes on the battlefield, but
did not however write his story until later, after
''years in the trenches" (p. 281). And this is
indeed the miracle: that he could have lived
through three years of horror after the first six
weeks of the war, without changing anj'thing in
his attitude, and should even then be able to re-
count the story of the battle of the Marne with-
out any trace of emotion, just as if he were de-
scribing an evening spent at the Palais Royal.
Giraudoux tells us himself that he took down in
telegraphic style the report from the General
103
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Staff to his unit on Sept. 6tli, 1914 (we refer to
Joffre's famous order of the day), but that he
was: "not particularly moved by it, for we are
used to receiving, like a telegraph clerk, all sorts
of orders of the day" (p. 170). We must admit
that — extraordinary as it may sound — the whole
book impresses one as genuine; there is nothing
in it that would justify a suspicion of pose, or
of desire "d'epater le bourgeois"; nor is the
tone cynical. It would seem as if, really, in the
midst of the most stirring events, Giraudoux
found a sort of sly satisfaction in calmly noting
down the drolleries of the situation. ' ' The Ger-
man trenches are only a few yards in front of
ours. It is raining death. Jalicot, just to tease
the Germans, shouts to them : ' Surrender ! give
your answer in French so that there may be no
misunderstanding ! ' The Germans, who, accord-
ing to their habit, took the challenge in all seri-
ousness, answered by an earnest: Non! Non !
then they shouted to us to surrender, and we
answered in chorus, using, all of us, one and the
same word : m . . . ! And they were very much
annoyed because fhey had answered politely"
(p. 236), Another time Giraudoux finds him-
self in the midst of wounded men begging pa-
thetically for relief. He has nothing to say of
104
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
their distressing appeals, but he notices a young
theologian who, believing in the immortality of
the soul, dares not use the words "I am dying,"
in endeavoring to attract the attention of the
doctor, so prefers to say: "I exist no more! I
am ceasing to exist!" (p. 239). When Girau-
doux rises in the morning, his mind full of the
previous day's fighting, and with the certainty
of more fighting to come (for this takes place
during the battle of the Marne), he admires the
sunrise and calmly describes it: "A fine day.
The fact once admitted that one has to get up,
one ought to judge of the weather without prej-
udice. The sun leaps from cloud to cloud; the
cloud that contains it is bathed in gold. The
sky is light blu^, with deep blue patches. Au-
tumn continues to pluck one by one the yellow
leaves from the elm trees, while at each moment,
great limbs are torn off by passing shells" (p.
241). And after the victory has been won,
when the troops pass through the reconquered
villages, and the people come out to greet them
with every sign of intense joy, and with tears of
gratitude, Giraudoux again has eyes and ears
mainly for odd incidents: "A blind is cau-
tiously opened and the head of a sister of charity
appears at the window." When the good sister
105
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
recognizes the uniforms of the French soldiers,
she flings up her arms and exclaims : "lis sont
partis, les cochons! ils sont partis!" (p. 271).
In another place, girls come out and pour bottles
of perfume on the soldiers' hands, and, when al-
lowed to do so, on their heads; while a woman
hands to the soldiers, through a cellar window,
pots of jam, cheese, and other victuals ; some
even thought that the soldiers would appreciate
"eau de botot" for cleansing the teeth (p. 278).
That is the tone of that astonishing version
of the battle of the Marne, which would surely
have surprised even the author of The Ring and
the Book.
Let us repeat that this kind of style is evi-
dently a paradox ; but it is surely an heroic para-
dox. For it requires a remarkable amount of
self-control, of indomitable individuality, to go
through the experiences of Giraudoux without
becoming infuriated or mad or melancholj^ or
sick with disgust or even heroic in the usual
sense of the term; so that, while the book pro-
duces on the reader a sensation which is abso-
lutely siii generis, and while it affords curious
reading, it must be confessed that it is in no
wise moving.^-
42 Since the publication of Lectures pour une Ombre,
100
PEKIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
Among the expressions of a sensibility which
has become almost morbid through an excess of
moral suttering, Andre Fribourg's Croire, His-
toire d'un Soldat, should be singled out as of the
very best.^^
Croire, like Le Feu, is the story of a squad, but
the reaction of the author of Croire is not that
of an emotional artist in whom suffering arouses
revolt ; it is that of a sensitive soul of the Pascal
type, who understands that man's capacity for
suffering is the sign of his greatness: "L'homme
n'est qu'un roseau, le plus faible de la nature,
mais c'est un roseau pensant. II ne faut pas
que tout Tunivers s'arme your I'ecraser. Une
vapeur, une goutte d'eau suffit pour le tuer.
Mais quand I'univers I'ecraserait, I'homme serait
Giraudoux has written a little book entitled Arnica
America; it is illustrated and was published by Emile
Paul, Paris. In 1918, he published a novel which was
written before the war and which bears the title: Simon
le Pathetique. Tlie reader will scarcely need to be told
that the word "pathetique" is to be taken cum grano
salis.
43 Croire was awarded the Prix Sobrier-Arnould in
1918, and the same year the Academie des Sciences, Mor-
ales et Politiques awarded the Prix Audiffred to Fri-
bourg's Les Martyrs d' Alsace et de Lorraine, d'apres les
debats des conseils de guerre allemand-s ( 1916) . In 1918
he published another historical work, Le Poing Allemand
en Lorraine et en Alsace (1871, 19 IJ,, 191S), 10,000
copies of which work were sold in a very short time.
His previous works dealt mainly with the history of the
French Revolution.
107
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
encore plus noble que ee qui le tue, parce qu'il
salt qu'il meurt, et I'avantage que I'univers a
sur lui, I'univers n'en sait rien. Toute notre
dignite consiste clone dans la pensee. ..."
Fribourg repeats words of protest and of re-
volt; but he searches deeply what caused them,
and he always has a sympathetic attitude, for
to know all is to forgive all. Moreover, those
outbursts of despair are only temporary; the
good side, the lofty, heroic side of human nature
always asserts itself; often it manifests itself in
the form of la gaiete frangaise which assumes un-
der Fribourg 's pen a deep significance. The
book offers painful reading at times. Fri-
bourg 's masterly pen carries the reader along
and makes him live in imagination through those
hours of absolute exhaustion resulting from fa-
tigue, cold food, and the everlasting dampness
of the trenches. One must read those pages de-
scribing the depressing effect produced by hour
after hour, day after day of incessant rain (pp.
86-90) ; and also the description of the mourn-
ful hours of waiting in the trenches, where the
soldier, perfectly helpless under fire, yet per-
fectly conscious of his situation, lives in hourly
expectation of death. . . . ''After fourteen
hours, death is still here. It plays with us,
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PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
brushes against us, withdraws, comes back, leaps
to the right, hurls itself to the left, growls to the
rear, then rises, flaming, in front of us. . . . Min-
ute after minute bombs and shells explode. . . .
How sad is that death which threatens us. The
consciousness of our individual impotence is
crushing. . . . How could we strive against the
omnipotent machine, against that tearing force
which, within the next second, perhaps, will
blindly scatter the fragments of our bodies?
This is not the w^ar of which we dreamed in
August, a cheerful singing war in the broad sun-
shine ! We had hoped for epic contests, and
we are going to die, ground to dust by iron
shards, thrown by an invisible hand, at the bot-
tom of a ditch, in the mud" (pp. 135-6). One
must read also the terrible episode of the sol-
dier whose mind suddenly gives w'ay under the
stress of waiting and whose mad cries may be-
tray to the enemy the presence of the squad so
that his friends are obliged to seize him and gag
him lest he should bring upon them all a certain
and immediate death (pp. 128-130) ; or again
the description of the attack in which 300 men
set out and only four returned.
The originality of Croire, however, lies in the
theory which it expounds. The title and sub-
109
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
title expresses it well. Croire, histoire d'un sol-
dat. Without knowing it, the French soldier
had set out in obedience to a noble impulse. Of
this he became clearly conscious only very grad-
ually, through the medium of the sufferings
which he was made to endure. But from the be-
ginning he was loyal, even from before the be-
ginning. As early as 1911, the German menace
had prepared the mind and heart of the soldier
for the events of 1914. This is remarkably well
brought out in the Prelude to the War Diary,
Aux Manoeuvres d'Argonne, Pendant I'e Coup
d'Agadir. Fribourg assures us that he has
therein reproduced his notes as he took them
down on the spot. Pacifism was in those years
rampant in the army ; the men made no secret of
their feelings in the matter and openly expressed
their detestation of war. Fribourg is careful to
emphasize this fact. Each time that anything
annoyed them, they would noisily protest : ' ' Ah !
they '11 never catch me here again, never ! never !
When I get out of it, I'll make a bee line for
London, and make a declaration that I intend
to take up my residence permanently there ! . . .
I'm sick of it!" (p. 17). Or . . . "Morocco be
damned!" — "I'll not go and get my face
smashed by the Germans" — "Let the capitalist
110
PEEIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
bosses do the job if they want it done!" (p. 24).
Or again when a cyclist is jokingly told by one
of his fellows that his helmet gives him the ap-
pearance of a Prussian, "Prussian or French-
man," he answers without the slightest hesita-
tion, "one is as good as the other!" (p. 28).
And yet, at bottom, they did care; they felt
the thrill of marching through the villages at the
sound of the band. A great wave of love of
France and of liberty came over them as they
rehearsed a charge; and when they saw the ad-
mirable manoeuvering of the artillery and of the
aircraft, they felt a pride at belonging to the
army of France. . . . And when the evening pa-
pers brought unpleasant news concerning the
Morocco situation, the spirit of the poilus of 1914
was already manifest in the tone in which they
said: "Those fellows are getting on our nerves
at last!"
That sporadic feeling had grown and was
ready for its full expression when the call to
arms came in August, 1914. Once more, in Fri-
bourg, we have a confirmation of the oft re-
peated statement that France was fully con-
scious of what was happening, in the description
of the fateful minutes of farewell, of tragic si-
lent, heroic farewell. ' ' Moments which resemble
111
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
no others. ... I know that I am living through
an experience infinitely great and infinitely rare ;
a flash which will illumine and sanctify a life
to its last moment; I know that one never can
feel again such emotions as those which are fill-
ing my heart ; and yet, all at once, in the midst of
my joy, an unlooked-for anguish lay hold of me ;
it is short, indefinite ; for I have thought that
the enthusiastic songs which sweep over the har-
vest fields are proclaiming that lovely peace is
dead, that her form is even now being wrapped
in a shroud" (p, 43).
Now we come to the war itself. After the first
long taste of it, after weeks had been spent in
that deadly Bois des Chevaliers, when the men
have learned what war really means,*the exalta-
tion of the first moments yields to resignation,
but a resignation which one accepts only because
it ennobles; it is the gift which comes to those
who know the worth of sacrifice.
"War, thou art an act of faith and of renunci-
ation. . . . War, we have given up everything
to thee: wife, and family, and our heart, and
more than that, our minds of which we were so
proud. War, we have endured, in obedience to
thy law, humiliations, mortifications, suffering;
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PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
our life is naught but watching and fasting and
silence; we have become, for duty's sake, poor,
equal and chaste; we are struggling against the
cold, against the mud, against the gloomy power
of shells; we are scourged with bullets; the
thought of death is ever with us; like Trappists
we bury our dead brethren, and in digging our
trenches we are preparing our own graves.
War, who teachest without willing it the good
and the horror of force, thou art full of sadness
and of greatness, of supreme joys and of bitter
despair ; thou art a fiery trial which kills or pur-
ifies ; tliou bringest new men out of thy crucible
and thou savest them w^hile they, through their
sacrifice, redeem their brethren who fight not,
as also the disasters which overtook their fathers,
the impotence of the weak and the faults of the
dead" (p. 149-150).
And the book closes wdth a confession of faith ;
a confession which comes as a refrain in each
chapter, and which becomes more and more def-
inite each time, yet remains so broad that all
faiths are included in it: "Let us learn how
to love, to suffer and to die, that is, let us learn
to believe. Let us in the broadest sense of the
term ielieve, like the martyrs of all causes ; like
113
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
those believed who were first to fall in August,
1914, who went to their death with songs upon
their lips" (p. 252).
The word "believe" as used by Fribourg is
very plain and simple, but it grips one in a
strange manner as one proceeds with the read-
ing. At first the reader gathers no clear concep-
tion of what is implied in the smooth running
text, but it all becomes clear to him when he
turns to the last chapter.
The man who wrote Croire had left for the war
full of health and strength; he was discharged
in September; 1915, and returned with sight,
smell and taste considerably impaired. He had
to set about reeducating himself with touch and
hearing as almost the only senses. The reference
to his return to his class work in Paris, his meet-
ing with the youths whom he had taught before
the war forms one of the most pathetic passages
of the book. No attempt was made either by
teacher or pupils to express in words the emotion
of the reunion ; but the substance of many elo-
quent and moving speeches was conveyed by the
attitude, the very silence of the pupis. It
was evident that all knew what had happened,
but that all felt that it was a matter too delicate,
too sacred for words, and that silence was the
114
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
best and only adequate medium to express all
the complex emotions of the moment. One can-
not help thinking, in reading that premiere
classe of Fribourg, of the well known and touch-
ing derniere classe of Daudet.**
* * *
The second, — and the best type of book of this
kind, — though affording even more painful read-
ing than Croire, is Henry ]\Ialherbe 's La Flamnie
au Poing (1917).*=^
Malherbe analyzes the state of mind of the sol-
dier who has reached the limits of human endur-
ance, and who yet, by some super-physical force,
still manages to "keep going." The author's
naturall}^ sensitive soul has become distressingly
so after three years of strain. In this work the
reader will find no more references to the pangs
of hunger, the painfulness of wounds or the
4* Fribourp: is professor of History and Geography at
the College Chaptal, Paris.
45 This work was awarded the Prix Goncourt for 1917.
It is worthy of note that the men who award that much
coveted prize have shown really wonderful skill in select-
ing each time, if not necessarily the intrinsically best
book of the year, yet the best representative of the
special nuance of literary evolution. Their choice for
1915 was Benjamin's Gaspard ; for 1916, it was both
Bertrand's Appel du Sol and Barbusse's Le Feu
(there were two in 1916 because one was left over from
1914) ; for 1917, La Flamme au Poing ; and we shall see
that their choice for 1918 was no less happy.
115
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
feeling of physical exhaustion which earlier
writers so frequently insisted upon who wanted
to make their non-combatant readers realize
that heroism consists less in spiritual exaltation
than in the endurance of material privation and
in the exertion of physical strength. It is not
that Malherbe ignores or denies the reality of
these things, but rather that he has ceased to suf-
fer as a physical being, because the tortures of
his mind are so much greater. There is some-
thing truly Dantesque in those pictures of tor-
tures of the flesh, which have become to him
merely symbols of moral pain. He lives in the
company of abstract beings: Memories, Love,
Death, which haunt him, which are themselves
but pale reflections of some metaphysical real-
ity: " Our actions during these months of agony
are not prompted by our poor little human
selves, but by some higher power"; and the sol-
dier of the Great War is resigned not to under-
stand : "we are working at some mysterious task
which must surely be very great ; when shall we
be worthy or clear-sighted enough to catch a
glimpse of the hidden motive of all the violence
that is done us?" (p. 85).
He is haunted by gruesome memories of the
battlefield which are more than he can bear,
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PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
What should he do? "Can it be, oh my lost
friends, my tormented brothers, that some day I
shall forget your features, and the untold sac-
rifices which ye made, poor heroes ! . . . No ! I
feel that I must keep in mind those pictures and
portraits, so fresh, so perfect in their brilliant
and bitter realism that they cannot be dimmed
by any nightmare or any vision of feverish brain.
But I cannot, I dare not, describe with accuracy
all that distress; it passes the strength of my
heart, my poor heart torn with pity, and over-
whelmed with grief. And, I confess it, I am
afraid that too real an evocation of those scenes
would make me live over again those daj'S of
ferocity and death" (p. 58). . . . "Oh! that I
might escape from these infernal regions!" (p.
96). . . . "Who are those sl}^, criminal, shame-
lessly cruel enemies? Are we fighting against
armies or maniacs?" (p. 99). So used have the
soldiers become to living in this atmosphere of
death, that they also are as dead men.
Malherbe's pictures— as has been said — are
not real in the sense of faithfully reproducing
what he has witnessed; rather are they images
meant to evoke in the mind the tortures of his
soul. The reader may like to read some samples
of that style. Sometimes he attributes even to
117
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
inanimate objects a capacity for moral suffering,
as, for instance, in his descriptions of the dev-
astated villages: "Here are some wrecked
homes, sadly surprised to see their wounds re-
flected in the running stream; there, some old
homesteads to the battered roofs of which some
red tiles still cling : infinitely pathetic old dames,
they seem, shaking with the palsy and groaning
with pain, their heads wrapped in their red
plaid kerchiefs. And farther on, silhouetted
against the angry sky, are the pitiable and
battered forms of limping and rusty plows
and broken carts and wagons. And all these
things move one as if they were living beings
kneeling down before one, bewailing their sor-
rows and begging for pity or for revenge"
(p. 62).
And here are a few other characteristic
sketches :
"A 304 fell among us. It crashed through
one house without exploding, passed through the
wall of another and burst. Of the sixty men
who were there, thirty were killed or wounded.
One man was cut in two through the stomach.
He crawled away on his hands in a river of
blood, leaving behind him the other half of his
body, and howling as he went. . . ." (p. 83-4).
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PEFilOD OF DOCUMENTATION
"They told the captain not to venture out, for
the fort was being heavily shelled : ' Wait ! ' they
said. But he answered ; ' No matter, we must
relieve our comrades who must be exhausted by
this time. Forward ! ' And they went. A 210
shell fell right among the company; thirty men
were killed outright. The captain's head was
found four days later" (p. 93).
"A miserable grave marked by a cross made of
two sticks; and on it the inscription: Zouave^
Chasseur??" A first time the corpse was bur-
ied ; a shell unearthed it. They buried it again.
A second shell brought it out once more. There
was a third burial at the hands of sad, pious,
devoted comrades. But a third shell has again
thrown into the air those ghastly remains. And
now they call him the Clown. When shells fall
round, and they see mud and bones thrown up,
they say: 'Whj', there's Gugusse on the jump
once more!' — What malediction is pursuing
that unknown soldier?" (pp. 168-9).
And then in chapter XVIII {The Descent into
Hell), he tells of an officer who has lived through
such a succession of hideous scenes, that he ac-
tually believes that he has sojourned in heU and
has learned many things unknown to ordinary
119
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
mortals: ''I know that I shall not return after
the war. What is even more tragic is that I
recognize those who are marked for death as I
am, all of whom will be to-morrow my comrades
beneath the ground" (pp. 206-7).
In September, 1918, Malherbe published, in
La Grande Revue, Le Jugement Dernier. It is
a remarkable piece of poetry in prose: the rev-
erie of a soldier from the moment that he real-
izes that he must die of his wounds, to the mo-
ment of his passing away. It is — if we may so
speak — a piece of soul-vivisection. He takes the
suggestion made him by the surgeon, that he
should go home to die. There, as one already
dead, he communicates with those whom he has
left behind . . . mother . . . wife . . . child . . .
brother and friend. He also sees passing before
him his past life. He sees himself at the age
of fifteen when his mind timidly began to work ;
then at twenty when his thoughts are filled with
love dreams (Fernande, Margot, Sophie, Made-
leine) ; and again at thirty on the eve of the war.
Finally, he describes his absorption into Na-
ture, he feels himself melting and vanishing into
the great mysterious All. . . . He finds it diffi-
cult to realize his connection with the infernal
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PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
realities of the ]\Iarne and of Verdun; and j^et
it was his experiences of the battlefield that had
delivered his soul from the thraldom of things
material.*''
* * *
Malherbe 's book reveals the intensity of moral
agony which the war has brought to a man of
refinement and culture like himself (as Fribourg
had done, though less despairingly', in Croire).
But Dr. Georges Duhamel has made himself the
interpreter of the so-called lower classes; he has
shown in them an equal capacity for intense
moral suffering which reveals refinement of feel-
ing not generally attributed to people in that
station of life. His Vie des Martyrs has there-
fore been greeted as one of the finest war books,
one of the most "poignant."
Physicians, indeed, occupy a prominent place
among the writers who have made valuable and
reliable contributions to the literature of the war.
In a general way, one can say that physicians
form one of the most cultivated classes in
46 The reader may be interested in still another book
of sorrows: Andre Delemer, Pelerin il utile, blesse de
Tauquois (1918). In this book, the author expresses, —
with outbursts of bitterness at times. — his despair at
seeing his life broken by his mutilation. The story is
told of a lady who fainted when some passages of this
book were read to her.
121
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
France, which fact, combined with the excep-
tional opportunities that they have of observ-
ing human nature when stripped of the veils of
conventionality and the masks of civilization,
renders their testimony unusually authoritative.
They are more accustomed than others to wit-
nessing dramas which are not comedies, and dis-
plays of cowardice — or maybe of courage — in the
presence of death, or at the operating table ; this
renders them more moderate than others in their
appreciation of war scenes. They are not so
likely to overestimate the influence of present
events on the human machine, because they, of
all people, are in a position to judge when and
where the war has. added something to human
reactions.
Quite naturally, these men have felt that they
had something to say which was worth saying,
even if it had nothing to do with military opera-
tions or with episodes of an epic character.
A number of physicians, therefore, have writ-
ten books which have been widely read. Among
them are Le Courage (Alcan, 1917) and Le Ca-
fard (Grasset, 1918) by Drs. L. Huot and P.
Voivenel. But those two works are of a sci-
entific, rather than of a literary character.
Then, there is Leopold Chauveau's Derriere la
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PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
Bataille (1917) a valuable collection of episodes
from ambulance and hospital: snapshots, as it
were, of Keratro, the Breton, with a fractured
skull; of Renard, whose Herculean chest has
been torn by shrapnel ; of Leroy who is ever
cheerful and hearty in spite of his crushed leg;
of Cazalis who comes from Nice and howls even
before he is touched; and of Massou, the canni-
bal from Algeria, a big, trustful, but unbearable
child. Facts are allowed to speak for them-
selves; sometimes they are, of course, very de-
pressing, but sometimes, too, they are comfort-
ing; for nothing has yet been found that is so
true a criterion of human nature as the way in
which sorrow and pain are endured. There is
also La Marsouille *^ by Paul Fielle, to which
Dr. G. Dumas contributes a preface (1917) ;
and Un Medecin de France, Lettres d'un Me-
decin Aiuciliaire, 31 juillet 1914-14 avril 1917,
with a preface by E. Boutroux (1919),
But Duhamel has won undisputed preemi-
nence among physicians who are also writers.
Long before the war, he was well known in the
realm of letters. He was one of that group of
writers and artists who, ten years ago, had ar-
47 "Marsouille" is the nickname piven to the ambu-
lancers who pick up the wounded on the battlefield.
123
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
ranged to live together in the communistic col-
ony "I'Abbaye," — a kind of French "Brook
Farm," — so as to stimulate each other in their
artistic efforts. Among his associates were men
like Jules Romain, author of La Vie TJnanmie;
Ch. Vildrac, author of Livre d' Amour; Rene Ar-
cos; and others. Duhamel had occasionally
written for the stage ; his La Lumiere was pro-
duced at the Odeon, and his Le Combat, at the
Theatre des Arts. He had also written two
small volumes of poetry: Des Legendes, des Ba-
tailles, and Compagnons; and two volumes of
critical essays : Propos Critiques and Les Poetes
et la Poesie. He was especially interested in the
new technique of versification, and was regarded
as an authority on Vers libres. It was for this
reason that he was appointed reviewer of poetry
for the Mercure de France in succession to Pierre
Quillard.
The war was to reveal to Duhamel a new world
and to turn the poet and the physician within
him into a philosopher. He was by no means
naturally addicted to emotionalism : a fact which
lends authority to his estimate of the French
soldier. The "sweet reasonableness" of his
book makes it a most effective antidote to the
sinister pessimism of Barbusse's Le Few, as well
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PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
as to that shallow optimism of the authors aimed
at by Barbusse, who dipped their pens in sub-
limity, and saw in every French soldier a smil-
ing hero, cheerfully accepting any sacrifice for
his country. To the optimist, Major Duhamel
opposes that poor human machine, naturally
yielding when the power of resistance flows out
with the life blood, and for which he has nothing
but sympathy; while to the dogmatic pessimist
of the Barbusse type he opposes the quiet and
beautiful resignation of many a plain *'poilu"
who has received from nature a great reserve of
moral strength, — and the number of these
greatly exceeds the number of the discouraged.
Throughout the book, one feels that his observa-
tion is sound, is fair to the individual because it
is based on an intelligent appreciation of each
case. But the effect upon the reader is not less
distressing than that produced hy Malherbe's
book; it awakens an immense compassion for
those whom Duhamel has so appropriately called
"Martyrs," and who very frequently are
''Saints" also.
Major Duhamel was long stationed in a cha-
teau transformed into an hospital, not far from
the front, in Artois, near Kheims. That means
that he was in unceasing personal touch with the
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FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
grands Messes, i. e., those men who were too seri-
ously hurt to allow of transportation further into
the interior, and who required immediate surgi-
cal attention. At a later day he was sum-
moned with his unit to Verdun; it was at the
time when the great battle was in progress, and
there again he saw many of the most desperate
cases.
One could not, without spoiling them, repro-
duce in abbreviated form the tales of sorrow, —
sometimes of hope, — which Major Duhamel has
so graphically told : the long suffering of ' ' Carre
and Lerondeau" ; the "Sacrifice" of the two legs
of Leglise: the story of the German officer in
"La Troisieme Sjonphonie"; the little gem
called "La Grace" which tells how poor Gre-
goire who, having received the gift of "grace,"
did not "know how to suffer," and therefore
"suffered much more than the others," while
Auger "knew how to suffer" and was perfectly
happy, and was ashamed because the fine ladies
who visited the hospital gave him all the candy
and cigarettes; and how he found a touching
way of passing some of it to Gregoire without
hurting the feelings of the "pouter."
Some examples of Duhamel 's style ought, how-
ever, to be given. The following bits of transla-
126
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
tion are by Professor H. Isabelle Williams of
Smith College : "«
Were modesty banished from the rest of the earth it
would doubtless be found hidden in Mouchon's heart.
I can still see him being brought in on his stretcher,
covered with gravel, his soldier's cape heavy with
mud, and his fine frank face of a well-bred child.
"Have to excuse me," he says to me, "you can't
keep very clean. . . ."
"Have you got vermin V asked the orderly undress-
ing him.
Mouchon blushes and is embarrassed :
"Oh, if I have any they wouldn't belong to me,
that's sure — "
He has no lice, but his leg is broken "on account
of a bomb."
They cut open his breeches, and I prepared to have
his foot covering removed. Mouchon put out a hand
and suggests timidly :
"You might leave my shoes on."
"Why, old chap, we can't dress your leg without
taking off your shoes."
Then Mouchon, red with emotion:
"But if they take off my shoes ... it will
smell. . . ."
I have often thought of that answer. Believe me,
Mouchon, I have not yet met the prince who is worthy
to remove your shoes and wash your humble feet.
« « «
48 They were first published in Medicine and Surgery,
December, 1917.
127
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
From his belly there comes forth a bundle of bloody
dressings and the odor of rotten intestines. With
great precaution the doctor seizes the dressings with
his forceps and draws them carefully out. A sun-
beam illuminates the whole thing; the frail shack
trembles with the cajinon's roar.
"I am a well known dealer in china," mumbles the
patient. "You are from Paris, well, so am I. Save
me and you'll have something; I will give you a fine
piece of china."
Little by little the dressings are dxawn out, the
forceps shine and the sunbeam seems to tremble, so
heavy is the cannonade, as tremble also floor, walls,
slight roof, the earth round about, and the very uni-
verse dull with fatigue.
Suddenly coming out of space, a yawling moan
begins, increases, cleaves the air above the frail shack
and the shell explodes a few feet away with the sound
of a cracked object breaking.
The thin walls seem to sway beneath the rush of
air. The dbctor moves his head slightly merely to
see, as it were, where the thing may have fallen.
Then the china dealer, noticing the motion, says in
a peaceful voice:
"Don't you pay any attention to those what-you-
may-eall-'ems . . . they ain't dangerous. You just
save me and I'll give you a fine piece of china, or of
earthenware, just as you please."
The cause of the trouble is not so much the crushed
leg as that slight wound in the arm which has let so
much good blood escape. His lips are livid, hardly
128
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
distinguishable from the rest of his face, the pupils
of his eyes are dark, immense, and from his face there
shines forth a soul undaunted tliat will not j'ield till
the last moment. He takes in, almost disapprovingly,
the ruin of his own body, and watching the surgeons
busily scrubbing their hands, he speaks in a medita-
tive voice :
"You will tell my wife that my last thought was for
her and my children."
Oh, it was no roundabout question, for without
hesitation the man yielded his face to the ether mask.
The echo of his solemn words still resounded in
the room.
"You will tell my wife. . . ."
There is no attempt to dupe this manly soul with
weak consolation — mere words. The white blouse
turns around, the surgeon shows moist eyes behind
his glasses and with deep feeling answers:
"We will not fail to, my friend."
The patient's eyelids tremble — like the motion of a
handkerchief on a steamer that is putting out to sea,
— then, breathing-in the ether, he sinks into a shadowy
sleep.
It was his last, and we did not fail to keep our
promise.
* m
Mehay nearly died, but is not dead. Therefore all
is well.
The bullet perforated the helmet, but barely touched
the bone. The brain is all right. So much the
better !
Taking just time to wake up, reach a few times in
129
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
memory of the chloroform, and Mehay looked with
eager eyes at everything that was going on around
him.
Three days after the operation, Mehay got up.
And as far as that was concerned, it was simply use-
less to forbid it; he would have disobeyed for the
first time in his life. Taking his clothes away from
him was not to be thought of, the brave keep their
boots on !
So, Mehay got up, and his illness was quite done
with.
Every morning Mehay got out of bed before day-
light and seized a broom. With neatness and dis-
patch, he made the room as clean as his conscience.
He forgot no comers; he knew how to reach softly
under the beds without waking his sleeping comrades
and without worrying the sufferers. Between times
he passes the wash basin or the "pistolet," and he is
as gentle as a woman in helping to dress Vossaert,
whose limbs are stiff and painful. At eight o'clock
the room is very clean, and as they are about to begin
the dressings, Mehay suddenly appears in a white
apron. He watches my hands attentively as they
come and go, and he is always at the right place to
offer the sponge to the extended forceps, to pour
alcohol or draw up a bandage, for he learned at once
how to bandage very cleverly. He does not say a
word, he watches. The bit of his forehead visible
above the bandage is furrowed with concentration
and it bears the blue marks by which one recognizes
the miner. Sometimes it is his turn to have a dress-
ing. But the moment his turn is over, he stands
130
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
there, his apron over his stomach and silently hastens
his activities.
At eleven o'clock Mehay disappears. Has he gone
on an errand? Here he is again with a big tray
loaded with bowls, he makes the romid.
At evening he brings the thermometer, and helps
the orderlies so well that he leaves them little to do.
All the while, beneath their dressings the bones of
his skull are knitting, and the red flesh starting to
grow. But that calls for no attention. "That can
take care of itself." A man can't remain idle, he
works and trusts to his blood "which is healthy."
In the evening, when the night lamp sheds its light
through the room and I enter on tip-toe to give a last
look, I hear a voice spelling laboriously S-p-oo-1,
spool. Mehay is learning to I'ead before going to bed.
» « *
The lamp is left lighted, for the men are not yet
asleep, and are smoking a bit. You have, of course,
to see your smoke, otherwise what's the goo.d of
smoking.
I go over toward Cronin Octave. I sit down near
the bed and say nothing.
Successive cannonades burst forth in nocturnal
space and the entire room resounds like a well tuned
drum.
Cronin turns toward me, his face lost in its band-
ages, and puts out a leg bathed in sweat from under
his covers, for his fever is high at this hour. Nor
does he say anytliing; he knows as well as I do that
things aren't well with him, but he hopes all the same
that I shall leave without speaking.
131
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
No. It has got to be. I lean towards him and say
softly the necessary thing. He listens and his chin
begins to tremble. That boyish chin of his with its
blond down.
Then with his country accent he says in a tearful
and shaky voice: "I have lost one eye, an' if I've
got to lose my hand. . . ." The one remaining eye
fills with tears, and as his sound hand is exposed I
press it gently before gomg away.
* * *
When my fingers approach his blind eye Cronin
starts back slightly.
"Don't be afraid," I say to him.
And he adds with calm pride :
"When you have lived on hill 108, you can never
be afraid of anything any more."
"Then -why do you draw back?"
"It's my head that draws back. I don't know I
do it."
And it is true; the man is not afraid but the flesh
remains timid.
When the head bandage is nicely placed, what re-
mains visible of Cronin's face is very agreeable,
young, charming. I notice this with satisfaction and
say to him :
"The disfigurement isn't bad on this side. They'll
fix it up so well that you can still make a hit with
the girls."
He smiles, touches his head bandage, looks at his
mutilated arm, seems lost among old memories, and
murmurs :
132
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
"All the same, the gals won't like me the way they
used to."
« » «
Mercier is dead, and I have seen his corpse
weep. . . .
I did not believe such a thing possible. They had
just washed his face and combed his gray hair.
I said to him :
"You are not forty, my poor Mercier, and your
hair is already almost white."
"It is because my life has been so hard and I have
had so much grief. I have worked so much, worked
so much ! I have had so little luck. . . ."
There are fine lines of pain all over his face, a
thousand disappohitments have left their indelible
traces. Nevertheless his eyes smile continually out
from his withered features, his eyes are glorious with
a sort of rare innocence and such a look of pure
hopefulness !
"You will save me and perhaps I shall be happier
in the future."
I say : "Yes." And I think, "Alas, no !"
But suddenly he calls me. The great dark circle is
darkening around the smiling eyes. His forehead
drips with sweat. "Come, come," he says, "some-
thing terrible is happening to me. It must be that I
am going to die."
We hurry to the poor i:)aralyzed body, the face
alone tries to express its agony. The hands scarcely
move under the covers. Grape shot has cut off the
sources of life.
We do what we can, but I feel his heart failing,
133
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
bis mouth doing its best to claim one drop, only one
drop from the immense cup of air. Little by little
he escapes out of hell. I feel his hand making an
effort to keep hold of mine.
"Stay near me," he says, "I am afraid. . . ."
I remain near him. The sweat ceases to flow on his
forehead. The frightful distress lessens. Air again
flows into his wretched breast. His gentle eyes smile
on.
''You will save me after all," he says, "I have had
too unhappy a life to die yet, don't you think so,
doctor?"
I press his hand to give him confidence and I feel
that his hard hand is happy in mine. I have plunged
my fingers into his flesh, his blood has flowed over my
fingers, that is enough to form strong bonds between
two men.
Calm seems to have returned. I talk to him of his
beautiful country. He was a baker in a Cantal
village. I was down that way once, traveling in time
of peace. We recall together the odor of the junipers,
on summer days, on the green slopes, and the mineral
springs of wonderful taste that gush from the
mountain.
"Oh!" he says. "I shall always be seeing you."
"Seeing me, Mercier?"
He is a very simple man, he tries to explain, but
merely adds :
"In my eyes — I shall always have you in my
eyes. . . ."
But what is he seeing again now? What else is
suddenly reflected in his eyes?
134
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
"I think — Oh! There, it's beginning again."
True enough : the spasm begins again. It is
terrible. Whatever we do, it gets the better of the
victim, and this time we can do nothing. . . .
"I feel that I am going to die," he says. The
smiling eyes still plead.
"But you Avill save me, you will save me."
I can already see Mercier disfigured by death.
He says :
"Stay near me."
His nostrils are fluttering. It is hard to have been
unhappy for forty years and to give up forever the
humble joy of smelling the pungent odor of the
junipers.
And now his lips contract and the corners droop
little by little so sadly. Oh ! How sad to die after
forty years of weariness, without even having time
to sponge off this forehead, always bent over the
daily task.
The sacrifice is overwhelming and one cannot choose
its hour; one must consent when the voice that claims
it calls.
Each man must put down his implement and rise,
saying only :
"Here am I !"
Oh, how hard it is to leave this life made up of
work and suffering.
Once more the eyes smile feebly. They smile till
the very last second.
He speaks no more, he breathes no more. His
heart has stumbled, rallied, and stumbled again :
now it is motionless as a foundered race horse.
135
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Mereier is dead. The pupils of his eyes dilate
solemnly above a watery depth. All is over. He
cannot be saved. ...
Then, from the eyes of the dead man swell up
great tears that flow down his cheeks. I see his
features contract as if to weep through all eternity.
For long minutes I stUl hold the dead man's hand
between mine.
One day, — he does not say what had hap-
pened, — Major Duhamel is struck by a terrible
wave of discouragement : disgust, apparently,
with men who will allow petty political intrigues
to mar the sacredness of a war which claims such
unheard-of sacrifices. The thought of the vic-
tims is what saves him : you may doubt anything
in the world ; you cannot, however, — especially
if you are an army surgeon, — doubt the reality
of suffering.
"At a short distance is the battlefield. The
roar of the guns has not subsided for days. Like
a noisy and complex mechanism, the stupid war
machine grinds on and gives out minute by
minute, the products of its interior activity:
bleeding men. We receive them; they are
wrapped in sheets. They have been torn with
the swiftness of lightning, but it will only be
with the cooperation of months or even of years,
136
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
that we shall succeed in repairing the damage
done. . . . How silent they all are to-night !
How disturbing the spectacle ! ... In the tragic
solemnity of the hour I gaze at those innocent
victims, and I feel ashamed to be alive and to be
breathing freely !
' ' Poor brethren ! What could we do for you
that would not be inadequate, unworthy, medi-
ocre. One ought at least to give up all other
preoccupations to devote oneself entirely to the
sacred and exacting task.
"But no! Around your beds where your
lonely drama is being enacted, a sinister comedy
is going on in which men wear grinning masks.
. , . Neither the four corpses which we buried
this morning, nor your daily sufferings are suffi-
cient to disarm those appetites, stop that schem-
ing, brand those ambitions, which even your mar-
tyrdom serves to foster. . . . Yet, remember the
holy anguish of the first hours of the war !
' ' Never mind ! Never mind ! As far as I am
concerned, I will remain here, among the stretch-
ers loaded with their great bundles of grief.
This is ithe hour when one may doubt of every-
thing : of man, of the world, of the fate reserved
for the just cause. But one cannot doubt the
suffering of men. It is the only thing which is
137
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
certain at this moment. I shall remain, there-
fore, overwhelmed by the sinister evidence.
And each time that Beal, who lies there with his
stomach open, stretches his hand toward me,
with his little smile, so often shall I get up to
go and press his hands in mine, for he is fever-
ish, and he knows how cool my hands always
are. ..."
It is interesting to know that Duhamel's Vie
des Martyrs was considered, together with Mal-
herbe's Flamme au Poing, for the Prix Goncourt
in 1917. In 1918, Duhamel published another
work, Civilisation, to which the prize was
awarded. This work is a kind of sequel to his
Vie des Martyrs. The author has followed the
same plan; his inspiration is the same, but the
memoir style has been often replaced by that of
the short story. It may be due to that fact, or to
some other cause, but this second work does not
seem equal to the first, and one suspects that the
Prix Goncourt was in reality awarded to Vie des
Martyrs through Civilisation. The philosophi-
cal ideas in the second volume seem to point to
a development in the thought of Duhamel ; these
ideas are gathered up in the last chapter from
which we quote the following lines: "Civiliza-
138
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
tion, real civilization, I have often thought of.
It appears to my mind as a chorus of tuneful
voices singing in perfect harmony a hymn ; or
as a marble statue on the summit of a parched
hill ; or it is as a man saying : ' Love one an-
other ! ' or ' Render good for evil ! ' But for
nearly two thousand years, men have been re-
peating those words over and over again, and
the high-priests have been too much concerned
with secular matters to conceive any other
thought of like greatness or beauty. ... I have
studied with care that monstrous Moloch in its
lofty position. And I tell you in verj^ truth
that civilization is not in that thing, no more so
than it is in the shiny instruments of the sur-
geon. Civilization is not in all that terrible
trumperj-; and, if it is not in the heart of man,
well, then, it is nowhere."
Since the publication of Civilisation, Duham-
el's thought has undergone still further develop-
ment, lie has come to a clear realization of
what was brooding within him, and has ex-
pressed those new thoughts in various articles
which have appeared for the most part in the
Mermire de France and in I 'Opinion, and in book
form under the title La Possession du Monde
(1919).
139
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
That new philosophy of life is a praise of suf-
fering which recalls some other famous para-
doxical eulogisms of former days: the Praise of
Folly, the Praise of Stupidness, the Praise of
Poverty, etc. What his long meditations at the
bedside of his ' ' great martyrs, ' ' "what his con-
templation of their patience, of their resigna-
tion, of their heroism, have taught Duhamel is
that "suffering is beautiful, precious, desir-
able"; that suffering is "wealth"; that its at-
traction is "mystical"; that it is a "priceless
though horrible treasure"; that, moreover, suf-
fering is what gives to art its impulse, and what
"liberates the latent energies of our deepest fac-
ulties"; and that "while joy often is repellent,
real suffering attracts and fascinates. ' ' ^®
49 Our readers may be interested to know of some
other books dealing with ambulance work, and which,
though they cannot be compared, as literature, with the
books of Chauveau and Duhamel, yet contain some very
beautiful pages. We refer to works of religious inspira-
tion, — the inspiration coming from the soldiers whose
cases are related by the author, — by Abbe P. C. Klein,
Aumonier: La Guerre vue d'tine Ambulance (1915; one
of the very first books of the war) , Avec les Diahles Bleus
(1916), and Doitleurs qui esperent (1917). Abbe Klein
became Chaplain of the American Ambulance at Neuilly;
his books were translated into English and were partic-
ularly well received in America. One may also read
with pleasure J. Eoussel-Lepine: Une Ambulance de
Gare, croqnis des premiers jours de la guerre (1916).
And Ch. Hennebois: Journal d'un Grand Blesse (1915) :
a book which tells of the author's experiences in German
140
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
II. Descriptive Type
We have spoken of soldier types in war novels ;
then of works written by men of philosophical
bent who comment upon their experiences, and
are anxious to expound their views and senti-
ments regarding the war; we now come to those
men who, relying more upon the eloquence of
plain facts, than upon anything else, discard all
indirect methods, and, most of the time, any at-
tempt to cultivate artistic form ; men whose per-
sonality is kept in the background or at least is
never allowed to obtrude.
But these war diaries are legion, and the task
of selecting the best of them would be by no
means an easy one — for, indeed, there are many
which are "best."
The most consistent application of the method
just referred to, — that of a perfectly objective
style, — is to be found in Les Dicibles Bleus pen-
dant la guerre de DcUvrance 1914-1916, by
Louis Thomas, Lieutenant au 66e Bataillon des
Chasseurs a pied (1916).^" The fame achieved
Hospitals. Hennebois's book will be analyzed later. In-
formation concerninjj life in the ambulances and hos-
pitals may be gathered also in Eydoux-Demian's 'Sotea
d'une Ivjirmidre (1914), and in Noelle Roger's Les
Varnets d'une Infirmiere (191(3). See further titles in
Vic, Op. cit. p. 297 S.
50 He has also published Avec les Chasseurs (1916).
141
\
\
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT vV^AR
by the Chasseurs a pied and the Chasseurs al-
pins, — whom the Germans honored by the nick-
name of Blue Devils, — is a matter of universal
knowledge. They were truly admirable ; and
the most fitting and dignified way of relating
their deeds, was that adopted by Lieutenant
Thomas: a plain, unadorned record of them.
Sometimes his sentences are little more than
statistical records in figures :
''Tete de Violu. Oct.-Nov., 1914.
- ''Nov. 3rd, 1914. The Germans began to bom-
bard us at 9 A. M., and did not cease until 5 :30
p. M.
"At 9:30 a sharp attack, as short as it was
ineffectual, was made on Fort Regnault.
"Nov. 4th. The bombardment continued
without infantry attack until 9 :30 p. m., when a
battalion attempted to storm our position on the
E. and N.-E. of Violu; after a series of fruitless
efforts in which the Germans lost heavily, they
withdrew at 10:15 (p. 60).
"August 4-5, 1915, all our lines are being sub-
jected to an extraordinarily violent bombard-
ment. 40,000 shells of all calibers have fallen
upon our trenches, our communication trenches,
and our dug-outs and have destroyed them al-
most completely" (p. 188).
142
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
At other times his entries are clear, concise
and dry as military dispatches :
"Storming of Hill 285. July 13, 1915.
"The commanding officer charges, stick in
hand, between companies A and B, at the head
of his pioneers.
"Captain Berthier de Wagram, magnificent,
rifle in hand, Capt. Boucherot, and Lieut. Rou-
let, charge at the head of their companies.
"Electrified by the bugles, carried away by
the example of all its officers, the battalion cov-
ers rapidly a distance of 700 meters and bril-
liantly carries Hill 285. Terror-stricken at the
sight of the dark blue uniforms rapidl}^ advanc-
ing toward them through the woods, unnerved
by the sound of the bugles which the ravines re-
echo, the Germans make off in great haste.
Those who cannot get away kill a few of our
men and Second-Lieutenant Olive, but whoever
has fired is immediately bayoneted. The ma-
chine gunners run away leaving behind their
munitions. "We take a few prisoners. They
belong to the 130th Infantn' and to the 6th
Jaeger" (p. 172-3).
At other times Thomas's style recalls that of
military citations :
"Our poor Chasseurs reclimb the slope at one
143
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
rush, saekless, liatless, and many of them without
rifles. Very much exposed in their open and
half destroyed trenches, many of them fall, but
not one falls back. Corporal Bonnard, who re-
mains alone with two Chasseurs of his squad,
raises three fingers to signal to his CO. the num-
ber of men remaining, and to ask for reenforce-
ments. A bullet lays him low in the trench.
Then, Sergeant Armand, one of the best fellows
of the 6th company, is also hit. He was a priest
who, desiring to fight, had by the connivance of
the Major, been permitted to come forward be-
fore his time. He died in a shell hole after bless-
ing his wounded comrades. Soon after. Lieu-
tenant Fabre, who had fought since the begin-
ning of the war without ever being hurt, fell
cut in two by a shell splinter ; it was in going to
his assistance that the heroic C. 0., Lieut. Mar-
son, was thrown over by a shell, his chest torn
open by three shell splinters; his right cheek
half ripped off. To the end, he continued to
give orders, maintaining by his example, at their
post of duty, all those over whom he had com-
mand" (p. 68-9).
Sometimes, though rarely, a trace of emotion
can be found in his account ; but even then, it is
144
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
the soldier, not the man, who is moved: "More
than ten fights of that kind took place during
the night of the 13tli to the 14th. The Chas-
seurs held on without flinching to the ground
which they had conquered. The night battle
was lighted up by rockets. It was a magnificent
sight. The trenches were plowed up by trench
bombs and torpedoes. When buried by. an ex-
plosion, the men dug themselves out and con-
tinued to hold on to their positions (pp. 176-
77).
"The general in command saw his men rush
forward under heayj fire with an impetus which,
as he afterwards said, sent a thrill of pride
through him" (p. 186).
But, generally speaking, if any lyrism is found
in the book, it is in quotations of citations for
bravery : ' ' The general in command of the 10th
army mentions in the order of the day of the
army the 31st battalion of the chasseurs a pied
under the command of Major Lalene-Laprade :
"On the 3rd, 4th and 5th, the battalion cov-
ered itself with glory by counter-attacking sev-
eral times in succession the enemy who had taken
a part of our trench system on the Notre Dame
de Lorette plateau, winning back, one after an-
other, five lines of trenches, and making many
145
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
prisoners. The unit was withdrawn after losing
5 officers, 58 non-commissioned officers and 643
men" (p. 119).
But, one may ask: Is this literature? — As
much so as the geometric style of Spinoza, or
the terse little proverbs of the Bible, or the
proclamations of great captains like Csesar and
Napoleon . . . and the generals of the Great
War.
