Le roman de la révolution: l’écriture romanesque des révolutions de Victor Hugo à George Orwell par Isabelle Durand-Le Guern

Abstract

Reviews 215 littéraire,” is an effort to highlight papers from archives, which contain over 3700 documents consisting of manuscripts, tapuscrits, and letters. Part 3,“Recueil de lettres,” is divided by correspondents (editors, authors, literary critics, and artists) rather than chronologically. Specific letters were selected to shed light on Proal’s personality and constant drive to earn recognition.What is most fascinating in this collection of letters is Proal’s correspondence with his editors because the reader is able to watch the writing process unfold and see how a novel transforms through these letters; one detects as well the disappointment, criticism, persistence, and enthusiasm that drove Proal to write what he wanted to write—“une dimension métaphysique de l’expérience humaine”rather than placing his writing within a contemporary literary setting—“la vie parisienne,” for which editors often criticized him (32, 22). Proal’s passion and energy to be recognized as a writer is paralleled by the authors in this collection and their efforts to bring Proal’s literary voices back to life, not only physically in the reedition of many of his works, but by showing the timelessness of his characters and settings which transcend any contemporary literary boundaries and which place him deservedly in the position of créateur d’humanité. This text will appeal to a broad audience as it offers a range of themes covering contemporary French literature, theater, and cinema as well as intertextuality, stylistics, and archival preservation. Florida State University Virginia Osborn Durand-Le Guern, Isabelle. Le roman de la révolution: l’écriture romanesque des révolutions de Victor Hugo à George Orwell. Rennes: PU de Rennes, 2012. ISBN 978-2-7535-2007-3. Pp. iv + 288. 18 a. In this ambitious and dense study, the author explores the representation and evolution of revolution—as a concept—in fictional works published between the midnineteenth century and the end of the Second World War. While little of what is covered here will seem like new ground to an audience either of literary scholars or historians, Durand-Le Guern’s approach and methodical insistence on stripping revolution back to an autonomous concept, detached from the social and historical circumstances of its occurrence, invites readers to think anew about certain rich dimensions of the relationship between historical understanding and literature. Part 1 of the study, “Dire la Révolution,” engages in formal analysis of the corpus chosen by Durand-Le Guern, which includes both well-known novels (such as Flaubert’s L’éducation sentimentale and Hugo’s Quatre-vingt-treize), lesser-known works (Victor Serge’s Ville conquise and Jean Cassou’s Les massacres de Paris) and works from outside of the French literary tradition (Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities and Orwell’s Animal Farm). The corresponding chapters focus on the literary and formal aspects of these novels, examining how the literary movements in which they are inscribed shape and impact the representation of revolution. Detailed analysis of the relationship between narrative discourse and the historical events depicted effectively underpins and forwards Durand-Le Guern’s argument, with particular attention paid here to the uses of focalization, narration, literary models, rhetoric, and irony. The second section of the study, “Penser la Révolution,” explores the ways in which the novelists engage revolution as a concept, in its many dimensions. At the same time, it looks at the political and philosophical presuppositions that inform and manifest themselves in each novel. How do the authors define revolution and from what perspective? What about the legacy of the Romantic equation of revolution with progress? These chapters raise these large questions and others, concluding that the tensions inherent to the representation of revolution arise from the continuous and multi-formed confrontation of the concept and its ideals with the real of historical circumstance. Part 3, “Imaginer la Révolution,”looks at recurring imagery associated with revolution, such as the phantasmagoric representation of crowds and mobs, as well as the real and metaphorical representation of movement and the transposition of myths and mythical figures, so as to bring into sharper focus the origins and impact of these topoi. DurandLe Guern argues that these element—as a whole—can...