GONCOURT PRIZE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 16, 20 January 1933, Page 2

GONCOURT PRIZE

NEW FRENCH NOVELS

BOOKS IN THE RUNNING

MODEM TENDENCIES

This is the season of the literal?, prizes, and the Academies Francaise,' after awarding its' Grand" Prix da Litteraturo to Frane--]Srohain, poet, playwright, essayist, - and journalist, has given its novelists-prize to Jacques Chardonne ■ for his last book, "Claire," whose subject is, in his own words, "the happiness-that a. woman can give to a man, the only true happiness which exists in- this -world.'* The whole production of Jacques Chardonne—who is also director of the publishing house of Stock—does -not exceed five volumes, :but "the first of them, "Epithalame," published in. 1921, was ■ then described by Elemir Bourges as better than Stendhal and by Maeterlinck as a masterpiece, says a writer in the "Manchester Guardian."

The Goneourt Prize has not yet beea awarded, but several books are already mentioned as being in., the" running for it. Most of them are already so successful as hardly to need- =tha further publicity of a -prize-^for- in-, stance, the curious "Bose" Noire" of A. Boube-Jansky, the action of whosa passionate love story is laid in. Constantinople and Vienna and whose characters are Turk, Japanese, and Enssian. The same may be said of the remarkable "Les Loups," by Guy Mazeline, a young author who shows an exceptional power of giving life to all his characters, even when they are only secondary. His outlook is not cheerful,' and he_ does not find much that is sympathetic in human beings—the "wolves" of his. title. This story of how a mother slowly pursues her vengeance on the daughter-in-law who has taken her son from her, and even. upo"a the son himself, illustrates the" implacable vindictiveness which is a less beautiful side of thVFrencli character; but it is undoubtedly powerful"' nsr the 3UAW covets.: :" Among those who are also"mentioned is Eniile Zavie, the author, of "Chaabane," whose scene is. at "first laid in the Law Courts of .Paris and then changes to Egypt and:; Palestine, and whose characters, as.'restless,- intelligent, and unsatisfied in their "souls v as in their bodies,are characteristic of an age which lacks repose^-: But as Entile Zavie is the literary .critic, of the "Intransigeant?' "and won th» Benaissance Prize six years .ago'-with another book, ho can hardly bercounted among the young and unknown authors to encourage whom vthe Goncourt brothers left the money. Nor can .jeau Richard:Bloch, whose.: latest ■ .book, "Sybilla," has just appeared, for he is already a novelist and.playwright of reputation. ■-...' ■

Other competitors .whoso chances^ are well spoken of are. Edouard Peissbn, with. "Parti de Liverpool/ Bobert Poulet with "Le Meilleuret le.Pire," and Andre Chamson,. with "Heritages." ■■•:•_■■■

Meanwhile, there are new books by, writers who are definitely not competing for. the Goncourfc Prize.--/ Georges Duhamel, who won it in 1918,-has written in "Tel qu'en- luirxaeme" a poignant psychological, study-jpf-iigh aspirations, despair, and eventual =salvation on the. very ; brink of. suicide. The ThaTaud brothers, whoj were tho winners in .1906, have., produced' in "Les Bien-Aimees'? what is generally. corisidered;to:be.-.their finest : Tvoric.s'ho :hero" is a-:boy : .whose" parents.- take a succession-«f y.oung- American) English, and Swedish as. paying guests, and he falls in~love-with-most of them. His love is,r however, quite innocent and sentimental, arid -it is on - exclusively ideal and spiritual quality of" passion which eventually leads hint and- Clotilde into marriage—a marriage whieU by common ctosent'is never to" be consummated. Naturally it. ends in disaster, but the beauty-of it while-it lasts is the subject of this most sensitively, written book. ."•"■■• BOOKS BY CRITICS. There are three novels by wellknown critics. That of 7 Andre Therive, the critic of the "Temps," is a touching study of a- simple soul. Anna, who gives her name to the book, is the young wife of the : rough. Sergeant Chantiran. Chance involves her in-an adventure which is all to her honour rbut is of a character so likely to appear "compromising that she dare not speak of it to her husband. Her secret grows in her imagination until -it-assumes the proportions of a glowing,' "romantic memory. This memory and its effect upon the little country wife—who is eventually killed by her. husbandmake up the book. ' The wife who is the heroine of "La Pemme Maquillee," by Andre Billy, the critic of the "Oeuvre," is of a very different kind. This very modern Parisian couple, who have, lost;all moral balance, are represented >as. typical of a certain unstable and parvenu element in post-war Parisian society, and the story of the progressive degradation into which Mareeline is pushed by her husband, but soon accepts, is no doubt characteristic. But it-is. not a pretty story. •• -• :.. ■ Frederic Lefevre, the "critic of "Les Nouvelles Litteraires,'' -. has presented, in "L'Aniour de Vivre,"- the portrait of a sort of Breton:Madame Bovary. She is the wife of a-chemist in a small town, but in the quiet seaside, place to which she goes alone on.a holiday, ■she becomes the mistress of' a brilliant journalist after . having been pursued by a'flamboyant financier. • ■ ■■-.■■-

There are navels by academicians —• Marcel Prevost, who takes, us back to" Iris native Gascony in "Marie-dcs-Angoisses," a story of- youthful memories and friendships, of love, and of religion, and Henry Bordeaux, whose "Sibylle" is set in the period and at the "Court of Napoleon 111 and- tells of the politics.of the period and of the war of 1870 as well,as of a.sternly moral and aristocratic lady who lqvea but will never yield. • A CYCLE. ■ ; Each of these books assuredly has its public, but there will perhaps' be a larger public for those which go back. into the past in rather a different spirit —for Henri Beraud's "Les Lurons de Sabolas," which gives a vivid picture of democratic disappointments'? and labour disputes in Lyons in 1834, and especially for Jules Eomains's,important cycle, "Les Hommes de Bonne.Yolonte," of which four volumes Have now appeared. This study of the birth' and growth of the influences which have changed the world within living memory begins on 6th October, 1908 —"Le 6 octobre" is the title of the first volume." :