It is irresistible. For the first 20 or 30 pages,
the reader does not realize how moved he really
is, because there is no grandiloquence, no appar-
ent emotion in the writer. But after reading
page after page, chapter after chapter; after
taking in all those dry figures, all those names,
(every one of which one knows to be that of an
invincible hero), after noting all those little facts
not one of which could be spared without mar-
ring the whole, the reader finds himself fasci-
nated, spellbound. He realizes that he is living
in an ^schj-lean atmosphere. The expression
is not too strong. Such men are no longer men ;
they are demi-gods; not because they are de-
scended from deities, but because they have
achieved godlikeness. Never again shall the
reader be able to hear without a feeling of great
reverence such names as Tete de Violu, Hart-
146
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
manswillerkopf, Carenej% Metzeral, Lingekopf,
Bois des Caures, Mort Ilonlme (in the Vosges)
or Hill 60 (at Ypres). Nothing can surpass in
heroic grandeur such episodes as Au sommet de
Hartsmanswillcrkopf Janvier 1915 (pp. 93 sq.)
or Les Chasseurs de Bagatelle, 28 juin au ler
juillet 1915 (p. 161 sq.).''
* * *
In Lieutenant Jacques Pericard's Ceux de
Verdun (1917), we have a war diary which of-
fers a real contrast to Lieut. Thomas's. They
are just as objective statements of facts, but
while Thomas relates his in a perfectly passion-
less way, Pericard clothes his in fine epic or lyric
garb.^^
This book describes the darkest days of Ver-
dun. The author was with the 95th "regiment
d 'active" which, together with General Reibell's
brigade, was cited in army orders for conspicu-
ous bravery (p. 220).
51 Among the many names quoted by Lieut. Thomaa,
is that of Capt. Dubarle, 31e bataillon de Chasseurs,
who was mentioned in army orders for conspicuous brav-
ery and decorated (Oct. Tsth, 1914) : a man of indom-
itable enerfry. He was killed after nine months of ac-
tive service and his Lettres de Guerre (1918) is one of
the best soklier's diaries.
52 Pericard has published two other books: Face d
Face (19 Hi), crowned bv the Academy, and Debout les
Morts! (1918).
147
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
A few quotations from Lieut. Pericard will
show how he differs from Lieut. Thomas in his
manner of relating "his experiences.
As they approach Verdun, they are overtaken
and passed by an endless train of automobiles,
carts and wagons of every description which are
bringing up men, ammunition and food sup-
plies: "And still the train rolls on. The im-
pression which one receives from that continu-
ous, even-paced procession, is that of formidable
power. One would say that all the vital forces
of France are rushing to the threatened line.
. . ." (p. 59).
Lieut. Thomas would certainly not have used
those or similar terms. He would not have an-
alyzed his impressions. He would have de-
scribed the line of vehicles — possibly made a
statement in figures — and would have left the
rest to the imagination of his readers. Neither
would he have made a Shakesperean descrip-
tion like the following. The battle has lasted
several days, and Pericard, wishing to convey to
his readers an idea of the immensity of the
slaughter, writes:
"The crosses which cover the neighboring
fields do but deceive the eye; for no man can
compute the number of the dead who fell at
148
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
Eparges and who remained without sepulture.
"Each stroke of the pick reveals a corps.e;
each falling shell lays bare a skeleton; you pick
up a boot which seems to have been forgotten be-
hind a trench ; it contains a dying foot ; you rub
against a piece of cloth embedded in the wall of
the parapet, and find that it is a coat still worn
by its owner,
''Some of the trenches had to be opened
through solid masses of corpses; we had to cut
through them as through stone in a quarry.
Whoso walked through the works of defense be-
fore the job was completed, trod in putrefaction,
choking with the nauseous stench, and was
tripped up by sly shin-bones" (p. 239).
And so all through the book. Thomas's de-
scriptions are just as grim as Pericard's, some-
times more so, but he does not insist. Thomas
sees all these things with the eye of a soldier:
Pericard allows himself from time to time to be
more humane, and to lay stress on the sufferings
of the soldiers; nay, lest the horror of them be
forgotten, he brings in a sort of refrain which,
repeated appropriately after certain battle de-
scriptions, reminds the reader that his accounts
are of hell :
"And the shells fall on, and on, and on. It
149
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
is an infernal thunder shower, each drop of
which is a shell. The trenches collapse, the
corpses pile up, the tumult of bursting shells
bruises one. The ground moves like water boil-
ing in a caldron; the very heavens are out of
gear . . . and to oppose that hurricane, that
avalanche, there are but the chests of men : chests
which at each moment become less and less
numerous, but more and more erect and reso-
lute. . . ."
How can those men bear the strain? Peri-
card confesses that he cannot understand, but he
adds : ' ' Who can measure the power of the will ?
or who could ever say to heroism : Thou shalt go
no further!" (p. 134).
When the enemy has shown himself unchival-
rous, Thomas places it on record with other
facts ; but Pericard gives vent to his indignation.
When, for instance, Fort Douaumont had been
taken by a stratagem (the famous Prussian
guards having disguised themselves in Zouave
uniforms), Pericard scornfully exclaims: "And
so those superb Brandenburgers, the pride, the
glory of Germany, scored a success at the price
of such treachery ! You may triumph, William,
that sort of triumph is worthy of you and of
those whom you command!" (p. 146).
150
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
And how his hatred is kindled against the foe
whose treachery has caused the death of so many
brave and honest French soldiers — and against
the shameless invaders who have left tears and
death in their wake ! Sometimes when he sees
a family of refugees, the thought of his own lit-
tle girl comes to his mind : ' ' Here is the face of
my little Solange ; here are her large eyes open
wide with astonishment at all the unexpected
sights, a tear trembling on the lower eyelid and
ready to fall; here are her curly locks with a
straw caught in them for she has slept in the
cold on a bundle of litter. I can imagine my
own child thus driven from the home, weeping as
she goes along the highway, or seated in a cart, a
little exile; and suddenly fierce anger wells up
in my heart" (pp. 55-6).
He has seen too much ever to forget and he
brings his book to a close with a solemn and im-
pressive warning: "0 Poilu, my brother, a few
words before I close. Do not forget your ha-
tred ! Be watchful lest your generous disposi-
tion make it easy for you to forget ; it would be
shameful! Think of those who have fallen at
your side; think of the towns that the enemy
burned, of the women that he insulted, of the lit-
tle girls he disemboweled. . . . Think of the
151
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Brandenburgers of Douaumont who, to enter the
fort, disguised themselves as Zouaves! . . .
Thmk of the German machine gunners of Dri-
court who, to get nearer to us, put on ambulance
service uniforms and carried their guns upon
stretchers ! Think of your comrades of Larfee
who, though wounded and prisoners, were made
screens of by the Germans and fell by your own
bullets . . . our France of to-morrow will need,
to protect her, a high hedge of hatred. . . . You
will have vanquished the Apocalyptic Beast, you
will have broken its teeth and for a while you
will be secure against its bite, but beware of its
venomous breath, of the stink of its rottenness,
and let your daily prayer be: 'Our Father
which art in Heaven, enlarge our hearts that
they may contain more hatred ! ' "
Let those whom those words may shock as be-
ing unchristian take the trouble to read the ex-
periences of the man who wrote them; if, after
that, they still preach compassion for the Ger-
mans, then we shall pity them for their hardness
of heart, ... or for their softness of brain.^^
53 Many volumes of recollections of the Battle of Ver-
dun have been published since 1916. They can easily be
picked out by their titles from the list of the best war
diaries which we give below (Appendix). Among the
histories of the Verdun Battle as told by non-combat-
152
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
A work the tone of which is something be-
tween the deliberate impassiveness of Thomas,
and the (sometimes) deliberate emotionalism of
Pericard, is the excellent volume of Capitaine
Delvert, Histoire d'une Compagnie {Main de
Massige, En Champagne, A Verdun), Journal
de Marche (1918), to which E. Lavisse has con-
tributed a Preface.
The author is an intellectual — a Normalien of
the class of 1901. He writes well, and while
avoiding the lyric and the epic notes, he has a
st.yle which is distinctly literary. He willingly
speaks of what he has been reading, makes com-
ments on the newspapers and reports; but first
of all he gives a rapid account of the happenings
of the day, as the excellently chosen sub-title of
his work (Journal de Marche) suggests.
The records begin on November 11th, 1915,
date on which he is promoted to the rank of
company leader, and continue until June 26th,
1916, when the company went out of existence,
the only remaining 37 men out of 151 having
been sent to fill gaps in the ranks of other units.
ants, we mention: Jollivet. L'Epopee de Verdun, to
which Lieutenant-Colonel Rousset contributes a preface
(1917), Henri Dugard, Bataille de Verdun and the very
impressive account given by an oye-witncss though not
a combatant, Henri Bordeaux, in his two volumes: Les
Derniers Jours du Fort de Vaux and I'risunniers dclivres.
153
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Delvert himself was wounded four times, and,
of course, was* decorated.
The Company is first sent to the Argonne
where the roads are soaked, and the trenches are
nothing but filthy cesspools. They are next sent
to Champagne, the district of wrecked villages,
with an outlook on neutral zones where barbed
wire entanglements hold up corpses in putrefac-
tion. Here the soldiers live in holes out of
which they crawl only for fatigue duties, and
they are so covered with mud that they look like
large clods of earth. Their rifles also are
clogged with mud, and the men are without
drinking water. How they held out under such
conditions, Delvert does not tell us ; he only tells
us that they did hold out, resisting terrific at-
tacks which sometimes lasted for three consecu-
tive days and were carried out with poison gas,
liquid fire and deadly artillery fire.
(Unlike many others, he attaches little faith to
the help that religion may bring to the men, as
is shown by the parenthesis inserted on page 135
with reference to Bourget's Sens de la Mort.
He considers that the natural cheerfulness of the
French soldier accounts for the miracle: '^une
blague et Us sont remontes," — a joke and they
are set up again.)
154
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
Later, the unit is sent to Verdun, and the
change is for the worst. ''The aspect of the
trench is revolting. Everj'where the stones are
dotted with little red drops. In some places
there are pools of blood. On the parapet, in the
communication trench, there are everywhere stiff
corpses covered over with tent cloth. A sore
opens up in the thigh of one of them. The flesh
is rotting away under the burning sun, it has
swollen up, burst the cloth of the breeches, and
large white flies are feeding on it. On the right,
on the left, the soil is covered with nameless
debris: emptj^ tin cans, ripped knapsacks,
pierced helmets, broken rifles covered with
blood. An unbearable smell fills the air. And
to make matters worse, the Boches are bombing
us with tear-gas shells. ' ' (Verdun, ]\Iay 14-17) .
The volume is full of such descriptions. Del-
vert cares nothing for our nerves. The descrip-
tions are not all equal in length to this one, but
many of them are equally horrible : they alter-
nate, hoAvever, with occasional descriptions of
spring landscapes, of rays of sunshine, which by
their sharp contrast enhance the horror of the
others.
Nowhere has a better description of the cock-
pit of Verdun been given than in the last chapter
155
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
of this book. It is interesting- to note that Del-
vert, like Pericard, ends with a malediction of
the Germans. It is just as sincere as Pericard 's
but is expressed in more classical literary form :
" Oh ! the brutes ! the brutes !
"And to think that the human race should be
subject to the law of its inferior types: of those
in whom the lowest instincts of the brute still
dominate; and that the Spirit, bound to the
cross these many hundred years, shall never,
perhaps, be released. .
"Ariel and Caliban.
"These are the tricks of Caliban.
"He is pleased, indeed, and his heart swells
with contentment ! Where life universal had
blossomed forth in vernal splendor, had called
upon the trees to grow, the trees those peaceful
children of full-bosomed Earth, who lift toward
the light their supple limbs all richly draped
with leaves ; where life had called out the bushes,
the flowers and the blades of grass, and all that
wealth of beauty in which the kindly Mother
of all beings and of all things loves to bedeck
herself; where Ariel had taught the birds their
sweetest songs and filled the glowing heart of
man with harmonies ; there, has Caliban flung —
156
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
with wonderful precision, we are ready to admit
— his infernal machines of all sizes.
"And all that remains is a desert; a bloody
and hideous desert ! How happy he must
be!" ... (p. 288).
* # *
Captain Delvert describes mainly the life of
his company in active warfare,^* laying stress
on the great hours which the company lived
through^ The aim of Max Buteau's Tenir,
Recits de la Vie des Tranchees (1918) which is
more recent, is just the reverse, namely, to de-
scribe the everyday life of the soldier of the
Great War: and it is for this reason that we
make a place for it here. It opens with a
striking account of the funeral of a soldier who
died in a village hospital early in the war; then
it tells of the training of the soldier at the army
depot, and in wretched villages near the front ;
then we follow the man to the trenches where
he is facing not so often the enemy as the quite
important problems of procuring meals, and of
the care of uniforms and arms; then again at
each new resting place the seeking for billets;
at the end only we hear of alarms (not of spec-
54 In 1918 Delvert published another volume. Quel-
ques Hcros, Recits authenti'iues de la Grande Guerre.
157
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
tacular alarms), of offensives (of the same char-
acter), and of removal to the hospital at the
rear of the fighting line. The long preface in
which the author states his desire to correct the
entirel}^ wrong impression which the public has
received of the meaning of trench warfare, is
apt to prejudice one against the book. . . .
There have been so many books written with the
purpose of giving at last to the poor deceived
reader the "true story"! This time, however,
the claim is not without justification: that ac-
count of life in the trenches, deliberately set-
ting aside all hair-raising stories, was in 1918
something really new: it gives a background
of reality to all the other war recollections we
may read. It may seem comparatively terse
reading, but the author has successfully avoided
that not uncommon tone of indifference to
danger and to suffering which savors a little of
affectation ^^ as well as the sulky tone of the
55 As an example of this we could quote Jacques Pi-
erre's 80,000 milles en TorpiUeur (1918). It is the best
of those books which represent the soldier of the great
war as bearing cheerfully — too cheerfully — his crushing
burden. We do not like the actor in so grim a drama to
make light, or to pretend to make light of his task.
Fierre enjoys relating such humorous incidents as their
mistaking a sea-lion for a torpedo, the receiving of a
wireless signaling their own craft as an enemy boat, at-
tempts of steamers to ram them in the belief that their
158
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
obscure heroes who, more deserving than many
others, have nevertheless received no recognition
in the form of medals. The title admirably ex-
presses the whole idea of the book: "Tenir."
A book combining the features of both Del-
vert and Buteau, and one which ought not to be
passed without notice, is Raymond Gentry's La
Flamme Victorieuse (1917). The spirit is ex-
cellent ; it is equally removed from false modesty
and from the suggestion that the horrors, that
the author has lived through, beggar descrip-
tion. Gentry does not strike attitudes; he is
sometimes humorous, sometimes pathetic, but
manly always. By profession he is a Paris
journalist, and a writer of no mean ability.
He has some delightful sketches of types, the
best of which is Nenesse, the plumber of ^lont-
parnasse, a splendid duplicate of Gaspard, the
snail vendor of Montmartre.
little torpedo destroyer was a German submarine. The
difficnlty of running down submarines is, however, well
described.
Something of the same tone is apparent in Emile Hen-
riot's Carnet d'un Dragon dans les Tranchees 1915-1916.
Henriot is an editor on the staff of the Temps, and the
author of A qiioi revent les Jeunes Gens (1013). After
eleven months of warfare he feels disappointed because
he has not seen any real fighting: "It seems strange,
when I think of it, that I should have been eleven
months in first line trenches. — and not always in the
best places — without having had a single opportunity of
using my rifle."
159
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
# * *
As so many of the books which have already
been discussed, and many more of those which
are mentioned later, refer to the Marne and to
Verdun, it might be well, perhaps, to group to-
gether here the names of a few of those which
deal with the fighting in Flanders, where the
victories were not achieved by the French arms
alone, as was the case at Verdun, although they
contributed a large share to them. We place
at the head of that group the book by , Lieut.
J. Pinguet of the French navy : Trois E tapes de
la Brigade des Fusiliers Marins — La Marne,
Gand, Dixmude (1918). It relates the heroic
deeds of the Breton marines, who, like the
"chasseurs," made a very glorious name for
themselves during the great war. Pinguet tells
how these 6,000 men kept at bay, for months,
troops which outnumbered them in a proportion
of ten to one. Charles Le Goffic had previously
described the fighting at Dixmude. But while
his description, which is as beautiful as a leg-
end,^" and worthy of his sturdy heroes, he did not
56 Ch. Le Goffic, Dixmude, TJn Chapitre de VHistoire
des Fusiliers Marins (7 oct. — 10 nov. 191 Jt). Steen-
straete. Vn 2° chapitre . . . St. Georges et Nieuport,
suite et fin (3 vol. in all, 1916 ff). See also the fine
book by G. Le Bail, La Brigade des Jean le Gouin ; His-
toire documentaire et anecdotique des Fusiliers tnarins
160
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
live that legend, whereas Piuguet did. In fact
the works of Pinguet and Le Goffic complete each
other: The one relates the fighting as a whole,
as seen by Admiral Rornaeh, the commander-in-
chief of those remarkable troops, the other tells
of the work of separate units which typify all
the others. One will obtain a better understand-
ing of the "gigantic" struggle by reading Le
Goffic, and of the "heroic" struggle by reading
Pinguet. Note that Pinguet does not speak
only of heroic resistance, he relates moments of
weakening also, as, for instance, that day when
his men really wanted to give up ; so while
Pinguet is less consistently epic than Le Goffic,
he is more tragically true.
As a complement to these two books, one might
read Marguerite Baulu's La Retraite d'Anvers
et Ja Bataille de I'Yser, to which ]\I. Vander-
velde contributes a preface (1918). This thick
volume tells of the part which the 48,000 Bel-
gians had in the battle of the Yser, where they
fought side by side with Admiral Rornarch's
marines. It is a conscientiously written recon-
struction, with maps and drawings, of the
w'hole moving drama of the Belgian army, which
de Dixmude (d'apres des Documents originaux et des
r6cits des Combattants) (1917).
IGl
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
ended when the flooding of the country came to
the rescue of the Allies. The "inside" story of
the Belgian army has been told in Mon Journal de
Campagne, by Robert de Wilde, a Belgian artil-
lery captain at Liege and on the Yser (1918).
* * *
It is a remarkable fact that at the conclusion
of the reading of each of these war diaries one
is inclined to say: this is positively the best of
all those I have read so far. Is this due to a
simple phenomenon of displacement of former
occupants by the last occupant of the mind, or
is it, perhaps, because one's admiration increases
with each new account of the splendid achieve-
ments of the soldiers of the great war, and that
one's emotions are keyed up to a higher pitch
by each successive reading? The present writer
does not pretend to be able to offer any definite
explanation. But this he knows, that if he were
asked to point out the diary which has left the
deepest and most lasting impression upon his
own mind, he would unhesitatingly reply:
Erlande's En Campagne avec la Legion Etran-
gere (1917). It is the one which, from all points
of view, appeals most to our human selves in
their entirety; because, although it is a war
diary, it never fails to give a large place to the
162
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
man as man and as distinct from the soldier ; be-
cause, too, — owing to the special way in which
the Legion is recruited — one feels here more
than anywhere else the moral self-determination
of the men, for they are all volunteers, and in
no ordinary sense of the word. They are, for
the most part, men who are not French by
birth, but who wish to fight for France, men
who without any moral or other compulsion,
have coolly and deliberately elected to serve
France, for reasons of their own. We prefer
Erlande also because — why should one hesitate
to confess it? — because of the splendid virility
which his men manifest in big spectacular
achievements. There is in that fact something
which satisfies the mind, that harmonizes with
our sense of the fitness of things. There is a
shocking disproportion or lack of fitness when
men of only average personality express them-
selves in actions which seem grand; this, we
feel, is melodramatic ; but there is also a lack
of fitness when truly heroic souls have to ex-
press themselves through tame, commonplace
events ; now these men of the Legion being
splendid personalities, it pleases us that oppor-
tunities should be afforded them of expressing
themselves in acts of splendor.
163
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
The official account of the achievements of the
Volontaires Strangers during the war will be
written by M. Emile Roux-Parnasse. He will
have more to place on record than Erlande, but
however large his catalogue of deeds, it will
never have the true ring of Erlande 's per-
sonal account. The unit whose deeds he records,
is Battalion D, of the 2nd regiment of the 1st
Legion, and more especially Company D2 of that
Battalion. Battalion D ceased to exist as a unit
a few weeks after that terrible attack of May
9th, 1915, on account of the numerous deaths
among its members, including that of Major
Muller, its glorious commanding officer. It was,
Muller who had mustered and trained the re-
cruits at Avignon in August, 1914, and it was
with sincere conviction that those men would
sing:
C'est nous la Legion,
Baionnette au canon,
Qui venons combattre avec la France!
As a collection of psychological documents
this book is far more substantial than many
novels of the once famous realist school would
be if rolled into one, although that school claimed
to draw its chief interest from "scientific ob-
servation and documentation." Such a wealth
164
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
of characters,— a we may" use that popular term,
— will be found nowhere else: there are sons
of bourgeois homes, unfrocked priests, mem-
bers of the aristocracy, foreign princes, nihilists,
crooks, students, painters, dancers, Jews, politi-
cal exiles, men of 50 and boys of 17; there is
Xavier de Carvalho, son of the famous Portu-
guese pamphleteer; Grant, the English artist;
Gourfinkel, the Russian student, a thoroughgoing
radical-socialist, and at the same time an in-
corrigible aristocrat in thought ; there is also
Fere Charles, the loquacious sergeant, as prodi-
gal of daring deeds as of picturesque language.
Let us pick out two typical sketches of these men :
*' Sergeant Glorian has recently been made
quartermaster in D2 Company. He is fair-
haired, wears a carefully trained mustache, and
has blue jolly eyes that twinkle behind the
glasses of his pince-nez. In civil life he was a
theatrical manager. He had staged at Brussels
and at Paris the 'Merry Widow,' and 'Waltz
Dream,' and various other light operas which
he knows by heart. The others say of him:
'Glorian! he is always full of go, always jolly!
his morale is perfect ! ' Glorian replies that he
had got poisoning of the blood in the theater,
that he has come to the war to rest, to build up
165
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
his health, and that he has made up his mind
never to have the blues. . . . He is the most
magnificent toper of the company. He has inter-
esting comments to make upon the newspaper
reports of the front ; he has also many good sto-
ries to tell and he improvises to the waltz tune
from the Merry Widow.
paille i^ourrie sur laquelle on s'etend,
Cadavres de rats qui puez au printemps,
Os de cotelettes
Poux de Quatre Cent Vingt
Proprete parfaite
quel sejour divin. (p. 186)
The name of the following character is not
given, "In front of a restaurant an adjutant
is pitching into a man in a most magnificent
style. The man is a strange looking fellow:
short, thickset, pink all over; he listens to the
adjutant in silence, his head a little to one side,
his finger tips joined together, his eyes turned
heavenward. The adjutant having brought his
remarks to a close, the 'legionnaire' heaves a
sigh and says : ' How can you treat in that man-
ner a man who still has the power to bring God
down from heaven at Holy Communion? I am
in Holy Orders . . . and I am a victim of love ! '
"Grant invited him to empty a glass and
166
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
asked him to relate his story. He was a priest.
At 25, he seduced one of his penitents, who
soon afterwards abandoned him, and he enlisted
in the Legion.
" — Twenty years of service! —
"And drawing from his pocket his colonial
service medals :
' ' ' Here 's my tinware ! '
"And until roll-call he continued telling
anecdotes enameled with Latin quotations. In
his satchel he had a copy of ]\Iarcus Aurelius:
'It's all there,' says he, 'I never read an^^thing
else' " (p. 273).
The opening chapters of the book tell how
these various elements were made into a coherent
military unit. The explanation is psychological
and rather difficult to give. It seems almost as
if, because they are heterogeneous, and because
no one would think it possible for them to sub-
mit to uniform discipline, they are determined
to show what they can accomplish. Their esprit
de corps is the result of a kind of wager, a
triumph of the will. "It is a secret discipline,"
says Erlande, "it appeals not to the sense of
duty, nor to fear of punishment, but to a proud
self-respect (amour-propre et fierte)." It is a
combination of traditions, more efficient than
167
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
the most rigid rules, a "loi d'orgueil," a tacit
understanding, and, so to speak, a "moral uni-
form. ' ' But it matters little how the result was
attained, the fact is patent that "in no other
formation was the esprit de corps so living a
reality," and that miracle of implanting the
spirit of the LfCgion into new recruits in August,
1914, was the work of one month.
Each company of the battalion, however, de-
veloped a special character. Dl was the "model
company," in which militarj^ correctness pre-
vailed; D2 was the "electric company"; when-
ever some unit broke a record, D2 at once outdid
it; D3 is the "happy company," — when everj^-
thing is as it should be, why, all is well! — D4
is a duplicate of Dl.
"Now they are ready. Every man knows
what he owes to the flags of the Legion : n&ver to
look backward, never to retreat to save his life.
The wine is drawn, it must be drunk" (p. 98).
Such determined men must have leaders
worthy of them. And they certainly have!
Junot, for instance, the captain of the "electric
companj^," — "Junot," said an African veteran,
"I know him! He's the very thunder of God!
He is as rich as Croesus, and loves nothing but
war, danger, adventures; he's a soldier, first
168
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
and last, a soldier and that's all! He has
fought wherever there was fighting to be had.
He's the best cavalryman in the French army.
And as for a marksman! He can kill a flying
pigeon with his revolver, and knock a hole
through a penny piece at 50 yards. And with
all that he is as brave as they are made. With
him it 's a pleasure to go into it, but, begad, you
mustn't show funk ! As for him, he doesn't care
a damn; he's armor plated, he can go through
anything ! ^^
The Legionnaire is a proud fellow as the fol-
lowing short description attests: "When he
must work with pick and shovel, ho does so,
but grouching (en rouspetant), — for the fellow
must be a blatant ass (dingo) who regards
shoveling earth and mud a whole night long as
something entertaining. When he must fight,
the Legionnaire fights, but with a happy smile !
When there is neither working nor fighting to
be done, he wants to be satisfied, i. e., he eats
well, he drinks well, and he sleeps well. ' '
The following describes the moment at which
an attack is going to be launched.
57 For .Tunot, read Jiinod. He was of Swiss origin,
born in Geneva in 1S75, and was killed Sept. 28, 191.'),
durinj; the attack of the strongholds of Souhain. His
Lettres et Souvenirs were published in 1918.
169
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
"The men are lined up behind the parapet.
. . . There is perfect silence in the trenches,
"One single thought occupies the mind of
them all : The attack must be brilliant. There
are no jokes flying about, there is no boasting,
nor any of those sublime utterances; words
which, in all probability, have never been
uttered; words invented at the rear by those
who make their living by writing with their slip-
pers on and their bellies full, and the comfort-
able thought that it is sublime that others should
die. . . ." (p. 235).
There is one episode in the book which is truly
sublime. It is the attack of May 9th, 1915, dur-
ing the battle of Arras, a magnificently heroic,
but frightfully costly charge. The Legionnaires
took in succession the Chalk Pits, la Targette,
and Neuville Saint Vaast. The excitement of
reading those pages leaves one breathless. One
must bear in mind that every man who took part
in that charge knew what it must cost, and that
only by the greatest good luck could he come out
of it alive. But they went with splendid com-
posure to that "orgy of heroism."
A short fragment from the description of that
charge will enable the reader to form an idea
of what it was.
170
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
"Battalion C is on duty at the listening posts.
"In front of the barbed wire entanglements,
Major Moiret, the father of th-e Poles, falls with
a bullet through his heart. Upon him the same
machine gun. salve piles up, Brigadier Van
INIengen, a Belgian of 50 years of age, Corporal
Onegger, of. the hospital service, — a Russian
student; the Greek stretcher-bearer, Theodokis.
Alongside of them, Neuflagel, a Polish army
doctor, is breathing his last with two bullets
through his kidnej^s.
"Battalion D follows Battalion C.
"Between the lines, Major Muller, struck in
the liver, drops and dies. Near him. Quarter-
master Sergeant Glorian and Sergeant-Major
Nagel fall dead. At the moment of leaping into
the German trench Captain Junot receives a
bullet through the chest.
"Wearing his overcoat, a rifle with twisted
bayonette in his hand, his arm bleeding, his face
damaged by a blow from the butt end of a rifle,
yelling and magnificent, little Lieutenant Vives
runs forward like a madman and finally drops
in a faint. His friend Lieutenant Gougeux is
among the dead. . . .
"In a shell hole, Pere Charles, whose thigh is
broken, 'calls for the stretcher-bearers; a little
171
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
further, Sergeant Ostache is lying on the ground,
. . . then Sergeant Dones . . . then the Ar-
menian Sergeant Manoukian. . . .
"Lieutenant Cecealdi calmly leads out the
sections of Company D2,
"Near the spot where Majors Muller and
Moiret are lying, drops Major Gaubut of
Battalion A" (p. 239).
It seems as if they were all killed, all those
with whom we had become acquainted through
the previous pages, and yet, what was left of
them still pushed ahead: "But the companies
advance. The defenses of the Chalk Pits are
carried, then la Targette , . . then we attacked
the hardest position of all, Neuville Saint Vaast,
though we were not completely successful on
that occasion."
Indeed, if ever there were brave men, these
were surely they, and Erlande may well say of
them: "All these men, in their dull uniforms,
are heroes more splendid than those of Friedland
and Rivoli. Those who were there and saw them
know it. As for the others . . . the others have
only to keep quiet, to bow their heads and to
believe" (pp. 237-8).
After such accounts of what actually took
place, the erudite psychological studies of the
172
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
soldiers of the Great War pursued by weighing,
measuring, hair-splitting '* psychologists " like
Bonnet, appear ridiculously small.
The fact that most of those men were not
French by birth matters not at all. The
criterion of blood for the classification of living
species has its utility in the case of animals and
of lower human beings, but the qualities that
these men displayed are of a higher order and a
moral criterion is here to be applied. One needs
no more French blood to be truly French than
one needs Greek blood to be a Stoic or an Epi-
curean. It is one of the finest tributes to France
that so mam^ claimed to be French in soul, who
could have no physiological claim to that dis-
tinction. The very first month of the war,
August, 1914, was not yet over before men of 52
nationalities had asked for enrollment in the
Foreign Legion : 8,000 Italians moved by the
spirit of Garibaldi, 4,500 from the Swiss repub-
lic, almost 4,000 Russians, 300 Greeks; nay,
1,000 Germans and even more Austrians ; many,
of course, from Alsace-Lorraine, from Belgium
and Serbia; Armenians, Syrians, Czechs, etc.;
many also came from the United States of
America and from Canada. On August 21st,
1914, 20,000, already equipped and ready to
173
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
march, were reviewed by French generals on the
Esplanade of the Invalides.
^F W "TF
In 1918, published war diaries were already-
very numerous. Gabriel Tristan Franconi made
an interesting attempt to renew the "genre" in
Un Tel de I'ArmSe Frangaise (1918).
Instead of emphasizing the individual char-
acteristics of this or that soldier, the author of
Un Tel (So and So), obtains a picture of the
soldier, by rejecting all accidental elements
of individual men, — ^what some might call the
personal picturesqueness, — and keeping only
such elements as are common to all. In terms of
mediaeval philosophy, he would be classed as a
realist, as contrasted with the nominalists.
There is one restriction, however; what Fran-
coni pictures is not the French soldier of all
times, but the French soldier of the Great War.
Apart from that, Un Tel is a general type : He
is an intellectual, and an intelligent man of no
special culture; he is a Parisian and also a man
from provincial France; he is a man of refined
tastes and one of sensual desires; he belongs to
the higher walks of life and also to the lower.
And if one asks : What makes him particularly
the man of the Great War ? the answer is : He
174
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
has been morally tempered by the great experi-
ence and is rendered thereby utterly different
from the man in uniform who remains in the
rear, and from the civilian who tries to do his
share by paying commonplace compliments to
the man who returns from the front.
That abstract type once conceived and created
by Franconi, we go through the usual sequence
of events : Un Tel in the mobilization camp ; Un
Tel at the front, in an attack ; Un Tel wounded
and taken to hospital ; then comes the indispen-
sable, — but always charming, — picture- of the
nurse and her tender care for the wounded ; then
we have the visit of the convalescent to his home,
and his return to the front. An original feature,
however, is to be found in the description which
Un Tel gives of the surprising changes which
have taken place in the army during the short
time of his absence from the front. The army
which fought the first part of the war has given
place to a new one, as a consequence of the in-
tense and rapid work of adaptation of mechan-
ical devices to war conditions: new equipment,
new guns, tanks, etc., etc., and a large variety
of devices to protect the lives of the men. In a
word, he "discovers" the army which is to fight
the second battle of the Marne.
175
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Franconi gives some vivid pictures such as
Hist aire d'une Fourragere, or the recapture of
the famous Hill 308, which finally relieved Ver-
dun (pp. 134^149). There are a few cleverly
drawn individual soldier types (Pote, Tap-Tap),
which relieve, by a welcome note of real life, the
impersonality of Tin Tel. Franconi also makes
some clever and interesting remarks concerning
soldier's slang. {Exegese de certaines phrases
militaires.) But even with these features, Un
Tel remains a war diary of its own kind, which
offers a complete contrast to a work such as
Gaspard. Gaspard is one individual through
which the reader grasps, — or thinks he can grasp,
— the idea of the general type of the French
soldier ; Un Tel is the description of that general
type through which the reader is supposed to
see the elements of all the individuals : Gaspard
and Bourru, Blue Devil and Legionnaire, in-
fantry, aviator, etc., etc.
For the average reader, the first type, Gas-
pard, is alone interesting, because Un Tel is an
abstraction. Franconi ^® himself must have been
conscious of that fact, and that is probably the
58 Franconi is also the author of a pamphlet, Bisbur
au Democratic Palace, which is a description in a satiri-
cal vein of military hospitals. Franconi gave his life
for his country.
176
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
reason why he introduced here and there cer-
tain concrete individuals. For the thoughtful
reader, the abstract type is as interesting as the
concrete, because he is intelligent enough to gen-
eralize from the case of Gaspard, or to imagine
the concrete and particular, from the description
of Un Tel. At the same time, even the intelli-
gent reader would probably derive more pleasure
from the concrete, because of the "life" in it.
# * *
During the fourth year of the war the number
of war diaries had so enormously increased, that
a book of that kind had to attain a very high
degree of excellence to attract any attention.
Franconi had been only partially successful in
his attempt to break away from the usual style ;
the last soldiers' book which we propose to dis-
cuss, owed its success even at this late date, to
sheer excellence. We cannot afford to pass it by.
The Menioires d'un Engage Volontaire by
Binet-Valmer, citoyen Genevois {Paris, Flam-
marion)^^ is another volume to set in opposition
to Barbusse. The record of this volunteer was
indeed brilliant. Starting as an escort dragoon,
he soon was made a 2nd class cavalryman, then
59 First published seriallv in Le Journal.
177
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
section color-bearer, then non-commissioned of-
ficer, lieutenant, and finally officer in command
of a group of tanks. He was awarded many
honors ; from the military cross, to that of being
mentioned in the Order of the Day of the whole
Army. He was a Genevan by birth, a descend-
ant of Huguenots, and very early in life he
felt a longing to return to the country of his
ancestors. He therefore went to Paris while
still a youth in his teens, and there established
his reputation as a brilliant writer. He was
made a Knight of the Legion of Honor after the
publication of such books as Les Meteques,
Lucien, La Creature. When the war broke out
he was absolutely ignorant of the soldier's life
and of a soldier's duties, for he had left Geneva
before being called to the Swiss colors. He
nevertheless determined to take part in the war,
and being one of those men who always manage
to get what they want, he succeeded (by deceiv-
ing the authorities) in getting enrolled in a
French regiment. He fought without training,
and he fought admirably. His soul delighted in
all the terrible glory of the battlefield. No
writer has so well as he the power of taking the
reader with him into the thick of the fight ; of
making him hear the racket of the machine guns,
178
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
and the booming of the cannon or the groans of
the wounded and the dj'ing, or making him see
the headlong tumble of the stricken horsemen.
"Well may Mauclair say of him: "He has been
everything, has known ever}i:hing, has suffered
everything. ' '
He also lived through those hours of darkest
tragedy after the capture of St. Quentin by the
Germans, and before the first battle of the
Marne. He knew% therefore, the physical and
moral exhaustion of the disorderly retreat, and
shared with other men the idea that the end of
everything was nigh ; but his spirit remained un-
daunted, and he determined to go under, if need
be, with the whole army, with France, and with
civilization, but never to 3'ield to the treacherous,
barbarous, monstrous power of imperial Ger-
many. His explanation of the miracle of the
Marne is well worth any that has been given.
"I was in the line, I understood nothing there-
fore of the tactics, but after Charleroi I found
myself with men who were in headlong flight :
It was those same men who suddenly refused to
retreat any further, and who, not knoiving that
they were going to win, held on, each in his own
place. The miracle was in the heart of each sol-
dier. All was lost ; it was going to be another
179
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
1870 ; but that must not be ! France was going
to die ; but not one of us wished to survive her,
and so we raised her from the dead. ' '
After the Marne, a new kind of torture
awaited him; it was that of the unending in-
activity of the trenches. An energetic man such
as Binet-Vahner suffers more from inactivity
than others, and yet we find in this part of his
diary nothing that reminds one of the moral
depression of Barbusse's men. It is certainly
not that he has hesitated to tell the whole truth,
for his Lucien proves pretty conclusively that he
loves the ' ' whole truth ' ' and dares to speak it ;
we are therefore led to the conclusion that the
state of mind described by Barbusse did not
exist. As to Binet-Valmer himself, instead of
settling down in the trenches to whine or to
write a tragic account of them, he keeps active.
Noticing that machine gun crews are more active
than the infantry, he has no rest until he is
permitted to enter a military school for the
training of auto-machine gunners for the
cavalry. But his luck abandons him for a time :
he is never at posts where actual fighting takes
place ; even when he is transferred to the Verdun
front he is not fortunate enough to repeat his
experience of the IMarne. Meanwhile, he be-
180
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
comes enthusiastic over the deeds of his com-
rades. It is with delight that he greets the new
weapon: the tank: the "artillery of attack."
He witnesses the foolhardiness of the men in
charge of those machines which at first gave
little in the way of results but were full of
promise. He therefore enters the tank corps on
January 17th, 1917, and after some time is placed
in command of three whippets {sangliers). It
was during his first battle, the victorious attack
at Malmaison, near the Chemin des Dames, that
he was wounded. He takes advantage of his
confinement in hospital to write these Memoires.
To those who would understand why the
French were victorious, this book will bring
abundant information.
With Binet-Valmer we close the list of the
leading war diaries by soldiers.
* * «
With the exception of a note on Jacques
Fierre's 80,000 milles en Torpilleiir, we have
made no mention so far of books written by
sailors.
The army played of course an incomparably
greater part in the war than the navy, and that
is sufficient to explain the far lesser number of
books dealing with naval warfare.
181
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
The best known of them is Rene Milan's Les
Vagabonds de la Gloire (in three series,
1916 ff ).*'•'
The excellent spirit of the French navy is
beautifully set forth in those volumes, and were
it only to learn how the sailors did their duty,
how eager they were to do it, the volumes would
be well worth reading. If more glorious or more
spectacular deeds are not reported, it is simply
because the enemy gave the sailors no oppor-
tunity to perform them.
Milan is an excellent writer.
But there is another book by a sailor which
has so special a message to deliver, offers so
much information upon a little known aspect of
the war, and is so absorbing in tragic interest,
that no one can afford to leave it unread:
Gdyssce d'un Transport Torpille by Y
(1918). Large fragments had already appeared
in the Revue de Paris.'^^
It tells in a series of letters addressed by one
of the officers to a friend of his who is serving on
'•0 The first volume alone is entirely devoted to the
navy. The second, Trois Etapes, deals partly with hy-
droplanes; and the third, Matelots aeriens, gives an
account of the part played by the dirigibles of the
Allies in the second part of the war.
61 The value of this book was very quickly recognized
in other countries than France. Houghton MiflQin and
Co. lost no time in issuing a translation.
182
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
a war cruiser the story of the Pamir, a merchant
vessel of 3,000 tons which the French govern-
ment requisitioned immediately the war broke
out, and for the use of which it paid the owners
1,000 francs a day.
The letters, written in a vivid, yet sober style,
explain admirably, but without the least sugges-
tion of boasting, the immense share which the
merchant navy had in tlie winning of the war
by transporting not onh' troops and arms, but
victuals, timbers for the trenches, coal, shelters,
and a thousand other things necessary for the
carrying on of the war. . Ever on the way, or
hurriedly loading or unloading, that vessel, — one
of thousands similarly engaged, — saved the
Allies from a crushing defeat. The book grips
and holds the interest of the reader, even though
there are no showy uniforms, no flags, no guns,
no spectacular scenes of any kind. Two men
claim our attention : Captain Forgues, and his
mate, Y , the author of the letters. They
are both striking types of French sailors, who,
from the first day of the war, do their dutj', and
more. Y is a young man ; he is engaged
to be married, and, as the war goes on month
after month, he finally takes advantage of a fur-
lough to marry. He is supremely and discreetly
183
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
*
happy, he has just received word that the crown-
ing happiness is to be added to the first — ^that
of fatherhood, — when everything ends abruptly.
Germany has just started the ruthless submarine
warfare, and the Pamir is one of her first vic-
tims ; she disappears leaving no trace whatever.
Y never indulges in patriotic talk nor
in any other form of sentimentality ; his book is
one of the most virile, sincere and sober ones of
the war; and yet, this man who does nothing
whatever to solicit our sympathy, who would,
indeed, resolutelj- set it aside, has more than any
other the gift of calling it forth.
But our sympathy and admiration for the
man of duty is darkened as we read on and
gradually come to realize the injustice of which
he and many of his comrades in the merchant
service were the victims. A tragic contrast be-
tween Germany and France establishes itself in
one 's mind : a contrast which it hurts one to ad-
mit, but which the circumstances related in this
book thrust upon one with irresistible force. It
may be expressed thus : In Germany there is a
remarkably efficient government to protect ras-
cals or moral dunces like those who allowed them-
selves to be ordered to commit unspeakable
atrocities; in France, there is an abominably
184
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
careless and inefficient government which leaves
without protection men as noble minded as can
be found anywhere on the face of the earth.
On land, for the army, something was done,
as the second Battle of the Marne shows, but on
the sea a costly negligence prevailed.
The men in office met the demands for protec-
tion which these men who had seen with their
own eyes and who had experience, ventured to
make, by the incredibly naive refrain : ' ' We
tell you that there is no submarine menace : do
not our newspapers say so? There is no sub-
marine danger ! ' ' Meanwhile, the sailors who
knew how they might be saved, realized at the
same time that thev would not be. The heart
sickens at the thought of all the suffering en-
dured by those noble fellows, and all the needless
sorrow that was brought to their homes, by the
culpable indifference of those miserables slackers
in office. For what were the demands of the
sailors, after all, that they could not be met?
"Wireless apparatus and guns, which might have
been supplied at relatively little cost !
It was only after February, 1917, when it be-
came evident that the fate of those on land de-
pended upon the safety of the seas, and after a
large number of brave seamen had been lost with
185
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
their ships, that the government began to bestir
itself.
The book, though not intended as such, is a
terrible indictment of the allied governments,
and particularly of the French.
If it is right, — and, surely, no morallj^ sound
person will care to deny it ! — that the Kaiser and
his aiders and abettors be arraigned before a
world-court on a charge of ordering and organiz-
ing piracy, it would be right also to bring to
judgment those French officials who did nothing
to thwart the criminal designs of the enemy.
This book ought not to be forgotten now that the
war is over. Public opinion all the world over,
if eiilightened by it, could be brought to bear
upon France to force her to better her own gov-
ernment for the sake of her splendid seamen.^^
62 We quote below in the savory French of the author
a few characteristic statements:
'"Arrange comme tu voudras. la France a besoin du
monde entier pour gagner sa victoire, et comme il n'y a
pas de chemins de fer pour aller en Australie, en Ar-
gentine ou aux Etats Unis, ni dans aucun autre pays qui
nous refilent de la mati^re premiere, on etait bel et bien
cuit sans la marine marchande" (p. 241).
"M'est avis que Mousseux (a seaman on board the
Pamir) pense aussi que si nous gagnons la victoire ga
ne sera pas faute de lui avoir tourne le dos. ... II pense
comme nous, et Ton est vite tombe d'accord que la marine
marchande est quasiment offerte aux sous-marins boches
et que ca durera ce que Qa durera" ( pp. 202-203 ) .
And elsewhere: "Dire qu'un pays comme le notre oH
186
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
It would be interesting, at this juncture, to com-
pare the recoiled ions of the soldiers of the Franco-
Prussian war with those of the soldiers of the Great
War. This cannot be done in detail here. Let it be
said, however, that one cannot but be struck by the
. similarity of their experiences. The main difference
lies in that the Franco-Prussian war having lasted
practically only a few weeks, while the Great War
lasted almost four years and a half, the hardships,
the discouragement, the inconceivably brutal behavior
of the Germans, could, in one case, be forgotten more
rapidly, (except by the comparatively few who were
directly affected), whereas in the last war, the fact
that such things kept on for so long, impressed them
much more deeply upon the mind of the world.
We knew something about the sufferings caused by
mistakes of the higher command and the poor organ-
ization of the commissariat and of the sanitary corps,
because Zola, in La Debacle (1893), and the Brothel's
Margueritte in Le Desastre (1903), had reminded us
of them. But a perusal of the personal recollections
of the soldiers of 1870, in the light of what the
present war has taught us, will cause us less astonish-
ment than would have been the case some years ago.
tout le monde se fait casstT la niargoulette en riant, est
traite de la sorte pour couvrir une bande d'imprevoy-
ants! C'est a rire jusqu'au ju<,'i'ment dernier" (p. 229).
And there are pages in which he shows tliat every-
where '"les routes secrHes sent des routes de desastre,
car toujours les Allcmands, par leurs espions, sont ren-
seignes (he gives several heartrending instances) . Aussi
Fourgues n'^chappe si longtemps que parce que 11 ne va
pas dans ces routes secretes" (p. 205).
187
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
In 1870, as in this war, the witness is impressed by
the splendid fighting qualities of the French soldiers:
not only by their dash, but also by their endurance
under the most trying circumstances. In reading, for
instance, the stirring book of Ludovic Halevy,
L'lnvasion, Souvenirs et recits (1872), one becomes
aware of the fact that the circumstances which ac-
companied the defeat of the army in 1870, were as
trying as the gloomy days before the Marne and
the endless waiting in the soaked and filthy trenches.
We would advise the reader to turn also to
Amedee Achard's Becits d'un Soldat (1895), and,
in that book, more particularly to the passages
which illustrate the fundamentally barbarous nature
of the Gei:mans, and which suggest striking parallels
between 1870 and 1914. Reference has been made
above to the wanton destruction of scientific col-
lections in 1870 ; in 1914, they specialized in the
ruining of industrial implements, of trees, and of
churches; it was the same lack of culture. Achard
had occasion to witness in 1870 their lack of self-
respect and of humanity: He had served as a volun-
teer, in the army of Sedan and saw how little atten-
tion the Germans showed to the white flag. "The flag
of truce hoisted by us on the ramparts did not stop
the attack, but only prevented us from going on with
the defense." It was the same principle, only carried
a little further, that permitted the Germans to make
use of stretchei"s borne by men clad in Red Cross
uniforms, to bring up, free from molestation, machine
guns which they used to win fort Douaumont. One
should read also, in the same book, the story of the
188
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
prisoners of Sedan when they were herded together in
the peninsula of Glaires, (formed by a cui've of the
Meuse), and there allowed, or rather condemned, to
die of hunger, being subjected meanwhile to the worst
insults from unchivalrous officers. Achard himself
was, as a great favor, taken with a contingent of
prisoners" and deported into Germany. The story of
this journey of starving men traveling under escort,
is one of the vilest banditism. Even the wounded
were not allowed any food; when they lagged behind,
they were driven forward with the butts of rifles, and
when they gave out completely, they were mercilessly
shot. The heart sickens in reading of such ignoble
behavior. They had not changed, except for the
worse, between 1870 and 1914; would it not be naive
to expect that they will change after 1918 f^
NON-COMBATANTS AND THE WaR
Our account of War Literature would be in-
complete indeed if we did not devote some pages
to books dealing with the effects of the war upon
the civilian population.
