A FRENCH AUTHOR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 16034, 14 September 1912, Page 12

A FRENCH AUTHOR.

(“ The Queen.”) V In the year 1889, when two-thirds of the inhabitants of the civilised, world were flocking to the Paris International Exhibition, a little dark-eyed girl with 5 thoughtful brow and dreamy jet-black eyes, might have been seen poring, , from morn till eve, over books, in a modest fiat on the Boulevard dea Batignolles. For Marcelie Chasteau was ambitious. The future creatress of “ La. Maison du Peche ” and •“ La Rebelle” works which have raised her j' to the very pinnacle of fame—would not be satisfied with the superficial sort of instruction usually given to girls, and had resolved to dispute the laurels of the baccalaureat with lads of her’ age. She passed that examination most brilliantly, although, twenty years ago, such an exploit on the part of a / youthful member of the “ weaker sex was a most unheard of event. Yet tho owner of that clear head had a most romantic heart. Her Latin verses, mathematics, and study of the “ Belles-Lettres ” had not rendered her insensiblp to love, which soon presented itself in the form of a young artist, poor and labourious, who boro the name of Julien Tinayre. His assiduous, passionate homage could not fail to awaken a sentiment of affection and confidence on the part of such a girl. The young man’s boyhood had been cruelly blighted by the horrors of the Franco-German. War and the Commune—above all, by a judiciary error which was one of the consequences of the latter. His own father had been most unjustly shot as ' a Communard, although he had taken no part whatever in that insurrection. His only crime was that of being the - ■; husband of a woman whose revolution-.; ~!: ary doctrines had been published in; '• various advanced socialist organs ot> those troubled times. Tho girl’s heart was moved to pity at the memory of those terrible scenes, and we all know • 1 that “ pity is akin to love.” So. when still little more than a child, Marcelie - \ Chasteau became Marcelie Tinayre. Youth, love and hope, charming as V : such abstrations may be, form an insuf-i-' ficient, foundation for a young .: to start housekeeping with.' .V The - struggling artist and his child-wife soon perceived that Dame Fortune turned her wheel resolutely against them,• though thev contrived to live on little, ■ buoyed each other up by mutual cour ' ago and affection, and . eschewed al ‘ pleasures save those intellectual ohei.-., . „ which the Ville Lumiere offers sc lavishly to those who can appreciatf. •’ ; them. Three babes were bom, on© close upon another; then the Angel of. , Death came and carried one away. But when a fourth child, Lucile, saw the light, in the dingy populous faubourg ’.'. ; of Vaugirard, the young mother had t f already started on the road to famo. . She began by translating the wprks. of ‘ .modern British authors into her mother- 1 tongue, having a decided predilection for those of Thomas Hardy, and at the same , time contributed some brilliant . M articles to the “ Fronde,’ ’a woman’s ; newspaper of feminist tendencies. i Her first novels appeared as feuil-. -i letons in some of the leading gazettes, were: greeted with enthusiasm by the .literary public, and dubbed “ remarkable ” by eminent critics. But when •y.; -; her “House of Sin” was published .in 1902, the young authoress opened fier V ■ dark eyes one morning to find herself \ famous! In that) perfect study of human life and character, two young people meet and love whose very tra- ’• ditions, principles and surroundings should have made thern sworn enemies, were not the littlo impish god as blind as ever in directing nis shafts. Dissimulating her erudition under a mask of poetry, the perfect artist that Marcelle Tinayre proves herself to be, takes us with her hero and heroine to the ruins of Port Royal. Amidst its crumbling walls wo catch a glimpse of the life led there by its former occupants, the austere and learned Jansenisis. ' After the “Maison de Peche” came ■ ' “ La Vie amoureuse de Francois Barbazanges,” a charming study of the life led by the bourgeois and lace- • makers of Tulle in the seventeenth century. Then came La Rebelle,” followed by “ L’Ombre de I’Amour,” > then “Notes d’une Voyageuse en Turquie.” Mdmc Tinayre’s last novel/ “ La Douceur de Vivre,” transports us , to Naples—that cradle of love and poetry—and as wo peruse those delicious pages we feel no regret at being taken there. It is impossible to read Marcelie Tinayre’s works without taking an interest in her personages. They are all living, breathing,- erring, imperfect . human beings like ourselves. We take pleasure in their society and leave them with regret. As for Mdme Marcello Tinayre herself, she is the. simplest, most unpretentious of modem : writers. Her conversation is easy, elegant, witty and devoid of pedantry. S.he attracts sympathy as surely as honey attracts the. bee.