Approches du XIXe siècle by Loïc Chotard (review)

Abstract

MLR, 97.4, 2002 979 are mean with illustrations, the maps of Paris are poor, and the heavy grotesque type for the initial letter of the firstword in each chapter is disfiguring. University of East Anglia, Norwich Christopher Smith L'Expression du sentimentdans I'ceuvre de Benjamin Constant. By Victor Kocay. (Studies in French Literature, 48) Lewiston, Queenston, and Lampeter: Mellen. 2001. viii + 342pp. ?59.95; $99-95This work grew out of an earlier project, that of examining the memorable maximes or aphorisms to be found in Constant's Adolphe 'qui representent comme des fenetres linguistiques permettant de voir a l'oeuvre les forces qui gouvernent l'evolution des personnages' (p. 3). While that remains a not insubstantial part ofthe present study, Victor Kocay has now widened his perspective considerably not only to take in the many maximes in theJournaux intimesand the correspondence of Constant, but also to explore what he sees as lying behind those pithy observations: the notion of feeling, ie sentiment'. Kocay's starting point is the seven-volume treatise De la religion (182433 ). The notion of feeling is, of course, a notoriously vague one in Constant's writings, as is that of nature (both perhaps hark back to Rousseau), and is generally set up in opposition to that of enlightened self-interest, Tinteret bien entendu' as defined by Helvetius, which is associated with calculating egoism and the desire for gain. In a firstsection on De la religion Kocay sets out Constant's views on the dynamic and necessary opposition in human history between 'le sentiment', private inner feeling, and Tinteret', a dialectical process which ensures that outdated forms of religious observance are constantly sloughed off and new ones found. No less important is the continual antagonism in history between priestly castes, 'le sacerdoce', and the inner religious yearnings of free individuals (p. 107), since 'le sentiment' is also the sense of something lacking in existing institutions and a desire to satisfy that need. Perhaps not every reader will be brave enough to follow Constant and Kocay into the obscurer realms of primitive fetishisms and Greek polytheism?a long section is devoted to the posthumous Du polytheisme romain (1833)?but the expedition is worth it since it throws new light on such central ideas in Constant's writings as human perfectibility and 'la douceur des moeurs'. For the hallmark of a society that has progressed away from barbarism towards a greater degree of perfection is the abandonment of a harsh, authoritarian, arbitrary moral code and the adoption of a gentler and more tolerant one which respects the freedom and privacy of the individual. In subsequent chapters Kocay examines the complex meanings of 'le sentiment' in Constant's political writings, literary works, and private letters. This careful and thought-provoking study can be recommended to all students of Constant. University of Birmingham Dennis Wood Approches du XIXe siecle. By Loi'c Chotard. Paris: Presses de l'Universite ParisSorbonne . 2000. 454 pp. 180 F. Following Loi'c Chotard's untimely death (he would have been 40 if he had lived to see the volume under review), his colleagues marked his contribution to nineteenthcentury French studies by lectures at the Musee d'Orsay, under the title 'Le Romantisme apres 1848', and a colloquiumat the Sorbonne (2-3 June 2000) on 'La Vie Romantique'. The present selection of thirty-fiveof his articles and papers, followed 980 Reviews by a bibliography of his publications, is a further homage to a talented scholar. The bibliography, with over eighty items, is thorough, although there is no reference to his collaboration with Jean-Luc Steinmetz on the Nerval volume in the 'Memoire de la critique' series of 1997. Some ofthe pieces listed are the small change of academic life (encyclopaedia entries, conference papers, introductions), but most of those reproduced here are substantial studies based on archival research. The volume is divided into four sections, reflectingthe scope of Chotard's interests, with fivearticles on bio? graphy,eleven on aspects of Romanticism, eleven on Vigny, and eight on the problems of editing correspondences. Best known for his work on Vigny, both as cataloguer of the manuscripts from the Sangnier archive and as co-editor of the Correspondance...