That non-combatants had their share of trials
needs no proof. The legend of Forain's
famous cartoon has expressed it admirably :
"Poiirvu qu'ils tiennent! Qui ga? Les cfivils."
{L'Opmion, Jan. 1915.)
63 Some instances of German crueltv durincr the
Franco-Prussian war, were familiar to us through the
writings of Maupassant and of Daudet; but treated as
fiction, they failed to carry conviction.
'189
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Let us consider first of all such books as tell
us of the civilians who were caught up in the
maelstrom of the war. Later, we shall deal with
books describing the civilians in the rear.
Civilians of the war zone on the Allies' side
of the battle line, have been described in
Emmanuel Bourcier's pleasing little book Gens
du Front (1917). Bourcier gives us charming
sketches of village life near the front during the
days of intermittent shelling by the Germans,
and until one day every house was leveled to the
ground by heavy bombardment.
One of the best books of the war, — ^best with
regard both to style and to content, — is Isabelle
Rimbaud's Dans les Remous de la Bataille
(Charleroi, the Marne and Rheims) (1916).
The author is the sister of the famous poet Ar-
thur Rimbaud,''* and she gives a very vivid and
yet sober account of the debacle of the civilians
fleeing before the Germans in the dark days of
August and September, 1914. The first chapters
picture the effects of the mobilization upon the
peasants.®^ Then came the days of emigration,
64 Her home was at Roches, a village in the Ardennes.
65 We have many pictures of the state of mind of the
Parisians (and of the habitants of other large towns)
during the early days of the war, and amongst tliem,
Marcelle Tinayre's, in her novel, Teillee des Armes,
which is a very worthy counterpart of this work.
190
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
the continuous flow of refugees. The author
joins the sad procession and tells of her experi-
ences until the day when she successfully brings
her sick husband into Paris.
Those who like to make comparisons will un-
doubtedly find it interesting to establish one be-
tween this book and another of a similar kind,
viz., ]\Iadame Iluard's famous My Home on the
Field of Honor. Madame Huard, though French
by marriage, is an American by birth, and while
she feels deeply for the poor suffering people
whom she saw, the chief impression which the
book leaves is that of the energy and resourceful-
ness of that remarkable woman in every trj'ing
emergency. The impression created by Isabelle
Rimbaud's book is very different. She has as
much courage and initiative as Madame Huard,
but as one turns over the last page of her book,
one is conscious not so much of a feeling of
admiration for the author, as of an immense
Christian sympathy for the innocent, helpless
victims of the war, and a sacred horror like that
which the ancients had of blind, remorseless
Fate.
* * *
There were also civilians who underwent the
hardships of war on the other side of the battle
191
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
line ; and their lot was worse. The full story of
their sufferings has been published gradually as
towns and villages were freed of the invaders,
and when there was no more danger of bringing
on reprisals on French prisoners in Germany:
that is, since the armistice. But even during the
war some books came out which were eagerly
read. The reports of Commissions on German
barbarities and atrocities, eloquent as they are
in their bare statements of facts, lie outside of
our study. But we can mention a little volume
which has been translated into English and has
been much read in America; we refer to Mar-
guerite Yerta's Les six Femmes et VInvasion,
Aout WU—Fe'vrier 1916 (1917). The six
women whose husbands were fighting for
France, remained in their town, daring to face
the humiliations of the vanquished. They felt
certain, however, that the German successes
were only temporary, and they acted accord-
ingly, retaining their dignity in spite of their
unfortunate destiny.*'^
66 Under this heading we should also place the follow-
ing accounts by women: H. Celarie's Sous les Obus,
Journal d'une jeune Lorraine, (1914-16), with illustra-
tions; Madame d'Urville's Filles de Metz, (1919) ; Ma-
dame Leune, Tels qu'ils sont, Notes d'line Infirmiere de
la Croix Rouge. Madame Leune was for a time in a hos-
pital behind the German lines, at Lille; later she suc-
192
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
Certainly one of the most illuminating docu-
ments of the war, one which casts a flood of light
on the suffering of the people in the invaded
regions, and on the really barbarous mentality of
the Germans, is the little volume : Le Martyre de
Lens, Trois annees de captivite, by Emile Basly,
deputy mayor of Lens (Plon, 1918).
The author had started life as a miner in "La
Ville Noire"; he was a socialist and had been
elected mayor of that town of 40,000 inhabitants.
He writes very modestly of the share which he
had in keeping up the "morale" of the popula-
tion, and one guesses that he did a great deal
more than he has reported. He warns his
readers not to look for literature in his memoirs.
And yet what he produces is the best kind of
literature; one which, though dispensing with
artificial adornments, goes straight to the heart.
It would be difficult to write in a more sober
style; every line bears the impress of truth.
After each chapter, one is inclined to repeat
the word so often heard from those who wit-
nessed the courage of the French civilian popula-
ceeded in roenterinp France by way of Switzerland;
Madame Emmanuel Colombel's Journal d'une Infirmiere
d' Alsace. She also was caught by the invasion in her
hospital in Arras during the short occupation of that
town by the Germans.
193
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
tion during the stormy days of the war, "Les
braves gens ! ' ' Few crimes of a sensational
character are reported as having taken place
during the first two years of the war.*'^ But how
cruel was the moral torment of being forced to
put up for weeks, months and years, with vexa-
tions from an arrogant, and stupid foe! Those
brutal soldiers would come and demand anything
and everything that they fancied at the mo-
ment; underwear, watches, shoes, clothing; one
of them even demanded a mandolin; several
second-lieutenants particularly wanted "fixe-
moustaches" — and when the mayor refused to
supply these articles, they would go and plunder
the store. Not content with looting what they
fancied, they would wantonly destroy what they
did not want or could not take away. The
author one day saw them throw out into the
street jewelry, cigars and glassware after help-
ing themselves. He also saw a gang headed by
an officer, force the door of a grocery shop, open
cans of meat and fruit with hammers, spoil the
precious and too rare food which they could not
67 Basly relates one particularly horrible crime during
that period. A workingman, returning to his half-
starved family, sees a well-fed German attempting to
steal a loaf — their only food for that day — from his chil-
dren. He protests, and a few minutes later he is dragged
away from wife and children, and shot.
194
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
eat, after plunging their hands into the fruit
or meat cans, pulling out the contents and de-
vouring them.
Some revolting episodes are related on pp.
70-77.
Two lieutenants introduced themselves into a
large silent house, the curtains of which were
drawn. Madame Sevart, who owned the prop-
erty, had been buried on the previous day. The
lieutenants noticing that some of the desks had
been surrounded by long strips of paper and
sealed, inquired of the keeper :
"What is the meaning of this?"
The man explained that it was a formality
demanded by the law, pending the claim of the
property by the rightful heirs. But the officer
did not allow him to complete his explanation —
"and so you don't trust us!" he shouted, and
drawing his sword he cut the seals, opened the
drawers, threw the documents which they con-
tained on the floor and trampled on them.
It was only the day before that death had
passed that way (pp. 70-71).
The invaders distinguished themselves by an
inconceivable lack of any sense of honor. Under
the protection of the German authorities, a
quarter-master general commandeered food,
195
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
liquor and wines, — and then went to sell them
to the townspeople who dared not refuse to buy,
and had to pay the exorbitant price which he
demanded. During bombardments, while the
people were forced to retire into their cellars,
the soldiers, who were not allowed to take
shelter, would improve the hour by going the
round of the town to steal fowls.
That the German authorities called to their
aid professional crooks, in order the better to
harass the people of Lens, cannot surprise us
very much after all that we have learned from
other sources, but one cannot conceive of the
British, French or American armies of occupa-
tion resorting to such things. And what excuse
could be found for the following senseless act of
cruelty? The deported French women were at
last being allowed to return to France. Before
crossing the frontier, they were examined by well
dressed German women, not without education
apparently, who subjected them to the indignity
of making them strip. One poor woman had
concealed in her clothing a photograph of her
little girl, her dearest treasure. A German
woman saw it, pounced upon it, examined it
and inquired: "This is the photograph of
196
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
your little girl?"— "Yes, Madam"— "Well
then look," she said; and this German woman
tore the photograph into small squares. She
did it slowly and deliberately, as if she found
satisfaction in destroying under her claws the
smiling young features of that little child's
face.
But, do what they would, the Germans did not
succeed in breaking the spirit of that admirable
people, who clung together and refused to yield.
Basly relates a touching example of resolution
and cooperation: The flour mills upon which
the town depended for its supply of bread were
put out of order, and the flour began to fail;
then all the women of the town came with their
tiny coffee mills, and holding them firmly be-
tween their knees, they ground wheat for long
hours, day after day. How beautiful, too, is
his account of the way in which even the poorest
came forward with their pennies, when the
enemy demanded monstrous sums of money.
How tragic the story of how, when they were
locked up in their cellars for many days and
nights, they bored tunnels through the walls
and under the streets, so that they might see
their neighbors and gather courage and comfort
197
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
from each other. They saw their houses ran-
sacked/^ and then dynamited, and the mines,
these mines of Lens, the wealth of the town and
of the neighborhood, with their galleries which
had been dug and built by the labor of many
generations of workers, wrecked by wicked
enemies who aimed not only at destroying the
present, but the future also, and would have
stamped out even hope. To perpetrate some of
their acts of vandalism, they were driven to
make use of convicts, for the soldiers, repulsive
brutes though they were, would not go to the
lengths that were expected of them. And
finally those citizens who had not fled, or had
not been killed, were deported.
In the eighth chapter, of the second part,
Injures aux femmes frangaises, Basly relates
one of the ugliest incidents of the occupation of
Lens. It is difficult to see how Germans of
future generations will be able to defend their
Kultur after this: "One day an order was
brought to me from the Kommandantur. I tore
it up after glancing at it hurriedly. It con-
cerned a medical examination of the women of
68 10,000 workers' cottages were razed to the ground,
and their gardens and fruit trees systematically de-
stroyed.
198
PERIOD OF DOCUMEI^ i'ATION
Lens ; it could only refer to prostitutes, I
thought, and* was therefore a matter of routine
which did not concern me. — But it soon became
evident that I was mistaken. The order con-
cerned all the women of the city ! — was it pos-
sible? "What were our tormentors aiming at?
"Were they so anxious to dishonor themselves in
the eyes of the whole world ? Pillage, arson, im-
prisonments, shootings, those were customary
atrocities; we had accepted them stoically, as
fatal necessities of our position. But could we
submit to the shame which threatened us?
Scenes of savagery were reported from neighbor-
ing townships. Our women," said the mayor
of H., "refused to respond to the summons;
soldiers stopped them on the highways; paying
no attention to their cries, they violently dragged
their victims to a room of the town-hall where
the major was waiting for them ! the devils ! ' '
In Lens also the}' refused. But a few days
later certain women were commanded to appear
at the Kommandantur under some pretext or
other, — when they came brutal hands were laid
on them, and they were locked up with the
physicians. — This did not last long. All the
women henceforth refused to go, under any cir-
cumstances, to the Kommandantur. Finally, a
199
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
French physician assumed the task of issuing
certificates, and the Germans themselves were
not sorry to end the matter thus.
After the girls and women, it was the turn
of the boys to be tormented. Small boys were
sent to dig trenches, and they returned broken
in health, mere ghosts of what they had been.
In vain the parents pleaded for their release.
Officers had said that they must be reduced by
any means, and to show sj^mpathy for the chil-
dren was considered a crime of lese majeste.*'^
69 A moving description of the horrors committed in
the occupied districts will be found in a little book by
Benjamin Vallotton, a Swiss writer of repute, Au pays
de la mort ( 1917) .
The same subject has been treated in a remarkable
manner by a man who has acquired great reputation as
a historian : Arthur Chuquet, member of the Institute,
in his volumes De Frederic II a Guillaume II, (Chiffons
de papier, Reims et Dresde, Alsace et Belgique) , and es-
pecially I'rouesses Allernandes 1!)14-1D16 (La Guerre en
Flandres, La Meuse et la Meurthe, Senlis et Gerbeviller,
Les Garnets des Vandales).
The behavior of the Germans in the Lens region gen-
erally, was described after the signing of the Armistice,
in the Chamber of Deputies by M. Delory, representa-
tive for the city of Lille. We quote the following pas-
sage of his speech from the Bulletin of the Paris Cham-
ber of Commerce, January, 1919:
"In 1916, there was the carrying oflF of women and
children in the middle of the night by German soldiery;
the streets were lined with machine-guns, women and
children roused from sleep, the German soldiers remain-
ing in their bedrooms while they dressed; and all of
them, without distinction of class, were medically ex-
200
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
Among the books that have come out since the
Armistice in November, 1918 — and all support-
ing the testimony of Basly — we mention: Al-
bert Droulers, Sous le Poing de Fer: Quatre
ans dans un Faubourg de Lille (1918). There
is no passion in this volume, no dwelling on
sensational crimes, but rather the author brings
out the behavior of the Germans when it be-
traj's the brutishness of their souls. Practi-
cally the only means of persuasion they know
of are blows; they find a develish pleasure in
imposing moral sufferings on mothers by tortur-
ing the children under their ej'es; they show
savage fury at stubborn resistance; — and never
one example when a German was moved by
courage in their enemies, or yielded out of ad-
amined. Since this, at several different times men — I
misjlit say children — and old men have been carried
off. compelled to work under the threat of blows or of
beinp- deprived of food. It was not for the work author-
ized by the Convention of Berne; but for the erection of
shelters for German soldiers, or for transportin<,' muni
tions, and at only a few kilometers from the lines, so
that many of them were wounded by fire from our own
guns.
"Tlie plain of Lens gives one the idea of a country that
had been handed over to a builder having at his disposal
formidable machines for the purpose of pulling down
houses. There arc no traces of any basements or foun-
dations left. At Douai the skeletons of buildings are
still standing, but the place is like a dead city, without
inhabitants or furniture."
201
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
miration for heroism : and this is perhaps the
worst of it all! Martin-Marny, Quatre ans avec
les Barhares, Lille pendant VOccupation alle-
mande (1919) ; Hazard, Lille, La Ville envahie
(1919) ; Pierre Bosc, Les Allemands a Lille
(1919). . . . Then Ernest Colin, Saint-Die sous
la Botte (1919) ; Henriette Celarie, Quand
"lis" etaient a Saint-Quentin (1919). And for
details relative to the roughness with which Ger-
mans treated civilian hostages in internment
camps, see the series of articles published by the
same H. Celarie in the Revue des Deux-Mondes
(1918-19).
tP ^fr ^r
Several soldier prisoners' diaries have been
published, or rather, should we say, those parts
of the diaries which their authors were able to
smuggle out of Germany, or to reconstitute from
memory. One of the first to appear was that of
A. "Warnod, PHsonnier de Guerre, Notes et
Croquis de I'Allemagne (1916). The author, a
journalist and artist, was made a prisoner dur-
ing the first weeks of the war. He has some
moving incidents such as that of the little boy of
thirteen against whom a ridiculous accusation of
sniping was brought, because he was seen play-
ing with a cartridge case, and who was brutally
202
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
carried off from his village with wounded sol-
diers and prisoners of war, and sent into Ger-
many, and who for many days cried without ceas-
ing. Other facts are of a more humorous nature,
as when he sketches the Germans who, on Sun-
day afternoons, came with their families, pro-
vided with opera glasses, to view the prisoners
of war behind the barbed wires of the camp, and
who laughed at the kilted Scotch, or were hor-
rified at the sight of the native Moroccan troops,
and shook their fists at the French. Warnod
was in Germany for nine months; most of the
time he was at Merseburg, Bavaria.
Other books of a similar kind are E. Zavie's
Prisonn'ier en Allemagne (1917), R. de la
Fregeolieres, A Tire d'Ailes, Garnet d'un
Aviateur et Souvenirs d'un Prisonnier, with a
preface by Bazin (1917), Abbe Aubry's Ma
Captivite en Allemagne (1917), Albert Thierry,
Carnets de guerre (1918), R. Christian-Froge,
Les Captifs (1919), Joseph Hemard, Chez les
Fritz, Notes et Croquis (1919),
One of these diaries has attracted a good deal
of attention and has been much praised ; it is
that of a young author of the name of Gaston
Riou, who, a few months before the war, had
published a book which was well received by the
203
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
French reading public: Aux Ecoutes de la
France qui vient (1913).
Any publication, in those days of anxious ex-
pectation, which spoke of the spirit of confidence
which animated the French youth, was wel-
comed and sure to be eagerly read. Gaston
Riou was in the Ambulance service when the war
broke out and was soon afterwards made a
prisoner; and, in spite of international agree-
ments with regard to Red Cross workers, was
interned in Germany. He was there nearly a
year (until July 31, 1915), after which time he
was allowed to return to France through Switzer-
land. He spent the eleven months of his cap-
tivity in the fortress of Or If, near Ingolstadt, in
Bavaria. It was there that he wrote his Journal
d'un simple Soldat; Guerre, Captivite, 1914-
1915 (1916).
On the whole, his lot was not very hard. The
prisoners in the fortress were not well fed ; they
were short of news, and were often subjected to
petty, even cruel, vexations, but to nothing that
was really unbearable. It must be remembered, 4
however, that this was at the beginning of the
war, when the policy of the Germans was to
praise France, while they vented their wrath
against the English and the Belgians, in the hope
204
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
of bringing about a Franco-German alliance.
The prisoners who returned after 1915 had a
very different story to tell, and a truer account
of the spirit of the German authorities is found
in books such as Les Martyrs de Lens. Riou
himself knows that he was fortunate, and he
repeatedl}' states that the prisoners interned at
Orff were comparativelj^ well off (see pp. 105-
106). Moreover, the}^ had the good fortune of
being in the hands of a humane fort commander.
Baron von Stengel, who, when the hope of a
reconciliation with France had to be abandoned,
was replaced by a stern, vain and exacting man.
This change was made only a short time before
Riou was sent back to France. What con-
tributed very materially to Riou's comfort while
in the fortress, was the fact that he was appar-
ently well supplied with money; and, further-
more, as every one knew that he was a writer,
he enjoj'ed a certain prestige, and* some im-
munity from bad treatment for fear of what he
might publish.
We may be permitted to add that Riou shows
from time to time that he is well aware of his
importance, and that this is apt to take away
from all the enjoyment one would otherwise find
in the reading of his book. Moreover, while the
205
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
facts which he relates — his descriptions of life
in the fortress, of the little joys and great dis-
couragements of the prisoners, of his reading,
of fraternizing with the Russian prisoners, — are
interesting and to the point, the same cannot be
said of the grand introduction which, by con-
trast, makes the book itself look rather thin.
Why, indeed, should he tell us how, during his
previous travels in Germany, he had been re-
ceived by Herr Banker A "cousin of Chan-
cellor von Bethmann," by the "great sociolo-
gist ' ' B , by the ' ' famous painter ' ' C , by
"the most alert man he ever met" D , by the
continuator of Kant and Fichte" E , by
the "Director" of such and such a periodical,
and "leader of all the youth of Germany"
F , by the ' ' grand master of German artistic
life" G , by the "future Bebel of Germany"
H , by M. von I "of the Prussian gen-
eral staff, ' ' and ' ' by the most influential of them
all" J etc., etc., all of whom took young
Riou into their confidence. The remainder of
the book has no earthly connection with all this,
— which, perhaps, is a long introduction to
some other book which has not appeared, but
certainly not to this plain diary of a prisoner.
As for the philosophical remarks in that intro-
206
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
duction, they savor really a little too much of
prophecies after the events. It is quite remark-
able how many men in Europe have thought it
interesting to tell us, — at dates posterior to
August 1st, 1914 — that they knew all the time
what was coming; and somehow, it is exasperat-
ing to think that they all knew all about it, and
yet did nothing to avert the catastrophy/"
* * *
A much more genuine work is that of Charles
Hennebois, Aiix mains de VAUemagne, Joxirnal
d'un Grand Blesse {Aoid 1914—Juillet 1915),
with a preface by Ernest Daudet (1916). The
author had previously published two little
volumes of verse. He enlisted voluntarily at
the outbreak of hostilities, was severely wounded
at St. Mihiel Aug. 12, 1914, after he had been
only six days at the front. He spent nine
months in various hospitals in Germany. He is
quite impartial in his appreciation ; although an
ardent patriot, he readily acknowledges any kind
treatment he may have received, but he also has
some tales to relate which constitute a terrible
TO Riou has also written an essay — not a little rhetor-
ical — to commemorate the landinj; of tlic first American
troops in France on July 10, 1917. It borrows its title
from the historic word of an American officer at La Fay-
ette's tomb: La Fayette, nous voild.
207
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
indictment of Germany. There are too many
such reports for one to be able to consider acts
of barbarous cruelty as exceptions confirming
the rule; even if we do not regard them as a
matter of regular practice, the fact remains that
they were perpetrated by men and women who
were reared in that country, and one feels that
those acts are the logical result of a revolting
system of education.
Hennebois escaped death only by a miracle
when lying wounded on the battlefield, because
he happened to know the German tongue ; it was
while lying there that he witnessed the "finish-
ing off by Germans with the butt ends of rifles
and with bayonets, and the robbing of the bodies
of some French wounded who had called for
water."
He relates the revolting conduct of two Ger-
man orderlies in the hospital where he was, who,
bringing back from the operating table a
Frenchman whose leg had been amputated, and
was in danger of hemorrhage, "shook the
stretcher roughly, raced like lunatics through
the passages, ' ' — and although the patient begged
them to be careful "purposely tossed the limp,
mutilated body higher still, playing with it as
with a living, suffering ball." He has a terrible
208
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
suspicion, amounting almost to certainty, that
a German surgeon, with malice prepense, but
under the pretext of a new operation, made in
one of his French patients a much larger and
deeper wound than the first. Such pages must
be read in the original, and we therefore refer
the reader to the dates in early December, 1914.
But there is one page which we can repro-
duce. A certain Doctor W disliked Henne-
bois, and this is the mean revenge which he took
because he had been foiled in an attempt to harm
the wounded,
"February 14, 1915. — I am in the dressing
ward. I have unrolled my bandage. Doctor
W looks at me askance. The affair of a
duck and of some bread is still on his mind. He
is still very angry. A German, we know, takes
forty-eight hours to consider a problem, ^ly
wound is almost closed. The flesh which has
shrunk very much looks healthy and red. It
has ceased to suppurate.
"The doctor motions to me. I climb upon the
table. lie takes his forceps, probes the wound,
makes it bleed, continues ruthlessly. At inter-
vals he turns to me: Well, patriot, does it
hurt ?
"I shake my head, and the operation con-
209
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
tinues. He strikes the projecting bone with his
forceps. The pain is atrocious. I grip the sides
of the table. I will not scream and I feel myself
turning pale. He repeats his question, an evil
gleam in his green eyes.
"Does it hurt? No? Not yet?
"I shake my head angrily.
' ' Yes, I know, the French are very courageous.
But let us see.
"He takes the flesh in both hands, and brings
the two edges together. Then he presses with
all his strength. I feel a cold sweat break out
over me. I close my eyes suddenly to avoid see-
ing the man. I am afraid of flinching, of giving
way and howling aloud. The pressure con-
tinues; the scar which is broad at the edges,
tears presently. The blood pours over the
doctor's hand. He looks like a butcher. And
he still asks : Does it hurt ? I do not answer.
I feel a mad desire to strike at that narrow fore-
head, and to cry aloud the words that are on my
lips : CoA^ ard ! Coward ! Brute ! But I keep
silence. I raise mj^self with a supreme effort,
and if my voice trembles, what I say at least,
sounds grave and simple:
"A Frenchman can bear pain when it is neces-
210
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
sary. Was this? I think not, monsieur. But
God will judge you.
"lie laughs loud and long, sends for a glass
and pours a few drops into it.
"Drink this brandy. You have been brave.
"I refuse to drink, gently but firmly. And
the dressing is completed. Doctor K has
arrived. He is told what ha.s happened. It
amuses him very much. He adds his contribu-
tion :
"Necessary or unnecessary, that's our busi-
ness. Anyhow, the Kfiegsfreiwilliger (volun-
teer) will remember us, and that's what we
want. You may think yourself lucky to get
off so cheaply. One leg is not much. If it had
depended on me, you would have lost both."
How can the Germans challenge the epithet of
"barbarians" which has so often been applied
to them, when such incidents are allowed to take
place in their hospitals? Their women seem
to be not much better than their men. For
one Sister Amolda (at Offenburg), there are
two others, a Sister Erigia (at San Kleraens)
and Frau Kommando (at Offenburg), who are
regular she-devils. It is easy to understand the
delirium of joy of the liberated prisoners when
211
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
they are allowed to return to France ; when they
come to the border and get at last into Switzer-
land where such a touching welcome awaits them,
not in French Switzerland only, but in German
Switzerland as well/^
71 One should read also Captain Ollivier's Onze Mois de
Captivite dans les Hopitaux Allemands (Chapelot, 1916).
The lively entertaining; experiences of an officer, which
do not differ very materially from the experiences of a
private. This is another case, one of the many cases,
when the life of a wounded man was spared — when he
was not brutally butchered while lying helpless on the
battlefield — by the fact that he knew German. He re-
ceived treatment successively at Le Chatelet, Liege,
Maience, and finally returned to France through Frei-
burg and Constance. He relates many instances of the
lack of decency of feeling in the Germans; their tactless
jokes at the expense of prisoners and woimded; their
readiness to adopt any new attitude ordered by the gov-
ernment or by circumstances. They are impervious to
any feeling of shame at the most complete volteface.
Eugene-Louis Blanchet, En RepresaiUes (1918) must
be singled out because it tells of the suffering of a par-
ticular class of prisoners, those undergoing ill treat-
ment under the pretext of reprisals for bad treatment
of German prisoners. The volume is another terrible in-
dictment of the Germans less because of their lack of
kindly feelings (some of them were good at times), than
because there seems to be nothing in them that revolts
at wickedness and cruelty to a fellow-man. Some of the
pages of tbis book, couched in absolutely moderate terms,
set one's blood boiling. Scenes of pitiless clubbing and
bayoneting are everyday occurrences; but when it comes
to pouring boiling water on prisoners, or to tying to the
post the poor helpless fellows, one feels that these tor-
mentors belong to a race whose instincts are unknown to
the rest of the world. If German prisoners have been
treated one hundredth as badly, we will hear of it surely.
Their whining is too well known to let us believe that
212
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
"We shall deal with one more book in closing
this part of our study. It is L'Allemand, Sou-
venirs et Reflexions d'un Prisonnicr de Guerre
(1919), by Jacques Riviere, Director of the
Nouvelle Revue Frangaise. This work claims to
be philosophical ; i. e., not written like a diary in
which the feelings of the moment are always
reflected, but after the author's return to
France. While he was in Germany, he had ob-
served, and he had read. He had read with
they would bear it in silence. But we need expect noth-
ing. And, after all, why sliould we be surprised when
we read in an Antliologyof German tliought during the
war {Der Deutsche Gedanke, 1918) such passages as the
following:
'Laugh aloud, my Germany, for thy noisy enemies
have at last acknowledged in their rage that thou art
the true successor of thy forebears! Does not thy lieart
swell with pride that tliou canst strike at leisure with
thy sharp-edged sword? 'Barbarian? Present!' Be
sincere, my Germany, thou never couldst with grace put
up with culture: it was too small for thee: a garment
which marred thy beauty. Don tlie wolf-skin! it was
thus arrayed, feldgrau warrior, that thine ancestor of
the forests and the marshes went out to meet the for-
eign invader. Barliarian ! and we should blush, for-
sooth, at a name so well-sounding, so ancient and so
solemn! Shall we protest indeed? . . . Hail to the day
when the barbarian manner shall cover the earth ; for
in that day the air shall be pure as the breath of the
forests, ami the lives of men limpid as spring waters.
(Signed) '"Augustus Supper."
(Quoted from Vallotton's Preface to Blanchet's book.) '2
'- The author belongs to a group of writers who do
not consider the Revokitions of 17S9 and 1848 as bless-
ings for France.
213
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
special care a study of the German soul by one
of the most broad-minded of Germans, Pro-
fessor Paul Natorp (the only professor who, so
far as we know, dared to abstain from shouting
with the Pan-Germanists, and even after the out-
break of the war, dared to protest against their
principles). Riviere's captivity lasted for three
years ; and he tries to write soberly. He is often
subtle and diffuse, but his conclusions, after
three years of pondering, can be summarized in
a few words. These conclusions are of much
greater value than Riou 's.
. "I make bold to say, and to repeat without
fear of being mistaken: The German is a bar-
barian, not perhaps in the sense in which the
term is usually understood; but in so far as he
has no appreciation of what is excellent. . . . He
is a barbarian in this also, that he does not see
the stability of excellence, all that it prevents,
all that it does without, the impossibility of doing
better. The German is a barbarian too, by the
fact that he knows no certainty, no absolute
obligation. He can explore forever his own soul,
he can push his investigation in every direction,
in no direction does he meet with any resistance
which increases as he advances; everything, to
214
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
him, is possible, nothing is really stable ; at bot-
tom the reason of his failure to recognize the
excellent which lies outside himself, is that he
has none of it within. He is a barbarian in this,
that his intellect is in a state of perpetual migra-
tion. I am far from saying that he is not
capable of many things ; I have even said that he
is capable of everything. ..." Riviere returns
often to the idea of the German who does not
say /, but can only say : We Germans. . . .
As for France: "It is useless to try to con-
ceal from ourselves the fact that we are not a
progressive people. . . . We must put up with
it. We shall never be the first to bring about
social revolutions. my awkward France, so
ver}^ far behind the point you think you have
attained ... so dangerously outstripped by
others. my threatened France, but whom
they have succored, as one takes the arm of
some dear tired friend, I love thee because noth-
ing can make thee forget what must not be for-
gotten. L love thee because in spite of all, thou
maintainest contact with things that are stable.
Again, I love thee because thou doest naught
else, perhaps, than prevent or punish that
mania for speed, those turns on two wheels, and
215
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
I love thee because thou dost not take aboard as
ballast, as things to be got rid of if need be, the
sacred certainties of the mind. ' '
Before leaving this subject of Prisoners in Ger-
many, we ought to mention, though we cannot
stop to analyze them, the very fascinating stories
of the marvelous escapes of Du Tartre and
Prieur, as told by D. Baud-Bovy (who had it
directly from the two men), in L' Evasion, Recit
de Deux Prisonniers Frangais Evades du Camp
d'Hammelhourg (fin 1914).'^ (1917), and of
Lieutenant Niod as related in Mes six Evasions
(1919) which has a preface by Barres. (See
also P. Ginisty et Capt. M. Gagneur, Les Belles
Evasions. ) ^*
* * *
"We now come to books describing the effects
■7?' Du Tartre and Prieur also speak of the heartless-
ness shown by German Red Cross women. It is aston-
ishing how frequently references to that .subject are
found in prisoners' diaries.
74 For further documentation on Germany at the com-
mencement of the war, the reader may consult Le- Jour-
nal (Vune Franraise en Allemagne juiUet a octohre lill4,
by El. Altiar (1915) ; if the irritating je occurred less
often and if the reader felt less the persistent, and very
feminine desire to make "original" remarks, the book
would afford much more enjoyable reading. See also
Cecile Fallet. Notes d'une Internee Franraise en Alle-
magne (1919).
216
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
of the war iipou the population away from the
war zone — on the French side of the battle line.
It is somewhat difficult to differentiate here,
as we have done elsewhere, between novels and
volumes of recollection.'^
Marcelle Tinayre's Veillee des Amies has
never lost its popularity since its publication in
1915. The reason for that is the admirable
blending of life with the remarkable art of that
gifted woman. It is evident that she saw with
her keen feminine sense of observation wiiich.
never fails to penetrate deep and complex psy-
chic states, the thrilling first days of the war
in Paris. Her studies are like rapid cinemato-
graph scenes, very varied, taking the reader from
the street to the house, from the barracks or from
the factory to the station ; her characters are now
shopkeepers, now housewives, lovers, soldiers,
officers, old men or young. None could, better
than Marcelle Tinayre, amalgamate so well the
two dominating features of that time : the dig-
75 As a jjencral introduction to this subject the reader
may refer to Alphaud's La France pendant la (hierre,
which contains a great deal of information; Mad. Marc
Helys's Les Provinces pendant la Guerre; a work in six
volumes. I. Bretagne; IT. Bordeaux. Cognac, le Lot
d'Argent, le Beam; III. Lyon, St. Etionno, Le Buy; IV.
Dauphine, Provence; V. Poitou, Limousin, Languedoc;
VI. Normandie, Bourgogne. Reflets de la Guerre.
217
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
nity and self-control of the people, and the
genuine, deep-felt suffering. Her volume is
generally regarded as a novel.
Jacques Blanche's Cahiers d'un Artiste
(1916-and ff) were first published in the Revue
de Paris. Four volumes of them had come
out before the end of the war. The wide cir-
cle of Blanche's noted friends and acquaint-
ances both in France and in England, his
traveling both before and since 1914, added to
his natural gift of telling his story simply and
yet vividly and strikingl}-, makes this diary one
of the most remarkable products of war litera-
ture, and the best general picture of France
during the great war.
The first part, Prodromes, is an alarming ac-
count of a journey to the German eye-clinic
of Liebenstein, in June, 1914, The moment
Blanche had crossed the frontier, a feeling of
uneasiness pervaded him. He was greatly sur-
prised to see everywhere gigantic preparations
for a struggle ; soldiers, formidable warehouses,
large railroad stations often in small villages;
guests in hotels were inconvenienced, even con-
fined to their rooms when manoeuvres were tak-
ing place in the neighborhood, etc. He also
found sumptuous comfort everywhere, wealth
218
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
and every material opportunity of enjoj'ing life,
— although the essential condition for genuine
enjoyment of life, namely "art," was lacking.
Such was Germany: rapidly making money, but
embarrassed when it came to making use of it ;
and squandering it to create an illusion. . . ,
Germany with mediocre natural intelligence, but
making up for this shortcoming by the artifices
of organization. . . . Germany, ferociously jeal-
ous of France, where the people with much
less means, and less spectacular display, be-
tray a real sense for life. Blanche looked in
vain for the simple, dreamy Germany of Renan ;
"They keep their people in a state of exaltation,
heroic and religious" . . . "Germany aston-
ishes me to the point of compelling my ad-
miration for her unbelievable progress and her
total transformation. There were minutes dur-
ing my short stay when I forgot the enemy hid-
ing so cleverly. But, no ! Impossible to feel
at home here."
Then after his return, he witnessed in France
the moving days of the mobilization. During
the next months, he lived part of the time at his
country house in Normandy, part of the time in
Paris; he visited also other parts of France.
Everywhere he notes the "galvanizing of the
219
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
country by the war " ; he sees how all are anxious
to do their share, eager especially to go to the
front ; he also witnesses how the treasures of the
Louvre are put in safety ; he has visions of many
soldiers in the first weeks, coming home insane
from the hell they went through. He is rather
a pessimist in 1915, and expresses his belief in a
long war; but much as he hates stupid op-
timism, he admires the continued heroism of the
French people.'^"
In 1916 a small volume was published which
met with a hearty reception and ran quickly into
many editions. La Guerre, Madame by
Geraldy. What is this book with so strange a
title ? A soldier on furlough comes home. War
has made a new man of him, but he is curious to
see what has become of Paris during his absence.
He finds that the most complete misapprehen-
sions concerning the meaning of war exist in the
capital. Especially is that so among the so-
called upper classes, which seem to have re-
mained untouched, and to look upon the war
rather as a somewhat annoying episode of life
in otherwise normal times. Our soldier is at
"6 If one wants to see how a woman does the same kind
of work one may read Baronne J. Michaux En Marge du
drame. Journal d'une Parisienne pendant la guerre.
(Several series.)
220
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
first disconcerted, but he is too proud and too
intelligent to betray his feelings; he therefore
plays the part of his former self, the part of
the half-snob of Parisian upper circles; and
when asked by his lady-friend what war really
is, he is very careful not to attempt to explain
to her what she is utterly incapable of under-
standing. "La Guerre, Madame ," the in-
complete title excellently suggests the men-
tality of Geraldy's soldier. Taking it all in all,
La Guerre, Madame is a sister book to
Le Feu; but where Barbusse adopts the tragic
tone, Geraldy prefers to use subtle irony. It
is more elegant, just as effective, and does not
prove that Geraldy suffered any less than
Barbusse.
The opportunity seems favorable here to men-
tion Gyp's war-time books. They are half fact
and half fiction. In her inimitable Gavroche
style, she lashes without mercj' those in the
rear: "Ceux de la Nuque" as she calls them,
who seem to resent the interference of the war
with their petty little habits. What saves the
situation in Ceux de la Nuque as well as in her
other books like Les Flanchards and Le Journal
d'un cochon de pessimiste, is that her stinging
sarcasm has its source in righteous indignation,
221
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
at the shameless injustice which she sees being
done to the magnificent soldiers of France.
The same is true of Colette Tver's My sieves
des Beatitudes, in which, however, the author
adds to her censuring of the "unworthy rich,"
descriptions of the blessings which come to those
whose modest lives are rendered terribly difficult
by war conditions, but who feel the moral uplift
of those who willingly sacrifice themselves to the
great cause.
The same cannot be said of a sort of diary of
a Parisian woman, written by her "cousin" (the
author) who sees her almost daily. We refer to
Marcel Boulenger's Charlotte en Guerre, Le
Front de Paris (1918). It is most entertaining;
we would even say — at the risk of being regarded
as chagrin — it is too entertaining. La Guerre, Ma-
dame only seems to be detached ; the author
really wishes us to understand that there is a
deep and gloomy abyss between himself and the
lady; he wants us to realize that he only pre-
tends not to care. Boulenger, on the other
hand, does not, for a moment, give one the im-
pression that he does care. Charlotte really
amuses him, and he wants to be amused. But
in the midst of the awful tragedy, is so much
flippancy (for it is flippancy and not healthy
222
PERIOD OF DOCUIVIEKTATIOK
cheerfulness), is so much flippancy beautiful? is
it dignified? is it even proper to write a book
about it?
It will be a relief to pass from such a book as
Charlotte en Guerre, to Le Cran, by Paul Patte
(1917), with its characters so different from
Boulenger's, and its entirely different spirit. It
is a delightful work. It is chiefly composed of
episodes collected and recounted by a public of-
ficer during the war, Captain Paul Patte. He
was made a kind of overseer of those who needed
help, and who needed it as a direct consequence
of the war, because of the loss or absence of the
breadwinner; but his duties brought him into
contact with a great number of other people.
No one has had better opportunities than Cap-
tain Patte to observe how the people of France
stood the test of the war ; people, we mean, who,
owing to their low station in life, were the most
severely tried. And what he saw was truly mag-
nificent. He had only to write down what he
had seen, as he tells us on the second title page
of the book :
Vidi, audit, scripsi.
His heroes were men who, being dismissed from
the army, still glowed with a desire to serve;
223
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
women who faced the most indescribable strokes
of ill luck, with a courage, an energy and a re-
sourcefulness that fill one with reverent admira-
tion ; mere children who rise to occasions with a
simplicity and a heroism that brings tears of
admiration to one's eyes. One thought that the
whole tale of noble deeds had been told, but one
finds here things more beautiful than one had
dreamed of. Nothing has revealed better than
these few pages, the whole soul of the French
people during the trying years that followed
August 1, 1914. One laughs, one weeps, one
grows enthusiastic, one wonders that so much
kindness, so much dignity, so much beautiful
pride, can contain within the narrow limits of
human nature.
The title of the book is admirably chosen.
Avoir du cran is synonymous with another collo-
quial expression, avoir du panache. We would
say that Rostand's Cyrano has "du panache."
Panache, however, is more particularly^ applied
to soldiers. Cran may belong to the civilian as
well. It is courage, initiative and endurance —
and something more. Frederic Masson, the
Academician, who contributes an epilogue to the
book, defines cran as follows: "Avoir du cran,
e'est ne pas s'epater, ne pas vouloir epater les
224
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
autres, et faire tout de meme quelque chose
d'epatant. Cela s 'oppose a ee qu'on nomme
bourrer les cranes," which we may venture to
translate : not to be staggered, not to want to
stagger others, and yet to do staggering things;
it is the contrary of what one calls bluff."
* * *
We shall bring this chapter to a close with a
description of Ungues Le Roux's Mort au Champ
d'Honneur (1911).
It is the diary of a father who had suffered
cruelly already in his affections during the war.
Now his son, an officer, was wounded, and he
obtained permission to visit him in hospital.
But it became evident that the young man must
die. Wishing to give his boy a decent burial,
the father succeeded, though not without great
difficulty and the exercise of much ingenuity, in
getting a coffin which he was obliged to keep in
his own bed room until the time when it would
be required. How greatly must that father have
suffered ! And yet, for the sake of France he
was able to bear it^ for it was the beloved country
which had demanded the life of the beloved son,
77 Two books of the same character as Le Cran are
Maurice Talmayre's I'ortraifs de la Belle France (1919),
and Marguerite Henry-Rosier's Le Chagrin sous les
Vieux Toits (1919).
225
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
and he was not insensible to the honor which
such a demand bestowed. Before closing the
coffin above the remains of his soldier-son, he
was able to pin to his breast the decoration which
had been so well earned on the field of honor
and which had just been received.
There are in that book passages of the most
poignant pathos. Some critics will no doubt
feel that such griefs are too personal to be set
down in writing and exposed to the public ; that
it would have been better to refer to them im-
personally; to keep at least a thin veil between
the private sorrow of the father and the tragedy
which all the world might have known as one of
the episodes of those dramatic years between
1914 and 1918. The famous sonnet by Leconte
de Lisle,
Non, je ne danserai pas . . .
comes to one's mind as one reads the harrowing
experiences of that father's soul. And yet that
criticism would not be altogether fair. Those
were no ordinary times, and they called for, and
justified, extraordinary styles. Had the father,
out of respect for tradition, written imperson-
aliy, the truth would have transpired neverthe-
less, and the generous critic would have pro-
226
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
tested: Why conceal the faet that that great
grief is yours? The griefs of every one of us
are those of all France; why ask for our sym-
pathy thus indirectly? Tell us frankly what
you have suffered, we will share your sorrow
as you have shared ours!
* * *
"We have not, of course, exhausted the list.
We must, however, press on rapidl}^ and for the
following we can scarcely do more than mention
the titles: Maurice Donnay's Lettres a line Dame
Blanche (1917) is full of irresistible charm. The
letters are addressed to a friend of the famous
Academician, a nurse in a military hospital in
Brittany. He gives her news of Paris, of the
war, of the theater, art, etc., and relates the gos-
sip of the capital, much in the same manner as
Madame de Sevigne pictured the capital of Louis
XIV in her immortal letters to her daughter.
Another small volume is Tristan Bernard's Le
Poil Civil, Gazette d'un immohilise pendant la
(hierre (1917). Bernard shares with Courteline
the honor of being regarded as the foremost hu-
morist of France. The title of the book is a very
good indication of its general tone, but in his
ironical descriptions of France at the rear of the
firing line, Bernard is never very cruel. He is
227
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
one of those men who refuse to believe in human
wickedness (at least in France) ; he sees only
human weakness, and his kindliness has re-
doubled since the beginning of the war.
J. Adalbert's collected articles, published in
1918 under the title Dans Paris la Grand'Ville,
are lively and entertaining.
One may read also M. Arguibert, Journal
d'une Famille pendant la Gkierre, published by
Perrin, 1916. It describes an excellent type of
French family.
There are many other domains of life, too
special to allow of treatment here, which have
been referred to in war literature. We may
just mention L'Institut et la Guerre by P. Lamy,
Secretaire Perpetuel (died 1918) of the French
Academy; L'Universite et la Guerre (1919), by
R. Thamin, Rector of the University of Bor-
deaux; and L'Instituteur et la Guerre, by Lapie,
There is the expected indiscreet number of books
about women, some good, some less so: ]\Iarcel
Benoit, L'Energie feminine pendant la Guerre
(1916), Abensour, Les Yaillanies, Heroines, Mar-
tyres et Remplacantes (1917). IMarie La Hire's
La Feimme Frangaise et son Activite pendant la
Guerre (1917), which describes in too many
words actions which every sensible person would
228
PERIOD OF DOCUMENTATION
praise if he were not told so lengthily to do so ;
Souvenirs de Parisiennes en temps de Guerre,
recucillis par C. Clermont, which is just what one
might expect from the title ; La Parisienne et la
Guerre, a lecture by ^Maurice Donnay is excus-
able because it is so dainty: she is the "soldier
of the science that heals, fighting against the sci-
ence that destroj's. " War literature would, of
course, never be complete without Jules Comba-
rieu's La Jeune Fille Franqaise et la Guerre, sea-
soned with the delicate emotion pertaining to the
title ; and finally, referring to all French women,
young and old, provincial and Parisian, rich and
poor, is Ilenriette de Visme's Histoire Authen-
tique et Touchante des Marraines et des Filleuls
de Guerre (296 pp.)- The book is much better
than the sentimental title might lead one to ex-
pect.
CHAPTER III
PERIOD OF PHILOSOPHICAL AND POLITICAL
CONSIDERATIONS SUGGESTED BY THE WAR
(MORE ESPECIALLY SINCE THE BEGIN-
NING OF 1917)
I. The Forerunners
It will be well to remind the reader at this
stage that our division of war literature into
three periods, each having its predominant char-
acter (patriotic lyricism, documentation, and
philosophical considerations), was meant as a
rough classification for convenience in handling,
and in no way implies that the periods suc-
ceeded each other without overlapping.
There has been since 1917, a marked tendency
to examine systematically and dispassionately
the ethical, social, and political problems now
confronting the world and, more especially,
France.
But a study of the philosophical works dealing
with the world crisis would be very incomplete
and inadequate without an introductory brief
survey of earlier efforts in that direction. In-
deed, some most striking pronouncements were
230
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
made not only prior to 1917, but prior to the war
itself, and often by many years. And some of
the authors whose views have attracted public
attention since 1917, — because the public is now
better able to appreciate them, — not only held
the same views which they now do, but had al-
ready expressed them in various publications
long before that date.
Let us first recall one of the earliest of those
prophets: Edf,'ar Quiuet, who died in 1875.
That remarkable seer, nearly a hundred years
ago, i. e., in the thirties and forties of the nine-
teenth century, had warned his countrymen in
unmistakable terms of the impending evil which
came to a head in 1914. Quinet's writing had
sunk into oblivion; but he has, at last, come to
his own through a book in which the author
quotes the most striking of his prophetic utter-
ances: Paul Gaultier, Edgar Quinet, edition
nouvelle de ses articles sur I'Allemagne, d'apres
les textes originaux (1917). Like all his eon-
temporaries (they were the generation of Ro-
manticism), Quinet had allowed himself to be
lured into a belief in the existence of a senti-
mental German}'. That belief, added to the in-
fluence of Rousseau's eighteenth century senti-
mentalism, formed a background for the theo-
231
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
ries of "Young France." But Quinet, anxious
to see that land of his dreams, and filled with the
highest expectations, went on a kind of pilgrim-
age to Germany. He soon discovered that the
land of deep and gentle idealism was a mere
fiction; a fantastic creation of the French poets
who had conjured up on the other side of the
Rhine, a Utopian dream-country, just as, in the
seventeenth century, Fenelon had placed the
land of his political and social Utopia on the
other side of the Pyrenees. Quinet felt it to
be his sacred duty to warn France of a Teutonic
peril. What we now call "Pan-Germanism," he
called "Teutomania." His article in the Revue
des Deux Mondes (1842), will remain a classic.
