A GREAT FRENCH WRITER

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 278, 23 November 1929, Page 13

A GREAT FRENCH WRITER

The greatest master since Moliere of the tragi-comedy which is the French expression of humour, Mr. Georges Courteline, died last summer. His understanding of army life is perfectly expressed in "Le Train de S heures 47," which is known to all who understand and cherish the French language. Another masterpiece, perhaps the best known of all his works, was tho distilled humour and tragedy of fourteen years spent as a clerk in a Government bureau. If he had not invented comic situations whicli appeal equally to the man in the street and to the erudite, if he had not displayed a marvellous comprehension of human frailty, Courteline would still be outstanding by reason of bis excellent command of language; He once described himself as "the prey of an eternal discontent, making my sentence as one constructs a train, from words sought out at the ends of the tracks, led gentlv behind my back and linked together as well as possible." A master of the purest French, he had also distinguished himself by the handling of patois and soldiers' slang, with oaths five lines lone and of the language peculiar to rombvde-cuir. Time has only coiiJirined the observation which was made of him once: "He makes us laugh, but do not let that deceive you; he is a thinker, a master."