. The Argonaut . Imitation ofThomas a Kempis. Of course, Willy is not one of thegiants. Were he so he would hardly be so popular. Buthe has the art of mystifying people with hints of de-licious wickedness. He has even made public quota-tion of an ancient adage. Morality is the refuge ofthose who are insensible to beauty. His laughter is ascrisp as the crackling of thorns under a pot; and em-inently representative of the lighter spirit of the peo-ple. And who shall say that it is not just as acceptablea light spirit as that of any other nation ? It is at leastfree from imbecility and vulgarity.
. The Argonaut . Imitation ofThomas a Kempis. Of course, Willy is not one of thegiants. Were he so he would hardly be so popular. Buthe has the art of mystifying people with hints of de-licious wickedness. He has even made public quota-tion of an ancient adage. Morality is the refuge ofthose who are insensible to beauty. His laughter is ascrisp as the crackling of thorns under a pot; and em-inently representative of the lighter spirit of the peo-ple. And who shall say that it is not just as acceptablea light spirit as that of any other nation ? It is at leastfree from imbecility and vulgarity. Willy, whose real name is Henri Gauthier-Villars,has a wife, Colette, to whom he is devoted, and fromwrhom he is inseparable. She has just published abook in the humor, somewhat, of her husband. It iscalled Seven Foolish Dialogues. Its style is a? elu-sive as intermittent glimpses of a lace petticoat undera skirt; and that simile describes its contents betterthan description. Worthy of notice are the preface by. Raffles at a critical moment. Illustration from A Thief in the Night, by E. W. Hornung. Published by Charles Scribners Sons. a provincial poet, M. Jammes, who claims for the Willy couple a solemn respectability, probably withtruth; and the portrait, by Jacques Blanche, whichetherealizes madame into a very Parisian fairy. Both in the lighter vein, and in the more serious,French literature, so far as novels go, loses much bythe stay-at-home prejudice which limits, not localcolor (that being attainable by genius without travel),but ideas of humanity, to the range of Paris. Everyseason this deplorable fact grows increasingly the great human heart of the world these peopleknow nothing and care less. They are content withbeing experts on the sex question Parisian; at bestbut a contracted and rather diseased aspect of themighty problem which convulses modern fiction. Wesee a wearisome succession of such titles as ThePower of Desire, The Perfume of Pleasure, f
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectjournal, bookyear1877