It might, if a few names were changed, be taken
for the work of a thinker of to-day. So clear, so
definite was his vision of the future, that an ir-
resistible conviction forced itself upon him that
the German who would be called to found and to
organize Teutonism, must already be born. As
early as 1832 he had proclaimed his advent:
"Vn homme va sortir de la Prusse. ..." His
friend Michelet, who published the article in
which those words occur, was reluctant to print
so positive an assertion over the name of a man
who claimed to be an historian, and not a vision-
232
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
an% and therefore suppressed it. Nevertheless,
Quinet had written it and Bismarck, though un-
known as yet to the world, was living; he was
at tiiat time studying at the University of
■ Gottingen.
* * *
But the case of Quinet is so extraordinary that
one may regard it as a kind of literary curiosum.
At any rate, it did not prevent such strong minds
as those of Taine and Renan, — to say nothing of
Victor Hugo, — from heeding, thirty years later,
the siren call of the Lorelei, the sj'mbolie woman
of the high rock on the Rhine.
The place of honor among the forerunners of
the philosophers of the Great War belongs to
Maurice Barres. His warning was at least par-
tially heeded. His series of novels : liomans de
VEnergie Nationale (Les Deracines 1898, L'Ap-
pel du Soldat 1900, Leurs Figures, 1902) are in-
tensely interesting to re-read to-day, and they
fill one with admiration for the perspicacity of
the author. The first volumes tell the story of
that spectacular episode in French politics
known as " Boulangisme. " Barres was keen
enough to see that behind ''Boulangisme, " as
also behind the later Dreyfus affair, there was a
deep national movement : a spontaneous attempt
233
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
on the part of the French people to unite in view
of a menace which one vaguely felt to be rising
on the eastern border ; for, the colonial policy of
France was at that time arousing the displeasure
of Germany who did not conceal her feelings.
Barres's Preface to L'Appel du Soldat has, in
reference to ' ' Boulangisme " : ' ' It was a build-
ing which was rising of its own accord and which
the unfriendly spirit of a political party tore
down at a time when the scaffolding still con-
cealed from view the general outline. . . . Bou-
langisme must be regarded as a series of efforts
which the nation had made to resume its normal
course after being thrown out of it by intrigues
from abroad." In 1905, Barres published his
pathetic Au Service de V Allemagne : the experi-
ences of a young Lorrainer who had to undergo
what to his French heart was a terrible ordeal,
viz., initiation into the methods of the German
army, because he would not, by a refusal to serve
and by desertion to France, give to some German
the opportunity of taking his place on the sacred
soil of Lorraine.
* #
The second place belongs to Charles Peguy,
that quaint and fiery apostle of a ' ' mystic ' ' faith
in the destiny of France, who, from 1900 to
234
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
1914, delivered his message to the younger gen-
eration of intellectuals in his Cahiers de la Quin-
zaine. After Barres, Peguy had entreated the
intellectual elite of France, for the sake of
France's salvation, to cease from their selfish
enjoyment of purely aesthetic ideas and other
vain fancies of the imagination, and to rouse
themselves from their listless indifference to pol-
itics. When, in 1905, the King of Spain visited
Paris, and an attempt was made upon his life,
the incident called forth from Peguy that long
article in the now famous Cahier: Notre Pa-
trie} On the morning of that day which was
to have been one of rejoicing, Peguy understood
more clearly than ever before how dangerous
were the theories of the internationalists, and he
understood at the same time the intention of
Germany to force a war upon France, "Like
everv one else," he writes in reference to that
memorable day, ' ' I reached Paris at nine o 'clock
in the morning; like every one else, or at least
like some eight or nine hundred other people, I
realized by half past eleven that a new epoch
had begun in the history of my own life, in the
1 That article, as the title indicates, and as we have
already said in Chapter I, was an answer to G. Herve's
anti-militarist and anti-patriotic Lei/r Patrie. Xofre
Patrieha.3 been reprinted since the beginning of the war.
235
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
history of my country, and, indeed, in the his-
tory of the world. Every one realized at that
moment that the menace of a German invasion
was imminent, was upon us, was there."
A group of young men who had worked under
the influence of Peguy, founded in 1909 La
NouveUe Revue Frangaise, a literary and polit-
ical revue which bore to the purel}^ political Ac-
tion Frangaise (which we mention below), the
same relation as the Conservateur Litteraire of
Hugo, Y'lgny, Deschamps, etc., had borne to Cha-
teaubriand's political Conservateur about a cen-
tury earlier.-
* * *
There are two other writers who, though not
such litterateurs as Barres and Peguy, ought not
to be omitted from a broad survey such as this
one.
The tirst is Leon Daudet. He belongs to the
group of the Action Frangaise, a paper founded
in 1899 by Henri Langlois, and characterized by
violent anti-republican, anti-Semitic, anti-prot-
2 Peguy met with a glorious death on the field of
honor, Sept. 6th. 1914 (see V. Boudon's Arec Charles
Peguy de la Lorraine a la Marne Aout-Sept. 1914
(1916). On the political significance of Peguy's work,
consult Andrg Suares, Peguy (Emile-Paul, 1915).
" 236
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
estant and anti-masonic sentiments, which some-
times led its editors to advocate with almost rev-
olutionary fervor a return to what they called
"nationalisme integral" — by which they meant
the old regime of King and Church.
On September 11th, 1911, Daudet, who was at
that time associated with Maurras, began in the
columns of the Action Frangaise, a campaign of
revelations of the German spy sj'stem, which he
continued with unabated vigor and bitterness
until some time after the war had begun. In
March, 1913, he published the substance of those
articles in his L'Avant-Guerre, Etudes siir I'Es-
pionage juif-allemand depuis V Affaire Dreyfus.
The title of the book is sufficient to explain why
the public at large, and the government in par-
ticular, paid little attention to his warnings.
The passionate denunciations of the government
and of the Jews, which accompany Daudet 's rev-
elations, led to the general belief that his spy
stories were invented to create difficulties for
the government. And there can be no doubt
that it was his desire to embarrass the govern-
ment, but his facts were nevertheless true, as
every one has come to recognize. Since the be-
ginning of the war, Daudet has again returned
237
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
to the subject in his Hors du Joug Allemand,
Mesures d'Apres-guerre (1915), the second part
of which is particularly interesting.^
* * *
The other name is that of Andre Cheradame,
who as early as 1901 had published his L' Eu-
rope et la Question d'Autriche au SeM du
Vingtieme Siecle, which was followed, in 1903,
by Le Chemin de Fer de Bagdad. But Chera-
dame also failed to obtain a serious hearing.
Since August, 1914, however, a tragic interest
attached to his warnings, and he has since been
regarded as one of the most eminent writers of
the day. In 1915, he summarized his earlier
writings and re-issued them with a warning
against the dangers of a premature peace, under
the title of Le Pan-Germanisme demasque, le
redouiahle Piege de la Partie-Nulle (1915).
The book has been widely read as it deserved to
be. Cheradame urged upon those who were
anxious for a premature peace, the necessity of
a clear understanding of the situation. He
noted that the attention of most people was fo-
cussed on the western front, where, it would
3 See also Louis Bruneau's L'AUemagne en France,
(Plon, 1913). Bruneau does not deal so much with the
German spy system as with the peaceful economic pene-
tration of France by Germany before the war.
238
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
seem, the issue of the armed conflict would have
to be decided ; but he reminded his readers that
if the military leaders of Germany were looking
westward, the eyes of her politicians had always
been turned toward the East. A German Em-
pire gradually extending from the shores of the
Baltic to those of the Persian Gulf, cutting off
Latin Europe from communication with Russia
and overflowing into Africa, would be in a posi-
tion to make any demand it chose upon the rest
of the Old World, which would then be pow-
erless to offer any kind of effective resistance.
Cheradame's charts have an eloquence of their
own which carries conviction.
II. Intellectualism versus Intuitionism
After the first emotions which the outbreak of
the war had stirred, had somewhat subsided, and
when a comparative calm seemed to justify the
resumption of philosophizing, the most striking
feature of the writings of those who felt entitled
to speak for the generation of reconstruction was
an unequivocal med culpa. There was no theat-
rical pose in it ; no appeal to the gallery ; no at-
tempt to obtain an easy absolution by an easier
confession. No, the sincerity, the earnestness of
those men was unmistakable. They said not
239
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
merely: *'We have allowed ourselves to be led
astray"; they added emphatically: "It must
never occur again ! " ■*
4 An exception ought to be made here for the two vol-
umes of Dr. G. Le Bon, La Ouerre Europeenne et ses
Enseignements psychologiques, and Premieres Conse-
quences de la Guerre, Transformation mentale des Peu-
ples (191G). Certainly Le Bon has a right, if any one
has, to philosophize upon the Great War, for his whole
career as a writer has been devoted to the study of mob-
psychology in works which have won him universal fame.
{Lois psychologiques de VEvoliition des Peiiples, Psy-
chologic des toules. La Revolution Fran^aise et la Psy-
chologic des Revolutions, etc. ) But the psychological
method of Le Bon is still that of Taine; he is a con-
vinced determinist ; he does not allow human will any
part in the framintr of history. The Kaiser, for in-
stance, interests him very little: "Events of such for-
midable importance could not possibly depend on the
will of a single man." Nor does reason count for much
with him : "The evolution of history is determined by
affective and mystic forces over which man's reason has
no control." In this he is absolutely out of sympathy
with that young PVance which has been bearing the brunt
of the fighting. The soldiers of the Entente, at any
rate, who were not led by a kind of mystic dream of
world-domination, claimed that they were fighting for the
reasonable purpose of freeing the world of the menace of
political servitude, and they thought that their will
must, and can, conquer the foe. The writer does not
mean, of course, that Le Bon is necessarily wrong in be-
littling the power of reason and of will, because the mod-
ern generation does not accept his views on that subject;
but for the present, such views are not in favor, and they
go against the trend of the literature of the war. Per-
haps we ought, in justice to Le Bon, to add that he him-
self is not always consistent. With his premises he
ought to be content to explain matters such as the un-
preparedness of France or the aggression of Germany,
but should refrain from all moral judgments in the form
of blame or regret. Yet he has been unable to resist en-
240
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
By whom had the French allowed themselves
to be led astraj^ ? Some say that it was by their
politicians; and while the colonial policy of the
government, which was so little understood and
so grudgingly supported before the war, is now
praised, the criminal shortsightedness of the
Foreign Office which did not avert the war is
unreservedly condemned. Others blame the
financiers who chose rather to hoard their money
than to make it productive ; in other words, who
were content to draw interest on their money in-
stead of using it in commercial undertakings and
increasing economic wealth — like that which ren-
dered Germany so dangerously strong. Hoard-
ing may seem a lawful enough policy, but it is
unintelligent, selfish and unpatriotic.
But the thoughtful reader will wish to carry
his inquiry still further, and to learn how it
tirely the pressure of public opinion, and lias proposed to
counteract liy reason and will the ellVcls of the alFective
and mystic forces. Le Bon's books have had a very larire
sale, partly on account of the pre-war fame of the au-
thor, partly too because the great majority of readers
move rather slowly, and Le Bon's way of approaching
problems is still familiar, and therefore dear to them;
and they are not to be frightened b}' a little lack of con-
sistency. And then, too, Le Bon remains Le Bon.
Every page of every volume that he writes offers stimu-
lating reading in spite of a good deal of repetition. But
stimulatiiuj reading, it must be remembered, does not
necessarily lead to clear, definite and practical conclu-
sions.
241
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
came to pass that the French government was
allowed to pursue its dangerous foreign policy,
and why the nation remained indifferent to the
lack of enterprise on the part of financiers.
The answer is that the people of France had been
led astray by their philosophers and other writ-
ers. They had accepted all the more readily
such doctrines because these flattered their in-
clinations by exalting the contemplative life and
the pursuit of intellectual culture. Meanwhile,
the rest of the world was striving after material
gain and territorial expansion.
There are three philosophies which are sever-
ally and jointly responsible for the dangerous
apathy of France.
1. The first is a sentimental Socialism based
on a naive (although, no doubt, very beautiful)
belief in the brotherhood of nations: a belief
which the war has proven to be, if not delusive,
at least very far from realization for the present.
Jaures was the chief exponent of that doctrine.
2. That Utopian socialism, which appealed
more especially to the masses, assumed among
the middle classes, who claim to stand on a some-
what higher intellectual level, the form of Mor-
alism. Moralism is based on the assumption
that there exists in all men an identical moral
242
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
conscience which can be depended upon because
it does not, and cannot, vary from one man to
another, or from one nation to another. What
made matters worse, was that French philoso-
phers, who opposed Moralism to the materialism
of scientific men, were wont to point to German
philosophers, and particularly to Kant, as the
founders of their theories. In those conditions,
it was most natural that the French should take
it for granted that the principles of Moralism
were commonly accepted in Germany. They
did not realize that Kant's categorical impera-
tive had long since been ousted by the Pan-
Germanist creed, and the Germans, of course,
were most willing that the French should con-
tinue to believe that Kantian ethics were still the
rule of conduct of the nation beyond the Rhine.
The best known exponent of Moralist philosophy
in France is Boutroux.^
3. The third doctrine is the most baneful of
them all, not so much because it is philosoph-
ically unsound (which in itself may be a matter
of little moment), but because it has been very
5 The fact that Boutroux has assailed German ethics
since the beginning of the war, does not clear him of re-
sponsibility. One is glad to know that his eyes have at
last been "opened, but he has never yet repudiated his
moralistic writings.
243
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
popular and has entailed deplorable conse-
quences. It is known as Intuitionism and has
had the support of a man who has achieved in
recent years a world-wide reputation as a leader
among philosophers: Henri Bergson. Intuition-
ism does not in any way oppose sentimental so-
cialism or moralism ; on the contrary, it supplies
them both with a metaphysical background. It
is anti-intellectualism ; it is subjectivism; a phil-
osophy of individual fancy ; in a word, it is just
the kind of fluid philosophy — destructive of ra-
tional, realistic and virile thinking, — ^that Ger-
many could wish France to cultivate; a philos-
ophy of unmanly sentimentality. Nothing,
surely, could be more deadly to France than the
Intuitionism of Bergson; thus, Bergsonism, in
the eyes of the war generation, that is the en-
emy ! ®
6 It is only fair to say that Bergsonism is capable of
another interpretation. Peguy thought so, and so did
some of the young men who, like Lanux, emphasized the
Pragmatic side of that philosophy. Peguy wrote: "It
is a prejudice, but an absolute, ineradicable prejudice
that makes us regard an inflexible reason as better than
a flexible one. ... It is evident, however, that elastic,
flexible methods (a flexible logic, for instance, or a
^flexible ethic), are more severe, for they are able to fol-
low tlK4r object more closely. A rigid moral law will
let crimes slip through its meshes that a flexible law
would pursue, track down and denqunce." One might
answer that if Bergsonism is so very elastic, it might even
244
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Any one who is interested in the discussion of
Intuitionism should read Julien Benda's vigor-
ous Sentiments de Critias (1917). Benda con-
trasts resolutely and with fearless outspoken-
ness, the intellectualisiu of French thought from
Descartes to modem times with that German
thought which — whether sincerely or with a view
to sidetrack an enemy — always leaves something
to intuition. Even in its best form, i. e., in
Kantian transcendentalism, German thought at-
tempts to explain what to the human intellect is
inexplicable. It is bound therefore to end in
confusion, and, in the end, has to abandon reason
and resort to intuition to get out of its difficul-
ties — somehow. "There is no doubt that the
truth is always obscure, mysterious at bottom,
and no definite idea can exhaust its richness ; but
obscure notions, which are for the most part only
confused, equivocal pseudo-ideas, are just as
powerless to state it completely, and with such
notions we are in constant danger of being led
offer shelter to Bernardism. If Intuitionism requires no
rational principles of justice, for instance, what conceiv-
able objection can there be to the acceptance of Mi<]:ht
(as the Germans have done) rather than of Right (as
the Allies have done), as the criterion of the Good?
One may venture to say that, had Peguy lived, he would
have seen this, and witli characteristic frankness and
honesty, would have written a Cahier repudiating hia
1914 utterances.
245
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
astray." That quotation from Parodi sums up
the contention of the whole of Benda 's energetic
book.
Intuitionism was the gift of the German Ro-
manticists to the world ; and, had it not been for
men such as Comte, Taine and Ribot, France
would have been lured by it out of its normal
course. It is worthy of note that all theories
which are not amenable to rational thought, are
German : Intuitionism, is the theory that Might
is Right ; Intuitionism again the theory of the
superiority of the war-waging man ; Intuition-
ism once more the theory of the right of one race
to rule over others; and Intuitionism too the
theory of the State opposed to the Individual.^
Benda has a particular right unmercifully, to
track down Bergson. His case is certainly not
that of the man who turns prophet after the
event. He had, before the war, entered his pro-
test (see his Bergsonisme ou une Philosophie de
la Mohilite). Benda is thoroughgoing, for he is
7 We must not allow ourselves to be misled by words.
One often speaks of the "mysticism" of Peguy, but that
word would convey to the mind of youns; Frenchmen the
idea that Peguy defended with a mystic ardor ideas that
were based on such strong rational arguments that there
could remain no doubt concerning their truth. It is
Descartes' idea that plain, rational evidence is the
criterion of truth.
246
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDEKATIONS
not at all certain that Bergsonism can be swept
away. "We may still witness," he says, "a de-
testation of the critical spirit, in the interests of
lyricism, such as the world lias never yet seen
. . . and we must reckon with the support that
it will receive from men whose reputation is
involved, I mean of that host of writers who
merel}' vibrate {qui font de la vibration) but
who never have had the shadow of an idea. The
prospect is anything but cheerful for those whose
only power is that of understanding." One
should take note also of those significant words:
"It is a serious matter that the official thinkers
of the nation should be using their authority,
even since the beginning of the war, to endorse
errors which they know to be errors, but which
they know to be pleasing to their countrymen
. . . and it is a still more serious matter that
the vogue of such thinkers should now be de-
pendent upon such subservience." And with
even more directness: "B. and B. [Boutroux
and Bergson] take good care not to pass any
judgment upon such ideas." [Such ideas as
they themselves advocated, at least, up to the
time of war.]
Let us therefore change our way of thinking,
and, above all, as regards the war. "The mas-
247
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
I
tery of war, like that of everything which be-
comes more complex, must depend less and less
upon art, and more and more upon science. Art
is sole mistress only in such matters as are still in
their infancy. . . . The reason why we wish
genius to be always supreme, and why we expect
everything from it, is first of all because it al-
lows us to hope for a speedy solution, ... it is
also a little because it flatters our laziness, but
it is especially because a certain sestheticism is
to-day in favor, which 4ends religion' only to
the phenomena of the instinct and of sponta-
neity, and considers as rather vulgar the will
based on system and organization. Would it be
too much to ask, in our present circumstances,
for an inversion of values (renversement des
valeurs)V' — A substitution of intellectualism
for intuitionism ?
Benda continues his campaign. Since the war
he has published a new book Belphegor, Essai
sur VEsthetique de la presente Societe frangaise,
(Emile-Paul, 1919.)
* « *
A book of a similar kind is Rene Lote's Les
Legons de la Guerre (1917). The author of Les
Origines Mystiques de la Science Allemande
(1913), Dii Christianisme au Germanisme
248
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
(which he says was written in 1911 although
published only in 1914), and again, during the
war, of Germania (1916), is, if possible, even
more pitiless than Benda for those who, in his
opinion, have poisoned French intellectualism
with fanciful metaphysicism. His work is an
ardent plea for a return to clear rational think-
ing, such as prevailed in France in the seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries. It is a thor-
oughgoing attack against Romanticism, and be-
yond it, against the sentimentalism of Rousseau
whose obscure thought places the Ego at the cen-
ter of the universe and thus justifies all passion.
His book is dedicated to Seilliere, and it con-
tinues the tradition established by Seilliere, Las-
serre and ]Maurras, and before them by Brune-
tiere, Bourget and Lemaitre. But in some re-
spects his method differs from that of his fore-
runners of twenty, or even of ten years before.
It is not a narrow-minded attack on the scientists
whose theories had been interpreted in terms of
moral materialism, nor does he allow his sober
argumentation to be weakened by outbursts of
passion. His blows are clean, direct and hard.
He traces the origin of the evil farther back than
Benda or even than Edgar Quinet had done.
According to him, systematic attempts to depre-
249
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
ciate French civilization and to undermine
French influence began as early as the eighteenth
century: Catherine of Russia was merely using
flattery towards Frenchmen of the age of Ra-
tionalism when she made them believe that all
Europe stood in admiration before the clever
geniuses of France ; and the same might be said
of Frederick the Great and his so-called protec-
tion of French men of letters who were exiled on
account of their advanced ideas (Voltaire, Di-
derot, etc.). Those bourgeois monarchs really
got the best of France, and by astutely flattering
Frenchmen rendered them harmless. Lote has
some remarkably suggestive, if sometimes not
quite convincing passages : for instance, when he
points out the "idyllic honhomie of the old
Gessner," preparing the sentimental Germany
which could be used later, to conceal for a time
from the outside world the lusty beast of the in-
vasion of Belgium; or when he exposes the "aus-
tere criticism" of Lessing which was meant to
ruin the prestige which French classical litera-
ture had enjoyed in Germany ; or again when he
points out the .Goethe who has been "worked
with great skill": first the "European" Goethe
who was presented to France as a proof that
250
PHILOSOPHICAL CUXSlDEliATIONS
there was but one Europe ; then the ' ' Olympian"
Goethe representing a civilization which was
above the low, human aims of dominion and con-
quest ; or again, the "Bourgeois" poet of Her-
mann and Dorothea, who was so well conceived
to convince the French of the good-heartedness
of Goethe, and to excite their admiration for his
high intellect. In a word, Goethe plaj-s a sym-
bolic part in the "illusions" of the French peo-
ple and has contributed more than any other
to make them "heedless (etourdis) apostles of
mediocre Germany"; — a Germany, be it said,
which was the ungrateful heir of a superior civ-
ilization: that of Louis the Fourteenth. Let
France, therefore, cease from bending the knee
before the "romanesque adyenture of the alche-
mist Faust."
Elsewhere Lote sees in that persistent study
of Romance philology by German scholars a
clearly unfriendly purpose; that, namely, of
undermining the national sentiment, by showing
in French literature and in the various French
dialects the traces of entirely different races
which had been accidentally united under one
political rule. Here, for instance, were the Celts,
there the Walloons, there again the ProvenQaux.
251
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
These scholars clearly wish to suggest that in
dismembering France, one would be doing the
most natural thing in the world.
But what of philosophy and metaphysics?
Nothing, of course, could afford more satisfac-
tion to the leaders of Germany, than that French
scholars should advocate an impassible and dis-
interested science, and should put all their en-
ergy to the attainment of aimless erudition.
Meanwhile, German science identified its aims
with those of imperialistic Pan-Germanism ; Ger-
man science and German inventive genius
worked together to perfect the Krupp works,
while the French philosophers were naively out-
doing Kant and the old-time German philoso-
phers in metaphysical acrobatics. While the
young men of Germany were being indoctri-
nated into the principles of Treitschke and of
Bernardi, the French youth were bursting the
walls of the lecture room of the intuitionist meta-
physician Bergson. . . . Bergson, again, has to
bear the burden of reproach.
The world — so Lote saj^s, summing up — is now
threatened with two imperialisms. First, Pan-
Germanism which would establish its sway by
might of arms, and secondly, that gentle, ' ' evan-
gelical" Utopian Socialism, the logical outcome
252
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
of which is anarchy. "Which of the two will tri-
umph? Let us hope that neither will, but that
the world will belong to science; "cruel but nec-
essary science of struggle and conquest ' ' ; for, if
things work out in that manner, then the spirit
that inspired the classic civilization of France (a
civilization based on principles at the same time
rational and humane), will come to its own. As
soon as clear thinking and keenness of intellect
are restored to their rightful places, France's
day will have dawned anew.
* * *
In concluding this chapter, we call attention
to a movement started some years before the
war, and directed against the blind admiration
of the French for certain German writers, and
the adoption of so-called German methods in the
French Universities. The stir created in 1911
by Agathon's (Tarde and Henri ]\Iassis) L'Es-
prit de la Nouvelle Sorbonne, has often been re-
called of late, and denunciations of that kind
have become more violent since the beginning of
the war. But, on the other hand, there are
those who regard the tabooing of everj-thing Ger-
man as excessive; and they have been able to
point to a great lack of unanimitj^ among their
opponents as to which of the German authors
253
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
were particularly objectionable. Many, for in-
stance, are agreed that Nietzsche's following in
France has been ill-omened, while others main-
tain that Nietzsche has been misunderstood and
that, moreover, he despised his own people as
much as any other writer since his time.
There exists quite a literature on that sub-
ject. While Claudel, Lote and Benda exorcize
Nietzsche, Goethe and Kant, to say nothing of
Luther, "who is with the Devil" (Claudel),
Henri Bois, in Kant et VAllemagne, clears Kant
of the accusation of having been a forerunner
of Pan-Germanism and the "inspirer of the
military philosophj^ invoked by Germans to jus-
tify their misdeeds," and Alphonse Aulard, in
La Paix Future d'apres la Revolution Frangaise
et Kant, recalls Kant's plan for universal peace.
Even Snares, as was pointed out in a previous
chapter, maintains that the spirit of Kant is
much less German than that of an author of the
type of Joseph de Maistre. A young poet,
Henri Derieux, is strongly in favor of keeping
alive our admiration of German classics (see be-
low. Part II, eh. 1). Again J. Riviere, in L'Al-
lemand, reproaches Kant harshly for his content-
less "categorical imperative" which the Hohen-
zollerns used for the profit of Pan-Germanism.
254
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Lasserr^, in a special little book on Le German-
isme et I'Esprit Humain, condemns Kant, Schel-
ling and Fichte, but recommends Goethe, Heine
and Nietzsche. C. Bonnet in VAme du Soldat
(Chapter III), meekly welcomes them all — he is
almost Romain-Rollandist.®
III. Neo-Catholicism and "Papalism"
If we attempt to define the constructive doc-
trines of the French war literature, we shall find
that there are two which are well characterized.
They run parallel to each other ; but while the
one seems to have yielded already the best that
may be expected of it, the other, for reasons
which we shall explain later, has been slower in
its development. A brighter future is, however,
undoubtedly in store for it, and the lateness of
its development will not be without eompensa-
8 For documents relating to the discussion of the
value of German autliors and of their moral respon-
sibility in regard to the present war (Luther, Goethe,
Nietzsche), cf. Vic, Litterature de la (Juerre, vol. I,
pp. 67-72. An account of the discussion of the case
of Nietzsche alone would easily fill a volume. Writers
have vied with each other to obscure an issue which is
quite clear : Nietzsche hated the Germans and some-
times praised the French ; nevertheless the Germans,
who allow nothing to go to waste which will help
Pan-Germanism, have made abundant use of his Gospel
of Might as opposed to the gospel of effeminate Chris-
tianity preached even now bv Pacifists.
255
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
tions. The first of these doctrines may be
termed "Papalism," by which we mean Neo-
Catholicism in so far as it represents a political
rather than a theological creed ; the other might
be called, provisionally, ''Democratism," a term
which is vague, but rightly so, for it is intended
to cover a multitude of shades of one general
trend of thought.
* * *
Papalism is a pre-war doctrine. It was first
taught (together with violent yet guarded out-
bursts of monarchism from which it is now al-
most entirely dissociated) in the hope of putting
a stop to the disorders resulting from the strife
of various republican parties: disorders which
appeared increasingly dangerous as the menace
of a war with Germany came to be more clearly
realized. Twenty-five years ago, philosophers
and men-of-letters like Brunetiere, Bourget, Le-
maitre and Coppee propounded views similar to
those of Papalism which were then set forth, for
the general public, in the columns of the famous
periodical L' Action Frangaise (from 1899 for-
ward). The movement, with its chiefly political
aspect, was then called "Nationalism." Both
the political and the philosophical expositions of
that doctrine were given later by Barres in his
256
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDE'rATIONS
two remarkable series of novels, Le Roman de
V^nergie Nationale and Les Bastions de I'Est
(1898-1902) ; by Charles Maurras in the Revue
Encyclopedique Larousse (1895-1900 )and in
his L'Avenir de I'Intelligence (1905) ; by Pierre
Lasserre in Le Romantisme Frangais (1908),
and by E. Seilliere in Le Mai Romantique
(1908). Papalism received also a great forward
impulse from the current of opinion created in-
dependently by Charles Peguy, who connected
the political revival of France with the mystico-
patriotic inspiration of the Virgin Mary, — the
patron saint of Christianity and the impersona-
tion of the divine love as symbolized in the great
French cathedrals — ; and with that of Joan of
Arc and of Sainte Genevieve, the patron saints,
respectively, of France and of the City of Paris.
The thinking public of France was therefore
not unprepared for the doctrine of Papalism
when, after two years of war, the discussion of
social theories and of political organization was
resumed. As might be expected, Charles Maur-
ras, who was already known as one of the most
forceful writers of the day, made a skillful and
decisive use of the opportunity which presented
itself. Two circumstances favored his pointing
257
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
to Rome as the source of hope and of inspiration :
first, the revival of interest in religious matters
which the war had awakened, and secondly, the
fact that the very outrages of the Grermans in
Belgium, and especially at Louvain, had given to
a Roman prelate, Cardinal Mercier, a prominent
place among war personalities. Maurras's ar-
ticles have been reprinted in book form. They
form several volumes from which we select Le
Pape, la G-uerre et la Paix as typical at once of
his style and of his teachings. That work, in-
deed, exhibits all the vigor, incisiveness and log-
ical consistency which are characteristic of
Maurras. Unlike Brunetiere, whose dialectic
power is often weakened by the use of heavy and
complex sentences, Maurras has the neat, clear
traditional French style of Bossuet and Joseph
de Maistre.
Reduced to its simplest expression, his argu-
ment is this : The world must return to the idea
of a catholicity of the human race, in matters of
social organization as well as in philosophical
thought ; there must be some sort of link between
and above the national units of the world : some
concrete medium of universal communion. That
universal communion, that catholicity, was at
one time symbolized by the person of the Pope ;
258
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
even to-day, the Pope remains the incarnation —
the only one — of the idea of universality. So-
cialistic universality has failed ; imperialistic
universality, in the German sense, will fail also.
"That is why we wish to place before the public
a more reasonable conception than they have
held heretofore, of what the Papacy stands for,
and of its function among the nations and above
them."
"That lofty universality which once existed,"
Maurras continues, "was greatly impaired by
the Reformation. The Protestant movement has
meant the substitution of the irrational, subjec-
tive, moral conscience of individuals, and hence-
forth of nations, for the obedience to govern-
ments which dealt with problems rationally, i. e.,
objectively and by means of universal princi-
ples. That movement was bound to lead to dis-
order ; and, indeed, the civilized world has never
known a worse period than that of the religious
wars which spread all over Europe as a conse-
quence of the Reformation." Maurras adopts
the formula enunciated by Barres: "no possibil-
ity of a restoration of the Commonwealth {la
chose puhlique) without a doctrine." In our
own times, Protestant subjectivism has led to the
monstrous attempt on the part of an individual
259
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
to bring all others into subjection to bis will:
i. e., to Imperialism. His megalomaniac ' ' con-
science ' ' convinces the Kaiser that he represents
God on earth, and that he must rule the world
according to his inspiration. It is thus that
Maurras attempts to give an exposition of what
he calls "the perennial antinomy of German
Lutheranism and of Latin Catholicism."
Another point of JMaurras 's doctrine is this : —
he believes, as we have just said, in the possi-
bility of a rational organization, of a harmonious
cooperation of the nations under one rule ; and
that rule he conceives as a moral power like that
of the Pope. But he does not regard all nations
as equal to each other in mental development,
nor does he admit that they should all have an
equal voice in the settlement of international af-
fairs. Such a privilege should bear some kind
of relation to the stage of intellectual develop-
ment which a nation has reached. Like Plato's
republic, Maurras 's society of nations is hierar-
chic in form : ' ' The belief in the equality of na-
tions is the cause of the anarchy which exists
among European nations. . . . France is cer-
tainly a nation (patrie) but not all nations are
France, nor comparable to France. There are
certain obligations which all nations must ac-
260
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
cept ; but who believes that the man from Ger-
many, however vehemently patriotic he may be,
is endowed with the same qualities (hiens) or
with so many of them, as the Frenchman?"
Maurras admits, of course, that the Republican
government of France has not been a model of
what a political organization should be, but he
recalls the seventeenth century when French
diplomacy under Cardinals Richelieu and Ma-
zarin (not to mention Bossuet), gave to France
a world-wide prestige in matters political, and
won for her the title of "Eldest Daughter of the
Church." And he makes the practical sugges-
tion that what the French government should
do, is to send again a delegate to the Vatican
where at present the Austrian delegate controls,
unchecked, the only international political or-
ganization in existence.^ (This question of send-
ing again an official representative of the French
Government to the Vatican was discussed in
an Extraordinary Session of the Cardinals of
France, in Paris, February 19, 1919.)
9 J. Benda, who is a pitiless critic of everything that
does not seem to him clear and straightforward, has
devoted several pages of his Sentiments de Critias
(pp. 91-97) to the attitude of the Pope during the
present war. These pages are well worth reading in
view of the repeated attempts of Maurras to justify the
neutrality which the Pope has maintained in spite of the
barbarities committed by the Germans.
261
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Maiirras takes up the attack, referred to above,
against all those who, consciously or uncon-
sciously, represent the Lutheran spirit in France.
He belabors the pseudo-latinists {faux latini-
sants) who, like Pichon, follow "wretched mod-
els of barbarian make, i. e., Germanic and Lu-
theran models set by Kant and Rousseau." As
for Boutroux, one of the guilty ones, he at least
has been honest enough to go beyond Fichte and
to acknowledge that Kant is the father of nine-
teenth century Lutheranism. But if the evil in-
fluence of Kant is conceded, why then hesitate to
impeach Rousseau also? Rousseau, who was
born on the borderline between Latinity and
Germanism ; Rousseau, the revolutionist and the
inspirer of Kant and of Germany ; Rousseau, by
the same principle, the author of the Revolution
which has been called "French"; Rousseau, the
latest incarnation of the spirit of Luther ? Else-
where, Maurras declares that the Reign of Ter-
ror was the logical outcome of the Declaration of
the Rights of Man and of Rousseau Sentimen-
talism, just as the Imperialism of Fichte was the
logical outcome of Kant's Individualism. He
even goes so far as to make Protestantism re-
sponsible for the sinking of the Lusitatiia. "In
abandoning," he says, "intellectual and moral
262
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
ideals in favor of material progress, the Kefor-
mation was bound to bring about such horrors.
To counteract the tendency of that fatal material
progress, a better and higher education of the
souls of men would have been necessary ; but no
such education was given, and the men of to-day
are infinitely less conscious of any feeling of
brotherhood than were the men of five hundred,
or even of two hundred, years ago. The inno-
cent passengers of the Lusitania were nothing to
William II and his subjects." It need scarcely
be said that ]\Iaurras entertains no kindly feel-
ings toward Bergson, whose dangerous popular-
ity irritates him : "In these days, ' ' he writes,
*'one may not utter the word quality in any of-
ficial gathering without bowing deeply before
that Scotch Jew who is not even a thorough
student of Aristotle and of Saint Thomas." ^°
* * Hf
There are two other books of a similar tend-
ency which have attracted a good deal of atten-
tion. They are Henri Massis' Le Sacrifice
(1917), — a work which was crowned by the
10 A good and impartial appreciation of Maurras'a
work came out in 1918: Gonzague True, Charles
Maurras et son temps, A. Colin (80 pages) ; and another,
A. Maurel, Six Ecrivains de la Guerre, pp. 97-126
(1917).
263
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Academy, and Vallery-Radot 's Le Reveil de
r Esprit (1917).
Massis is the man who had written, in 1912, in
collaboration with the younger Tarde, L' Esprit
de la Nouvelle Sorhonne, in which the "Ger-
man" methods of some Paris professors were
sharply criticized. It was soon after this rather
sensational work that he began to shift towards
Catholic dogmatism, and finally went as far as
it seems possible to go in that direction.^^
There is, however, a marked contrast between
Massis and Maurras. Maurras has a keen, ro-
bust mind, or, if you will, the mind of a dialec-
tician, and it is in the name of reason that he
advocates a social organization of the world un-
der the supervision of the Pope ; but Massis is a
fanatic; with a generous, but really quite unse-
ductive ardor, he denounces as the primary cause
of the present world catastrophe, that very/ea-
son which Maurras opposes so strongly to the
subjective Protestant conscience. His book is
alert and stimulating, but even when his elo-
11 Massis was a special friend of Ernest Psichari, the
voung Catholic officer killed in the first days of the war,
author of L'Appel des Armes and of La Veillee du
Centurion. In commemoration of this friendship, Massis
wrote in 1916 a little volume on Ernest Psichari. His
book Le Sacrifice is made of a collection of articles
written since 1914.
264
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
quence moves us, it fails to convince, — how could
it, since he never ceases to use reason to prove
that reason deceives, and must be replaced by
dogma ? He evokes Peguy and Psichari, dis-
cusses war and politics, alwa^-s abusing "la rai-
son depravee des modernes" and "la vaste et
charnelle futilite du temps present." He inter-
prets the fierce struggle of the war mystically,
as the death grapple of the flesh and of the
spirit; and assigns to suffering France a role
comparable to that of Christ when he died to ex-
piate the sins of the fallen human race. His
view of the war is that it is an act of purification
of the world by Catholic France: "All that is
spirit will be saved in this struggle; therefore,
whether we will it or not, it is the Christian
world that France is fighting for,"
* * *
Vallerj'-Radot was known before the war as
the author of a novel which told in burning
words of a conversion to Catholicism, L' Homme
de Desir (1913). Since the beginning of the
war, he has published an Anthologie de la Poesie
Catholique, de Villon a nos jours (1915), in the
preface to which Claudel wrote: "Who would
suspect, in reading Rabelais, Montaigne, Racine,
Moliere, Victor Hugo, that a God died for us on
265
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
the Cross? This must cease." His Reveil de
V Esprit (1917), even more than Massis's book,
may damage the cause it was meant to defend.
The reader of it, who may perhaps have been
convinced by the wonderful dialectic skill of
Maurras, may well be shocked and tempted to
part company with the Neo-Catholic movement.
This exalted, not to say inflated, style, may be
dazzling, but it is confusing as well. Like Mas-
sis, Radot indulges in furious attacks against ra-
tionalism, Rousseau, Protestantism and the ma-
terialism of the present age, but we have looked
in vain for that clear and concrete thought of
Descartes and of Bossuet which he claims to be
the distinguishing mark of Neo-Catholicism. To
denounce bitterly "democratic fetishism" or the
"morhus democraticus" is mere verbal elo-
quence; or to talk loudly of the ''Protestant and
Revolutionary pride which has passed into our
veins with the liberal virus" is no refutation; to
call the other party "Cain" while reserving for
oneself the designation of "Abel," has little
value as an argument ; and to proclaim unceas-
ingly that one represents the elite without adduc-
ing any proof in support of one's claim, is, to
say the least, dangerous. Neither does Vallery-
liadot show himself a chivalrous opponent by the
266
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
preposterous summary of Rousseau's doctrine to
which he treats his readers in the introduction
to his book ; especialh- in view of the fact that his
fanatical diatribes against twentieth century
frivolity and corruption, remind one very strik-
ingly of Rousseau's famous Prosopopoeia of Fah-
riciiis directed against eighteenth century^ frivol-
ity and corruption. When he actually condemns
the sanitary and well lighted houses of our times,
he makes proof, not of superiority, but of posi-
tive short-sightedness. And has he a right to
claim, as he does, that the world is already con-
verted to his views? ''All the forms of thought
which tried to eclipse Christianity during the
nineteenth century, and which seduced even the
elite, — Pantheism, Rationalism, Ilumanitarian-
ism and what not ? — have fallen as rotten fruits
to the ground; they are things dead, to which
only individualistic fetishism and the vanity of
the old world, succeed in lending the appearance
of life. ' ' Even the fact that it is from the depths
of the trenches that he proclaims his triumph,
cannot remove all our doubts as to the reality of
his victory ; and one cannot help wondering why
he should, in that case, expend so much passion-
ate energy in tramping on a fallen foe.
Nevertheless, any one who wishes to inquire
267
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
into that current of thought would do well to take
cognizance of Vallerj^-Radot 's book. The Chris-
tian-Catholic interpretation of the war he shares
with Massis. He too regards the cataclysm as
sent by God, "I have understood the criminal
folly of our elders. ... I have understood the
warning of the Sacred Heart. Matter [materia]
progress] has turned against us and crushed us;
that is the secret of this war. ' ' But ' ' our genera-
tion has done with the Manichean suicide [i. e.,
the idea of the equal power of mind and matter,
for matter must be subordinated to mind] ; we
have re-discovered the truth of the Incarnation ;
our generation wants the spirit to become flesh
and to sanctify the flesh, as the Word whom it
worships, did of old."
Onl}' one more example of that curious mystic
stj^le. Vallerj'-Radot protests against the term
''poilu." "No," he cries, "the real hero is
much more beautiful than that hairy animal of
the false legend ; it is the human race which is
offering itself as a sacrifice in union with the
God-Man {en union avec I'llomme-Dieu) ; and
what we are beholding is a new Passion of Christ
even though he (the soldier) is unconscious of, or
denies, it. Who could fail to recognize in these
men, crushed under the burden of their work,
268
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
bleeding from their wounds, suffering from the
cold, covered with the mud of the trenches, the
tortured limbs of the dying Christ . . . ?"^-
IV. Economic Democratism
The second constructive theory, to which we
have given the name of "Democratism," al-
though not new to students of sociology, was
slower in its development, partly because its
technical nature made its appeal more difficult to
the general public than that of a Catholic the-
ory, and partly, too, because circumstances — we
refer to the war — were unfavorable to its expo-
sition. "Democratism" aims at a shifting of
the center of gravity' of our modern conception
of the State. Discarding as obsolete the tradi-
12 We have not thought it advisable to discuss here
certain books wliich advance somewhat similar views,
but do so in a commonplace manner : such books, for
instance, as Victor Giraud's Le Miracle Fi-anrais.
Giraud is a disciple of Brunetierc. but the fact that he
endeavors to be so very diplomatic in the presentation
of the Xeo-catholic doctrine, could almost make one
doubt his sincerity: while his style may appeal to the
masses, it will leave the thinker unmoved. How awk-
ward and trite, for instance, is liis discussion of the
literature of to-morrow! According to him, that litera-
ture will be distinguished by a return to French tradi-
tional classicism, it will be patriotic, will not advocate
the cult of the ego, but will teach solidarity and it will
have religious inspiration. In other words, the litera-
ture of to-morrow will be exactly what men of Giraud's
opinion would wish it to be.
269
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
tional principles of statesmanship, and putting
aside as irrelevant the question of the form of
government whether monarchic, aristocratic or
republican, and the various theories on which
they are based — the divine right of kings, the
natural rights of individuals, — it proposes a re-
organization of society on a purely economic
basis. In other and simpler terms, Democrat-
ism regards the State as a purely bommercial
and business proposition.
The entrance of America into the war and the
revolution in Russia furnished favorable oppor-
tunities for the bold setting forth of those ideas
which, hitherto, had been expressed only with
the greatest reserve. It is true that the Russian
revolution, although democratic at the outset,
led to temporary disaster; but every one was
aware that old-time political intrigues were at
work, and were responsible for its failure.
Moreover, while Russia was apparently drift-
ing away, America 's social organization began to
be examined with more sympathy and interest.
It became evident that a democratic political
rule was, to say the least, possible.
Even without the war, that theory of the State
would ultimately have materialized in France,
270
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDEKATIOXS
though probably more slowh*. Men like Peguy,
— as a careful reading between the lines of his
Cahiers will show, — would not have been op-
posed to it. Indeed, Peguy turned away from
what is here called Democratism only because
the petty personal intrigues of demagogues who
posed as socialists, repelled him. Although his
language was mystical, his aspirations were emi-
nently practical, and he was far from oblivious
of the importance of economic considerations.
If we should attempt to trace back to its
origins the economic theor}-- of the State, we
would find a most remarkable exponent of it in
Auguste Comte, as early as 1836.^^ But we must
confine our attention to works which appeared
immediately before the war. One of those, at
least, deserves to be briefly mentioned. It is
Etienne Rey's striking little book, La Renais-
sance de I'Orgueil Frangais {Les Etudes Con-
temporaines, Grasset, 1912). Rey's argument
is that the first generation of bourgeois after
1870 were afraid of another trial of strength
with Germany: "It was then that the hu-
13 The most lucid pre-war exposition of the economic
state known to us, is to be found in the last pages of
Jack London's People of the Abyss.
271
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
manitarian and internationalist doctrines were
formnlated ; the leading classes turned their
apprehensions into theories and into princi-
ples, and their adhesion to pacifism and to
socialism was only a screen to hide their cow-
ardice." But the younger generation felt dif-
ferently; they did not repudiate the idea of
war, which might be a means of regaining
prestige, and of bringing about material pros-
perity (revival of Vorgueil guerrier). They did
more : they developed a new mentality ; they
became ambitious of regaining for France a
leading place among the modern nations ; for, in
the future, Frenchmen must cease to waste their
time and energies in futile quarrels between
royalists, republicans, Bonapartists and social-
ists; they must unite to develop a strong in-
dustrial and economic organization (revival of
Vorgueil economique) . Ferry's colonial policy
had already shown that Frenchmen were not
strangers to such an ideal.
The following are a few quotations from Rey :
"In modern states, the soldier has had to yield
precedence to the manufacturer and the business
man . . . but it is only within the last fifty
years that the conditions of existence have really
changed for the people." The result has been
272
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS \
"the 'orgueiV of figures, of big interests, of large
banking accounts." And while "there are na-
tions which have never knoVn any other," —
unfortunately for them — "economic necessities,
the progress of business, the widening of the
world-market, tine prodigious development of
industry, have imposed on all countries this
new order of things." Conclusion: "The
orgueil economique and the orgueil guerrier
have just joined hands in a same feeling of
national pride, and this is surely one of the
clearest proofs of a French national revival.
The problem of socialism is a very serious one ;
but by forcing upon the world the Marxian
theory of history, socialism has proved to be the
most useful instrument of the new economic
and industrial ideal . . . ; without it, democracy
would have remained that narrow bourgeois
conception of the time of Louis-Philippe: a
republic of wealthy manufacturers and land-
owners. ' '
Wliat of the Church and the Neo-Catholic
movement? "The part which the Church has
played in the past has not been very glorious.
. . . The Church has failed for the last forty
years to take advantage either of the periods of
anti-clerical politics, or of the periods of toler-
273
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
aiice. . . . To-daj^ the Church of France is a
great power running to waste. ' ' ^*
In I9I2, Rey and quite a number of other
writers whom we are about to mention, had re-
garded the economic re-organization of France
as bound up with the aims of the Action Fran-
gaise. There was, however, no necessary connec-
tion between the Neo-Catholic tendencies and the
economic development of France. Indeed, the
two movements might prove to be incompati-
ble; and, in fact, little by little, all connection
between them ceased. A proof of this could
be found in a very significant article, "La
France et I'Amerique," written by Ch. Maurras,
in 1895 (in answer to Bourget's Outre-Mer),
and republished without change in 1916 in the
volume Quand les Frangais ne s'aimaient pas;
Maurras shows a profound distrust of America's
civilization of wealth: "Let us by all means
unite with Bourget in his admiration for
America, but let us remain French."
* * *
Since the beginning of the war, and more es-
pecially since 1917, a number of books have been
published, which show how economic preoccupa-
tions have taken the lead in the minds of inde-
14 Would Rey still maintain this view after the war ?
— Probably not.
274
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
pendent thinkers, have sprung from verj^ differ-
ent quarters, and have claimed attention.^^
Let us first of all consider J. Sageret's La
Guerre et le Fr ogres (1917). Although Sageret
ends on the economic note, he first discusses
abstractly the principles involved in the great
conflict ; he keeps aloof from all controversy as
regards concrete problems so as to safeguard his
impartiality. His work is certainly the most
conscientious attempt that has j^et been made to
look at things objectively ; he has no sentimental
biases, whether patriotic or humanitarian; but
at the same time, he is strong enough not to
15 Here afrain we shall mention only such books as
present clearly and definitely some original contribution
to the literature of the war. That is why we do not
deem it necessary to dwell at length on Paul Adam's
7.0 Littcrature et la Guerre (1916, 131 pp.), although
it is evident that the author had a vague presentiment
of tlie orientation of thought toward economic doctrines.
