Léon Bloy 6: Bloy critique by Pierre Glaudes

Abstract

5 I8 Reviews Flaubert are included. Pertinent studies by other Vernian scholars such as Pierre Macherey, Piero Gondolo della Riva, Volker Dehs, Andrew Martin, Alain Buisine, and especially Daniel Compere are referenced (in-text and/or via profuse footnotes). And, throughout thebook, Unwin showcases awonderfully broad selection ofVerne's fiction,underscoringthe 'polyphonic, composite nature' (p. 52) of this writer's ceuvre. The book is logically structured, reads smoothly, and contains almost no typos or other editorial glitches. It begins with a six-page introduction and ends with a six-page conclusion. In between are six chapters entitled 'Science, Literature, and theNineteenth Century', 'Textual Environments', 'All the World's aText', 'Theatre and Theatricality', 'Self-Consciousness: The Journey of Language and Narrative', and 'Writing and Rewriting'. A brief chronology of Verne's life is included in an appendix, and a selected critical bibliography and topical index complete thevolume. As a veteran Vernian, I learntmuch from thisbook; itsscholarship isup todate, and itsanalyses are both original and insightful.A fewof thediscussions that I especially enjoyed were those describing how Verne's early experiences in the theatre influenced his style as a novelist, how he explored in highly creative ways the problematic link between narrative and knowledge, and how his playful manipulation ofmetatextual narrative voice 'More, perhaps, than any other novelist innineteenth-century France' (p. I34) continually offers the reader a unique behind-the-scenes look atVerne's own 'journey inwriting'. Highly recommended forboth university and public libraries as well as for all JulesVerne enthusiasts who wish to gain a greater appreciation for Verne as a littraire. DEPAUW UNIVERSITY ARTHUR B. EVANS Leon Bloy 6: Bloy critique. Ed. by PIERREGLAUDES. (La Revue des Lettres Modernes) Paris and Caen: Lettres Modernes Minard. 2005. 275 pp. E26. ISBN 978-2 256-91094-4. Scholarship on Leon Bloy, theprophetic nineteenth-century forerunner of the rela tionship between creative writing and Christian belief inFrance, is in a healthy state. His journalism, autobiographical novels, andyournal express oneman's absolute con viction that truth exists in the face of absurdity and that thevirtue of hope depends on theexpression of that truth in the fightagainst evil. Bloy was aware of themultiple abuses of language by organs of information and social justice, which brings him close to contemporary concerns, and he chose clearly between the compartmentalization proposed inmodern times by theTree of Knowledge and the unity offered by the Tree ofLife. This volume on Bloy the critic is the sixth in the series directed by Pierre Glaudes atMinard since I989 and concentrates on Bloy's critical output (the lesser of two evils according toAntoine Compagnon (p. 27I)), thus using to advantage, as the editor points out, the recent publication of critical works by the author and recent theses,while recognizing thatother avenues of approach also contribute to the contemporary renewal of interest inBloy studies. In customary Minard stylePart I consists of seven articles (Joseph Royer, Dominique Millet-Gerard, Jerome Solal, Gilles Negrello, Gaelle Guyot, Michele Fontana, Emile Van Belberghe), followed by three articles in 'iiVaria' (Lioudmila Andreeva, Lydie Parisse, Theodor Paleologu), and ending with the 'Carnet critique', six book reviews principally by the editor and several of the authors inPart I. Giovanni Dotoli has defined elsewhere the key principle of literature forBloy as thebelief that lifealone isnot sufficient,because literature isabout theadventure and challenge of surpassing life itself (Giovanni Dotoli, 'Le pelerin de la parole', inLeon Bloy: polemistede la verite (=La Presse Litteraire, 6 (May-July 2006)), pp. 8-24). Bloy MLR, I02.2, 2007 5I9 feared no one, and no writer or topicwas above his powers of criticism, as shown in detail byMillet-Gerard, who underlines Bloy's paradoxical faith inHistory alongside his unclassifiable status as a critic and his fearless attitude towards ideological and aesthetic convention. His recognized influence on Huysmans, Claudel, and Bernanos can be extended to include the late twentieth-centuryChristian writer Jean Sulivan (I9I3-80), particularly regarding the latter's stance 'a l'endroit des bien-pensants en tout genre' (p. 6o). The article by Parisse and her recent thesis, also reviewed here by Glaudes, deal with themystical model as a tool inunderstanding Bloy's work. The loss of the father which prefigures the (apparent) absence of God...