Baudelaire and the Art of Memory by J. A. Hiddleston (review)

Abstract

MLRy 99.1, 2004 205 Hiddleston's study ofthe ambivalence of suicide in Hugo's fiction.This volume clearly demonstrates why Hugo's novels provide such a rich seam of interest forthe twentyfirst -century reader, yet assessment of some of his works remains surprisingly fluid: Noetinger paraphrases Richard B. Grant's judgement of L'Homme qui rit (without necessarily accepting it) as 'franchementmauvais' (p. 137), Hiddleston calls it 'Hugo's most extraordinary and hyperbolic creation' (p. 205), and Thompson proclaims it to be iechef d'oeuvrede Hugo romancier' (p. 187). A thought-provoking volume indeed! University of Liverpool Monica Nurnberg Baudelaire and theArt ofMemory. By J.A. Hiddleston. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1999. xiv + 304 pp. ?59.50. ISBN0-19-815932-3. Scholars of Baudelaire and other nineteenth-century specialists are familiar with the thoroughgoing and incisive criticism of J. A. Hiddleston, especially his work on Baudelaire's art criticism. In this book Hiddleston is at his best: the impressive erudition, the thoroughness of the documentary account, the focus and keenness of the argument, and the critical sensitivity to the Baudelairian text all mark this out as a work of genuine scholarship. Hiddleston's title foregrounds the main strands of his argument, which are that Baudelaire's art (in all its manifestations) and art for Baudelaire are connected to memory in its conception, production, and reception, and the related notion of recognition, which is inherent in the art of criticism itself. The book is organized around key essays by Baudelaire, or artists, which are conceptually framed to suggest Hiddleston's critical trajectory in this book. The Salon de 1846 stands as an emblem to Baudelaire's achievement and contradictions, and to some critical confusion that Hiddleston clarifies, at both the book's beginning and its end. The aesthetic achievement of this early Salon is carefully nuanced and developed by later writings, Hiddleston carefully shows, and key figuressuch as Delacroix, Boudin, Guys, and Manet are explored with close attention to the detail and to their aesthetic significance, and with an eye for the dangers of mere analogy. Manet's presence is important here since, by devoting a chapter to this figure, Hiddleston simultaneously recognizes his significance while foregrounding him to sound a note of caution. Hid? dleston suggestively speculates that Baudelaire's attitude to this great painter is rooted in a perception that art is in decline (generally) and that in Manet particularly there is 'a mismatch between form and medium, and content'. This is cautious speculation, justified by scholarship and principle, but there is a slight sense of disappointment that the promise of a full chapter on Manet does not give rise to more (informed) speculation. There are also chapters on the comic arts and a penetrating analysis of Baudelaire's theory of laughter that considerably adds to our understanding of these works. It is, though, in the chapter on landscape and the painting of modern life that some of the most valuable details and insightful analyses are offered. Here, as elsewhere, Hiddleston's own critical achievement mirrors Baudelaire's, and it is, perhaps, in Hiddleston's erudite symbiosis with the poet, which still manages acute critical distance, that all the power and subtlety of his scholarly arguments lie. All the more so, since what is at issue here is not simply a survey of Baudelaire's art criticism, but an evaluation of the significance and impact of this on Baudelaire's own poetic practice. The Art of Memory is an exceptional and integrating work of scholarship, and a landmark in the field. Royal Holloway, London Sonya Stephens ...