His iiook is full of platitudes and repetitions, with a few
brilliant passages which are quite insufficient to redeem
the rest. Adam tries to guess what the literature of
to-morrow will be: the era "which will dawn after this
war of nations will probably be an age of cirilisateurs."
He has in mind the economic ^ development of the
colonies. He quotes books dealing with Africa, Tonkin,
etc., and it is evident that he considers that some
writers have already foreseen a great future for the
colonies. He quotes' by the way, a curious note found
among Flaubert's papers: "The next great social novel
to be written, now that titles and castes have been
abolished, should picture the struggle, or rather the
fusion, of barbarism and of civilization."
275
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
betray the cause in which he personally believes,
from any fear of being unfair to the cause in
which he does not helieve. (Bonnet for in-
stance, in his L'Ame du Soldat, and Remain
Rolland in Au-dessus de la Melee, have shown
that weakness.) Some of the chapters are not
easy reading; his style is very philosophical, we
might even say Spinozistic ; but in Chapters IV,
X and XIII, he is admirably clear, fearless
and illuminating. He has a happy knack of dis-
lodging, by means of a pointed little sentence,
ideas which have remained in some comer of
the brain by no other right than that of long,
undisturbed occupancy, and which make a con-
siderable difference in our apprehension of the
truth in so far as they prevent us from viewing
things at a correct angle. He discusses three
topics: the meaning of war, the meaning of
progress, and the relation of war to progress.
The raison d'etre of the book is manifestly the
examination of a thesis recently advanced by
German authors, that there exists an organic
relation between war and progress, and in the
development of which the Darwinian theories
of the struggle for life and of the survival of
the fittest, are used directly or indirectly to
prove not only the necessity, but the excellence
276
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
of war. Sageret cannot see any connection
whatsoever between war and the progress of
the human race. He explodes, one after an-
other, various theories which need but to be
clearly formulated to betray their intrinsic ab-
surdity; the belief, for instance, that the victor
is always superior to the vanquished, which
rests on the false presupposition that superiority
in war is identical with superiority itself.
Elsewhere, Sageret shows that, frequently, in
the struggle for life, a species which is physically
inferior to its rivals will survive on account of
some peculiarity which happens, accidentally, to
be important ; and he instances the case of the
rabbit, which being more developed along cer-
tain lines, has survived several species mani-
festly superior to it in many other ways. How
often does climate, not ability, settle the ques-
tion of survival between two races, favoring the
inferior one, and eliminating the better, as illus-
trated by the case of the European in certain
tropical countries ? Even in war, the physically
stronger is not always the survivor. In the
Napoleonic wars, the stronger were victorious,
but a large proportion of them were killed, while
the bulk of the weaker survived. The same
holds true in the present war. War leads to
277
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
an inverted selection {une selection a rehours).
Moreover, there can be no racial wars in Europe,
for the races co-mingle in every part of the
continent ; everywhere there are brachycephalic
and dolichocephalic men, and many people who
bear German names, — in Alsace, for instance, —
are decidedly French in their sentiments; thus
the Great War also is fought not on racial,
but on national, grounds. ... In conclusion:
*'War is not a scientific fact, but only an his-
torical one ... ; we could regard it as a scien-
tific fact only if, like all other natural phenom-
ena, it were invariably accompanied by certain
effects. But what effect of war can be regarded
as constant? — Selection? . . . But selection does
not select consistently the same qualities for
triumph. . . . War picks out the victors at ran-
dom ; and the victors have as little right to be
regarded as scientific effects, as the rulers in
whose hands, accidentally, the destinies of na-
tions lie. It is therefore nonsense "to talk of
war as an element of progress. . . . War and
progress are two unrelated facts, not opposed,
but simply alien, to each other. ' '
War as an element of progress being thus dis-
posed of, Sageret turns to the real problem that
278
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
lies before modem society. "War cannot be
ignored, for it always remains a possibility.
That is felt to be so true, that the aims of
belligerents are chiefly directed toward the se-
curing of favorable conditions, not, indeed, in
view of a coming peace, but rather in view of
the next war. ..." War simply renders im-
possible a rational exploitation of the Planet,
What then is progress? Sageret adopts, —
with modernized arguments, — the theory that all
progress implies a corresponding regress, in
sociology as well as in psychology and biology.
That economic progress means an advance of
civilization, he accepts as a commonplace, almost
axiomatic in its simplicity and requiring no
demonstration. But economic progress, like all
progress, has to be paid for : it claims a tribute ;
and the problem that confronts a progressive
society is to discover how one may reduce that
tribute to a minimum. And here Sageret takes
up the problem so ably dealt with by Rousseau
in the eighteenth century, that, namely, of the
cost of economic progress in terms of moral cor-
ruption, unrest, dissatisfaction, jealousy and
war. This part of the Avork is less original
than the rest. Sageret simply applies to war,
279
FEENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
and more especially to the present war, the ideas
developed a few years ago in Hayeraft's Dar-
winism and Race Progress, in Demoor, Massart,
et Vandervelde 's L'Evolution Regressive en
Biologic et en Sociologie, and in Capitaine Con-
stantin 's Lc Role Social de la Guerre et le Senti-
ment Naturel which is a reply to the German
Steinmetz's War as a Means of Collective Selec-
tion.
* * *
Only a very short notice can be given to each
of the following books :
Probus, La Plus Grande France; la Tdche
Prochaine (1917). This book (crowned by the
"Academic des Sciences Morales et Politiques")
was regarded as quite radical when it first ap-
peared, but it has already been outdistanced in
constructive suggestions and in outspokenness.
The author's criticisms of the generally accepted
views with regard to political administration are
strong, and when he suggests possible reforms,
he generally speaks to good purpose. His main
plea is for decentralization; but one cannot but
feel, when he speaks of future economic, rather
than political, reforms, that he has not alto-
gether realized either their possibility or their
importance.
280
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
The same may be said of Lachapelle's
L'Oeuvre de Demain (1917) »^^ His chapters
on the Constitution of 1875; the Ethics of
Political Elections; Electoral Reform; Decen-
tralization, and the Revision of the Constitu-
tion, are worth reading. Nevertheless, the book
strikes one as an attempt to put new wine into
old bottles.
Edouard Herriot's" Agir (1918) is a collec-
tion of articles by a man of action. The fact
that he deals exclusively with present-day prob-
lems and concrete needs rather than with ab-
stract considerations, has led him to regard all
questions from the standpoint of economics.
"It is of the utmost importance," he says, "that
the sources of French industry be developed.
If by a politique miniere — distinguished by more
intelligence than our present-day politics — the
soil of France could be made to yield even a part
of the wealth it contains, then no hope would be
too high for our country." And Herriot sup-
ports his arguments with figures. In the period
16 Another work by Lachapelle is -Yos Finances pen-
dant la Guerre.
J" Herriot was one of those whn asked for the creation
of a Paris Conference on economic problems, to supple-
ment the work of the Conference on Jlilitary Problems,
which, on March 28th, 1917, decided upon "solidarity in
military action."
281
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
of reconstruction after the war, "one law must
dominate all the^ detail of the plan: we must
maJie France rich." He recommends that his
countrymen study the excellent hand-book by
H. Hauser, Methodes AUemandes d' Expansion
Economique}^ Then in a new work Creer, pub-
lished in 1919, he continues his campaign.
France must be renovated by scientific methods ;
for England, and especially for America, he has
unbounded admiration. Political prestige fol-
lows economic prestige.
Victor Cambon's Notre Avenir is very out-
spoken. Cambon's book is interesting especially
because it is the work of a professional politician
who has come to believe that, in the future,
politics will have to be based on economics. He
finds in the events connected with the war
a remarkable occasion to renew the warnings
given by him so clearly — and so stupidly ignored
—in his Allemagne au Travail (1909) and again
in his Derniers Progres de V Allemagne (1913).
As to Clemenceau's La France devant
18 It is interestins to note that Herriot is one of
those who have understood not only the Rousseau of
Romanticism, but also the Rousseau of political theories
(of the article on VEconomie roHtique, of the Lettre a
d'Alembert, and of the Contrat Social) : "The time has
come," he exclaims, "to re-study Rousseau. Long live
the beautiful trades of France."
282
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
rAll&niagne (a collection of articles which for
the most part appeared originally in his famous
newspaper L'Homme Enchaine) it may be well
to say a few words in order to dispel some mis-
understandings : for instance, to make clear that
"the Tiger" \vas not really an opponent to what
we have called the economic interpretation of
war events. Even at the time when Clemenceau
was "eenseur parlementaire," as well as later
when he became the "censeur de la guerre," he
acted on the principle: let us not tackle the fu-
ture before we have well taken care of the pres-
ent. All his hostile attitude towards colonial
policies was inspired by this thought : France
must be strong first in Europe before she gives
much thought to economic development in Africa
and Asia. And especially' where colonial expan-
sion brings about quarrels with England, France
must be careful not to ill dispose England whose
alliance is of first importance. And he was
opposed to French politics in Morocco because
he feared this would absorb energies needed to
face problems at home. To the clear sighted
this is good constructive policy in the end.
Moreover, on one point he would not yield at
any price: when the honor of France was at
stake after Casablanca, he had said "no" to
283
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Germany, and opposed the concession to Ger-
many of territory in French Congo in payment
for privileges in Morocco,
Clemenceau's activity as a journalist during
the first part of the war was consistent with his
previous record. He insisted on not sacrificing
the present to some uncertain future, and op-
posed operations on a far away front which
might weaken action on the western front. He
deprecated the Gallipoli campaign. And as to
the fierceness of his attacks, when France needed
so much to be united, that is merely the applica-
tion of Clemenceau's parliamentary method,
namely : there are two ways of acting as a
politician; either in being a member of the
Executive, or in being in the opposition and
stimulating the government to act by relentless
criticism: To fight with the majority is good
for lazy politicians, and there will always be
enough of those who say all is well and who
court the ministers.^^
* * *
The reader must excuse this digression about
Clemeneeau. We come back to our topic.
One of the most curious books of the war —
19 See the excellent chapter on C16menceau in A.
Maurel, Six 6crivains de la guerre (1917); and R.
Ducray, Clemeneeau (1918).
284
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
curious because of the entertaining way in
which the author deals with really fundamental
questions — is Gaston de Pawlowski 's -^^ Dans les
Rides du Front (1917), which was written while
the author was on active service. Pawlowski
has not only a remarkable talent for combining
sound common sense and a vivid and pleasing
imagination, but his criticism is always construc-
tive. One of hii^ favorite topics is the question
of coal and oil in France (see Chapters XXII,
XXVI, XXVII). Oil, he argues, is destined to
replace coal; let France, therefore, protect her
oil fields in Algeria and Morocco ; what would be
the use of colonizing those two countries if their
oil fields were to be run with German capital
for the benefit of German financiers ?
* * *
Two men have come to realize more fully than
any of those whom we have previoush^ men-
tioned, the revolutionary nature of their efforts
to turn politics into the channels of economics.
Their works may lack, perhaps, the conventional
aesthetic adornments that one is wont to look for
20 He had previously written an Essai snr la Quatri^me
Dimension in which lie advanced some bold and interest-
ing hypothet^cs, and Inventions ]\~oureUes et Dernieres
'NouveauUs. He is a kind of French H. G. Wells, with a
comic vein and an abundance of wit.
285
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
in literary productions, but they are neverthe-
less beautiful. Their eloquence is that of facts
and figures, which they have raised to the dignity
of art.
The first is Pierre Hamp, who is connected
with the Nouvelle Revue Franqaise. He has
written under the general title La Peine des
Hommes several striking novels dealing with in-
dustrial problems: Le Rail (the railroad prob-
lem) ; Maree Fraiche (the fishing industry), Vin
de Champagne (the wine industry), since the
war L'Enquete and Les Metiers hiesses. Hamp
is the apostle of Industry which he deifies ; and
since the beginning of the war he has continued
his preaching with unabated fervor. He has
visions of labor as solving the problem of happi-
ness in the world and especially in France. His
books are well worth reading. With more con-
viction than even before 1914, he says in refer-
ence to the task of the future: "We are face
to face with this moral necessity : France must
be rich." And France must set to work at
once: "War is transitory, labor is eternal. "^^
21 Pierre de Lanux, in Young France and 'New America
(pp. T.S-Se), has given a summary of the war books in
which Hamp has developed those ideas: Le Travail
Invincible, La Peine des Hommes, and La Victoire de la
France sur les Frangais.
286
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
The problem which France has to solve is that
of substituting- machinery for men, as America
has already done.
* * *
But the most vigorous books — which could
call the dead back to life — ^are those of Lysis:
Vers la Democratie Nouvelle, and Pour Re'naitre
(Payot). Nobody doubts that the French can
accomplish anj'thing that they have set their
hearts upon; indeed, their very cleverness and
intelligence have often been a temptation to them
to depend on those natural gifts for emergencies,
and have lulled them into a dangerous listless-
ness which has more than once brought them to
the brink of the abyss. In the first book, the
reader will again and again come across plain,
crude statements of this kind : ' ' We are forced
to recognize that that mediaeval and feudal state
{Etat moyen-ageux) which we profess to hold
in contempt, knows so well how to run a govern-
ment that in a few years it has reached a power
astonishingly superior to our own. and that to-
day Germany has surpassed us in every field
of industry and of agriculture.'' And Lysis
will brook no protest or contradiction. lie
marshals figures, terrible figures, to substan-
tiate his statements. Shall France, there-
287
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
fore, adopt German methods of government?
No, indeed! and for this very simple reason,
that democratic governments have achieved
similar progress along the same lines; the form
of government has nothing to do with the ques-
tion: "We have a temperament and aspirations
which are our own; the Americans are not Ger-
man, neither are the English, nor the Italians,
the Belgians and the Swiss." France must do
what Germany has done, but not as she did it.
One falsehood which has, for many years, been
blindly accepted all the world over, must be
stamped out: it is that France is wealthy.
* ' France is really a poor country, ' ' poor because
it is undeveloped. To say that there is money
in France, and capital, is also false. Moreover,
"true wealth is not money; true wealth is the
means of production," and since whatever
French capital there is, is very largely invested
abroad, France is contributing to the wealth of
other nations at her own expense. What must
be, above all, brought about after the war, is a
new revolution, viz., one in French "democratic
mentality. ' ' France must get rid of her political
leaders, as she got rid of her "noble" leaders in
the first Revolution. The nineteenth century
has witnessed the taking of the power from the
288
PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
hands of the titled nobility, and its committal to
politicians ; now the twentieth must see that the
politicians are also turned out, and their place
taken by men trained in industry'- and com-
merce.^^ The fact that we have to face is that
economic wars are not on the wane, but rather on
the increase; and both employers and employees
must unite to govern the State. The reader will
easily see how very different this is from conven-
tional socialism.
The second book, Pour Renaitre, contains a
similar vigorous plea for sound practical thought
on "the German progress and the French decline
of the last forty years." The alcohol problem
must be dealt with energeticallj-. Alcohol for
drinking purposes must go, for it has done in-
calculable harm to France (there were, at one
time, cafes in the proportion of one for every
four houses in Paris), but industrial alcohol,
alcohol as motive power, must come. To render
any fraud impossible, industrial alcohol must
be rendered undrinkable by the addition of in-
gredients which make it nauseous. ^^
22 Some of Lysis's remarks concerning the necessity
of getting rid of politicians were censored; enough, how-
ever, of his argument was allowed to stand to permit
the reader to pursue it to its logical end.
23 Since the war Lysis has published a summary of
289
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
*
Literature of this kind carries us back in
thought one hundred and fifty years to the days
when men like Voltaire, Montesquieu, the Ency-
clopedists, and the Physiocrats, dealing with
similar problems, brought about the first phase
of the social revolution. We seem at present to
be on the point of entering upon the second
phase.^*
his beliefs in a short book called: Profession de foi de
la Democratie Nouvelle. (1919.)
-i The reader may know that in Germany a very
similar movement is on foot towards economic
democratization of the state; but with some truly
Germanic characteristics. The book by Walther Rathe-
nau is very illuminating. Rathenau is the man who,
when the war broke out, was called to the direction of a
most important service, that dealing with the adminis-
tration of raw material for war purposes {Deutsche
Kriegesrohstoffabteilitng) . He called his book About
Thinqs to Come {Von Kommenden Dingen) and it was
published 1918: In the State of the future everybody
will have to work; no leisured class will be tolerated;
society will be nothing but a huge economic organiza-
tion: but there will be none the less a governing class,
and this class will be the Prussian nobility. No room,
in the book of the Jew Rathenau, for such nonsense as
Rousseau's and the French Revolution's "peuple sou-
verain," or as America's "Government of, for. and BY
the people." The masters (Prussian nobility) must
make to the masses (of the Sozial-Demokratie) all
necessary economic, political and financial concessions-—
and these will be sweeping — but they must remain in
control. This arrangement will be perfectly acceptable
to the masses, especially in Germany, where they have
shown their readiness to yield to the discipline imposed
from above. The volume of Rathenau is full of interest-
ing ideas.
290
PART II
CHAPTER I
POETRY OF THE WAR
Here we have a good harvest.
Very few poets had thought of, or at any
rate, given much attention to, war before the
war. We must however recall the Chants du
Soldat (1872) and the Nouveaux Chants du Sol-
dat (1875) by Paul Deroulede, which ever since
they came out, appealed to the innermost heart
of Frenchmen. Then, we must recall also the
moving poem by Charles Peguy, with the ever
recurring words, Heureux ceux qui sont morts!
It was taken by many as a prophecy of the
poet's own death, and of the death of his fellow
soldiers; in any case, it is a most remarkable
panegyric ante-mortem of the soldiers of the
Great War, and some lines from it will form a
particularly fitting introduction to this chapter:
Heureux ceux qui sont morts pour la terre charnelle,
Mais pourvu que ce fut dans une juste guerre.
Heureux ceux qui sont morts pour quatre coins de
terre,
Heureux ceux qui sont morts d'une mort solenelle !
293
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Heureux eeux qui sont morts dans les grandes ba-
tailles
Couches dessus le sol a la face de Dieu.
Heureux ceux qui sont morts sur un dernier haut
lieu,
Parmi tout I'appareil des grandes funerailles.
Heureux ceux qui sont morts pour leur atre et leur
feu,
Et les pauvres honneurs des maisons patemelles . . .
Heureux ceux qui sont morts dans une juste guerre ;
Heureux les epis murs et les bles moissonnes ! . . .
Heureux ceux qui sont morts car ils sont retournes
Dans ce meme limon dont Dieu les reveilla.
lis se sont ren dermis dans cet alleluia •
Qu'ils avaient desappris devant que d'etre nes.
Heureux les grands vainqueurs. Paix aux hommes de
guerre !
Qu'ils soient ensevelis dans un dernier silence.
Que Dieu mette avec eux dans leur juste balance
Un peu de ce terreau d' ordure et de poussiere.
Que Dieu mette avec eux dans le juste plateau
Ce qu'ils ont tant aime quelques grammes de terre.
Un peu de cette vigne un peu de ce coteau,
Un peu de ce ravin sauvage et solitaire. . . .
{Priere pour nous autres Charnels, dans la collection
Eve)
294
POETRY OF THE WAR
Poetry lent itself particularly well to the ex-
pression of righteous anger against Germany.
At the beginning of the war, a good many poets
did use thus the "corde d'airain" of their lyre.
Some have sounded no other note even at a later
date. We mention without comment J. de
Marthold's Chant de Haine, Rcponse a Berlin
(1915), which this poet felt called upon to write
in answer to Lissauer's famous Song of Hatred
against England; the collection of Lecoq's Ger-
maniades: Eux, Leiirs Crimes (1915) ; and
Felicien Chamsaur's curious, elaborate, and
sometimes trulj' powerful L' Assassin Innom-
brable, Symphonie Dramatique de Ilaine contre
Guillaume II, Ro-i de Prusse, Empereur d'Alle-
magne, et Chant d' Amour pour nos Morts
(1914-1917) composed after a visit to the Hell
of Verdun.
But the following volumes, in which this note
of indignation prevails also, deserve more atten-
tion. They are not — it will be noticed — written
by soldiers ; but they come from the pen of well
known poets of to-day, who found truly deep
expression for the great tragedy.
The place of honor belongs to Emile Ver-
haeren, the author of Les Ailes rouges de la
Guerre (1916). The Belgian patriot did not
295
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
try to conceal his passionate hatred for the
brutal conqueror of his beloved country :
cri,
Qui retentis ici
Si tragique aujourd'bui,
Tu peux eourir immensement de plaine en plaine,
Car tu es juste, 6 cri,
Bien que tu sois de haine.
Oftentimes his denunciation of Germany's
wickedness and madness has recalled to the
critics' minds the names of the two greatest
representatives of high satire in France, the
Agrippa d'Aubigne of Les Tragiques, and the
Victor Hugo of Les Chdtiments. The poem
Guillaume II is one of the most scathing indict-
ments of the sinister megalomaniac emperor :
Les- soirs de Fete, en des banquets,
II s'evoquait
A la lueur des eandelabres;
Son buste cbarge d'or dans I'or etincelait,
Et son verbe emphatique et faroucbe jongiait
Ou bien avec son casque ou bien avec son sabre. . . .
II paradait de long en large,
La fourberie animait son esprit puritain;
II ordonnait et deplorait la tragedie
Du massacre eclaire par le rouge incendie ;
296
POETRY OF THE WAR
Pendant qu'il brulait Reims, il pleurait sur Louvain.
Ses regiments'? — il les drepsait a coups de bottes;
La schlague? — il la disait aprement patriote. . . .
He wanted La Gloire,
Et dans un geste brusque il jetait son delire
Comme mesure a son emi^ire. . . .
Et ses fifres et ses tambours et ses clairons
Annoneeront
Que desormais surgit sous le ciel d'Allemagne,
Pour la terreur du monde, un plus grand Charle-
Helas ! depuis le temps que ce reve s'en vint
Battre son front etroit et vain,
On a pu voir deja dans I'immense fumee,
Son aigle noir comme la nuit
N'etendre plus sur lui
Qu'une aile pauvre et deplumee.
All Peuple Allemand is written in the same
vein, and is a bitter railing against the people
who have allowed themselves to be duped, or
misguided by their emperor.
Dans I'horreur et le meurtre, et la haine et la rage,
Allemagne, Allemagne, est-ce done a jamais
Qu'une bande de rois emploiera ton courage
A preparer un crime ou parfaire un forfait?
297
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Seras-tu a jamais hypocrite et brutale
Et monie et dure, et celle, helas, qui n'aime point ?
Tu lie livres tes bras qu'aux besognes cruelles.
Ton histoire n'est qu'egoi'sme apre et profond.
Pourtant une autre existe et plus grande et plus belle,
Celle qui donne une ame aux peuples qui la font.
Verhaeren was in France with all the other
refugees, and he remained there until his death
(he was accidentally killed at the station of
Rouen while trying to board a train), but his
thoughts were elsewhere:
Mon ame, elle est la-bas.
Mon ame en joie et en alarmes,
Elle est la-bas
Ou I'on s'elance, oil I'on se bat,
Mon ame, elle est la-bas,
Dans les elameurs et dans les armes.
Elle est ardente et f rissonnante ;
Elle se cache et se blottit
En vos gTands plis,
Drapeaux, qui promenez sur le monde la gloire.
• ••• ••••
Mon ame? — elle est deja
La-bas,
Dans la clarte de la vietoire. . . .
298
POETRY OF THE WaR
The volume contains various accounts of war
episodes celebrating the bravery of the Belgian
soldiers and people, e. g., La Ferme du Marais
d'or.
Jean Aicard, in Le Temoin, offers an en-
thusiastic testimonial to the part played by
France in the war against Germany: the whole
history of the world reveals a slow but sure
progress towards an ideal of good-will among
men ; the present war will not stop that progress ;
it is only a bloody interlude in which France
represents the Christian spirit of brotherhood,
justice and sacrifice, against the spirit of the
Antichrist represented by Germany attempting
to rule the world by violence.^
One of the most beautiful collections of verses
on the war is Zamacois's L'Ineffagahle (1916).
His resentment against the political crimes of
Germany is further exasperated hy his sorrow
for the victims of her atrocious methods of war-
fare — especially for the weak old people, for
women and children. The touching little poem
L'Enfant is typical of his manner; it tells the
revolting story of the little boy of seven who,
1 Le Sang du Sacrifice, Poesies dediees aux Nations
alliees (Tcxtes francais, anglais, italiens) by the same
poet, is of 1017.
299
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
at Magny, Haute Alsace, was stupidly shot by
the German soldiers because he had aimed at
them with his small toy rifle :
S'il est vrai, Majeste, ce crime qu'on raconte,
Comme il pesera lourd, le matin du grand compte
Pour le debiteur aux abois!
Comme il pesera lourd, lorsque dans le- silence,
Una main posera I'enfant sur la balance
Et son petit fusil de bois!
The graceful and kindly poet of Les Bouffons
was one of those who found it very hard to
realize that men actually existed who were
criminal enough to allow the war to break out,
and especially to allow it to be conducted with
such diabolical cruelty. So, after giving his
sympathy to the victims, he returns in closing to
L'Eomme responsahle :
Done vm horame pendant des nuits et des journees*
Qui forment bout a bout uu grand nombre d'annees,
A pu dans son esprit, sans devenir dement.
Entendre resonner ces six mots constamment :
La guerre? . . . ou hien la paixf — a pu tenir captive
Dans son cerveau Fhorreur de cette alternative,
Avec des mois de oui, des semaines de non,
Sans s'ecrouler un soir au fond d'un carbanon! . . .
(Et) la pensee alors obstinement s'arrete
Sur la seconde exacte, absolue et concrete,
300
POETRY OF THE WAR
L'instant mathematique, efifrayant — inou'i —
Ou celui qui voulut cette guerre a dit oui!
Comment resiste-t-il depuis, au eauehemar
Du visiteur nocturne exsangue, au nez camard,
Qui sur son lit ro,val — au camp sur la couchette —
Chaque nuit sans manquer vient s'asseoir en cachette?
Comment done put-il voir sans en devenir fou,
Le spectre chaque nuit le joindre n'importe o\x . . .1
Henri Bataille's La Divine Tragedie (1916)
is conceived on the plan of Dante's Divina
Comedia. It starts with the "infernal" reali-
ties of war, in the first volume, and was to end,
as the war proceeded, in a song of victory for the
** divine" cause. There are some fine poems, but
too much abstract reasoning and weighing of
motives, and moaning. Was the poet himself
conscious of those defects? At any rate, the
work is not completed. The gem of the collec-
tion is indisputably the striking piece Le Nou-
veaii Christ. Right at the summit of a hill
dominating the plains of Lorraine, stood a cal-
vary. A German shell was aimed at it, struck
it, but only removed the cross, leaving the Christ
standing, his arms raised in a gesture of blessing :
L'obus vient de frapper un grand Christ de Calvaire,
Et le hois de la eroix s'est volatilise.
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FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Comme un aigle eployant les ailes sur son aire,
Le Christ reste debout. Rien ne Fa renverse ;
Mais il est delivre du fardeau millenaire
Et de son portement liturgique aux epaules. . . .
And now He stands there,
ce Christ inopine,
Les bras soudain ouverts et les mains declouees,
Transformant tout a coup, en haut d'un promontoire,
Son geste de supplice en geste de victoire. . . .
Gloire a I'obus pointe qui foudroya les Bois.
Le monde est libere, 6 Jesus ! Plus de croix !
En mourant a nouveau dans ehacun de vos fils,
Vous I'avez rachete pour la seconde f ois.
Other poets who could be classed with this
group must be mentioned more briefly. Such
are Madame Delarue Madrus, with her Souffles
de Tempete (1918),- and the Comtesse de
Noailles, who early in the war sang so vigor-
ously (in the Revue de Paris, March, 1915) the
Soldats de 1914:
Nul ne mourra jamais aussi bien qu'ils sont morts . . .
Les mondes periront avant qu'ils ne perissent . . .
lis mettaient leurs gants blancs devant la canonnade,
Et tendaient cette main de fiance joyeux
A la vierge d'airain qui leur broyait les yeux,
2 Only the second part of the volume deals with the
war. In this second part, the series Deuils rouges is
particularly beautiful.
302
POETRY OF THE WAR
Jusqu'a ce que le jour sombrat sous leurs pau-
pieres. . . .
These la.st lines are an allusion to the famous
oath of the youn^' oflficers of Saint-Cyr to go to
battle with their white gloves and wearing their
plumes on their shakos. (This episode is told
in ^laurice Barres's Les Traits etertiels de la
France.)
Gabriel Mourey's Le Chant du Renouveau
(1916) shows in the soldier of the Great War
the same virtues of chivalry and heroism found
in the past in the epic pages of French history :
Les mots seuls changes, mais le rythme est le meme,
Et le ton et I'aecent et les voix sont les memes.
The French soldiers are defending a just cause,
drinking ' ' le vin de flamme de la haine ' ' ; and
the whole world feels with them :
Faut-il, 6 France,
Qu'il soit irresistible le desir,
Dont ta beaute briile I'amour et les sens
De ces hommes, qu'ils eprouvent autant de joie
A se battre, a souffrir et a mourir jjour toi !
Then again, there is ^Maurice Pottecher, most
of whose Chants dans la Tounnente (1916) are
poems describing with philosophical comments
303
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
the succession of events from the assassination
of Jaures to the descent into the trenches, pass-
ing through the great days of the Marne. In
Georges Trouillot's Gavroche et Flambeau, the
idea of evoking in a poetical dialogue, the heroic
Gavroche of Victor Hugo's Miserables, and the
old "grognard de TEmpire" of Rostand's
VAiglon, was better than the execution.
Soon after Edmond Rostand's unexpected
death, in the first month of 1919 there was
published Le Vol de la Marseillaise containing a
collection of war verses by the author of Cyrano,
of L 'Aiglon and of Chantecler. The poems were
first published in various periodicals (as La
Revue des Deux Mondes, or U Illustration) and
had been inspired either by some great events
of the fateful years, or by episodes that hap-
pened to reach the ear of the poet. It must be
frankly owned that the quality is not even all
through the volume. Some poems however are
indeed worth}^ of Rostand, such as Cain, Le
Crime de Potsdam, L'lle des Chiens, or the
Condoleances (aux Boches). Some of those
which call for a more delicate treatment are
among the best, as La Vitre, Le Norn sur la
Maison, La Mere. One of the finest, perhaps
the best, and of the most "Rostandesque" in
304
POETRY OF THE WAR
beauty is called Les Ruches Brule es. "They"
burn the hives, because "e'est la guerre" an-
swers the officer, "la brute allemande," to the
priest who asks: "Pourquoi me brulez-vous mes
abeilles?" And the poet reflects: it is worthy
of them, and it is better that it should be so;
they betray at once their barbarian souls:
J'aime que tout de suite ils aient brule des ruches.
Then the bees will go elsewhere, and :
Abeille, or bourdonnant qui dans I'azur trebuches,
Ils ne sont pas vainqueurs si tu flottes encore,
Dernier petit vestige aile de I'age d'or!
The poem ends with this striking scene :
Aux premiers jours du choc tragique,
Lorsque nos cavaliers montaient vei-s la Belgique,
On raconte qu'un soir les cuirassiers fran(;ais
Traversaient un bameau de Flandres, je ne sais
Plus lequel; et sur leurs chevaux converts de roses,
Tons ils chantaient, entre leurs dents, a bouches
closes.
La Marseillaise. lis la bourdounaienl sc-ulement;
Et c'etait magnifique. Et ce bourdonnement
De colere latine au-dessus des coroUes,
C'etait Tame grondant sans geste et sans paroles,
C'etait la conscience, et c'etait la raison ;
Cela faisait un bruit d'orage et d'oraison,
Pieux et menagant, dore quoique farouche,
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FKENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Calme, On ne voyait pas remuer une bouche,
Et ce bourdonnement semblait sortir des fleurs.
Et eeux qui I'entendaient croyaient, les yeux en pleurs,
Entendre dans le soir anx poussieres vermeilles,
Comme une Marseillaise etrange aux abeilles . . .
Et c'est ainsi que, purs, ayant fait a dessein
De leur hymne de guerre un murmure d'essaim,
Nos hommes s'en allaient vers le Nord plein d'em-
buches
Sauver le miel du monde et mourir pour les ruches.
The shattered cathedral of Rheims, and the
remains of the priceless statues mutilated by
German shells, inspired him this sonnet:
LA CATHEDRALE
lis n'ont fait que la rendre un peu plus immortelle,
L'oeuvre ne perit ])as que mutile un gredin,
Demande a Phidias et demande a Rodin
Si devant ces moreeaux, on ne dit plus "C'est elle!"
La Forteresse meurt quand on la demantele,
Mais le Temple brise vit plus noble, et soudain
Les yeux, se souvenant du toit avec dedain
Preferent voir le ciel dans la pierre en dentelle.
Rendons grace, attendu qu'il nous manquait encore
D'avoir ee qu'ont les Grees sur la Colline d'or,
Le Symbole du Beau consaere par I'insulte !
POETRY OF THE WAR
Rendons grace aux pointeurs du stupide canon,
Puisque de leur adresse nlk-mande, il resultc
Une Honte pour eux, pour nous un Parthenon !
We now come to a group of four poets who
belong to the generation which immediately pre-
ceded that of the war. The}- are considered by
the "jeunes" of to-day, as elder brothers. They
use, to a greater or less extent, that new
rhythm adopted by the successors of the Par-
nassians, which sounds very free — but is ex-
tremely difficult to handle with success because
it discards the rules which preserved the very
perceptible, although often artificial, regularity
of classical French poetry. ... As Verlaine
said:
De la musique avant toute chose,
Et pour cola prefere I'linpair
Plus vague et plus soluble dans I'air,
Sans rien en lui qui pese ou pose.
The first, Fernand Gregh, has, more than any
of the four, returned to the traditional form of
versification. Some of his poems come very near
to classic or Parnassian perfection. The volume
La Couronne douloureuse (1917) is divided into
"Ire, lime, and Illme, annee de guerre," and
includes also a few introductory poems. The
307
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
battle of Verdun made him understand all that
was really involved in that gigantic struggle,
and the book opens with a poem called Vertige,
written during those anxious hours :
L'univers hesitant entre la force et I'ame
Va retomber de Fun ou de I'autre cote,
Comme un glaive oscillant sur le fil de la lame !
Heures, instants de qui depend Feternite. . , .
II est grand, il est beau d'etre le eoeur du monde.
In ''Juin 1870," he explains the folly of the
Second Empire which ended in the catastrophe
of the Franco-Prussian war, and that poem is
followed by another "1910," in which the poet
asks whether after forty years of suffering,
France has not sufficiently atoned for the sins
of the Empire.
Avons-nous fait assez, pour changer le destin?
What affects him most in the war is the
stupid desolation of peaceful provincial France,
that quiet, meditative France, which Jiolds in
reserve and nurses profound intellects, such as
Racine, Pasteur, Peguy, who later go to Paris
to feed the brain of the world. Constantly he
goes back to dreams about the "Vieilles mai-
sons," the "arbres paisibles de la route," the
308
POETRY OF THE WAR
"pensives cathedrales, " the "doux carillons.
. . . His poem on Senlis is exquisite :
Est-ee toi que j'ai vu, Senlis,
Beau lieu qui levais, dans les lys,
Le plus doux visage de France,
Est-ce toi que j'ai vu meurtri,
Penchant dans I'ombre un front fletri,
Encore tout crispe de souff ranee?
Tu dormais en ton doux vallon . . .
Tu dormais en tes maisons . . .
Tu revais parmi tes jardins . . .
Et soudain le peuple bandit,
Dans un tragique apres-midi,
Douairiere, a force ta chambre! . . .
Tu vis, ivres de leurs exces,
Defiler des casques a pointes!
Cette grace dans la beaute,
Get air d'exquise humanite
Que meme tes maisons respirent. . . .
Cette finesse des details,
Ces ruelles, ces puits, ces mails,
Ces vieux murs moussus qui verdissent,
C'etait la fleur des siecles! Mais
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FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
C'est eela meme qu'a jamais
De toute leur force ils liaissent,
Eux, les barbares tard venus
Qui rodaient encor demi-nus
Dans les sombres forets germaines,
Quand on lisait Platon chez toi. . . .
Pleure Senlis, sous ton coteau,
Comme le front dans un manteau. . . .
He has an admirable way of making one feel,
through the mere sounds of his words, the per-
turbation of life by war. Read how the "sourds
tambours" drum their lugubrious refrain in the
poem Mohilisation :
Ces tambours, ces sourds tambours,
Je les entendrai toujours!
lis battaient la generale
Entre les vieux murs de By. . . .
Au eiel des nuages gris,
Passaient, roulant vers Paris
Gros d'une lourde tempete. . . .
Partout sur le territoire,
— Ces tambours, ces sourds tambours,
Je les entendrai toujours —
Leur rj'tbme net et peremptoire
Precis, rageur, obstine,
Partout avait resonne. . . .
310
POETRY OF THE WAR
Dans ces voix accelorees,
Dans ces roulenients niechants,
On sentait les dents serrees
De ceux qui quittaient les eliamps
Sans phrases, sans cris, sans chants,
Mais leurs ames delivrees.
Ces tambours, ces sourds tambours,
Je les entendrai toujours —
Et les femmes, au lointain,
Dans un serrement de main,
Pleuraient, pleuraient en silence.
Ces tambours, ces sourds tambours,
Je les entendrai toujours! . . .
Dans un serrement de main,
L'humble escoiiade g-roupee,
Au detour du vieux chemin
S'enfoiigait dans rEpoi)ee.
Ces tambours, ces sourds tambours,
Je les entendrai toujours !
Then, when the irreparable has been commit-
ted, the ruins accumulated, hear the long wails
of the Sanglots de Pierres.^
Henri Gheon (physician of the 29th Artillery)
has received due praise for his two volumes Foi
3 The reader should not fail to read the poem on the
Victory of the Marne.
311
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
en la France, Poemes du Temps de Guerre, Per
Patriam ad Dominum (1916), But, if men of
letters may appreciate him, the public at large
will follow him with some difficulty. He cer-
tainly tries to think before yielding to the furor
poeticus. His Eloge d'un Kaiser is characteris-
tic of his style.
Cet homme est grand et je ne erois pas juste
De I'abandonner tout entier aux satiristes des jour-
naux. ...
But
Dieu Fa marque sur la montagne
Pour n'etre plus un homme entre les hommes
Le jour qu'il a perdu la douleur, puis le sens. . . .
The Kaiser disliked his peace-loving father,
Frederick III, and despised the strong hand of
Bismarck ; and so :
11 s'est alle jucher au faite,
II vit avec Dieu de plain-pied. . . .
II cree une eamelotte, une flotte, une armee,
L'Ichtyosaure de Kiel et le Dragon d' Essen,
La Pieuvre des mille casernes aux cent mille bouches
feroces,
La Baleine volante du eomte Zeppelin,
Et le soldat de Vaucanson sous I'officier Pithicanthrope.
312
POETRY OF THE WAR
Ah ! qu'il se grise de mots et de batailles,
mais . . .
Vous n'etes qu'un homme, apres tout, mauvais homme !
Gheon's First Series ends with Notre poeme,
another "Discours lyrique"; speaking of France
he says :
Le destin du monde est notre destin. . . .
Mais il n'est pas clos ton poeme,
Et tu t'es trop ouvert au monde pour te refermer
maintenant. . . .
eoeur fran^ais, purge des petites pensees,
La plus grande sur toi descend.*
Even more than Gheon, Paul Fort — who has
had for some years now the official title of "Le
Prince des Poetes" — uses with excellent effect,
sometimes, the peculiar Walt Whitman rhythm.
The author of Les Ballades Frangaises offered his
contribution to war literature chiefly in two vol-
umes, Poemes de France, Bulletin lyrique de la
guerre (1914-15), and Que j'ai de Plaisir d'etre
Franqais. He dedicates his "Poemes," of
course, to France:
Consolant genie de France, dent le voile,
* Some of Gheon's poems are translated into Enorlish
in Lanux's Young France and New America (Macmillan,
1917) pp. 130-133.
313
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Par transparence, au mois elu des jeunes pousses,
Et quand levent tant de semences,
Prend la eouleur de I'esperance. — Et dans
L'aube ressuscitee, j'ouvre une ame ressuscitee a la
France ressuscitee.
To speak frankly, Paul Fort, who did such
original writing some years ago, has not been
well inspired by the war. Here is the last part
of his answer in rhythmical prose to the mani-
festo of the 93 German intellectuals:
Les intellectuels Germains, tous Leebe-Bot-
tes, ceux de Berlin d'abord ayant burle : "Non !
Non!" d'un Gueulement de Basse agitant sa Cu-
lotte, mirent en gros Tas la Pluie d'Aero-
lithes, et Fun d'eux inventant soudain la Divi-
nite, Poudre a te foutre en Poudre, 6 Civilisation,
envoyerent le tout, Nom de . . . bon Dieu sans
Nom ! aux Armees pour nourir la Gueule des Canons."
But, for instance, his Ode to the Marseillaise is
more readable :
Chant qui ne laisse plus le temps de refleehir. ...
Allons, enfants de la patrie — vaincre ou mourir.
II fait bonte aux blesses, il leur rend la vigiieur,
Et les voila debout, recombattant plus fort !
Meme il propage au sang une telle fureur
Qu'il n'est pas que les morts qui ne se dressent encore
314
POETRY OF THE WAR
Pour se donner eneor le supreme plaisir
De retuer I'iiifame avant que de mourir
A jamais! hj'mne qui revigore!
H}Trme qui ressuscite! hymne entendu des morts!
Hymne qui, d'un seul coup, des ses premiers accents,
Explose, affranchit I'air du vide: Marseillaise!
Qui devient I'air lui-meme ou passe I'ouragan
Des ames entrainant les corps dans la fournaise,
Capable d'entrainer, en les purifiant,
Jusques aux Cieux I'immeiisite des incroyants
Et que, pour en doter I'eglise triomphante,
Le Christ meme eut paye d'une agonie plus lente. . . .
The fourth of the group is Paul Claudel, who
shared with Peguy the honor of having had the
most original influence on the coming French
youth of France, orienting them towards na-
tional traditionalism — Claudel following, how-
ever, more closely than Peguy the orthodox
Catholic tradition. Since the glorious death of
Peguy at the Battle of the Marne, Claudel holds
the field alone. He has written comparatively
little referring to the war, but the Trois Poemes
de Guerre (1915) and the Nouveaux Poemes de
Guerre (1916) are worthy of him. There is a
reminiscence of Peguy 's "Heureux ceux qui
sont morts!" ... in Aux Morts des Armies de
la Repuhlique (Mars 1915) :
315
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Heros qui avez ete verses en masse dans la terre
eomme le ble,
Est-ee vrai que vous ne verrez pas la vietoire*?
est-ce vrai que vous ne verrez pas I'ete'?
nos freres entremeles avec nous, 6 morts, est-ce
vrai que vous etes morts tout entiers?
Debout freres entremeles, et voyez I'espace libre
devant nous, et nos armees
Qui marchent par enormes bataillons dans le soleil
et dans la giboulee!
La frontiere que le parjure a ouverte, forcez-la de
vos rangs accumules !
Entrez, armes de la Justice et de la Joie, dans la
terre qui vous a ete donnee !
Ah, ma soif ne sera desalteree et le pain ne sera bon,
Armees des vivants et des morts, jusqu' a ce que nous
ayons bu ensemble dans le Rhin profond.
There are beautiful lines also in Tant que vous
voudrez, mon general!
' . . . Tous freres comme des enf ants tout nus, tous
pareils comme des pommes,
C'est dans le civil qu'on etait differents, dans le
rang, il n'y a plus que des hommes!
Tant qu'il y aura ceux d'en face pour tenir ce qui
est a nous sous la semelle de leurs bottes. . . .
Tant qu'il y aura un Frangais avec un eclat de
rire pour croire dans les choses etemelles. . . .
316
POETRY OF THE WAR
Tant que pour arreter un homme vivant, il n'y aura
que le feu et que le fer,
Tant qu'il y aura de la viande vivante de FranQ;ais
pour marcher a travers vos sacres fils de fer,
Tant qu'il y aura un enfant de femme pour marcher
a travers votre science et votre chimie. . ;^ .
Tant que vous voudrez, jusqu' a la gauche! tant
qu'il y en aura un seul ! Tant qu'il y en aura un de
vivant, les vivants et les morts tous a la f ois !
Tant que vous voudrez men general! 6 France,
tant que tu voudras !
Among the poems more directly inspired by
actual fighting, if not also written by actors in
the struggle, the following have met with es-
pecial favor: L' Arret de la Marne, a la memoire
de Charles Peguy, 63 pages, first published in
the Figaro, then separately. {Nouv. Revue
Frangaise 1916.) The poet, Francois Porche,
belongs to the group of the Nouvelle Revue Fran-
gaise, and later wrote the play Les Butors et la
Pinette. His panegyric of the heroes of the
Mame is divided into three parts, L'Agression,
Paris, La Bataille; it is written in lines inten-
tionally abrupt at times, yet very well hit off
with original "finds," especially in the first
part :
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FRENCH LITERATURE OP THE GREAT WAR
C'est la, dans I'Oeuvre des sept jours
Que nos vieilles capotes bleues
Sur un front de quatre-vingt lieues
Ont brise I'orgueil des Pandours. . . .
C'est la, dans cette melee ivre
Que f ut sauve I'honneur de vivre ! . . .
Et si nous vivons sans remords
C'est parceque d'autres sont morts.^
Here, perhaps, belong Paul Geraldy (the
author of Toi et Moi, and of La guerre,
Madame ) with Le Grand-pere, Joffre,
(Poeme dit par M. de Feraudy, a la Comedie
Frangaise, le 22 mai, 1915, 12 pages) ; Lucien
Broye with his stirring poem — often recited in
public gatherings — on the return of the vic-
torious ' ' poilus ' ' to Paris ; and Paul Rougier,
A la France (Prix de poesie 1917, in a contest
organized by the French Academy — 15 pages).
In that poem, France is shown extending her
hospitality to the refugees and persecuted of all
nations; in other words, the theme is that
France is every man's seconde patrie and a
patrie for such as can claim none ; it is an hon-
est attempt to be vigorous while remaining
' ' academique. ' '
5 In the Revue des Deux Mondes, for Feb. 15th,
1919, there appeared another poem by Porche, Le
Podme de la Delivrance, which is not so strong as
I'Arret de la Mame.
318
POETRY OF THE WAR
The inspiration of the war poets has fre-
quently been religious and some of their works
are truly beautiful. The best known collection
of such religious war poems is Louis Mercier's
Prieres de la Tranchee. Mercier had published
rather early in the war, Poemes de la Tranchee,
the first edition of which was promptly ex-
hausted ; he then issued a special edition of some
of these poems under the title just given,
Prieres de la Tranchee (30 pages). They are
prayers of remarkable simplicity and directness,
in behalf of all, but especially of the most
humble who also help to win the war: for the
sentries :
Dieu tout puissant, soyez en aide aux sentinelles!
Du f uneste sommeil def endez leurs prunelles ;
Que la nuit passe vite, et laisse ouir, enfin,
Le chant de I'alouette au retour du matin.
For the cooks (cuistots) :
Marthe, soeur de Marie, 6 sainte menagere,
Qui vouliez rejouir Jesus d'un bon repas,
Pour les humbles cuistots aj^-eez ma priere,
Et daig-nez etre leur patronne: ils n'eu ont pas.
Debrailles, marmiteux, et de rude lana:age,
lis jurent trop souvent le saint nom du bon Dieu,
Sans savoir ce qu'ils font, et parce que Touvrage
Est dur, et que le bois manque souvent au feu.
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FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Devant la flamme rouge on voit leur forme noire
S'evertuer le jour, et maintes fois la nuit ;
lis font penser a ceux qui sont en Purgatoire,
Tant leurs yeux sont brules dans leur visage cuit.
For those who carry logs to repair the roads ; for
the safety of the "eagna" (the uncomfortable
dug-outs where the soldiers try to rest, pro-
tected against shells while not on duty) ; for
the peasant soldier; for the ''Ahsente'' (wife
or mother) :
Seigneur, mon Dieu, veillez sur I'absente qui m'aime
De tout le grand amour dont je I'aime moi-meme.
Donnez a ses matins un rayon de clarte
Pour que son pauvre coeur en soit reconforte. . . .
Qu'en se mettant a table elle ne pleure point
En songeant qu'elle est seule et que je suis bien
loin. . . .
Mais surtout, 6 mon Dieu, que les soirs, les longs soirs
Ne l'en\-ironnent pas de pressentiments noirs!
Que eelle dont elle a le charme, que la lampe
D'une lueur de paix illumine sa tempe ...
Seigneur, mon Dieu, veillez sur I'absente qui m'aime
De tout le grand amour dont je I'aime moi-meme!
There are morning prayers and evening prayers ;
prayers to the patron-saints asking for their in-
320
POETRY OF THE WAR
tercession; and a supplication to the "Divine
Guest" to visit and comfort the soldiers in hours
of infinite sadness :
Vous, rami des peeheurs, qui souvent voiis assites
Dans leurs barques fleurant la saumure et la poix,
Vers la tranehee obscure ou nous avons nos gites
Qu'il vous plaise, Seigneur, de venir une fois.
N'y venez pas un jour qu'on a I'ame un pen claire
A cause du soleil qui luit dans le ciel bleu ;
Mais plutot par un soir oil I'on se desespere
Parce que Fair est plein de corbeaux, et qu'il
pleut. . . .
Entrez dans un abri sans vous faire connaitre,
Et demeurez un pen parmi ces pauvres gens. . . .
"Vfeus vous retirerez sans vous faire connaitre,
Mais en laissant leurs coeurs moins obscurs et moins
sourds,
Et puis pei-mettez-moi ce voeu tres humble, 6 Maitre —
Faites cesser la pluie au moins pour quelques jours !
*
Un Chant de Consolation, by J. Bellouard,
caporal brancardier au 314me Infantarie (1916)
is animated by the same spirit. The author is a
priest. Maurice Barres wrote an enthusiastic
Preface for him. The reader will find in these
pages a veritable Prayer-liook in verse for the
Catholic soldier, with hymns, model prayers, in-
321
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
vocations for all occasions — but the reverence for
God is intimately associated with reverence for
the mother-country.
Frangais,
Voyez la-bas
Nos freres soldats
Brises de souffrance,
Voyez-les, vibrants d'esperance,
C'est pour I'Eglise et pour la France.
The memory of Joan of Arc, who also suffered
for her faith and for France, is quite naturally
evoked : the Maid of Orleans is asked to inter-
cede for France:
C'est la France
En souffrance,
Qui te dit : Jeanne, viens a nous !
guerriere,
Sa priere
Pleure humblement a tes genoux.
Sorrow and compassion, prayer and hope — such
are the ever recurring themes. The warriors do
not forget, in their daily intercourse with God
and the Saints, the people at home who have
their full share of anxieties :
Ayez pitie de ceux que nous avons laisses
Seuls avec le fardeau de leurs coeurs angoisses.
322
POETRY OF THE WAR
Ayez pitie de ccux qui sont restes la-bas,
Attendant des al)sents qui ne reviendront pas.°
The Protestant creed in war poetry is repre-
sented by Jean Fontaine-Vive. His little volume
(108 pages) is called Jeunesse Ardente, Vers de
Guerre (written in 1916, but published in 1918
only). A Preface, by G. Riou, tells that the
poet was a very young officer who earned his
commission during the war, received the War
cross — then the Wooden cross: he sleeps his last
sleep in a little cemetery in Champagne. The
title Jeunesse ardente is very fitting ; the poems
are full of life and fire, and permeated with a
real, but discreet Christian spirit. Jean Fon-
taine-Vive liked to meditate, as the "Pilosus
Artifex" of one of his sonnets:
Mais le canon s'eveille et hurle a pleine voix,
Et lui, semeur de reve en la brutale liistoiie,
Reprenant I'anneau clair entre ses rudes doigts,
Cisele un peu d'amour dans ce lambeau de gloire.
He has a noble piece, Un Reve, about William
whom he represents as watching his phantom
soldiers of Verdun march past ; the reproaches
"The Cinq Pritrcs pour temps de guerre, by Francis
Jammes, the gentle author of Les Georgiqites chretiennes,
must not be forgotten here. They are, however, written
in prose.
323
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
which he reads in their eyes fill him with terror,
and he tries to take refuge in death. But,
II vit montant la garde du trepas,
Un soldat de Verdun croisant la baionette,
Lui crier: On ne passe pas!
(Dated, August, 1916).
Another energetic poem is called Sonate contre
Romain Rolland. ... If only Rolland had died
after his Jean Civristophe!
Plut a Dieu que brisant son arehet trop sonore
Dans un supreme accord d'esperance et d'amour,
Le divin Jean-Christophe ait clos ses yeux au jour
Et trouve le trepas dont un peuple I'honore.
Mais
Jean-Christoi^he a rejoint la 'Foire sur la Place,'
Son arehet fait danser d'un entrechat eoeasse
Le neutre dont la poche a des cliquetis d'or.
The poet's preference, in his songs, goes most
of the time to his splendid brothers in arms (see
the Ode a mon Begiment) . The general inspira-
tion of the whole collection is well expressed in
these few lines from the Ode aux Morts de
Verdun:
Quand n'ayant plus que Dieu pour unique esperance,
Plus qu'un desir, la mort, plus qu'un amour, la
France,
324
POETRY OF THE WAR
Le soldat aceable s'incline pour mourir,
II ouvre lourdement ses ardentes prunelles
Pour qu'une ultime fois vienne s'y reflecbir
Le eiel de la patrie aux douceurs inateruelles,
Puis il meurt ou son chef le met en seutinelle. . . .
* * #
A place by itself must be made for Max
Leclere, not only on account of the originality
of his inspiration, but also because the delightful
Anjou dialect which he uses gives to his poetry
a flavor of its own/
The little gem called La Passion de Notre
Frere le Poilii was first published in the Echo
de Paris, at once gaining recognition. The
"Societe des Gens-de-Lettres" soon awarded it
the Prix Jean Revel, 1916 (au meilleur ouvrage
regionaliste). It has been since issued in a sepa-
rate edition, with Preface by R. Bazin (22
pages).
The poet tells the naive and touching story
of a poor ''Poihi" from Anjou:
C'etait un pau\T' bougr' de Poilu
Qui s'en allait sous la mitraille. . . .
Vantie ben que n'aurait voulu
Etre en aut'part qu'en la bataille;
Mais du moment qu'fallait qu'i n'y aille,
Ben, i n'y allait, tout simplement. . . .
7 He had written poems in dialect before the war.
325
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Our modest hero falls in an attack, and soon,
the wound being mortal, he passes away. He
bids good-bye to the comrades.
Pis, ayant dit son testament,
I rendit son am' tout douc'ment.
He goes and knocks at the door of Paradise,
Saint Peter introduces him before the Almighty
who is seated upon the judgment throne sur-
rounded by his warrior saints, St. George, St.
Hubert, St. Michel, St. Charlemagne, St. Mar-
tin, St. Maurice, Ste. Joan of Arc, and the men
who have recently come from the battlefield.
The ' ' Poilu ' ' is not a little nervous,
Y a des ebanc' que j'vas ecoper.
But he presents his case in a modest and good-
natured way to "I'Bon Gieu" and with a good
bit of peasant astuteness. The great Judge is
not too terrible after all; the hearing finally
comes to an end :
Et voila que I'Bon Gieu sourit,
Et qu'd'arriei-' lui le ciel s'ouvi-it.
And, as the man enters, he finds a great many
' ' Poilus ' ' like himself :
326
POETRY OF THE WAR
Et I'poilu s'assit dans la foule
En chantant d'tout coeur avec eux:
Gloire a Dieu au plus haut des Cieux !
The whole poem is a mar\'elous imitation of
the naive and witty mediaeval Contes Devots,
such as those of Rutebeuf.
Leclere has written, besides, a little volume,
Les Souvenirs de Tranchee d'lin Poilu (1917,
54 pages) bearing the same stamp of gentleness,
of genuineness, and of simple but solid religious
beauty. In his last poem, for instance, he
dreams of peace which must come some day,
but has not come yet : Quand sonn'ront les
Cloches!
Via pus d'trent' moes qu'sus la Vallee,
Ein soer d'Aout, qu'on n'oubliera plus,
Les cloch's sonner'ut a tout'volee
Le tocsin en lieu d'Ansrelus. . . .
•'o^
Trent'moes deja qu'on est en guerre,
Tren'moes deja qu'on est partis. . . .
And then he lets himself go,
Et j'rev' du jour ou tout'nos peines
S'ront eun' bonn' foes payees de r'tour.
I pouiTa s'passer ben des s'niaines
Avant qu'i vienne, I'temps du r'tour. .
327
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
But,
I vindra p'tet' sans qu'on y pense,
P't'et' ben pus tard, p'tet' ben pus tot. . . .
C'est pour la Libarte d'la France
Qu'en I'esperant j'payons I'impot,
L'impot du sang et d'la souffranee:
On tiendra ben tant qu'i f audra !
Tant qu'i faudra, on I'attendra,
L'jour de bonheur ou qu'on i-'vindra,
Et qu'pour toujours, sus la Vallee,
Nos vieux clouchers, qu'on n'quittra plus
Chantront dans I'soer a tout'volee,
La bell'chanson des Angelus !
* * *
The embarrassment is great now, when it
comes to speaking about the volumes of plain war
poems, which are simply beautiful, and for this
reason require no comment and no praise. It
would be presuming much to claim that no good
collection has escaped our notice, arid even if
this were the case, who would dare to claim to
have made the best selection? Nowhere more
than here would subjectivism play a part of un-
due importance. Let us therefore be cautious.
It is safe, however, to say that many would cast
their votes in favor of one or more of the few
following collections: Julien Vocance, Cent
Visions de Guerre (first published in the Grande
328
POETRY OF THE WAR
Revue) ; G. Champenois, A la glolre de I'Armee
Frangaise (crowned by the Academie des Jeux
Floraux de Toulouse) and Le Miracle Franqais
(with a preface by Le Braz) ; Gilles Nonnand,
Voix dans la Fournaise; Andre Alexandre fa
worthy and clever follower of Deroulede), Chan-
sons pour les Poilus; Una, Poemes; G. Apolli-
naire, Colli grammes, Poemes de la Paix et de la
Guerre 1913 a 1916 (some may call them dis-
concerting, some, original) ; Paul Verlet, De la
Boue sous le del; Edmond Fleg, Le Mur des
Pleurs; Boyer d'Agen, Sept Paralipomenes a la
Divine Comedie; Jean Suberville, Le fifre de
Bertrandoux, and La Fosse aux Lions.^
Plonge dans la fosse funeste,
J'ai rugi ces vers sans remords:
En souvenir des lions morts,
Je les offre aux lions qui restent.
All that really can be done further here, in
order to give an idea of the general tone of this
8 For more such collections, see New International
Year-book, articles "French Literature" (1914 and tf.),
and Vic, op. oit. pp. 745-750.
Some anthologies have been published, as: Les Poetes
de la Guerre, selected by G. Turpin ( Fishbacher ) ; Les
Poetes de la (hierre, Recueil de Poesies parties depuis
le 1 aout, 191J{, selection made by 11. Delormc; all well
known poets, such as Aicard, Bouchor. Dorchain, Fort,
Noailles, Rostand, etc. ( Berger-Levrault ) ; Cinquante
Poemes d dire, parus depuis le 1 aoQt, 1914 (ibid.), etc.
329
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
war poetry while avoiding endless repetition, is
to pick out two collections representing the two
great types of the Lyrism of the Great War.
The two volumes selected are mere samples ;
others might have served the same purpose,
might contain even better poems. We recall
that 'we deal here only with war poems by
soldiers.
The first is En ces Jours decMrants, by Henri
Derieux (1916). The life in the trenches, hor-
ror, death, victory ... is sung in beautiful,
flassical rh}i:hm, in "style noble." It is the
France of the great writers which speaks, moved
but dignified,
. . . puisque deborde, le torrent germanique
A roule son impur limon
Jusqu' au temple, gardien de la sagesse antique
Qu'ont bati les Francs au beau nom.
The struggle against the Teutonic hordes is
hard and will be long ; but this struggle will once
more bring before the world the heroic virtues of
the French people :
Le labeur est dur et s'aehame,
On fait violence au destin.
Mais pareil aux jours de la Mame
Nous attendons le clair matin,
Ou, brisant le moule, orgueilleuse,
330
POETRY OF THE WAR
Du fond de la fosse boueuse,
A DOS yeux ravis surgira,
Faite de vertige et de glaise
Une Samothraee fran^aise
Dont I'elan nous consolera.
With Derieux, it is a theory that poetry ought
not to allow its rhythm of beauty to yield to the
ugliness, madness, and barbarity suggested by
war and its chaos. Derieux wishes to be " par-
nassian," "impeccable." Who would not be
reminded of Theophile Gautier, for instance, in
this description of the battlefield?
Les bois, printannieres retraites
Ou nous songions,
Ne montrent plus que des squelettes
Ou des moiguons.
Les maisons font des tas de platre
Affreux a voir.
Regardez la place de I'atre
Marquee de uoir.
Pas un lieu qui n'ait erie grace,
En vain d'ailleurs !
Partout le laboureur fait place
Au fossoyeur.
Still the soldier of France is willing to forget
all this if,
331
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Oubliant la nuit etemelle,
Et le tombeau,
II voit la victoire fidele,
A son drapeau.
Let us add that Derieux is anxious that his
judgment, as well as the form of his poems,
should remain unaffected by the violence of the
feelings which the conduct of the Germans has
stirred up. If there was ever anything good in
Germany, that good it is still legitimate to
cherish. And he writes (VII) :
D'autres out dit : C'est I'heure ou I'esprit se delivre
Du joug abhorre d'Outre-Rhin,
Et leur main vous cbassait de la cite du livre
Divinites du ciel germain. . . .
He, Derieux, he will not give up Goethe, "pur
amant de la divine regie," Kant "aux ferules
de fer," Heine "au coeur d 'enfant," Nietzsche
"au regard d'aigle," "Vous Beethoven — et toi,
Wagner!" 9
■B* * Tp
In contrast to Derieux, we take Henry-
Jacques and his volume Nous! . . . de la guerre,
Poemes (1918). He does try to make poetical
9 There are two poets by the name Derieux ; the other
wrote the Livre d'Heures de la Guerre (1918).
332
POETRY OF THE WAK
capital out of ugliness, tragic horror, atrocious
war-scenery. He has been described quite ap-
propriately by Vidal (in the Preface to the
book) as " a coup sur le Barbusse de la poesie
nee de la crise epouvantable, qui en prose, donna
Le Feu." To Henry- Jacques the careful art of
polishing the line when he wants to express the
depths of his shocked soul, seems absurd; the
terrible beauty of war is in the expression of the
spontaneous, disorderly emotion. The descrip-
tion of Vidal is excellent, and we borrow it from
him: "Chez lui le vers jaillit d'un bond, tel
un sanglier, du taillis des sentiments; la rime
fait ce qu'elle pent, homophonique a peine,
hardie, se riant de la consonne d'appui, du plaisir
de I'oeil, de la fratemite des singuliers et des
pluriels; la regie de I'e muet se voit negligee, le
decompte des syllabes dans une mesure est
anarchique, encore que certains alexandrins
chantent selon les codes avec une largeur toute
classique ; la cesure souvent a point, quelquefois
trebuche; au vrai notre poete pratique le vers
libre, mais prouve sa connaissance des prosodies
traditionnelles. " To sum up, if the Victoire de
Samiothrace of the Louvre is the Muse of
Derieux, Rude's disheveled Marseillaise on the
Arc de I'Etoile is that of Henry- Jacques.
333
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Although all the poems of Henry-Jacques are
perhaps not equally striking, most of them have
a remarkable power:
La Tranchee vide,
De la mort, des haillons, de la crasse . . . voila :
C'est sale et c'est triste.
Berceuse,
Dors mon gars, dors comme une brute,
Dors sur la paille sans reinords,
Pareil aux morts.
L'obus passe . . . ga ne fait rien.
L'obus ehante: do, soldat, do,
Dors mon gars, do. . . .
Complainte,
C'est a mon tour d'etre touehe,
Coehon d'obus qui m'a couehe.
Le long de mon eebine
Du sang cbaud degouline;
Coehon d'obus qui m'a couebe
C'est a mon tour d'etre touebe.
• •••••••
Autour de moi I'on va, I'on meurt
Sous un ciel gonfle de clameurs,
Decbire de rafales,
De cbocs, de cris, de rales.
Sous un ciel gonfle de clameurs
Autour de moi, I'on va, I'on meurt.
334
POETRY OF THE WAR
J'ai soif ! Dans mon bidon plus d'eau,
J'ai I'enfer qui court sous ma peau.
Ah, dans ma gorge seche
Sentir eouler la iraiche !
L'enfer galope sous ma peau,
Et moil bidon qui n'a plus d'eau. . . .
E. niohs 5. (How the soldier feels five
minutes before going over the top.)
Regarde en toi-meme un peu,
Sois plus grand de te connaitre.
De ta guenille va naitre
Comme une espeee de Dieu.
Regarde autour, dans la fosse
Tes copains, I'ardeur aux yeux,
Leur front jusqu'au ciel se hausse
De sentir la mort sur eux.
Voici que la mort vient, silence jeunes hommes.
Ecoutons-la venir dans le jour oil nous sommes,
Regardons-nous encore et donnons-nous les mains,
Car lesquels, mes amis, seront vivants demain. . , .
Quelquepart (The soldier has gone over the
top).
Le coeur battant, le cerveau fou,
Je me suis jeto dans un trou
Sous la boule froide des balles.
Je ne sais meme plus ou je suis.
On m'a dit : Pars — je suis parti
Comme on se jette dans un puits.
335
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Autour de moi, les eamarades
— Je ne sais plus combien — eouraient,
Hurlaient, tiraient;
Devant moi, je ne sais plus bien,
La ligne ardente des copains
S'est raise a fondre soudain. . . ,
Neuf, sept, cinq, quatre,
Et puis encor
Deux autres que je vois s'abattre }
Et puis un autre encor
Qui s'assied, epuise, mort.
Et me voici,
Tout seul dans la foumaise et la fumee,
Debout, ne sachant pas comment,
Mais vivant. . . .
See also, Amour, Oralison funehre, Le canon, Le
charnier, Stars and Stripes}'^
10 As to the "Chansons de guerre" — which stand out-
side the province of this study — let us recall only that
the most notable author, of course, has been Theodore
Botrel (often called "Barde de Tarmee," "Laureat des
tranchees," "Chantre de Rosalie") with his Chants du
Bivouac (1 aout, 1914 an 31 decenibre, 1914), and
Chansons de Route (53 songs, 34 with music). Also
Montehus, Chants de la Grande Guerre (1915). The
Chants du Soldat, by Paul Deroulede, have been taken
up again. Among other collections to be mentioned are,
Chants du Soldat, 1525-1915; Autres Chants du Soldat
( Chansons populaires, Chants de Route, Chants his-
toriques et militaires) , both collections edited by R.
Sauvresis ; and Les Chansons de la Guerre, — all published
by Berger-Levrault. Chants de Guerre des Enfants de
France (Cantiques. Rondes et Chansons), collected by
Jean Vezere. Hy nines et Chants Nationaux des Allies
(Hachette) ; and an excellent one, quite comprehensive,
336
POETRY OF THE WAR
Marches et Chansons des Soldats de France, by Jouvin,
Gillet. Vidal et Pculevey, edited by Plon, 1!)1!).
One might call attention to a revival of the French
chanson in tlie evening gatherings of the cafes (of which
the American cabaret is a regrettable imitation). On
this subject, consult an excellent article in L'Opinion.
by Ernest Charles, he Caveau et Ics TheCitres des Chan-
sons (10 fevrier, 1917). Touny Lerys, in Mercure de
France 10 fevrier, 1919, writes on Quelques Expres-
sions de I'Atne Populaire pendant I'Occupation Alle-
inunde; La chanson.
CHAPTER II
THE STAGE AND THE WAR
The theater is one of the best means of in-
fluencing public opinion. Thus one might have
expected that the theater would play a foremost
part during the war. It seldom did.
The best war-plays, indeed, were written be-
fore 1914. There are especially two spy dramas :
One is Lavedan's Servir, in two acts, given al-
most on the eve of the war, in 1913 ; a prophetic
play truly. And the other is Kistemaeker's La
Flamhee (known in English speaking countries
under the title The Spy) which has more action,
more spectacular drama in it, but which is not.
more deeply patriotic than Servir. To show
how well, even before the war, some men in
France had not only foreseen what was com-
ing, but had well anticipated the courageous
attitude of the French during the war, let us
quote just one short passage from Lavedan's
play.
Colonel Eulin discusses with Madame Eulin
338
THE STAGE AND THE WAR
the military profession of their three sons, one
of whom has just been reported killed in the
colonies :
Eulin. The soldier is a man apart. I have often
told you so. Accident is his opportunity, and catas-
trophe his glory. Every danger which threatens him
is a privilege; every evil which befalls him makes him
greater. Therefore if we are to rise to the level of
those marks of honor, we are to train our sons to every
loftier sentiment. Since we have sons who are above
the crowd of ordinary mortals, let us, tlieir parents,
show ourselves worthy of them.
Madame Eulin. How lightly you speak of the fate of
j'our children.
Eulin. No, not lightly. But I must say that when
I think of the possible death of some member of my
family, it never strikes me as a calamity if I am sure
that it will be beautiful.
Madame Eulin. Parents know of no beautiful deaths
of children.
Eulin. Some deaths are splendid . . . and they are
necessary.
Madame Eulin. Why necessary?
Eulin. To prevent ugly ones — or to redeem them.
Be prouder; bear your grief with raised head. . . .
What really matters is not that one should live or die,
but that one should die well. If I should die of dis-
ease, you may mourn if you wish, but if I fall with
a bullet through my forehead, I forbid you to show
any grief.
* * *
339
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
From 1914 to 1915, attempts were made to
echo on the stage, as in the other domains of
literature, the indignation against Germany's
barbarism. In Noziere's Priere dans la Nuit, a
loyal French woman of the invaded territory,
who has married a naturalized German, dis-
covers that she has given her love to a traitor,
and she stabs him before he has time to do more
harm. La Kommandantur , by Fronson (the
Belgian author of the famous Mademoiselle
Beulemans) is a painful description of the con-
ditions in Belgium under German rule ; it pre-
sents the story of the return to Brussels of a
German officer whose love had been spurned by a
Belgian girl and who takes a cowardly ven-
geance by having the fiance of the young woman
shot ; he also tries to force her ; but she kills him.
A third play of the same order is that of
Soulie (1916), called 1914 a 1937: a boy, an
"enfant du crime," son of a French woman of
Northern France and of a German soldier of the
Great War, meets his father in 1937 and
strangles him.
It soon became clear that the public did not
care for such performances: one may bear to
read about such things, but one does not like to
see them acted. This kind of play, therefore,
340
THE STAGE AND THE WAR
ceased to be produced ; ^ and it is worthy of
note that the best one of them, though written
in the earlier days of the war, was not acted
until 1919, when a translation of it was pre-
sented at Springfield, IMass., and then in New
York. We refer to Maeterlinck's Le Bourgmes-
tre de Stilemonde. Maeterlinck refrains from
any jingoism and his restraint adds to the force
of the play. The subject is the atrocious act of
"the most humane of the German officers," who
has the Burgomaster of Stilemonde shot under
the pretext of reprisal, but probably with the
purpose of terrorization.^ A German officer had
been assassinated in the town, and the evidence
clearly pointed to one of his own men who hated
him, as author of the act. The Burgomaster is
a splendid figure ; he refuses to allow one of his
gardeners who was plainly innocent to be shot;
he also refuses the offers of others who want to
die in his place, while the Germans just shrug
their shoulders at what appears to them a ridic-
ulous piece of sentimentality. The Burgomas-
ter accepts his fate courageously, although in
1 For the two sides of the argument see Brisson'a
article on the Kommandantur in his Theatre pendant la
guerre (l'J18) pp. 52-Gl. J. F. Fronson presents his
own case.
2 Such a case actually occurred at Aershot.
341
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
despair because lie leaves behind a very young
boy, and also a daughter who had married a
German lieutenant. The latter had left Stile-
monde on the eve of the war, but had returned
to his adopted town at the head of his victorious
soldiers; when he shows himself unable or un-
willing to save his father-in-law, he is rejected
with scorn by the wife.
Less unwelcome than the actual ''atrocity
plays" during the first winter of the war, was
the dramatization of Maurice Barres's Colette
Baudoche. It may be due to the excellence of
the play itself or to the fact that the good cause
was upheld without gruesome scenes, or again
to the fact that the problem of Alsace-Lorraine
was too near the heart of all Frenchmen to be
ignored on the stage . . . Paris seemed pleased
to hear Colette make it so plain why, after forty
years of annexation, there still could be no sjon-
pathy between the conquered and the conqueror.
Perhaps while waiting for more satisfactory
war plays, the managers tried various revivals
of former War-classics, like Corneille's Horace,
Sardou's Patrie, Bornier's La Fille de Roland
(which had in 1875 stirred up France still de-
342
THE STAGE AND THE WAR
pressed by the defeat of 1870) ; also the once
very popular drama which had filled with en-
thusiasm the patriots of 1848, Marceau, ou les
Enfants de J a RcpuhUque; and even the play
from Dumas 's lively, novel La Jeunesse des
Mousquetaires. Then also, Erkman-Chatrian's
delightful ALsatian play L'Ami Fritz. Some-
times they took up plays of the past which would
offer a relaxation from the nervous tension, such
as A. France's Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard,
Meilhac et Hale\y's Tricoche et Cacolet, and the
abundant and ever acceptable repertoire of
Moliere.^
One of the most successful of these "reprises"
was Kistemaeker's La Flambee. In 1918, how-
ever, this author gave a new spy-play, Vn Soir
au Front, in which a rather interesting attempt
was made to define the Honor of the French sol-
dier as contrasted with the German Military
Duty. But, while some situations are very
strong, the play is encumbered with theoretical
discussions which are clearly not what the public
looks for in a war drama: A French woman
has married a German who had been naturalized,
and who, when the war broke out, had been forty
3 Zola's IjWssomoir was also revived on the stage;
probably to support the Government's efforts to deal
energetically with the alcohol question.
343
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
years in the country. He was a captain of the
French army; but almost immediately after the
outbreak of hostilities he had been reported miss-
ing. He had passed into the German lines, but
came back from time to time in his French uni-
form for the purpose of spying. One night
his wife, who had returned to her dilapidated
residence, now used as military quarters, met
him — and guessed the truth. Although his be-
havior and person inspired her with scorn and
horror, she asked an officer whose life she had
saved, and who knew the situation, to spare the
traitor for her sake. Her request is heeded ; but
nevertheless the spy does not escape his deserved
fate.
Keally only one play, written directly under
the inspiration of the war and during the war,
and written in the tradition of the French
theater of the last forty years, achieved genuine
success. This is Bernstein's Elevation (pre-
sented for the first time in June, 1917). The
idea of the drama, — regeneration by the war of
a man of purely worldly ideals — had already
by that time -been often discussed. And some
critics seem to have been angry because they
were stirred in spite of themselvs by so common-
place a theme; yet they could not deny being
344
THE STAGE AND THE WAR
moved. An idea, though not original, may none
the less be beautiful; and the very fact that
Bernstein succeeded in moving deeply with a
trite theme, is a distinct testimony to the power
of his art. L' Elevation was written in an hos-
pital at Saloniki while the author was recovering
from a wound; — he had served in the aviation
corps.
* * *
The plays mentioned above were rather am-
bitious in so far as the authors seem to have
aimed at writing regular, lasting plays on the
ephemeral subject of the war. Such authors,
who wrote in keeping well in mind that they
were catering to a public laboring under very
special conditions, succeeded better. There is
really a good crop of what they call in French
"pieces de circoustances. "
Some are written in a light and cheerful mood.
Some are of the serious kind.
The following belong to the first group:
L'Impromptu du Paquetage, in one act, a deli-
cate sketch by Maurice Donnay. The stage rep-
resents an office for war-relief, to which come
various callers from the humbler classes; they
tell their touching and often heroic tales of self-
sacrifice on the altar of the mother country
345
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
. . . ; we may mention here, by the same author,
Le Theatre aux Armees (1917), a play to be
performed before the soldiers at the front.
Players are discussing which would be the best
topic for such a representation, and this discus-
sion quite naturally introduces many pleasant
appreciations of the soldiers' virtues, — and the
actors decide to go on the stage and present just
that discussion; Les Deux Gloires, by Pierre
Wolf (published for the first time in the An-
nales, July, 1916) — "les deux gloires" being the
veteran of 1870-71, and the "Poilu" of 1914 (a
prett}' love episode is woven into the play) ; Le
Poilu, Comedie-operette, in two acts, by M.
Hennequin and P. Veber, music by H. M. Jac-
quet — is a very bright and graceful vaudeville.
A young soldier falls in love with his "mar-
raine" just from reading the letters she sends to
the trenches. He comes to Paris ; complications
arise; but all ends well.
Among the occasional plays in more serious
mood, let us mention the following few: Le
Gars, a beautiful little dialogue in verse, by
Zamacois, which came out first in L' Illustra-
tion, and then in the author's volume L'In-
effagaUe; Paul Claudel, La Nuit de Noel de
1914: it is a sort of one act mystery play, in
346
THE STAGE AND THE WAR
verse, showing on the night commemorating the
birth of the Divine Child, the murdered cliildren
of Belgium and Northern France who arrive in
Paradise — from which place of delight they look
down on the sufferings of the world. It is a
moving indictment from the mouths of the inno-
cents, recalling several concrete instances of Ger-
man barbarity.
La Vierge de Lutece, by A, Villeroy (Librairie
Theatrale) represented at the Theatre Sarah
Bernhardt, June 29, 1915, is a dramatic presenta-
tion of the legend of Sainte Genevieve, the
patron-saint of Paris who saved the city from
the Huns in the fifth century. The allusions to
the events of the Great War are clear to all:
"lis ne passeront pas!" exclaims Sainte Gene-
vieve; "La civilisation, c'est moi!" says At-
tila; and when Aetius, the commander of the
army which defends Paris, gives his order of
the day for the decisive battle, he does so in
the words of Marshal Joffre's famous proclama-
tion, on the 5th of September, 1914: "Le mo-
ment n'est plus de regarder en arriere. . . .
Quiconque ne pourra plus avancer a I'ordre de
garder le terrain conquis . . . il se fera tuer
sans reculer d'un pas. . . ." At the end, Sainte
Genevieve is solemnly admonished by the Bishop
347
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Germain I'Auxerrois to "continuer a veiller sur
la ville endormie. ' ' *
Several plays were specially written for Sarah
Bernhardt. We will mention only one:
Eugene Moraud's very spectacular Les Cathe-
drales, in fine verse (November, 1916, Theatre
Sarah Bernhardt). In a gray cloud, five nuns
representing the cathedrals of five French
regions are bemoaning the tragic events of the
war. They are, Notre Dame de Paris, Saint Pol
de Leon, Bourges, Amiens, Aries — and later
are seen the two martyr cathedrals, Reims and
Strassbourg. Maledictions and prophecies of
divine punishments against the invaders are in-
terpreted with all the passion at the command of
Madame Sarah Bernhardt — who impersonates
Strassbourg. There are other plays of that
kind ; such, for instance, as L'Eternelle Presence,
written by the poet Andre Dumas for the com-
memoration of the Battle of the Mame, at the
Comedie Frangaise, in 1917 ; or, as Lavedan and
4 A poetical staging of the great Serbian drama will
be found in Maurice Allan's La Main qui tend V tpee,
two acts (June, 1918). The play is interspersed with
tragic patriotic songs; it was staged in a very pictur-
esque manner, and meant to be an appeal for sjTnpathy
for the victims of a ferocious foe.
The "drame lyrique," Jeanne d'Arc, by Raymond Roze
(presented in the winter 1917-18) being all music, lies,
of course, outside the subject of this study.
348
THE STAGE AND THE WAR
Zamacois's Les Sacrifices {Les Flandres, Noel,
Reims, Poeme dramatique en trois tableaux
(1918); the first "tableau" is a picture of
refugees fleeing before the invaders; the second,
a Christmas in the trenches; and the third, a
sort of monologue by the Rheims cathedral,
evoking the memory of Joan of Arc and of the
heroic cohorts in horizon-blue uniform. The
"poeme" was not presented.^
* * *
More ambitious than all the preceding plays —
but still indisputably a "piece de circonstance"
is Francois Porche's Les Butors et la Finette.
The author was already well known by a fine
poem, VArret sur la Marne. The play — four
acts, six tableaux, in verse — was presented for
the first time on November 29, 1917, at the
Theatre Antoine, and created quite a sensation.
It is an allegorical history of the war. The
Miron family (this means the French people)
are cultivating a beautiful garden for Princesse
Finette (France), whose graceful kindness and
genuineness of heart have been responsible for
5 Professor Ferdinand Brunot wrote La Defense de
Schirmeck, a series of patriotic tableaux in reconquered
Alsace ( five acts ) . It was meant to be played by the
people, following the idea of ^laurice Pottecher in the
Theatre du Peuple, in Bussang, Lorraine.
349
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
her blind confidence in the foreigner Buq, the
superintendent of the domain, and a master spy.
The Butors (the "Pig-headed" ones, as poetic a
name as could be found for the Huns) invaded
the domain just as every one was preparing for
festivities. . . . During the war, the enemy pro-
poses to Finette a luring but deceitful peace ; but
she has enough sense, and especially pride, to
refuse. And finally Francois Miron, the imper-
sonation of the chivalrous people of France, frees
the country of the foe and becomes the lord of
the fine lady. As to Buq, the traitor, he has paid
with his life for his shameful and contemptible
behavior. Victory has not been achieved with-
out heavy sacrifices, but, free from the fear of
invasion, Finette 's people again set about
cultivating the beautiful garden of France.^
What shall we say about the claim of Porche :
"En ecrivant Les Butors et la Finette nous
n'avons pretendu a rien moins qu' a renouveler
la scene. L 'avenir seul dira si , nous avons
reussi"? (P. 9.) Does he mean that the theater
6 The poetical figure which represents France as a fine
garden entrusted to her people had been beautifully
worked out by Peguy in his Porche du Mystere de la
Deuxieme Vertu (1911). There can be no doubt that
Porche knew about it, and made that the starting
point of his allegorical play, since he published in 1914
a little book, Peguy et les Cahiers.
350
THE STAGE AND THE WAR
ought to be inspired more by patriotic preoccu-
pations? In that ease he could hardly claim to
have put forth an original idea. Or does he sug-
gest going back once more to the "genre alle-
gorique" which flourished in the days of the
Roman de la Rosef The success of Les Ca-
thedrales might, perhaps, support the view
that the public is not insensible to that sort
of poetical language. Indeed, another attempt
to abandon the realistic and the concrete, in
favor of the ideal and the abstract, was made
almost at the same time as Porche gave his
Les Butors et la Finette, when the "Theatre
des Allies" founded by M. Jean Billaud with the
purpose of propaganda during and after the
war, gave as its first production Les Epis Rouges
by Emile Sicard, the Provengal poet. This work
is an elaborately staged "Poeme dramatique" in
four acts, some parts of which are set to music.
The author has aimed less at presenting regular
scenes than tableaux representing the days of
mobilization; women waiting with anguish for
news of the front; a night of spectacular war
display at Verdun, etc. And the characters are
not so much individuals as abstractions: the
mother, the betrothed, the ancestor, the warrior,
etc. AVliile Les Epis Rouges cannot be said to
351
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
have been a failure, it certainly did not take the
public by storm.
However one looks at that special question it
does not seem that we have in Porche something
so very different from other ''pieces de circon-
stances," except that his play was much more
elaborate; possibly, posterity will agree with
the verdict of Ernest Charles, that Porche has
given a "piece pas negligeable," while so many
others are "negligeables" {Opinion, 4 Janvier,
1918). A proof that Porche was determined to
continue his efforts in that direction is found in
the fact that he has since given another play La
Jeune Fille aux J ones Roses (Theatre Sarah
Bernhardt, March 16, 1919). It suggests a re-
form of France after the war, and is again in
the form of an allegory. In the country of the
Pale-cheeked, oppressed by laws and etiquette,
crushed under bureaucracy, suffering from the
learning and pedantry of its rulers, appears one
day the "Girl with Rosy Cheeks." ... She
scandalizes the old wigs, men and women, with
her impulsive manners and her unsophisticated
ways of thinking and speaking. But thanks to
these very things she finds her way to the heart
of the Prince of that gloomy land. After many
adventures, tragic at times, allegorical always,
352
THE STAGE AND THE WAR
the Prince marries the Girl. The satire which
was meant to be biting is not dangerous after
all ; this play, like the preceding one, rather lacks
body. Rostand had more power associated with
his wit.^
* * *
This would be the place probably to say some-
thing about the theater in the trenches. Much
interest has been shown for it ; yet very scanty
information is on hand. Some da}' perhaps, if a
writer finds time to do it before it is too late and
before the documents are too hopelessly scat-
tered, we may know more. It may be permitted,
7 The attitude of critics toward tlie second play —
and, througli the second, even toward the first — can be
gathered from an amusing article by Billotey, in Les
Marges (an influential review of young authors) in
June, 1919. Tlie critic pretends that Porche came to
interview liim about a new play he had in preparation,
Le Lapin blanc sur les Flots noirs. Porche is supposed
to explain thus: "Quel symbole, monsieur, quel sym-
bole! . . . Acte premier: la naissance du lapin a Mos-
oou. Deuxi&me acte: le lapin s'installe en France et
11 y remplace le veau d'or. Troisieme acte : la cour et
le bonheur du lapin bleu. Quatridme acte: guerre et
revolution. Cinquieme acte: la sc&ne represente un
vaisseau de haut bord. C'est la dette flottante qui vogue
vers I'Icarie. Le lapin bleu s'y est r6fugi6 avec sa
suite et dit: C'est ici que je iwudrais vivre.
'•Permettez," then says M. Billotey — 'ie dernier vers
n'est pas de vous. Et le sujet meme de la pi&ce appar-
tient il un auteur d^funt."
"Qu'importe." — answers Porche, — "Je I'ai trouv6 tout
seul. On m'a deju reproche bion des reminiscences. Je
m'en moque. Quand on travaille aussi vite que moi,
on n'echappe pas i cet inconvenient 14."
353
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
however, to doubt whether many of these occa-
sional plays written by the soldiers will offer
lasting literary value, and whether the study
would not be rather of an historical or psycho-
logical value as showing the spirit that prevailed
among the soldiers of the war. A few probably
will be found worth preserving, as, for instance,
the pretty little dialogue by Jean Suberville,
caporal mitrailleur au 94° d'Infanterie, Cyrano
de Bergerac aux Tranchees. When it was
printed, the little' play was honored by a short
"Lettre-Preface" by Edmond Rostand. Sol-
diers represented it on the "Theatre Chantecler"
of the "32° Corps d'armee" which gave two
hundred and fifty performances during thirteen
months. Cyrano comes to our planet, in his
fall almost pitching through the wings of "un
papillon enorme qui passait," and seeing very
queer "gros hannetons aux bourdonnantes
elitres" (air torpedoes). In finding soldiers of
France hiding in holes in the ground he is
shocked terribly :
Le temps a-t-il change les Frangais heroiques 1
To which the "Poilu" answers, well conscious
that he has nothing to be ashamed of:
lis sent ce qu'ils etaient, en etant plus pratiques!
354
THE STAGE AND THE WAR
Ce qui change, c'est la maniere, pas I'elan!
Vous autres, vous f aisiez la guerre en rigolant !
Ca ne durait qu'un an vos batailles gentilles !
Vos canons ne lan^aient que des boules de quilles!
Puis quand vous reveniez dans vos nobles salons,
Les dames se haussaient au bout de leurs talons. . . .
Nous qui sommes vetiis de boue, admirez-nous !
Nous qui ne portons pas de plumet, mais des poux,
Je crois que nous valons encore nos aieux;
Que, s'ils furent plus beaux, ils ne firent pas
mieux. . . .
And Cyrano understands:
Et je te reconnais, France des mousquetaires,
Dans la France de ces Poilus !
(The reader may be referred for some informa-
tion on the early days of the Theatre aux Tran-
chees, to an article in the Bevue Internationale
de Sociologie, of November, 1915.)
« * *
"We come now to a group of writers who bor-
rowed materials from the w'ar, but endeavored to
remain entirely indifferent to the patriotic side
of their plots. They are war-plays without the
war spirit. They are not unpatriotic in pur-
pose, merely a-patriotic. At the same time they
are unpleasant — and if not atrocity plays, surely
most of them are atrocious plays.
355
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
A good deal has been said about the unsettled
state of moral standards during and after a war ;
and the question has been more than once asked,,
how far should the social obligations of normal
times be considered binding? These plays are a
few samples illustrating such preoccupations.
L'Amazone (1915) by Bataille, is the painful
story of a girl of the invaded provinces, who,
having seen her whole family slaughtered, gets
into a state of patriotic frenzy which in the
milieu where she has taken refuge, proves to be
contagious; she makes use of her womanly
charms to induce the husband of her friend to
join the army as volunteer; then, later, when she
wants to marry another, the wife of the soldier
maintains that she has no right to do so, since
she is now morally bound to the man who went
to war on her account ; she accepts that view.
A somewhat analogous situation is sketched in
Marcel L'Herbier's L' Enfant du Mort (1917).
In Andre Couvreur's Plus haut que I' Amour
(1916), the heroine appears again as if com-
pletely at a loss when she has to decide on her
line of conduct in love-affairs; she acts accord-
ing to the inspiration of the moment, now ignor-
ing the love of a man whom she knows to be
worthy of her, now throwing herself away on a
356
THE STAGE AND THE WAR
man who turns out to be a spy, and then finally
taking refuge in the arms of the strong man who
had protected her from the beginning. In Ver-
net et Delamarre's L' autre Combat, a woman in
a moment of self-sacrifice marries a blind sol-
dier to whom she had been betrothed though she
did not love him; she then betrays him; and
finally she repents. ... In 1917 the Comedie
Francaise presented Francis de Croisset's D'un
Jour a V Autre, another keen study of a woman
character during the war. This heroine hesi-
tates whether to give her love to a fashionable
mondain who has been divorced, to a business
man who has grown rich through the war, or to a
fascinating hero of aviation — she decides for the
last, but only after long deliberation. One can
easily recognize the style of the man who shortly
before the war had written L'Epervier {The
Hawk).
Porto-Riche 's gruesome drama, Le Marchand
d'Estampes (1917), is the most powerful of those
descriptions of normal moral lives which are
shattered in consequence of the war: Aubertin
was a quiet lover of art, selling engravings, lead-
ing a model life as husband and tradesman, in
his little shop. Then he joins the colors. In the
crude, natural, almost animal life of the trenches,
357
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
his lower, bestial instincts are re-awakened and
take the upper hand; so that, when he returns
home, wounded, he falls in love (sensual love)
at first sight, with a woman of the neighbor-
hood (who is never seen on the stage). He re-
tains, however, enough decency to realize the un-
cleanness of his passion, and to be profoundly
unhappy about it. He does not want to do any
wrong to the devoted companion of his life.
She, too, is plunged in deep grief, and, finally,
they both go together and throw themselves in
the Seine, — he, so as not to be unfaithful to his
wife, she, so as not to be separated from her
husband.
Less gloomy — and more generously inspired —
is Laudenbach's Le Sacrifice (1918) ; the author
expresses the idea that war ought to reflect on
the whole life of the soldier, making him chival-
rous not only in his military activities but at all
times. "With all its loftiness of purpose, Le Sac-
rifice is, after all, a "triangle play" of the
trenches.
Having even more clearly the characteristics
of a "triangle play" but one written by two
skillful craftsmen of the stage, is La Veillee
d'Armes, by Claude Farrere and Louis Nepoty
(Gymnase, Jan. 5, 1917). The scene is first on
358
THE STAGE AND THE WAR
a small vessel, the Alma, a scouting cruiser.
Captain Corlaix, 50 years of age, has a young
wife of 23, Jeanne. She is a pretty woman,
not bad at heart but made of the common
clay, and she regards him as a father rather
than a husband. She loves d'Artelles, first
lieutenant of the ship. There is a farewell
dinner on board; they all expect war, and the
men are eager to start. At 11 o'clock an or-
der arrives, however, to remain for the pres-
ent' in Toulon, although war is now unavoid-
able. Jeanne and her sister must leave the
boat, but Jeanne finds at the last minute some
pretext — a lost vanity bag — to remain, and she
spends the night in the room of d'Ardelles, ex-
pecting to leave by the 6 o'clock rowboat. But
a counter order arrives, and the vessel sails. . . ,
In the morning, d 'Ardelles finds with dismay that
they are at sea, with the woman aboard. They
are attacked by a German torpedo boat, which
has used French code signals to lure the Abna to
its destruction. The Alma is sinking. Corlaix
is wounded ; he thinks he is lost. D 'Ardelles dies
in trying to save Jeanne, and entrusts her to
the care of his orderly. She succeeds in return-
ing home, without any one except her sister sus-
pecting what has happened to her. Corlaix also
359
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
is saved and recovers. But then he is summoned
before a court-martial to answer for the loss of
his vessel. There is no witness to prove that the
enemy used French signals; only two officers
have survived, Corlaix himself, and Bramburg,
a somewhat suspicious character, possibly a spy,
who is in love with Jeanne but whom she hates.
Under the pretext of amnesia, he declares him-
self unable to testify either way. Jeanne, in or-
der to save Corlaix, intervenes. She has a means
of forcing Bramburg to admit that he knows that
the Germans used French signals : — of course, by
doing this, she must own to the fact that she was
on the vessel. Corlaix understands all; and, —
rather as father and daughter now, — they shake
hands and return home. La Veillee d' Amies is
a strong drama, in which, however, the war has
no essential part.
* * *
As the war proceeded, and its gloomiest days
were succeeded by more hopeful ones, especially
after the entrance of America, the theater ceased
to be used as a means of inspiring the people.
There are still plays recalling the war, of course,
such as the humorous Beulemans a Marseilles
(1918) in which Fronson revives his famous Bel-
^dan characters made up of pathos and joviality ;
360
THE STAGE AND THE WAR
or, as Jacques Ricliepiu's "cocardier" play. La
Guerre et V Amour, Piece hero'ique, en quatre
actes et en vers (1918) ; or, such as Sacha Guit-
ry's L'Archeveque et s(yn Fils (1918), in which
the author seems to think that the war was made
to give him material for witty but flippant stage
effects, (the play reminds one somewhat of
Merimee's Carosse du Saint Sacrement). Ante-
war plays, it is true, continued to be given after
the spring of 1917 and proved that the war was
still in thfe minds of the people ; but oftentimes
the connection between the preoccupation of the
hour and the stage seems to be a very slight one.
In I'Ahhe Constantin, for instance, which was re-
vived at that time, the presence of two American
(or Canadian) w^omen, and of a young French
officer, is the only reminder of contemporary
events. ^Meanwhile, plays which ignore the war
altogether become more and more numerous;
Sacha Guitrj' offers L'lllusioniste, Gerald}', Les
Noces d' Argent (which was written before the
war), and Lucien Guitry, Le Pere.^
8 For more information regarding the French Theater
in war time, the reader is referred to Brisson, Le
Theatre pendant la guerre (1918), a collection of his
articles in Le Temps. A book which discusses the pos-
sible forms of the drama after the war is Alfred
Mortier's Draviaturgie de Paris. The title is evidently
361
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
There is one play which will probably not be
presented on the French stage for some time to
come, but which may be mentioned as a curiosity,
Romain Rolland's Lisuli (Geneva, 1919). The
pacifist of 1914 is anxious to show that he has not
changed his views and is still willing to challenge
the world that this war was- absurd. He still
refuses to draw an}^ distinction between the Cen-
tral Powers, who yielded to the folly of war be-
cause they wanted to do so, and the Allies, who
waged war in order to exterminate the war spirit
from the surface of the earth: Any war is
folly ! Lisuli is the goddess of illusion, who per-
suades men, and especially youth, that war can
be a noble thing. . . . When the curtain falls,
this belief has brought about a formidable crash,
and on a heap of ruins sits triumphantly Lisuli,
her tongue out and her finger to her nose.
chosen in remembrance of, and in opposition to, Lessing's
Hamburgische Dramaturgie: The pessimism of the
generation of 1870 will not survive, and the "Theatre
h^roique" will come. What is this to be? "Prose
drama, philosophical synthesis, the great epic pictures
of modern society, the vast problems of the new world,
symbols, the acting of the 'groupes' in their 'activite
totale,' mob psychology, or, again, a fanciful Fortune
playing allegorically with human destinies: or, even
farce if it be 'grandiose' — all those will be part of the
Tlieatre heroTque. . . ." If the Theatre h^roique is to
be so many things, would it not have been simpler to
state what it is not going to be? (F. Vand^rem, in
Figaro, August 19, 1918, also discusses the Thedtre
d'apres Guerre. See also Vic, op. cit. pp. 643-4).
362
Ill
War-Time Fiction
In our First Part, Chapter II, we made a dis-
tinction between "War-novels" — like Gaspard,
Bourru de Vauquois, Le Feu, etc., — which offered
actual war experiences in the form of fiction, and
thus are real war documents, and "War-Time
novels" which were written by authors who do
not use personal recollections, but chiefly their
own creative talents, and who moreover often
use war only because it provides excellent mate-
rial for thrilling stories. We have already dealt
with the first class.
Abstractly speaking, the second class — war-
time novels — offers better opportunities to the
real artist in so far as it allows more play to the
individualitv of the writer. Yet, from 1914 to
1918, war-time fiction has proved to be rather
insignificant. We need, therefore, devote to it
only a short chapter. Less than anywhere else
do we aim here at being exhaustive, and we refer
the reader once more to the catalogue by Vic, op.
cit.
363
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
"We consider this insignificance an entirely nor-
mal phenomenon. Fiction ought to be resorted
to only when reality does not offer better ma-
terial; and things being so, it is by no means a
paradox, but a natural and plain truth, that the
best war-time fiction — as well as the best war-
plays — had been written before the war. No fic-
tion written during the war has proved equal to
Bazin's Les Oherle (1901),^ Maurice Barres's Co-
lette Baudoche (1912), or Lichtenberger's Juste
Lohel, I'Alsacien (1913), — all on the question of
Alsace-Lorraine ; Prevost 's Les Anges Gardiens
(1912), — on the spy question; P. Margueritte 's
Les Frontieres du Coeur (1912), — on Franco-
German marriages; not to speak of Zola's De-
hdcle (1892), and the Brothers Margueritte 's
series L'Epoque (Le Desastre, 1897, Tronqons
du Glaive, 1900, Braves Gens, 1901, Commune,
1902), which, although borrowing material from
the Franco-Prussian war, were written with the
future in mind.
* -y. jb
Certainly one of the best war-time novels is
Marcel Prevost 's L'Adjudant Benoit (1916).
It is the story^ of a young officer who falls in
1 Bazin has published during the war La Closerie de
Champdolent (1017), and since the war Les l^ouveaux
Oherle. Our remark applies in both cases.
364
WAR-TIME FICTION
love with the daughter of a dangerous spy on
the frontier, of Lorraine. The spy poses as a
veteran of 1870-71. He had taken part in the
war, but on the German side. Adjudant Benoit
one day discovers the real nature of the man,
who receives him in his little house to get, if pos-
sible, information. He kills him. The daughter
is hit by a shell a few hours later when the Ger-
mans invade the country; she dies however in
ignorance of the crime of her father. The suf-
fering of Adjudant Benoit in doing what, as a
soldier, he has to do, and then concealing the
truth from the woman he loves, is admirably de-
scribed in Prevost's best style. But if it fails to
stir us it is simply because one cannot help think-
ing that there have been real dramas as moving,
and more so: — fiction is not interesting under
such circumstances as prevailed when Prevost
wrote, and if Prevost did not • succeed — icJw
could? 2
There are other spy novels. One by Leon
2 A war-time novel as broadly conceived and as am-
bitious in every way as H. G. Wells's Mr. liritling Sees
It Through, or IbaQez's The Four Horsemen of the Apoc-
alypse had not yet been attempted in France when the
war ended, unless one wishes to reckon as such Les
Fresques de Feu et de Sang, by Francois de la GueriniJ're,
in three volumes {La Kultfiir d^chainie, Les Sillons de
la Gloire, L'Arc-en-Ciel ) .
365
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Daudet, La Vermine du Monde — in which the
author uses the material of his book L'Avant-
guerre mentioned elsewhere ; as a novel it is very
commonplace, and the documents are more inter-
esting as presented in the original work.^ An-
other is Marthe Steiner, by Aveze, the gruesome
story of an " ange gardien ' ' : the woman-spy puts
out the eyes of the father of a boy entrusted to
her care, and has the child killed. A. de Villele,
Allemand d'Amerique (1918) tells of pre-war
German propaganda in New York, — quite plaus-
ible in the light of what we know.
Paul Margueritte likes to deal with problems.
In 1916, he published VEmhusque, the story of
a man who eludes his military duties and hides
in Paris with a woman. That woman's husband,
however, who had served his country as a sol-
dier, returns, and the wife, realizing how far su-
perior he is to the other, abandons her cowardly
lover. In La Terre Natal e (1917), Margueritte
tells of two brothers who were of military age at
the outbreak of hostilities, one of whom had been
brought up in France, and the other in Ar-
3 L6on Daudet has another novel, Le Coeur et UAh-
sence, the romantic story of a woman who, thinking that
her husband has died in the war, yields to his former
friend whom she loves — but the husband comes back and
the book ends with a tragedy.
366
WAR-TIME FICTION
gentina. The first one alone is morally prepared
for the emergency of the Great War. In 1918,
the same author published Four la Patrie, and in
the same year, Jouir, a two volume novel in
which he pours contempt on the despicable con-
duct of the "fetards" of Nice and other society
resorts, whose unconcern with the great problems
of mankind brands them as responsible for the
fearful cataclysm. (The author died in the last
days of 1918.) •
Another prolific author — whose name it would
probably not do to omit — is Ch.-II. Hirsch, a
man who has, ever since he began to write, more
than twenty years ago, wasted really remarkable
gifts, by a too abundant output. His Mariee en
1914 tells how people who existed in a sort of
irresponsible way before the war, have now been '
compelled to look facts in the face. The book
is altogether lacking in cheerfulness. Chacun
son Devoir (1915) takes up again a war situa-
tion of a very depressing nature. (Hirsch be-
longs to the generation which believed that it
was a sign of superiority to paint life as grue-
some.) In 1917 Hirsch produced still another
book, La grande Capricieuse — Death.
Of a higher quality, because the authors are
more spontaneously tragic, and the reader feels
367
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
less the determination to write despondent
stories, are Ch. Geniaux, Les Fiances de 1914,
E. Moselly, Le Journal de Gottfried Mauser, and
Roland Dorgeles, Les Croix de Bois. They are
only novels, but three of the finest of those
years. The last named was awarded the much
coveted "Prix de la Vie Heureuse" for 1919, and
pronounced by some much superior to Le Feu.
The fact that it was prefaced by Barbusse may
account, perhaps, for some of the success of
Cyril Berger's Pendant qu'il se hat (1918) : the
story of a soldier, very devoted in his service but
unable to get any recognition for it — who finds
compensations of some sort in the love of a good
woman; and Louis L. Martin's Jean Denys
(1918) also deals with a painful psychological
case supposed to be brought about by the war.
In very many instances, the war is nothing but
a sort of necessary seasoning to the literary dish
of the day; the novelists use the war merely to
get people to look at their wares — as liquor deal-
ers sometimes put bells and garlands in their show
windows at Christmas time. Such is the case of
the agreeable and abundant Francois de Nion:
the scenes ot Pendant la Guerre (1915) are placed
successively in Holland, in Germany, in France,
368
WAR-TIME FICTION
and these various milieus are pictured prob-
ably more by chic than by observation. Sont
Sang pour I' Alsace (1916), by the same author,
is one of the numerous stories of love between a
wounded soldier and his nurse, and claims to pre-
sent some of the problems faced by that class of
Alsatians who had "half" accepted the annex-
ation. . . .* Alsace-Lorraine stories are natu-
rally numerous. Charles de Rouve's Franqoise
du Rhin (1915) was crowned by the French
Academy in 1916; and Abbe Wetterle's pretty
little story of the first days of the war, Au Serv-
ice de VEnnemi (1917) is of a sound patriotii'',
inspiration; it breathes contempt for the Ger-
man "Kultur" which the Abbe has more right
to scorn than any other, having had to endure it
so many years as Deputy from Alsace to the
Reichstag.
* * *
Of the war-time novels which endeavor to give
an idea of the way in which the people of the
rear — the bourgeois class — were affected, none
probably has scored a greater success than Abel
Hermant's Heures de Guerre de la Famille Va-
ladier (1915). This is not a great testimonial
to such war-time novels. For, were it not that
*In 1917 he published Le Missionnairc — same style.
369
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
the author — by his fecundity more than by his
really superior literary gifts — was well known,
there are reasons to believe that it would have
won him no fame. Hermant writes with humor,
he is an Anatole France without genius or philo-
sophical keenness. However, this light vein has
made his success, and he therefore exploits it.
Now, in war times, the flippant tone is out of
place and it would appear inexcusable if one did
not understand how difficult it is for a man of a
certain age to change his style. It is not impos-
sible, however, and even Anatole France, who is
much older than Hermant, at least adapted his
style to war-circumstances. But Hermant is set
in his habits; he is like a cook who would put
the same seasoning — let us say pepper — in everj-
dish: soup, meat, ice-cream. He has the mania
of introducing wit everywhere ; and he would de-
scribe in his operetta style the sack of Louvain
or the sinking of the Lusitania. ... It is dis-
tressing to note that there are all the world over,
people who regard this as extraordinarily smart,
and so French! Hermant tells of a bourgeois
family in Paris during the first, most stirring
weeks of the war. They are moderately edu-
cated, and especially interested in the stage, the
eldest daughter having just received a "premier
370
WAR-TIME FICTION
prix de conservatoire." The whole family has
more or less melodramatic inclinations, being
good people but Philistines. Against this back-
ground he sets up his characters. His observa-
tions, which he evidently regards as subtly iron-
ical, are hardly even original. For instance, he
notices how in the excitement of war prepara-
tions, people overstep all etiquette and talk to
each other even though they were not previously
acquainted, and this draws from him the cheaply
sarcastic remark: "Greatly did it surprise me,
for we had been told many times of late, that
equality and fraternity were empty words. It
did me good to la}' aside my skepticism, and to
see these prettj' fancies revive. ... I ceased to
smile at the 'peuple souverain' . . ." (p. 20).
Those who have a liking for the style goumlleur
will find it in abundance here. Elsewhere Iler-
mant discusses the appointment of a friend to a
position as interpreter; but he recalls that he
knows no English : ' ' This is not perhaps an in-
dispensable condition for an appointment" — re-
marked Madame Valadier (p. 161). The book
is full of such insipid remarks. "Why did na-
ture give talent to such a man to render the trag-
edies and beauties of war so absurdly flat 1 '
B Hermant also wrote L'autre Aventure du Joyeiut
371
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
* ■* *
Much more serious and superior in every way
is Rene Boylesve's Tu n'es Plus Bien (1918).
The author makes a keen analysis of the redemp-
tion of a society woman by the war. The story
is parallel to many of those telling of men re-
deemed by their experience in the army (e. g.,
Berger's Miracle du Feu). The Odette of Boy-
lesve is by no means a bad woman — that would
be too commonplace and easy for him. On the
contrary the difficulty with her is that she loves
her husband to a point which borders on ego-
tism. Once he is killed, in the very first days of
the war, she devotes £ill her thoughts entirely to
his memory, considering any thought not refer-
ring to him as nothing less than an infidelity.
But she cannot escape the atmosphere of the war,
of course ; and gradually the enormous sufferings
of others all around her bring about the sur-
render ; she yields to a feeling that is even more
intensely painful, but is of a loftier nature. The
supreme sacrifice she will not make however be-
fore another long struggle ; but one day she
will find it in her to accept the beautiful duty of
leading through life a blinded officer, a widower
GarQon (1915) : an English boy comes to France before
the war, and dies there during the war.
372
WAR-TIME FICTION
with two little children, and to found with him
a new home. '
A short novel of equally fine inspiration is
Pierrette, by Antoine Redier (1917). Redier is
the man who wrote the Meditations dans la Tran-
chee, which we have discussed in a former chap-
ter ; the novel is worthy of his pen. Pierrette is
the fiancee of an officer who has understood, spe-
cially since 1914, the sacredness and sternness
of life ; she does not like the idea of rearing
children. But in spite of that she is morally
sound and after a while she comes to see the
beauty of the soldier's philosophy. Her fiance
dies for his country, and she determines to live
for her eountrj^, and cherish the memory of her
dead lover.*^
Henry Bachelin's La Guerre sur le Hameau
(Flammarion, 1917) is as forceful a presentation
of some effects of the war upon country people as
Hermant's picture of the bourgeois of Paris is
trifling. The hamlet of 5 or 6 houses is an out-
6 Le Manage de Lison [a Vusage des cotyihatayits et
des jeunes filles sans dot), by the same author was pub-
lished in 1918, and Le Capitain-e, in 1919. The latter
takes up many ideas already discussed in Meditations
dans la TrancMe.
373
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
of-tlie-way place somewhere in France; the dull-
witted peasants cannot grasp, it goes without
saying, the magnitude and the significapce of the
struggle, — but war brings about petty jealousies
which cut deep into the hearts of these simple
people; jealousy because the son of one family
is not called to arms while the son of another is ;
then jealousy because the family whose boy did
not go does not receive the 25 or 35 sous in-
demnity from the government ; then jealousy be-
cause one boy is wounded and the other, who
finally had to go to war also, is a prisoner, and
again jealousy because when the prisoner re-
turns, the wounded alone gets a compensation
. . . this is gloomy, but sober and strong realism.
Another novel of the rear is M. Level's Vivre
pour la Patrie (1917).
* * *
Volumes of short stories are abundant. Some
are due to the pen of the best known writers.
Let us mention Bazin, Recits du Temps de la
Guerre; Maeterlinck, Deux Contes {Massacre des
Innocents, Orinologie) ; Georges d'Esparbes,
Ceux de VAn 14 (Yser, Artois, Champagne, Ar-
gonne, Verdun) ; Pierre Mille, En Croupe de
Bellone, and Sous leur Dictee; L. Frapie, Contes
de Guerre; Marcel Boulenger, Sur un Tambour;
374
WAR-TIME FICTION
Vallotton, Les Loups; etc. Those tales were for
the most part published in periodicals, and later
issued in book form.
* * *
• Less truly soldier stories, but still war-time
stories, of the romantic kind, are contained in the
volumes by some women writers: Colette Tver's
Mirahelle de Pampeliine (11)17) is a very ex-
quisite tale — followed by some others — of a
woman who marries a soldier when he returns
blinded from the war. Camille Mayran's Ilis-
toire de Gotton Connixloo, suivie de L'Ouhliee,
was honored, in 1918, with the Prix du Roman of
the French Academy. The authoress Mile, de
Saint-Rene Taillandier is a grand niece of Taine.
* * *
We ought to say a word about two or three
"problem" novels.
Camille Audigier's La Terre qui nait (1917)
made a strong appeal to the French public. It
shows the urgent need of cultivating the soil of
France after the war — even during the war.
The author gives the story of the old farm of
Chaturgne, in the Ba.sses-Alpes, dilapidated and
almost deserted — which comes to life again,
thanks to the energy of young hands (crowned
by the Academy).
375
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Then there are the Bourget novels, dealing, of
course, with the revival of Catholicism in France.
The first to come out after 1914 was Le Sens
de la Mort. In this we read of a famous physi-
cian, a skeptic . . . who knows that his early
doom is sealed by cancer. Believing in no fu-
ture life, he cannot bear the thought of leaving
behind him his dearly loved wife, who may per-
haps be united to another; and he ventures to
suggest that she die with liim when his hour
comes. She agrees to do so. Then the war
breaks out. The doctor is called to treat a
young relative of his wife, a soldier, who has
been wounded. This man has always loved the
doctor's wife, and his patience in suffering, due
to his religious faith, touches her. The doctor
releases her from her oath, but dies in despair,
while the young soldier, who also dies, passes
away serenely and in the odor of sanctity, as a
good Christian should. The contrast between
the two ends wins back the young woman to
the Christian faith. In the second, Lazarine
(1917), the war is directly the means of regen-
eration of the hero : a Catholic girl at Toulon
loves an officer who is an unbeliever; he is di-
vorced, but his former wife, a perverse woman,
comes to claim him; he kills her; surmising a
376
WAR-TIME FICTION
hidden drama, the girl succeeds in preventing
the soldier from committing suicide ; she converts
him, and he deliberately seeks death in a perilous
expedition at the front. Bourget has done more
original and powerful work elsewhere.''
* * *
It may surprise the reader, but quite a num-
ber of novels of a humorous nature have been in-
spired by the war. A most exquisite story is
Foley's Sylvette et son Blesse, entertaining,
witty, cheerful. The humorist G. de la Fou-
chardiere published in 1916, L'Araignee du
Kaiser (one knows the French phrase ''avoir une
araignee au plafond"), and in 1917, he pub-
lished Scipion Pegoulade — a sort of Tartarin of
the Great War. Another volume of the same
order is Ch. Derenne's Cassinou va-t-en guerre
( 1918 ) , illustrated. Humorous short stories will
be found in Mac Orlan's Les Poissons morts, —
illustrated by Gus Bofa (1917). Albert Bois-
siere has won success with L' extravagant Teddy
7 The story elicited the usual praise and criticism
which other Catholic novels had elicited. It was severely
judged by Capitaine Delvert, Histoire d'une Compagnie,
mentioned above. This criticism coming from a soldier
is worth reading (p. 135ff.). His point is that there
were as good soldiers, to say the least, among those who
simply had "la religion de la Patrie" as among the
"croyants" with Bourget's connotation of the term.
377
TRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
de la Croix Rouge Anglaise (1917), and Le
Neveu de I'Oncle Sam, which, however, has only
a distant connection with the war. Pierre
Causse-Mael, writes Jolycoeur, Tommy Canadien
(1918). Although not strictly belonging to the
"genre" novel, we may mention Andre Maurois,
Les Silences du Colonel Bramble (1918), de-
scribing wittily the English and the French
point of view in life; and M. Dekobra's Sammy,
volontaire Americain (1918), an amusing pic-
ture of the American boy in France.
Andre Billj^'s La MalabS is a funny story of a
plant that has the power of reviving memories;
by means of it the author evokes all the joys of
life in time of peace.
Then there is the little book by the famous
French lawyer, Ch.-M. Chenu, Totoche, Prison-
nier de Guerre — the diary of a German dog
which, having taken refuge in the allied lines,
becomes the mascot of a tank crew, is wounded,
sent to an ambulance in the rear, then to a hos-
pital, and finally he is pensioned and happily
married. (Colette Yver has a dog story also,
Nenette, in her volume, Mirahelle de Pampe-
lune.)
A disconcerting but quite entertaining mix-
ture of realities and fantastic imagination will
378
WAR-TIME FICTION
be found in the well known series by Gaston Le-
roux, Les Aventures extraordinaires de Joseph
Rouletahille a la Guerre. Rouletabille is a
young Parisian reporier, and also a most clever
detective. For instance, in the last volume of
the series, Rouletabille chez Krupp (1919), he
uncovers in the great Essen ammunition plant a
formidable plot by which Paris was simply to be
leveled to the ground.
* * #
Shall we mention some stories with children as
heroes? F. Boutet, in Victor et ses Atnis
(1917), writes of boys doing their bit whenever
they can to help win the war. The books by
Machard and by the exquisite draftsman of
Gosses et Bonshommes, Poulbot, had a well de-
served success; first La Guerre des Monies and
later Le Massacre des Innocents, Legende des
Temps de Guerre (a Gotha raid, with three lit-
tle children killed, who meet again in heaven).
(Compare with Claudel's Mystery play. La Nuit
de Noel 1914, mentioned above.) Add Gsell et
Poulbot, Les Gosses dans les Ruines. As to
Machard 's Boitt de Bibi, Enfant terrible (1918)
it is in an entirely different vein . . . (gaulois).
379
EPILOGUE
As early in the war as the winter of 1914-
1915, writers began to speculate upon the nature
of the after- war literature.
Their prophecies, which at first were very dog-
matic, became more and more uncertain as
months and years elapsed, until gradually they
were discontinued altogether when it became evi-
dent how deeply the war had cut into human
affairs and how hazardous, therefore, any state-
ment regarding the future must necessarily be.^
The cessation of hostilities has thrown no new
light upon the subject, so that it is as useless as
ever to attempt a description of the spirit of the
literature of to-morrow.
1 From the beginning, and so long as they lasted, those
prognostics were rather commonplace, even when signed
by men of established repute: see Paul Adam, La Lit-
terature et la Guerre (191G) ; cf. our chapter on "Eco-
nomic Democratism"; Giraud, I^e Miracle Frangais; cf.
our reference at the end of our discussion of Neo-Cathol-
icism ; Alfred Mortier's Dramaturgie de Paris (1917),
the end of our chapter on the Stage and the War. A
reasonable article by Camille Mauclair, Le Front Litter-
aire de Demain, in La Semaine Litt^raire (Geneve), Oc-
tober 2nd, 1915. In April, 1919, La Renaissance pub-
lished a series of letters by eminent authors, on post-war
literature. Tliey are as non-relevant as most of the rest.
381
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
The preceding pages, however, bring out a fact
that bears upon the problem, and that it might
be well to recall : The first short period of high
emotional exaltation was followed by a longer
period of keen observation of events, and also of
intense intellectual tension and activity; that
second period was in its turn followed by one of
marked decline of interest in the war or in war
problems. And this is true of the whole field of
literature: War experiences ceased, to a great
extent, to inspire poets ; war recollections ceased
to be read so eagerly by the public ; and, if some
novelists, for conscience ' sake, continued to make
warriors of their heroes, they laid little stress on
their heroic deeds; many novelists, indeed, ig-
nored the war altogether. The same obtained, to
even a greater degree, on the stage.^
This diminution of interest in war literature,
at a time when the prospects of a final victory
were increasing, appears to us as a phenomenon
of mental fatigue. It is incontestable that in
the spring of 1917 and afterwards, the people
of France still realized the enormous importance
2 That phenomenon of decreasing interest is most
clearly visible when one reads an account of the literary
output of war literature year by year, such for instance,
as we have given in our articles in the New International
Year-Book.
382
EPILOGUE
of the years that they had just lived through,
and that they appreciated more than ever the
meaning of victory. Indeed they showed as
much determination as ever in the prosecution of
the war, bending all their energies to the effort
which was to bring about the final triumph.
But, after three j'ears of incessant struggle, their
strength was diminished, and they had none to
give to mere thoughts about the war unless these
clearh' had a practical bearing on the issue. On
the other hand, any cheerful reading which re-
lieved them, in hours of relaxation, from the ob-
session of the war, was recuperative.
This is all easy to understand. But now, not
only does that state of relative exhaustion ex-
plain the state of affairs during the last year of
the war; it must also be taken into account in
thinking of the future: for the nervous strain
would not cease all at once with the signing of
the armistice, nor even with the signing of the
peace. Indeed, it is likely to be felt more and
more for a long period of time. Can we not ob-
serve even in the finest writers of the war indis-
putable signs of that exhaustion? After Gas-
pard, Benjamin has produced more and more in-
different books; Barbusse has repeated himself
after Le Feu, in Clarte; Duhamel himself may
383
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
have rounded up his philosophy as he continued
producing war books; after Vie des Martyrs, he
did not improve in artistic beauty ; Porche, once
the vigorous singer of L' Arret sur la Marne, ends
in the roguishness of Les Butors et la Finette and
La Fille aux Joues Roses; and others could be
added to the list, Genevoix, Pericard, Massis,
etc.
To expect, therefore, either in the realm of
literature or in that of philosophy, before a long
period of recuperation and restoration of nor-
mal conditions, a great constructive inspiration
as the result of the stirring up of new ideas by
the war, would certainly mean disillusionment.
The history of past wars and their influence
upon literature supports that view. The Italian
wars, commenced by Charles VIII of France in
1483 and continued by his successors, were to
bring to France the seeds of the French Renais-
sance and of French Classicism. But that seed
did not come to full fruition until nearly two
centuries later. Even le Cid is only of 1636, and
Andromaque and Tartuffe were not ready till
1667. One may argue that the politico-religious
wars complicated matters and retarded the
progress of the arts and of literature, — and the
contention would be to some extent valid — but
384
EPILOGUE
even if one allows a century for contingencies
due to that cause, there would still remain an-
other century to be accounted for. Moreover,
after the next great crisis, the French Revolu-
tion and the Napoleonic wars, internal troubles
were not so great as to retard artistic develop-
ment, and nevertheless France was practically
voiceless for a whole generation. Though Cha-
teaubriand and Madame de Stael belong to the
period of general struggle, the Romantic move-
ment in literature and in art did not materialize
until the succeeding generation. Indeed Cha-
teaubriand himself claimed to the end that he
was the supporter of the throne and altar, i.e., of
the old order of things, and he never became
conscious that his writings had in them the seed
of the new order of things.^ Lamartine 's Medi-
tations were still a precocious product in 1819 ;
and Notre Dame de Paris and Hernani did not
appear till 1830: and Alfred de Musset's Con-
fessions d'un Enfant du Siecle is of 1836; more-
over, there is question whether we should not
consider the whole Romantic Movement as only
a transition from Classicism to the really new
3 Even a generation later Balzac's case was a repeti-
tion of that of Chateaubriand. Balzac the father of
realism was a convinced reactionary in social matters.
385
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
literary era of Kealism which begins with Bal-
zac {Comedie Humaine, 1830 sq.), continues
through Flaubert {Madame B ovary, 1857), and
blooms only with Zola's Rougon-Macquart
(1871-92).
It is to such great events as the Renaissance
and the French Revolution that the Great War
must be compared. It would be absurd to com-
pare it to the Franco-Prussian war which was
only an episode in the history of the ambitions of
Prussia, and by which the literary evolution was
not in the least disturbed. The Naturalist
movement had just started with Flaubert and
the brothers Goncourt, and Zola continued it as
if nothing had happened.
On the other hand, modern progress undoubt-
edly favors rapid developments. Fifteen cen-
turies elapsed between the beginning of the
Christian era and the Renaissance; there were
only three centuries between the Renaissance
and the French Revolution, and only a century
and a quarter elapsed between the Revolution and
the Great War. It is not unreasonable to be-
lieve that science will help us to recover more
rapidly from the formidable shock than many
seem inclined to believe. It must not be forgot-
386
EPILOGUE
ten either that America remained practically un-
touched by the storm, and is destined to play a
very important part during the period of recu-
peration. Therefore, the lapse of time between
the war and the interpretation thereof by poets
and thinkers need not be so long as it would have
been in the past. Indeed, attempts are actually
being made in France to link up directly post-
war literature with pre-war literature. This is
the case with that group of young French writ-
ers who gather about the standard of the Nou-
velle Revue Frangaise. They have tried bravely
to keep alive the spirit that animated them be-
fore 1914. It remains to be seen whether the
same review-cover will actually "cover" the
same philosophical tendencies as at the time
when the war interrupted publication.*
4 Henri Bachelin believes that it will be possible to
take lip the work at tlie point at which it had to be in-
terrupted in 1914. In his suggestive article in La
Grande Revue (Sept., 1918), he argues that the France
which was destined to concjuer in 1914 is still alive.
. . . True! but the question is: have the men of France
undergone no change meanwhile? Does not the fact, —
which is so disconcerting at lirst siglit — that there is a
tendency in the novel, in poetry, in pliilosophy and in the
drama, to return to pre-war ideas, merely betray too
great a lassitude of mind to permit of the formulating
of the new doctrine of to-morrow, rather than a de-
liberate desire tliat nothing should be clianged? Is it
not simply a provisional compromise, a "going through
the motions" as in the past, until rest has renewed men's
387
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
There is another question, closely connected
with the preceding, yet differing from it, in that
it is more concrete: Has the war inspired any
great work of art, any masterpiece comparable
to the Iliad, the Roland, les Tragiques, or La
Legende des Sieclesf Of course, it has not.
The conditions favorable to the production of
such works have not yet existed ; neither must we
expect that masterpiece in the immediate future,
nor for some time to come. Indeed, it may
never be produced.
The heroes of Troy and of Rome were not sung
in a way worthy of them until historj'- had passed
into legend. It was only then that the Iliad and
the Mneid could be written. Charlemagne and
his peers had to wait three centuries for the Song
of Roland and the Chanson de Guillaume. As
for Alexander and Csesar and Joan of Arc, they
have never had their Homer, their Virgil or
their Turoldus. Even in modern times, when,
as we have just pointed out, world affairs may
resume their normal course more rapidly, and
intellectual, developments follow great crises
more closely. Napoleon and his Grand Army did
energy and restored to them the ambition to think? It
would be strange indeed, — not to say tragic, — if the
Great War was to leave no trace either now or later, on
human thought, aspirations, and art.
388
EPILOGUE
not conquer a place in the field of literature until
nearly half a century after their victories.
Their celebration was rather a slow and gradual
affair. Lui and I'Ode a la Colonne are of 1832;
Le Retour de I'Emtpereur, of 1840; Les Chdti-
ments of 1853 ; and la Legende des Siecles of 1859
and subsequent years. It was more than a cen-
tury after the j^oung Buonaparte had achieved
his first feat of arms at Toulon (1793) that Ros-
tand's L'Aiglon was applauded by the whole
world (1900).
What of the Franco-Prussian war? After a
full decade of silence the French began to intro-
duce war into literature, but the heroes of Froe-
schwiller and Reichshoffen, of Gravelotte and of
Saint-Privat, and the heroes of Sedan — who re-
mind one of the heroes of Roncevaux — came to
their own only in Zola's La Deldcle (1892), and
in Une Epoque of the Brothers Margueritte
(1897-1902).
The heroes of the Great "War, the heroes of
the Marne and of the Yser, and those of Verdun
and of the Somme, and of the Second IMarne,
can afford to wait. One thing that nobody can
doubt even to-day is that if he does appear, the
Bard of the Great War will have ample and
glorious material to work upon, better material
389
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
than ever appeared in any world epoch before.
The real question is whether a poet can ever
arise who is equal to the task. Even Victor
Hugo "le grand maitre du verbe franeais"
would scarcely have been great enough. . . .
Meanwhile, we should read again those books
which tell of the "heros plus splendides que ceiix
de Friedland et de Bivoli."
APPENDIX I
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The task of giving bibliographical information is
much simplified since we can refer to a work of con-
siderable erudition, Jean Vic, La Litterature de Guerre,
Manuel methodique et critique des publications de
langue frangaise 1914-1918 (Payot). Of course, the
work is not exhaustive ; a work of that sort can never
be; the author has himself indicated some of his omis-
sions. On the other hand the inclusion of the litera-
ture from the periodicals — although one can see how
often it would be imperative not to exclude it — is a
risky thing because the number of titles becomes so
enormous; and the author has even occasionally in-
cluded translations; some good, like Powell's and
Gibbs's volumes of war correspondence, some more
questionable, like Graves's suspicious recollections of a
spy. The arrangement of the material was a difficult
problem; a detailed Table of Contents, and two In-
dexes (one by names, one by subjects) will however
facilitate reference. The method adopted of giving
at times short descriptions of the publications men-
tioned seems not to have been very consistently fol-
lowed. But, as they are, these volumes will render
invaluable senices, and wo cannot think of trying to
duplicate the lists. Let it suffice to say that there are
few topics on which the reader cannot find informa-
391
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
tion, — sometimes very complete, sometimes less. To
give an idea of the variety of material, here are a few
titles of chapters, picked out more or less at random:
General Histories of the war; Periodical publications
of the war; Philosophy of the war and Origin of the
war; War and Religion; Catholicism; Protestantism;
Confessions of Premeditation by Germans; Military
Studies of the war; Spy system; Works on
Diplomacy; Belgian Neutrality; Socialism and the
war; Accoimts of military events, — by outsiders, — by
witnesses; Belgium and the war; Trench warfare;
Dogs in the war; Devastated France; Joan of Arc
and the war; French generals; etc., etc.
Many readers will be glad not to have to choose
from this deluge of titles, and for them we offer here
a few hints that may prove useful :
They may consult :
A. — In English:
The author's yearly contribution to the New Inter-
national Tear-Book (Dodd, Mead and Co.), article
"French Literature," 1914 and ff. Also a special
article "The Renewal of French Thought on the Eve
of the Great War," in the American Journal of
Psychology, June, 1916 (which, however, emphasizes
especially a wave of religious inspiration in France
before the war) .
In the New York Times Book Review of Sunday,
Oct. 8, 1916, pp. 338, 411, an article by Jean A.
Picard, "War's Influence on French Literature," en-
cumbered with titles, rather indiscriminately selected,
392
APPENDICES
not classified, and, of course, stopping at date of pub-
lication.
B. — In French:
F. Baldensperger, Litterature d'Avant-Guerre.
(Payot, 1919.)
Albert Schinz, "Le Roman Militaire en France de
1870 a 1914, in Publications of the Modern Language
Association of America, March, 1919.
Jean Vic, op. cit. (especially pp. xviii-xix and pp.
15-16).
Catalogue — Publications de la Guerre (Paris, Cercle
de la Librairie) ; Tome 1, 1914-15, Tome II, 1916, etc.,
each volume has about 160 pages.
Les Livres de la Guerre, Aout, 1914 — Aout, 1916,
Preface en vers de E. Rostand. (7 Rue de Lille, 180
pages.) There one will find much about all kinds of
topics; various battles, destroyed cities and cathedrals,
spies, aviation, "Kultur," prisoners, etc. To continue
this publication, which is now out of print, there were
issued a few numbei's of Le Livre dont on parle, a
selected list which was to appear whenever there was
material enough for a new installment. This also was
published at Rue de Lille, 7; as also, now, the
Catalogue Mensuel de la Librairie Frangaise — which
is, of course, much more complete.^
Many periodicals have published accounts of war
books, as they came out. Among them one ought to
point out as of special value, the pages published bi-
1 The Bulletin Bibliographiqve, issued by the Societe
d'Exportation des Editeurs Franoais — about thirty of the
leading publishing firms (l.S Rue de Tournon) — for
purely advertising purposes, is poorly gotten up.
393
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
monthly by the Mereure de France under the title:
"Ouvrages sur la Guerre actuelle."
Finally, let us make room here for the Bulletin des
Ecrivains de 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, pub-
lished by three young writers, R. Bizet, F. Divoire, and
G. Picard, and which was sent free to all the writers
in the service. Forty-nine issues came out, the last
one, in August, 1919, devoted entirely to the authors
who died on the field of honor.
With some exceptions, works belonging to Propa-
ganda war-collections have not been mentioned in this
volume. But let it be said that some of those booklets
are very admirable. Here are the names of some of
the best of these collections: Alcan, Publications sur
la guerre de 1914-1918; Colin, Etudes et Documents
sur la guerre (in this collection came out J. Bedier's
well known pamphlet Les Crimes allemands d'apres
des Temoignages allemands); Berger-Levrault, Lih-
rairie Militaire (with two series, Pages d'Histoire and
Encyclopedie de la Guerre); Bloud et Gay, Pages
actuelles (Catholic); Cres et Cie, Collection Bellum;
Perrin et Cie, Pour la Verite (little volumes of about
50 pages, by members of the "Institute" or Five
Academies of France. The first number is by Pierre
Lamy, the late Secretaire perpetuel of the French
Academy, L'Institut et la Guerre).
For people who are guided in their choice by the
names of publishers, we mention the following firms
which can usually be relied upon to issue only works
of real value: Alcan, Bailliere, Belin, Berger-
Levrault, Bloud et Gay, Boccard, Caiman-Levy, Chape-
lot, Charpentier, Champion, Colin, Cres, Delagrave,
394
APPENDICES
Emile-Paul, Fasquelle, Firmin-Didot, Fischbacher,
Flammarion, Grasset, Haehette, Larousse, Leclere,
Lemerre, Mercure de France, Michel, Nilsson, Nouriy,
Nouvelle Librairie Nationale, Nouvelle Revue Fran-
gaise, Ollendorff, Payot, Perrin, Plon-Nourrit, Renais-
sance du Livre, Sansot, Societe d'Edition, Societe
Frangaise d'Impiimerie et de Librairie.
APPENDIX II
DOCUMENTS RELATIVE TO THE WAR
(Outside of the Domain of Literature, but comple-
mentarv to it)
Practically all the technical bibliographical indica-
tions are omitted, as they can easily be found — if
needed — in consulting the work of Jean Vie, La
Litterature de la Guerre, already referred to, or, even
better, the very convenient annual Tables of the
Memorial de la Librairie Frangaise (Paris, Librairie
H. Le Soudier, 174 Boulevard Saint-Germain). For
before 1900, see Bibliographie Frangaise, Ire serie, 10
volumes; from 1900-1909, 2de serie, Tome I, 1900-
1904, Tome II, 1905-1909, etc. These tables contain
in one alphabetical series, names of authors, names of
titles, and names of topics.
TouTAlN, L'Europe et la France de 1871-1914.
Gauvaix, L'Europe avant la Guerre, 1 vol. —
Origines de la Guerre Europeenne, 1 vol.
(CoUn).
Roches, Manuel des Origines de la Guerre
(Bossard).
Histoire de la Guerre par le Bulletin des Armees de
la Republique (Hachette).
Les Communiques officiels depuis la Declaration de
la Guerre (Berger-Levrault).
397
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Notre Epopee, Becits officiels de Comhattants (Soc.
Frangaise d'Imprimerie et de Librairie).
La Guerre, Documents de la Section photographique
(Colin).
General Malleterre, Etudes et Impressions de
Guerre, En serie, avec Cartes et Tableaux,
5 vol.
Joseph Reinach, La Guerre de 1914-1918, et les
Commentaires de Polybe. 17 series.
General Balat, La Grande Guerre sur le Front
occidental. 3 vol. out.
General Berthaut, Les grandes Batailles de la
Guerre de la Marne a la Mer du Nord. Vue
d' ensemble sur les operations militaires de
1914-1918.
L. Brossolette, Histoire de la Grande Guerre. 20
Cartes, un tableau synehronique et un index (1
volume).
Victor Giraud, Histoire de la Grande Guerre.
5 fascicules.
P. Crokaert, L'immortelle Melee, Essai sur V^po-
pee militaire beige.
Pierre Dauzat, Guerre de 1914. De Liege a la
Marne. (Avec Croquis et Cartes.)
On the first Battle of the Marne, see Vic, op. cit.
Also, G. Babin, La Bataille de la Marne, 6-12
sept. 1914. Esquisse d'un Tableau d' ensemble.
Gervais-Courtellemont, La Bataille de I'Ourcq.
Le Goffic, Les Marais de Saint-Gond, Histoire de
I'armee Foch a la Bataille de la Marne.
398
APPENDICES
On the Battle of the Yser, see Vic, op. cit. The
best known accounts are :
L. Madelin, La Melee des Flandres. L'Yser et
Ypres (avec 3 cartes).
Le Goffic, Dixynude. Un chapitre de I'Histoire des
Fusiliers marins, 7 oct. au 10 nov. 1911. —
Steenstraete, Un 2° chapitre — St. Georges et
Nieuport, suite et fin.
G. Le Bail, La Brigade des Jean Gouin. Ilistoire
documentee et anecdotique des fusiliers marins
de Dixmude d'apres des documents originaux et
des recits de combattants.
CoMDT Willy Breton, Les Combats de Steenstraat
(avril-mai 1915) ; une page glorieuse de la
resistance beige.
L. BoCQUART ET E. HoSTEN, Un Fragment de
VEpopee Senegalaise. Les Tirailleurs noirs de
VTser.
On the Battle of Verdun : See Vic, op. cit.
Henri Dlgard, La Victoire de Verdun (2G fev.
1916-13, nov. 1917).
■ JoLLiVET, L'Epopee de Verdun.
H. Bordeaux, Les derniers Jours du Fort de Vaux.
— Les Captifs delivres.
For other battles see Vic, op. cit., and general
works mentioned above; e. g., Gen. Malleterre's
Etudes et Impressions, volume V. La Bataille de Li-
beration et de Victoire; Jean de Pierrefeu, La Seconde
Bataille de la Marne; etc.
399
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Military life :
Marcel Prevost, D'un Poste de Commandement (La
fagon de preparer une bataille — L'Ailette).
F. DE Tessan, Quand on se bat. (Episodes to
illustrate the various services : La bataille ;
agents de liaison; mitrailleuses; grenadiers;
pionniers et sapeurs ; erapouillots ; avions ; auto-
mobiles; etc.)
Capitaine Danrit, La Guerre souterraine (Mining
and sapping).
Anonymous, La Vie des Tranchees (Berger-Lev-
rault) (Building of trenches, life in trenches).
Daniel Mornet, Tranchees de Verdun (Berger-
Levrault).
See also Vic, op. cit., p. 180, 253-5.
Joseph Bedier, L'Infanterie.
'Fr. Marbre, Notre Artillerie.
Lieutenant Lestringuez, Les Chars d'Assaut
Frangais pendant la Guerre.
Capitaine Langbvin, Les Cavaliers de France.
Raymond Lestonnat, L'A.B.C. de la Guerre
navale.
Amiral Degouy, Guerre Navale et Offensive.
Commandant Vedel, Nos Mdrins a la Guerre, sur
Mer et sur Terre. — Sur nos Fronts de Mer.
Croia'EZIER, Les Guerres aeriennes. Le Role de la
Cinquieme Arme.
Ch. Lafon, Les Armies Aeriennes modernes, France
et Etranger.
"La Cigogne" (J. Duval), L'Armee de I'Air.
P. BoNNEFON, Le Premier As, Pegoud.
400
APPENDICES
H. Bordeaux, Le Chevalier de I'Air, Georges
Guynemer.
M. Nadaud, Guynemer.
ViALLET et MORTAXE, Quelques grands Duels
aeriens.
For the Psychology of the soldier, see Vie, op. cit.
pp. 251-2. Also indications in Part I, chap, II, of
this book, and the followins: works :
Capitaine Z , L'Armee de la Guerre. — L'Armee
de 1917. — L'Officier et le Soldat Frangais. —
Vertus guerrieres.
E. Meyer, Autour de la Guerre. Essais de
Psychologie militaire.
Dr. L. Huot et Dr. P. Voivenel, Le Courage. — Le
Cafard. — Psychologie du Soldat.
G. Dumas, Troubles mentaux et Troubles nerveux
de Guerre.
Several books on military terms :
Anonymous, Dictionnaire des Termes militaires et
del' Argot des Poilus (publ. by Larousse).
Anonymous, Le Frangais tel que le parlent nos
Tirailleurs Senegalais (mentioned in Catal.
mensuel de libr. fr. Juillet, 1917).
A. Dauzat, L' Argot de la Guerre d'apres une
Enquete aupres des Officiers et Soldats.
F. Dechelette, L'Argot des Poilus. Dictionnaire
humoristique et philosophique du Langage des
Soldats de la Grande Guerre de 1914.
G. Esnault, Le Poilu tel qu'il se parle. Diction-
naire des Termes populaires recents et neufs
401
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
employes aux Armees en 1914-1918, Studies
dans leur Etymologie, leur Developpement et
leur Usage.
L. Sainean, L'Argot des Tranchees d'apres les
lettres des Poilus et les Journaux du Front.
(This ai;thor has since published several com-
plementary articles in the Mercure de France.)
In Franconi, TJn Tel de I'Armee Frangaise (1918),
see Chapter on Exegese de certaines Phrases
militaires.
In M. Nadaud, En plein Vol, there is in an Appen-
dix, a catalogue of familiar terms used by
French aviators.
See also various articles in L'Intermediaire des
Chercheurs.
On linguistic problems in connection with the war
see Ch. Meillet, Les Langues de VEurope nou-
velle (1918).
On the question of making "Esperanto" or ''Ido"
the International language, or the question of
adopting the "Projet Chapelier" (to make
French and English the two International
languages), see New International Y ear-Book,
New York, 1915 and ff., articles "International
Language."
Paul Souchon, Les Mots de la Guerre (like "On les
aura," "lis ne passeront pas," "Debout les
Morts," etc., in 3 parts.
A. Mart, Maximes des Grands Capitaines Frangais.
Trogan, Les Mots historiques du Pays de France.
Newspapers at the Front, and in Prisoners' camps:
402
APPENDICES
One can find a list of them up to 191G in Publica-
tions sur la Guerre (see Appendix I). Then an
article in the Grande Revue, Dec., 191G, by J. Bom-
part, and in the N. Y. Century Magazine, Sept., 1916,
by Gelett Burgess. One may consult also Tons les
Journaux du Front, Preface par P. Albin, — many
fac-similes. Then the reproduction by Larmandie, of
Les Cent Numeros du Petit Frangais — fac-simile edi-
tion of a paper published in a prisoners' camp in
Germany.
Special mention must be made of La Libre Belgique,
fondee le 1 fevrier, 1915, regulierement irregulier,
which the editors succeeded in publishing right in
invaded Belgium. The stoiy of this newspaper epic
has been told repeatedly in various papers and
periodicals; and in the two volumes: P. Goemaere,
Histoire de la Libre Belgique clandestine (Bruxelles,
1919) ; Fidelis, Histoire merveilleuse de La Libre Bel-
gique (1919). See also Marcel, Mes Aventures et le
Mystere de La Libre Belgique, and Jean Massart, La
Presse clandestine en Belgique.
Dr. Lucien Graux, Les fausses Nouvelles de la
Grande Guerre (3 volumes out).
Albert Pingaud, La Guerre vue par les Combat-
tants Allemands (1918).
For Cartoons see : L'Esprit Frangais, Les Cari-
caturistes, and L'Esprit satirique en France, Preface
d'A. Alexandre, two anthologies of the best French
war-caricatures (Berger-Levrault). John Grand-
Carteret, Caricatures et Images de la Guerre, selected
and commented upon by the well known artist, Vol. I.
Kaiser, Kronprinz et Cie, II. La Kultur et ses Hauts-
403
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
faits. Also a special album on Verdun, Images de
Guerre, Pieces historiques, Estcumpes, Curiosites, 350
images et caricatures frawgaises, aMemandes, neutres et
ennemies (12 Planches hers texte, 1917).
A remarkable volume is that by Sem, Un Pekin sur
le Front, with both text and 150 illustrations. (In
this volume is found the famous account of the horrors
of Gerbeviller, by Soeur Julie.)
Poulbot's exquisitely pathetic drawings of children
during the war are known to all: Des Gosses et des
Bonshommes, Les Gosses dans les Ruines, Le Massacre
des Innocents, etc. So are Hansi's Man Village; His-
toire d' Alsace; Paradis Tricolore.
APPENDIX III
CATALOGUE, IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER, OF SOME
OF THE BEST WAR DIARIES AND
RECOLLECTIONS
(Many have been mentioned in this book, see Index.)
Allier, K., In Memoriam (cliiei3y letters written
by him and printed by the family after the
young man's death).
Anonymous, Lettres d'un Soldat. (Preface by
Chevrillon.) (Killed in action.)
Anonymous, Un Soldat de France. Lettres d'un
Medecin auxiliaire, 31 juiUet-14 avril, 1917.
(Preface by E. Boutroux.)
AuBRY, L'abbe, Ma Captivite en Allemagne.
Belmont (Capitaine), Lettres d'un Officier de
Chasseurs Alpins, 2 aout, 1914r-28 dec. 1915.
(Killed in action.)
Benjamin, R., Sous le del de France.
Bertrand, Lieut., Victoire de Lorraine. Camei
d'un Officier de Dragons — Cornet de Route
d'un Officier d' Alpins.
Blanchet, E. L., En Represailles.
BocQUET, L., et Hosten, E., Un Fragment de
VEpopee Senegalaise. Les Tirailleurs de I'Tser.
Boucheron, G., L'Assaut. L'Argonne et Vauquois
avec la lOme Division, 1914-1915.
BOUDON, v., Avec Charles Peguy, de la Lorraine d
405
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
la Marne. (A moving account of the last days
of the famous writer, killed in action on the
first day of the Battle of the Marne.)
BouLENGER, J., En EscadrilU.
BouRGUET, LiEUT.-CoL., L'Aube sanglante. Be la
Boiselle {Oct. 1914) a Tahure {Sept. 1915).
(Killed in action.)
Breant, Commandant, De VAlsace a la Somme.
Souvenirs du Front (aout 1914— janv. 1917).
Breton, Commandant Willt, Un Regiment Beige
en Campagne. Les Fastes du 2° Chasseurs-d-
pied, aout 1911-Janv. 1915.
Buteau, Max, Tenir. Recits de la Vie de Tranchee.
Cabanel Aumonier, p. C, Avec les Diables Bleus.
I, Artois, II. Vaux.
Garnets de Route de Combattants allemands. (Un
Oflficier Saxon ; un Sous-Officier Posnanien ; un
Reserviste Saxon, publics par J. de Dampierre,
Archiviste-paleographe. )
Chevoleau, L'Abbe, Caporal (ambulaneier) au
90me d'Infanterie, by Emile Bauman. (The
book is made up chiefly of letters from the
priest who died in action.)
Christian-Froge, R., Morhange et les Marsouins en
Lorraine. ("Marsouin" is the familiar name
given to soldiers of Colonial Infantry.) — Les
Captifs. (Well known.)
Darstein, General F. de, La 56° Division au Feu.
DEiiACX)MMUNE, Ch., L'Escadrille des Eperviers.
Impressions vecues de Guerre aerienne.
Delemer, a., Pelerin muiile, Blesse de Vauquois
406
APPENDICES
(1918). (One of the very few in which the
author gives expression completely to his de-
spairing soul.)
Delv-ert, Capitaixe, Histoire d'une Compagnie
{Main de Massiges, Champagne, Verdun).
— Quelques Heros. Recits authentiques de la
Grande Guerre.
Descubes, B., Mon Garnet d' Eclair eur.
DiDE, M., Ceux qui combattent et ceux qui meureyit.
DiETERLEN, M., Le Bois Le Pretre.
DoLLE, A., La Cote 304 (Verdun). Accompagne de
Souvenirs d'un Officier de Zouaves.
DuBARLE, Capt. Robert, Lettres de Guerre. (Killed
in action.)
DuBRULLE, Garnet de Route.
DuFOUR, J. J., Dans les Camps de Represailles.
DuHAMEL, G,. Vie des Martyrs. — Civilisation — La
Possession du Monde.
DuxAN, M., Ete Bulgare. *Juillet 1915-oct. 1915.
DuPONT, M., En Campagne, 1914-1915. Impres-
sions d'un Officier de Legere, — Mobilisation,
Great Retreat, Marne, Descent of the horsemen
into the trenches, Champagne and Artois.
Awarded the Prix Bodin, by the Academy.
— L'Attente (Continuation) — "attente" of vic-
tory. — Victoire is the 3d vol.
Duval-Arnould, v., Crapouillots. Feuilles d'un
Garnet de Guerre.
Erlande, a., En Campagne avec la Legion Etran-
gere.
d'Estre, II., D'Oran a Arras. Impressions d'un
407
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Offieier d'Afrique, 24 juil. 1914-18 janv. 1915.
Eteve, M., Lettres d'un Combattant. Aout 1914-
juil. 1916. (Killed in action.)
FiERRE, Jacques, 80,000 Milles en Torpilleur.
Flers, Robert de, Sur les Chemins de la Guerre.
Foley, Ch., La Vie de Guerre 1914-1915, contee
par les Soldats. Lettres recueillies et pub-
liees.
FoNSAGRiVE, Lieut., En Batterie. Verdun, La
Somme, Aisne, Verdun.
Franconi, Vn Tel de VArmee Frangaise (Killed).
Fregeoliere, Renard de la, pilote militaire, A Tire
d'Ailes, Garnet d'un Aviateur et Souvenirs d'un
Prisonnier.
Fribourg, Andre, Croire. Histoire d'un Soldat.
Gaillet, Leon, sous-lieut. d'Infanterie Coloniale,
Coulibaly. Les Senegalais sur la Terre de
France. Portraits, Anecdotes, Souvenirs.
Genevoix, M., Sous Verdun, aout-oct. 1914. — Nuits
de Guerre (a continuation of the preceding) —
Au Seuil des Guitounes.
Gentil, R., La Flamme Victorieuse.
GiNiSTY, P., et Gagneur (Capt. M.)', Histoire de la
Guerre par les Combattants (published by se-
ries).
Giraudoux, J., Lectures pour une Ombre.
GrandMaison, Impressions de Guerre de Pretres
Soldats (2 series). Two well known chapters:
"Dans la Fournaise de Verdun," "Deux Mar-
souins." — "marsouin" is the familiar name
given to soldiers of Colonial Infantry.
408
APPENDICES
Grasset, Commandant, Vingt Jours de Guerre aux
Temps heroiques (the first 20 days).
Hassler, Capitaine, Ma Campagne au jour le jour,
aout 191i-Dec. 1915.
Hemard, J., Chez les Fritz. Notes et Croquis de
Captivite.
Henches, Commandant, A I'Ecole de la Guerre.
(Killed in action.)
Hennebois, Ch., Aux Mains de L'Allemagne. Jour-
nal d'un Grand Blesse.
Henriot, E., Garnet d'un Dragon dans les Tran-
chees, 1915-1916.
Herscher, Lieut. E., Quelques Images de la
Guerre.
HouRTico, L., Recits et Reflexions d'un Combattant.
Aisne, Champagne, Verdun.
JouBATRE, Alf., Pout la France. Garnet de Route
d'un Fantassin.
JuBERT, R., Verdun {Mars-avril-mai 1916), Preface
by P. Bourget. (One of the best. Author
killed in action.)
JuMA, Dr. F. E., Mort du Soldat. (One of the
best known.)
JuNOD, Ed., Capitaine a la Legion Etrangere, Let-
tres et Souvenirs. (Killed in action.)
Kadore, Pierre de, Mon Groupe d' Auto-canons.
Souvenirs d'un Officier de Marine, Sept. 1914-
Avr. 1916 (tells of Ypres).
La Bruyere, Rene, Deux Annees de Guerre navale.
La Croix, En Pie in del.
Lafond, G., 3Ia Mitrailleuse. Avec les Mitrailleurs
de la Coloniale.
409
FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE GREAT WAR
Lafont, R., Au del de Verdun.
Lauzanne, (Stephane), Feuilles de Route d'un
Mobilise.
Laurentin, Le Sang de France.
Leaud, (Alexis), Spectacles de Guerre.
Le Bail, G., La Brigade des Jean Gouin. Histoire
documentaire et anecdotique des Fusiliers Ma-
rins de Dixmude; d'apres des Documents et
Recits de Combattants.
Leleux, Ch., Feuilles de Route d'un Ambulancier.
(Lemerre.) Les As peints par eux-memes.
Lery, Jean, Bataille de la Foret de I'Argonne,
1915. Impressions d'un Temoin (very often
quoted).
Letard, E., Trois Mois au Premier Corps de Cava-
lerie. De Senlis a Liege; de Liege a Paris; de
Paris a Ypres.
Llberman, H., Ce qu'a vu un Officier de Chasseurs a
pied 2 aout-28 sept. 1914.
Lieut. E. R. (Capitaine Tuffrau), Cornet d'un
Combattant (well known).
Lintier, p., Ma Piece. Avec une Batterie de 75. —
Le Tube 1233 (posthumous).
Madeun, L., Les Heures Merveilleuses d' Alsace et
de Lorraine. Memoires et Recits de Guerre
(1919).
Malherbe, H., La Flamme au Poingi
Mallet, Christophe, Etapes et Combats. Sou-
venirs d'un Cavalier devenu Fantassin.
Marc, Lieut., Notes d'un Pilote disparu, 1916-1917.
Merlant, Joachim, Souvenirs des Premiers Temps
de Guerre. (Died of wounds.)
410
APPENDICES
Milan, Rene, Vagabonds de la Gloire. I. Cam-
pagnes d'un Croiseur, II, Trois Etapes, III.
Matelots aeriens.
Millet, F., En Liaison avec les Anglais. iJouve-
nirs de Campagne.
MoRANE, Jacques, Chasseur de Bodies. (Aviation.)
Nadaud, M., En plein Vol.
Niox, Leon, Mes Six Evasions.
Ollivier, Capitaixe, Onze Mais de Captivite dans
les Hopitaux allemands.
Ouy-Vernazobos, Ch., Journal d'un Officier de
Cavalerie.
Pareze, D., Et nous . . . les Marins.
Paulhan, Jean, Le Guerrier applique. (Story of
an "Intelleetuel" who tries to adapt himself to
military life.)
Pericard, J., Face a Face, Souvenirs et Impressions
d'un Soldat de la Grande Guerre. — Ceux de
Verdun. — Debout les Marts!
Pezard, a., A'om.s autres d Vauquois, 1915-1916.
PiNGUET, J., Trois Etapes de la Brigade des Fusi-
liers Marins.
PiRENNE, Jacques, Les Vainqueurs de VTser.
Preface par Verhaeren et Vandervelde.
Prevost, IVL^rcel, D'un Paste de Cammandement
(Bataille de I'Ailette).
Prieur, Ch., De Dixmude a Nieuport. Journal de
Campagne d'un Officier de Fusiliers Marins,
Oct. 1914-mai 1915.
Raynal, Commandant, Journal du Fort de Vaux.
Redier, Ant., Meditations dans la Tranchee.
411
FRENCH LITERATUEE OF THE GREAT WAR
Eenaud, Jean, La Tranchee Bouge. Feuilles de
Boute, sept. 1914-mars 1916.
Rene, H., Lorette une Bataille de 12 Mois; oct. 1914
-oct. 1915. — Jours de Gloire, Jours de Misere.
Histoire d'un Bataillon (Alsace, Lorraine,
Manie, Ypres, Artois, Verdun) 1914-1916.
RiOU, Gaston, Journal d'un Simple Soldat, Guerre,
Captivite, 1914-1915.
Riviere, J., L'Allemand. Souvenirs et Beflexions
d'un Prisonnier de Guerre.
Robidet, E., Croquis de Guerre.
RoujON, Jacques, Camet de Boute.
DE Tessan, F., De Verdun au Bhin.
RuFFiN, Baron C, La Belgique hero'ique et
vaillante. Becits de Comhattants recueillis
par.
Souvenirs de Guerre d'un Sous-Officier allemand.,
1914-1915. Traduction publiee avec Preface
de L. P. Alaux (Alcan 1918).
Thierry, A., Garnets de Guerre. (End is the
diary of a prisoner.)
Thomas, Louis, Les Diables Bleus pendant la
Guerre de Delivrance, 1914-1916. — Avec les
Chasseurs.
TuDESQ, A., Les Compagnons de I'Aventure.
(Na\^.)
Variot, Jean, La Croix de Caumes. Documents
sur les Comhattants du Bois Le Pretre.
Vassal, J., Dardanelles, Serhie, Salonique, Im-
pressions et Souvenirs de Guerre, avril 1915-
fev. 1916.
Veaux, Dr. G., En suivant nos Soldats de VOuest.
412
APPENDICES
Charleroi, Guise, La Marne, Eeim^, Craonn-e,
Arras, I'Yser.
ViGNAUD, J., Les Sauveurs du Monde. ("Contes
suggeres par d'horribles visions.")
"Warnod, a., Prisonnier de Guerre. Notes et cro-
quis rapportes d'Allemagne.
Wilde, Robert de, Mon Journal de Campagne,
Liege et I'Yser.
Z . . ., Capitaine, L'Armee de la Guerre. — L'Armee
de 1917. — Vertus Guerrieres.
Zavie, Emile, Prisonnier en Allemagne.
INDEX
(Names of authors and books mentioned only in the
three Appendices are not given here.)
Abbe Constantin, 361.
Abensour, 22'8.
Aehard Amedee, 188.
Action frangaise, 236 f.,
256, 274.
Adalbert J., 228.
Adam Juliette, 7.
Adam Paul, 8, 275, 379.
Adjutant Benott, 364 f .
Agadir, 110.
Agathon (Tarde et Mas-
sis), 253.
Agir, 281.
Aieard J., 7, 31, 299,
329.
Aiglon L', 304, 389.
Ailes rouges de la Guerre
Les, 295 ff.
Alcohol, 289 f, 343.
Alexandre A., 329.
Allan M., 348.
Allem-agne, 9.
Allemagne en France U,
238.
Allemand L', 213 flf, 254.
Allenuind d' Amerique,
366.
AUier R., 96.
Alphaud, 217.
Alsace, 9. 35, 46, 107,
173, 193, 200, 278, 300,
342, 349, 364, 369, 404.
Altiar EL, 216.
Amazone L', 356.
Ambulance, 140, 204.
Ame des Ch-efs U, 33.
Ame du Soldat L', 96 ff,
255, 276.
Ame frangaise et la
Guerre U , 11.
America, 20, 91, 99, 196,
288, 378.
Ami Fritz V, 343.
Arnica America, 107.
Anarchy, 260.
Andre Rieu, 33.
Anges gardiens Les, 364.
Anti-militarism, 16.
Anvers, 161.
Apollinaire G., 329.
Appel des Armes L', 70,
95.
Appel du Sol L', 42, 93,
415
100, 115.
INDEX
Appel du Soldat V ,
233 f.
Apres Guerre V , 2f38.
Araignee du Kaiser L',
377.
Archeveque et son Fils,
V, 361.
Ardennes, 190.
Argonne, 31, 110.
Argnilbert M., 228.
Ariel et Caliban, 156-7.
Armistice, 200, 201.
Arnoux A., 61.
Arras, 170, 193.
Arret sur la Marne V ,
317 ff.
Artois, 12, 125.
Assassin Innomhrahle U ,
295.
Assomoir U , 343.
Atrocities, 8, 8.4, 196, 342,
355.
Aubry Abbe, 203.
Audessus de la Melee,
19 ff, 97, 276.
Audigier C, 375.
Aulard A., 254.
Autre Combat U , 357.
Auxiliaires, 56, 59.
Avant-Guerre L', 236,
366.
Avenir Notre, 282.
Aveze, 366.
Aviation, 55, 61, 84, 203.
Aviators, 53, 176.
Bachelin H., 373 f , 387.
Badigeon, aviateur, 55.
Baldensperger F., 12.
Ballades frangadses, 313
fe.
Balzac, 63, 385 f.
Baratier, 69.
Barbarians, 5 f ., 8, 9, 84,
156-7, 187, 189, 193 ff.,
208 f , 212-15, 258,
261, 340, 347.
Barbusse H., ^4, 33 ff.,
48, 59, 124 f ., 177, 180,
221, 333, 383.
Barres M. (see Nation-
alism), 11, 12, 233,
256, 303, 321, 342, 364.
Baslv Em., 193 ff.
Bataille H., 301 ff., 356.
Band-Bovy, 216.
Baulu Marguerite, 161.
Bazin R., 364, 374.
Beethoven, 332.
Belgique La Libre, 403.
Belgium, 5, 9, 160 ff.,
173, 200, 204, 250, 258,
288, 296, 347, 392.
Bellouard J., 321 ff.
Belphegor, 248.
Benda J., 21, 98, 245 ff.,
261.
Benjamin R., 30 ff., 59 ff.,
383.
Benoit M., 228.
Berger Cyril, 368. .
416
INDEX
Berger Marcel, 44, 50, 56
ff., 372.
Berfjson H., 8, 243 ff.,
2(J3.
Bernard T., 227.
Bernardi, 245, 252.
Bernhardt Sarah, 348.
Bemstem H;, 345.
Bertrand A., 42 ff., 93,
100 ff.
Beulem^ns a Marseilles,
340, 360.
Billaud J., 351.
Billotey, 353.
Billy A., 378.
Binet-Valmer, 25, 177 ff.
Bishur ait Democratic
Palace, 176.
Bismarck, 232-3, 312.
Blanche J., 218 ff.
Blanehet E. L., 212-13.
Blesse Journal d'un
Grar0, 140, 207 f .
Blue Devils. (See Dia-
bles bleus. )
Boche, 97, 101, 155, 304.
Bois H., 254.
Boissiere A., 377.
Bonnet G., 96 ff., 173,
276.
Bordeaux H., 61, 153.
Bomier H., 342-.
Bosc P., 202.
Bossuet, 258, 266.
Botrel Th., 336.
Boudon v., 236.
Boue sous le del Be la,
329.
Boulangism, 233 f .
Boulenger M., 222, 374.
Bourcier M., 190.
Bourget P., 25, 154, 249,
256, 274, 376 f .
Bourgmestre de Stile-
monde Le, 341 f .
Bourru, Soldat de Vau-
quois, 31, 50, 77, 176.
Bont de Bibi, 379.
Boutet F., 379.
Boutroux E., 242, 247,
262.
Boyer d'Agen, 329.
Boylesve R., 372.
Briand Ch, 50.
Brisson, 339, 361.
British^ 59 ff., 67, 196,
288, 378.
Broyer L., 318.
Bruneau L., 238.
Brunetiere F., 249, 256,
258.
Brunot F., 349.
Buteau M., 157 ff.
Butors et la Finette Les,
317, 349 ff.
Cabaret Le, 61.
Cafard, 122.
Caliiers de la Quizaine,
13, 235, 245.
417
INDEX
Cahiers d'un Artiste, 218
ff.
Calligrammes, 329.
Capricieuse La Grande,
367.
Cambon V., 282.
Candide, 101 ff.
Canonge Gen., 8.
Capitaine Le, 91, 373.
Captives. See Prisoners.
Cartoons, 403^.
Cassinou va-t-en Guerre,
377.
Cathedrales Les, 348.
Catherine de Kussia, 250.
Catholicism, 25, 92, 93,
96, 323 f., 376 f., 392.
Causse-Mael, 378.
Celarie Henriette, 192,
202.
Cent Visions de Guerre,
328.
Ceux de I'An 14, 374.
Ceux de la Nuque, 221.
Ceux de Verdun, 13.
Chacun son Devoir, 367,
Chagrin sous les vieux
To its, 225.
Chalk-Pits, 170.
Champag-ne, 154.
Champenois J., 329.
Chamsaur F., 295.
Chansons, 336.
Chansons de Guerre, 336.
Chansons de Boute, 336.
418
Chansons pour les Poilus,
329.
Chant dans la Tourmente,
303.
Chant de Haine, 295.
Chant du Eenouveau,
303.
Chantecler, 304, 354.
Chants du Bivouac, 336.
Chants de Consolation,
321 f .
Chants du Soldat, 293,
336.
Charles E., 337, 352.
Charlotte en Guerre, 222.
Chateaubriand, 236, 385.
Chauveau L., 122, 140.
Chemin des Dames, 181.
Chenu Ch. de, 378.
Cheradame A., 238.
Chevrillon A., 78, 79.
Chevoleau L' Abbe, 96.
Chignole, 53.
Christian-Froge R., 203.
Chuquet A., 200.
Church (see also Pope),
12, 92, 237, 261, 274.
Cing P r i e r e s pour
Temps de Guerre, 323.
Civilians, 190 ff.
Civilization, 8, 18, 64,
138 f ., 275.
Clarte, 40.
Claudel P., 254, 265, 315
ff,, 346, 379.
INDEX
Clavel Soldat, 49.
Clemenceau, 37, 282 ff.
Closerie de Champdolent
La, 364.
Coignard, 101.
Colette Baudoche, 342,
364.
Colombelle Mme., 193.
Combarieu J., 229.
Commentaires de Polybe,
39S.
Commentaires sur la
Guerre des Baches,
13.
Comte A., 246, 271.
Contes (See short sto-
ries), 61.
Contes de Guerre, 374.
Coppee Fr., 256.
Corneille, 342, 384.
Comet, 69.
Courage, 122.
Couronne Douleureuse
La, 307 ff.
Courteline, 227.
Coutras P., 59.
Couvreur A., 356.
Cran Le, 223-5.
Creer, 282.
C'ritias Sentiments de, 21,
245 ff, 261.
Croire, Histoire d'un Sol-
dat, 107 ff.
Croisset Fr. de, 357.
Croix de Bo is, 368.
Croupe de Bellone En,
374.
Cruelty (see also terror-
ization and similar
words ) .
Cruelty of German
women, 196-7, 211,
216.
Cynicism, 34.
Cyrano de Bergerac, 224,
304.
Ci/rano aux Tranchees,
^354 f.
Danrit, 33.
Darboise Jean, 56 ff.
Darwinian Tlieor\% 27G
f., 280.
Daudet A., 115, 189.
Daudet E., 207.
Daudet L., 236 f., 366.
Debacle La, 187, 389.
Debout les 2Iorts, 147.
Debris de la Guerre, 9-
10.
Defense de Schirmeck,
349.
Dekobra M., 378.
Delaniarre, 357.
Delarue-Madrus !Mme.,
302.
Deleraer A., 121.
Delvert, 44, 153 ff., 159,
3
( I .
419
INDEX
Democratie N o uv ell e
Vers la, 287 ff.
Democratism, 256, 269 ff.
Derenne Ch., 377.
Derieux H., 254, 330 ft.
Denis Jean,
Derniers Jours du Fort
de Vaux, 153.
Deroulede Paul, 293, 329
ff.
Derriere la Bataille, 122-
123. •
Desastre Le, 187, 364.
Descartes, 65, 245, 266.
Destruction, 198, 302,
392. ( See Barbarian
and similar words.)
Diahles Bleus Les, 140,
141, 176.
Diahles Bleus pendant
la Guerre de Deliv-
rance, 141 ff.
Diderot, 101, 250.
Discipline, 90 ff.
Divine Trayedie La, 301
ff.
Dixmude, 160 f.
Donnay M., 227, 345.
Dorgeles R., 368.
Douaumont, 150, 188.
Douleurs qui esperent,
140.
Dragon Garnet d'un, 159.
Dramaturgie de Paris,
361, 381.
Dreyfus-Affair, 233 f .,
237.
Droulers A., 201.
Dubarle Capt., 147.
Ducray R., 284.
Dufour J. J.,
Duhamel G., 90, 121, 123
ff., 383 f.
Dumas Andre, 348.
Dumas Dr. G., 123.
Du Tartre, 216.
Ecole de la Chierre A V,
22, 84 ff.
Ecole des Indifferents L',
103.
Ecoutes de la France qui
vient Aux, 204.
Elevation, 345.
Elkenfelder Maj., 35.
Embusque U, 366.
Emperor, see Kaiser.
"Enfants du Crime," 340.
Enfant du Mort L', 356.
Energie feminine pend-
dant la Guerre, 228.
Energie nationale Roman
de V, 233, 256 f.
Enfer L', 38, 39.
Engage Volontaire Me-
moir es d'un, 177 ff.
Epis Rouges Les, 351,
Epoque L', 364, 389.
Erekman-Chatrian, 343.
Erlande, 162 ff.
420
INDEX
Esparbes G. de, 374.
Etanger Capt. see Nolly,
70.
Eternelle Presence L',
348.
Eteve M., 94 f .
Evasion, Becit de Deux
Prisonniers, 216.
Evasions Les Belles, 216.
Evasions Mes six, 216.
Extravagant Teddy, 377.
Fallet, C, 216.
Families spirituelles de la
France, 12.
Farrere CI., 61, 358 f.
Faust, 101.
Femme Frangaise et son
activite, 228.
Femmes pendant la
Guerre, 228-9.
Feuelon, 232.
Ferry J., 272.
Feu Le, 24, 33 ff., 42, 50,
54, 59, 77, 107, 115,
124 f., 333, 363,' 368.
Fiances de 1914, 368.
Fichte, 262.
Fiction, see Novel.
Fielle P., 123.
Fierre J., 158, 181.
Fifre de Bertrandoux Le,
329.
Fille de Boland La, 342.
Flambeau Gavroche et,
305.
Fiambee La, 338, 343.
Flamme au Poing La, 115
If., 138.
Flamme victorieuse La,
159 f.
Flanders, 12, 160 flf., 200.
Flaubert, 275, 385.
Flejr E., 329.
Focb, 92.
Foi en la France, 311 ff.
Foley, 377.
Fontaine- Vive J., 21, 323
f.
Forgues Capt., 183 ff.
Fort Paul, 313 ff., 329.
Fosse aux Lions, 329.
Foucbardiere J. de la,
377.
Foulct L., 35.
France A., 8, 101, 343,
370.
France devant I'Alle-
magne La, 282 ff.
France La plus Grande,
280.
Franco-Prussian War,
187 f., 310, 342, 346,
364, 386, 389.
Franconi G. T., 174 ff.
Frangipane et Cie, 55.
Frapie, L., 374.
Frederick the Great, 200,
250.
421
INDEX
Fregeoliere R. de la, 203.
Fresques de Feu et d&
Sang, 365.
Fribourg Andre, 44, 107
fe.
Friedland, 172, 390.
Fritz Chez les, 203.
Fi'onson J. F., 340, 360.
Front litteraire de De-
main, 381.
Frontieres du Coeur, 364.
Fusilliers marins., 160 f .
Gagneur Capt. M., 216.
Gars Le, 346.
Gaspard, 30 ff., 50, 54, 77,
115, 159, 176, 363, 382.
Gaultier Paul, 231.
Gavroehe, 31, 53, 304.
Genevieve Ste., 257, 347.
Genevoix M., 44, 75 ff.,
384.
Geniaux Ch., 368.
Gens de Guerre du
Maroc, 70, 71.
Gens du Front, 190.
Gentry R., 159 f .
Geraldy P., 2201, 318,
361.
Gerbeviller, 200.
Germaniades, 295.
Germany, 14, 15, 18, 19,
26, 40, 67, 84, 85, 91,
93, 104, 184, 188, 189,
192 ff., 214-15, 219,
422
231, 238 ff., 248, 255,
261, 290, 297, 332, 392,
411.
Gessner, 250.
Gbeon L., 25, 311 ff.
Ginisty P., 216.
Giraud Victor, 269, 381.
Giraudoux, 102 ff.
Gloire de VArmee fran-^
gaise, 329.
Gloires Les Deux, 346.
Goethe, 250 f ., 254 R.,
332.
Goneourt, Prix, 30, 33,
42, 115, 138.
Gosses, 379.
'Gottfried Mauser Le
Journal de, 3C8.
Gotton Connixloo, 375.
Gourmond R. de, 9, 14.
Grandes Heures Les, 7.
Grandgoujon, 31, 60.
Granvillier J. de, 49.
Gregh F., 307 £f.
Gueriniere F. de la, 365.
Guerre Role social de la,
280.
Guerre et I'Amour La,
361.
Guerre, Madame . . . La,
220 ff., 318.
Guerre et le Progres La,
275 ff.
Guerre Sociale, 17.
Guerre Souterraine, 33.
INDEX
Guerre sur le Ilameau,
373 f.
Guerre vue d'une Ambu-
lance, 140.
Guitounes Au seuil des,
78.
Guitry Lucien, 361.
Guitrv Sacha, 361.
Gus Bofa, 61, 377.
Guynemer, 55.
Gyp, 221-2.
Halevy Ludovic, 188.
Hamp P., 286 f .
Hatred, 10, 23, 85, 86,
151-2, 295.
Hauptmann G., 18, 25.
Hauser H., 282.
Haute-Cour Morale, 20.
Hazard, 202.
Heine, 255, 332.
Helys Mme. Marc, 217.
Hemard J., 203.
Henches, 22, 23, 41, 84 ff.
Hennebois Ch., 140, 207
ff.
Hennequin, 346.
Henriot E., 159.
Henry-Jacques, 332 ff.
Henry-Rosier Marguer-
ite* 225.
Herriot Ed., 281.
H^rmant A., 369 ff.
Her\-e G., 16, 17, 235.
Heures de Guerre de la
Famille Valadier, 369
ff.
Hirseh Ch.-H., 367.
llistoire de Quatorze Sol-
dats, 61.
llistoire d'une Compag-
nie, 153 ff., 377.
Home on the Field of
Honor, 191.
Homme de Desir U , 265.
Honor (military), 343.
Huard Mme., 191.
Hugo Victor, 31, 233,
236, 265, 296, 304, 385,
390.
Humanism, 17.
Huns (see Barbarians),
74, 199, 347.
Huot Dr., 122.
Hvacintbe-Loyson Paul,
21.
Ibanez B., 365.
niusioniste L', 361.
Imperialism, 260.
Impromptu du Paque-
tage U, 345.
Ineffagahle U, 299 ff.
Infirmiers et Infirmieres,
140 f ., 192.
Institut et la Guerre L',
228.
Ini^tituteur et la Guerre
V. 228.
Intellectualism, 239 ff.
423
INDEX
Intellectuals, 19, 43, 239
ff.
French, 24, 43.
German, 18, 251, 276,
■ 316.
Internationalism, 16.
Intuitionism, 239 ff.
Invasion, 8, 188. *
Jacquet H. M., 346.
Jammes F., 25, 323.
Jaures, 242, 304.
Jean-Christophe, 17, 18
ff., 324.
Jean Gouin, La Brigade
des, 160.
Jeanne d'Arc, 18, 88, 257,
322, 326, 348 ff., 388,
392.
Jeune Fille aux Joues
Roses, 352.
Jeune Fille Frangaise et
la Guerre La, 229.
Jeunes Gens A quoi
revent les, 159.
Jeunesse Ardente, 21,
323 f .
Joffre, 104, 318, 347.
Jolivet, 153.
Jolicoeur, Tommy Cana-
dien, 378.
Joug Allemand Hors du,
238.
Jouir, 367.
Jour a V autre D'un, 357.
Journal d'un Grand
Blesse, 140, 207 ff.
Journal d'un Simple Sol-
dat, 204.
Journal d'une Famille
pendant la Guerre,
228.
Journal d'une Frangaise,
216.
Jours Dechirants En ces,
330 ff.
Jugement Dernier, Le,
120.
Julia Dr. E. F., 95 f.
Junod (Junot), 168-9,
171.
Juste
364.
Lobel, Alsacien,
Kaiser (see also Impe-
rialism), 93, 150, 186,
200, 240, 260- ff., 296
ff., 377.
Kant, 14, 15, 16, 242,
245, 252, 254 ff., 262,
332.
Kistemaeker, H., 338,
343 f .
Klein Abbe, 140.
Kommandantur, 340.
Krupp, 252, 379.
Kultur, 198, 308, 365,
369, 403.
424
Lachapelle, 281.
INDEX
La Fayette, 207.
La Hire Marie, 228.
Lamartine, 385.
Lamy P., 228.
Langlois H., 236.
Langlois G., 8.
Lanux P., 244, 286, 313.
Lapie, 228.
Lasserre P., 249, 255,
257.
Laudenbach, 358.
Lavedan H., 7, 338 f.,
348.
Lazarine, 376.
Le Bail G., 160.
Le Bon G., 240 f .
Leclerc Max, 325 ff .
Legons de la Guerre, 248
ff.
Lecoq, 295.
Lectures pour une Om-
bre, 102 ff.
Legende des Siecles, 388
f.
Legion Etrangere En
Cam^pagne avec, 162 ff.
Legionnaire, 162 ff., 176.
Le Goffic Ch., 53, 160 f.
Lemaitre J., 249, 256.
Lemercier E. E., 78.
Lens Martyr de, 193 ff.,
205.
Leroux G., 379.
Le Roux Hugues, 225 f.
Lessing, 250, 361.
Lettres d, une Dame
Blanche, 227.
Lettres d'un Combattant,
94 f.
Lettres d'un Soldat, 41,
78 ff., 84, 85, 94.
Leune Mme., 192.
Level, M., 374.
L'Herbier, 356.
Lichtenberger A., 364.,
Liege, 162.
Ligue des Patriotes, 11.
Lille, 192, 200 ff.
Lintier, 72 ff., 79.
Lissauer, 295.
Litterature et la Guerre,
275, 381.
London Jack, 271.
Lorraine, 9, 12, 46, 107,
173, 192, 234, 236, 302,
342, 349, 364 f ., 369.
Lote R., 98, 248 ff.
Loti P., 7.
Louis the Fourteenth, 93,
227, 251.
Loups Les, 375.
Lusitania, 86, 262 f ., 370.
Luther, 254, 260, 262 f.
Lysis, 99, 287 ff.
Machard A., 379.
MacOrlan, 377.
Maeterlinck, 9, 10, 341 f .,
374.
425
INDEX
Main qui tend I'Epee,
348.
Maistre Joseph de, 16,
254, 258.
Malabe La, 378.
Malherbe Henry, 44, 115
ff.
Malvy, 36, 37.
Marceau, ou les Enfants
de la Republique, 343.
Marcliand d'Estampes Le,
357.
Marcus Aurelius, 79, 167.
Maree Fraiche, 286.
Marge du Drame En,
220.
Margueritte Brothei«,
187, 364, 389.
Margueritte Paul, 7, 364
ff.
Manage de Lison, 373.
Mariee en 1914, 367.
Marne Battle of, 5, 12,
17, 19, 52, 53, 72, 74,
103, 105, 106, 121,
160, 175, 179, 180, 185,
188, 190, 236, 303, 315
ff., 348, 389.
Marraines, 229.
Marseillaise, 304 ff., 314,
333.
Marsouille, La, 123.
Marthe Steiner, 366.
Marthold J. de, 295.
Martin L. L., 368.
Martin-Mamy, 202.
Martyre de Lens, 193 ff.
Martyrs Vie des, 121 ff.
Marx K., see Socialism.
Massacre des Innocents,
379.
Massis H., 21, 25, 253,
263 ff., 384.
Mauelair C, 35, 381.
Maupassant, 28, 189.
Maurel A., 16, 263, 284.
Maurois A., 378.
Maurras Ch., 237, 249,
257, 274.
Mayran Camille, 375.
Medecins, 208-11.
Medecin de France, Un,
123.
Meditations dans la
Tranchee, 87 ff.
Mercier (Cardinal), 258.
Mercier Louis, 319 ff.
Mercure de France, 24,
124, 139, 395.
31 e t h de s allemandes
d' Expansion, 282.
Metiers Blesses, 286.
Meuse, 188, 200.
Miehaux Baronne J., 220.
Michel, 50 ff., 53, 58.
Michelet, 232.
Milan Rene, 182.
Military Life, 400.
Mille PieiTe, 374.
Mines, 285 ff.
426
INDEX
Mirdbelle de Pampelune,
375.
Miracle du Feu, 50 ff.,
372.
Miracle Franqais, 2G9,
329, 381.
Missionnaire Le, 369.
Movies Guerre des, 379.
Montesquieu, 290.
Moral regeneration, 52.
Moralism, 242 f .
Moraud E., 348.
Morocco, 69, 70, 71, 110,
111, 203, 283 f. (See
also Gens de Guerre du
Ma roc.)
Mort au Champ d'Hon-
neur, 225 f .
3Iort du Soldat, 95 f.
Mortier A., 361, 381.
Mort Sens de la, 154,
376.
Moselly E., 372.
Mourey G., 303.
Mousquetaires, 54, 343.
Mousquetaires Les der-
nier s, 55.
Muller Major, 164 ff.
Mtir des Pleurs Le, 329.
Musset A. de, 385.
Mystere des Beatitudes,
222.
Nadaud M., 53 £f.
Napoleonic "Wars, 146,
277, 388.
Nationalism, 256 f.
Natorp, 214 f .
Nenesse, 159.
Neo-Catholicism, 255 ff.,
274 f., 381. (See Ca-
tholicism.)
Nepoty L., 358 f .
Neutrality, 21. (See
also Holland.)
Neuville-Saint-Vaast,170.
Neveu de I'Oncle Sam,
378.
Newspapers and Periodi-
cals, 6.
Nion Fr. de, 368.
Niox, 216.
Nieuport, 160.
Nietzsche, 254 ff., 332.
Noailles Madame de, 302,
329.
Noces d' Argent, 361.
Nolly, 70, 71, 89.
Non-combattants, 189 ff.
Normand Gilles, 329.
Notes d'une Internee
Frangaise, 216.
Nothomb P., 9.
Notre Patrie, 16, 235.
Nous, de la Guerre, 332
ff.
Nouveaux Chants du SoU
dat, 293.
Nouvelle Revue Fran-
427
INDEX
Saise, 13, 14, 236, 286,
317, 387.
Novel (see War-novel,
and War-Time novel).
Noziere, 340.
Nuit de Noel de 1914,
346, 379.
Nuits de Guerre, 78.
Olerle Les, 364.
Oherle Les Nouveaux,
364.
Obus Sous L', 61.
Odyssee d'un Transport
Torpille] 182 ff.
Oeuvre de Demain, 281.
Ollivier, Cap., 212.
Oncle Sam Neveu de V,
378.
Onze Mais de Captivite,
212.
Orage G., (see also Can-
dide), 101 ff.
Orgueil Frangais La Be-
naissance de, 271 ff.
Pacifism, Defeatism, etc.,
37, 99, 110, 255.
" Pamir," 183 ff.
Pan-Germanism, 214,
232, 238, 252, 254.
Papalism, 255 ff.
I'ape, la Guerre et la
Paix Le, 258 ff.
Parisienne et la Guerre
La, 229.
Parisienne en Temps de
Guerre, Souvenirs
d'une, 229.
Parocli, 246.
Parti de V Intelligence,
Pour le, 25.
Passion de Notre Frere
le Poilu, 325 ff.
Pasteur Louis, 308.
Patrie, 17, 342, 367.
Notre, 16, 235.
Leur, 16, 235.
Patriotism, 88.
Patte Paul, 223-5.
Pawlowski G. de, 61, 285.
Peguy, 13, 16, 234, 244,
246, 257, 264, 271, 293
ff., 308, 315, 350.
Peine des Hommes, 286.
Peladan, 8.
Pelerin Mutile, 121.
Pendant la Guerre, 368.
Pendant qu'il se hat, 368.
Pericard Jacques, 147 ff.,
384.
Periodicals
papers).
Physicians
121 ff.
Physiocrats, 290
Pichon, 262.
Piece Ma, 72 ff.
Pierrette, 373.
(see News-
( Writers),
428
INDEX
Pingaud,
Pingot et Moi, 06 if., 91.
Pin^uet J., 100.
Pipe Major, 31, 59 ff.
Plus Haut que VAmour,
350.
Poemes de la Delivrance,
318.
Poemes de France, 313.
Poemes de la Tranchee,
319 ff.
Poetes de la Guerre, 329.
Poil civil Gasette, 227.
Poilu, 150, 325 f., 354 f.
Poilu Le, 340.
Poilu, see Passion,
Poing de Fer Sous le,
201.
Poissons Morts, 377.
Pope, 87. (See also
. Church, etc.)
Porche F., 317 f., 349 ff.,
384.
Porto-Riche G. de, 357.
Portraits de la Belle
France, 225.
Possession du Monde,
139.
Post-War Literature,
381, 388.
Potteeher M., 303.
Poulbot, 379, 404.
Pour Renaitre, 287 ff.
Prevost M., 364 f.
Pre-War Literature, 388.
Priere dans la Nuit, 340.
Fricres de la Tranchee,
319 ff.
Prieur, 216.
Prisoners, 202 ff., 402.
Prisonnier en Allemagne,
203.
Prisonnier de Guerre,
202.
Prisonniers Delivres, 153.
Prix de Vllomme, 49.
Probus, 280.
Propaganda, 366.
Protestants, 96, 236, 259,
266, 323, 392.
Provinces pendant la
Guerre Les. See Al-
phaud.
Prussianism, 15, 25, 111,
150, 232, 290.
Psichari E., 70, 71, 95,
264 f.
Quatrefages B. de, 8.
Quinet Edgar, 231 f.,
249.
Bail Le, 286.
Rathenau M., 290.
Recits d'un Soldat, 188.
Recits du Temps de la
Guerre, 374.
Red Cross, 152, 188,
192-3, 204, 216.
Redier A., 44, 87 ff., 373.
429
INDEX
Reformation, 259 f., 263.
See also Protestantism.
Begiment Russe Mon, 68.
Renmrques, 14.
Renaissance, 384, 386.
Renan, 101, 219, 233.
Represailles, 212-13.
Reveil de VEsprit Le,
266 ff.
Revolution French, 107,
240, 254, 266, 288, 290,
385 flf.
Rey Etienne, 271 ff.
Rheims, 125, 190, 200,
306, 348, 349.
Rhine, 18, 233, 369.
Ribot Th., 246.
Richepin Jacques, 361.
Richepin Jean, 7.
Rides du Front Dans les,
285.
Right (and Might), 20,
245 f., 255, 262.
Rimbaud Isabelle, 190 f .
Riou G., 203 if., 323.
Riviere Jacques, 213 ff.,
254.
Rivoli, 172, 390.
Roe Art (Pseudonym for
Patrice Mahon), 66 ff.,
70, 71, 88, 91.
Roland, 79, 342. 388 ff.
Hole social de la Guerre,
280.
Rolland Romain, 16, 24,
87, 96, 255, 276, 324.
Remains Jules, 124.
Roman de I'Energie Na-
tionale, 233, 257. See
also Barres.
Roman Catholicism. See
Catholicism.
Roman M il it a i r e en
France 1870-1914, 71,
393.
Romanticism, 246, 249,
257, 282, 385 f.
Romach Admiral, 161.
Rostand, 304 ff., 329, 353,
389, 393.
Rougier P., 318.
Rouletabille, 379.
Rousseau, 49, 231, 249,
262, 266 ff., 279, 282,
291.
Roussel-Lepine T., 140.
Rouves Ch. de, 369.
Roux-Parnasse E., 164.
Ruins (see words like De-
stnietion. Barbarians,
etc).
Russia, 165, 173, 206,
239, 270.
Sacrifice Le, 263 ff ., 358.
Sacrifices Les, 349.
Sageret J., 99, 275 ff.
Saint-Die, 202.
Sainte-Genevieve, 257,
347.
430
INDEX
Saint-Mihiel, 207.
Saint-Quentin, 179, 202.
Sammy, Volontaire
Americain, 378.
Sang du Sacrifice Le,
299.
Sang Le, 50.
Sardou, 342.
Schelling Friedrich, 255.
Scipion Pegoulade, 377.
Sedan, 188, 389.
Seilliere E., 249, 257.
Sem, 404.
Senlis, 200, 309 f.
Sens de la Mort, 154, 375.
Sentiments de Critias, 21.
Sept Paralipomenes, 329.
Servir, 338 f .
Service de VAllemagne
Au, 234.
Service de VEnnemi Au,
369.
Servitude et grandeur
Militaire, 65.
Short Story, 61 f., 374 f.
Sicard E., 351.
Signaux a L'Ennemi, 61.
Silences du Colonel
Bramble Les, 378.
Six Femmes et I'lnva-
sion, 192.
Socialism, 16, 19, 242,
252, 259, 290, 392.
Soir ail Front. 343.
Soldats de 1914, 302.
Sorbonne Esprit de la
Nouvelle, 253.
Souffles de Tempete, 302.
Soulie, 340.
Sous leur Dictee, 374.
Souvenirs de Tranchee,
327.
Spy, 1&7, 237 ff., 338,
364 ff., 392.
Stael Mme. de, 385.
Steenstraete, 160.
Steinmetz, 280.
Suares Andre, 13, 14, 15,
236, 254.
Suberville J., 329, 354 f.
Switzerland, 212, 288.
Sylvette et son Blesse,
377.
Taboureau, 33.
Taine, 233, 246, 375.
Talmayre M., 225.
Tambour Sur un, 374.
Tank, 175, 181.
Tarde, 253, 264.
Tarf^rette, 170.
Temoin Le, 299.
Tenir, 157 f.
Terre Natale, 366.
Terre qui nait, 375.
Terrorization, 5, 151, 341.
Tliamin R., 228.
Theatre aux Armees, 346.
Theatre des Allies, 351.
Theatre Heroique, 264.
431
INDEX
Theatre pendant la
Guerre, 361.
Thierry Albert, 203, 412.
Thomas Louis, 141 £E.,
148.
Tinayre Marcelle, 190,
217.
Torpilleur 80 000 Milles
en, 158, 181.
Totoche, Prisonnier de
Guerre, 378.
Traits Eternels de la
France, 12, 303.
Treitzschke, 252.
Tribulations d'un Auxi-
liaire, 59.
Trois Etapes, 160, 182.
Trois Poemes de Guerre,
315 ff.
Trouillot G., 304.
True G., 263.
Tu n'es Plus Bien, 372.
Tube 1233 he, 72, 73.
Turoldus, 388.
Types Soldier — in Nov-
els, 27 ff.
Una, 329.
TJn Tel de VArmee Fran-
gaise, 174.
Union Sacree, 7, 11.
United States, 13, 40,
173, 186, 270, 274, 288,
290.
Universite et la Guerre
L', 228.
Urville Mme. d', 192.
Vagabonds de la Gloire
les, 182.
Vaissette, 44 ff., 50, 101.
Vallery-Radot R., 264 ff.
Vallotton B., 200, 375.
Vandalism, 197, 198, 200.
Vauquois, 31. (See also
Verdun.)
Vaux Fort de, 153.
Veber P., 346.
Veillee d' Armes, 358 f.
Veillee des Armes, 190,
217.
Veillee du Centurion, 70,
95.
Verhaeren, 9, 295 ff.
Verlet P., 329.
Vermine du Monde, 366.
Vemet, 357.
Verdun, 13, 14, 31, 56,
57, 59, 75, 121, 126,
147 ff., 153 ff., 160, 176,
180, 296, 308, 323, 351,
389.
Verdun Ceux de, 147 ff.
Verdun Sous, 75 ff.
Vic J., 26, 255, 363, 391.
Victor et ses Amis, 379.
Victory, 382.
Victoire La, 17.
Vie des Martyrs, 121 ff.
432
INDEX
Vierge de Lutece, 347 f .
Vigiiaiul, 01.
Vignc's-Houges Jean des,
31 ff.
Vigny A. de, 65, 66, 87,
89.
Villele Aline de, 366.
Villeroy A., 347 f.
Vin de Champagne, 280.
Visme Henrictte de, 229.
Vivre pour la Fatrie,
374.
Vocance J., 328.
Voivenel Dr., 122.
Voix duns la Fournaise,
329.
Vol de la Marseillaise,
304 ff.
Volontaires, 164, 211.
Voltaire, 46, 101, 250,
290.
Von Kommenden Dingen,
290.
Vosges, 142, 146, 147.
Wagner R., 332.
War as a Means of Se-
lection, 280.
War Cause of, 275 ff
War-Diaries and War-
Recollections, 30, 62 ff.,
141 ff., 187.
War Italian, 384.
Napoleonic, 146, 277,
385.
War-Lords, see Kaiser,
etc.
Warned A., 202 f.
War-Novel, 27 ff., 303.
War-Time-Novel, 28 ff.,
363 ff.
Wells H. G., 285, 365.
Werth. L., 40.
Wetterle Abbe, 9, 369.
Wilde Robert de, 162.
Williams H. Isabella,
127 ff.
Wolf P., 346.
Y , 182 ff.
Yerta Mme., 192.
Ypres, 147.
Yser, 161, 162, 389.
Yver, Colette, 222, 375,
378.
Zamacois, 299 ff., 346, 349.
Zavie E., 203.
Zola, 187, 343, 364, 386.
389.
(11
433
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