IV Fantasia Phalansteria
GENERALLY,Professor Colvert’s “Textual
Introductions” and “Textual Notes” repre-
sent splendid models for the textual scholar.
Of sound detective work and solid judg-
ment, more than a touch has gone into
many of his remarks. To cite only two ex-
amples, he has solved the heretofore vexing
questions of date with regard to The Third
Violet and “War Memories.” In his “Tex-
tual Notes” Colvert furthermore provides
intelligent and thorough discussions of nu-
merous problematical areas in the various
Crane texts. His treatment of the punctua-
tion of “Kim up, the Kickers” (apparently
the rallying cry for the imaginary Kicking
Twelfth) serves as an especially noteworthy
example of editorial thoroughness. And a
final tribute to Colvert and to Fredson
Bowers is the text itself, which seems sensi-
bly selected and meticulously edited. This
reviewer has only one cavil : stylistically,
Colvert’s “Introduction” could have been
tightened up in parts.
Crane scholars and enthusiasts will
doubtless consult T d e s of War and the oth-
er recently published volumes of the Vir-
ginia edition of The Works of Stephen
Crane, with pleasure and profit for years
to come.
Reviewed by JAMES J. KIRSCHKE Revolution, with the publication of his first
i ‘Stephen Crane: Portrait of an American Man
of Letters (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1923).
’The best study of this subject is Maurice
Beebe’s wide-ranging IVOTY Toivers and Sacred
Founts: The Portrait of the Artist as Hero in
Fiction from Goethe to Joyce (New York: New
York University Press, 1964).
‘For fascinating background on the publica- reproduced, for the most part, in about
tion of Maggie, confer Maurice Bassan’s Maggie: the same terms; whoever has read one of
Tezt and Context (Belrnont, California: The
Wadsworth Press, 1966).
‘These remarks are quoted by Beer in Stephen
Crane ( pp. 205-206) .
Motfern Age
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Design for Utopia : Selected Writings
of Charles Fourier, edited by Charles
Gide; translated by Frank Manuel, New
York: Schocken Books, Inc., 1971. 208
pp. $2.75.
CHARLES FOURIER was born on April 7 ,
1772 at Besancon and died in Paris in
October of 1837. His whole life, writes
Charles Gide in the introduction, “might,
if necessary, be condensed in these two
lines.” For “it was not, in fact, dis-
tinguished by any memorable occurrence.”
He did not, for example, stir up any con-
spiracies as did Gracchus Baboeuf ; nor was
he, like Saint-Simon, considered a grand
seigneur. He did not travel, as did Etienne
Cabet, to America to establish an Icarian
republic; nor was he like Karl Marx the
president of an Internationale. He gave no
audiences to princes, as did Kobert Owen;
nor did he like Owen enjoy the reputation
of great philantrophy; his was the prosaic
life of a broker in the clothing firms of
Lyons, Rouen, and Marseilles. Yet, shortly
after the worst horrors of the French
book, Theorie des Quatre Mouvements, he
formulated his own social-political system.
Each subsequent volume was simply an
elaboration of the ideas contained in the
first, for, as M. Gide accurately notes
“each contains the author’s entire system,
and exhibits, pell-mell, the same theories,
them . . . has read them all.”
Besides a huge quantity of manuscript
material, Fourier produced four major
books. In addition to the above-mentioned
work which was published in 1808, he
wrote Traite de l‘dssociation Domestique
Agricole in 1822 (considered by Gide to
be his most important contribution), Le
Nouveau Monde Industrial in 1829, and
109
La Fausse Industrie in 1836. These, then,
are the pillars upon which the system rests,
and upon which the present collection is
drawn.
Because the ideas of Fourier “are found
thrown pell-mell and without order,” it be-
came necessary-so the editors tell us-to
“ransack” through his voluminous works
and extract those passages which seemed
to them to be detached from “the surround-
ing mass,” either because of their superiori-
ty or because of their ability to convey the
u
most exact expression” of this thought,
and to arrange and classify them by sub-
ject-matter and in chapters “so as to give,
as far as possible, the impression of a con-
tinuous whole.”
Consequently, these extracts are divided
into three parts and sub-divided into
twenty-three chapters, each with a title
which is not taken from Fourier. No at-
tempt is made, however, to link these parts
or chapters by connecting commentary.
Thus, the final product has about it “a cer-
tain air of disjointedness,” a characteristic
which, incidentally, is reminiscent of the
author whose own style is distinguished by
what he called “Fordre disperse.” In gath-
ering these selections, the editors tried not
to caricature their subject by choosing his
most extravagant passages, nor to flatter
him by omitting anything of an eccentric
nature. Instead, they presented “a realistic
Fourier, that is to say, a Fourier fantastic
but practical.”
The first five chapters (Theodicy, Evolu-
tion, Role of the Passions, Relation of the
Sexes, and Education) make up part one
and present the philosophical content of
Fourier’s thought. The next four chapters
comprising part two (Vices of Civilization,
Commerce, Agriculture, and Manufac-
turers) contain the critical portion of the
writings. And the rest of the chapters in
part three (among them extracts from The
Phulanstery, “Series and Groups,” “At-
tractive Labor,” “Of Luxury and Saving,”
and “Of Duties toward Animals”) repre-
sent a practical and systematic exposition
of the author’s work. Each chapter includes
110
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a reference to the work and page from
which it was taken.
Fourier began with the a-priori proposi-
tion that the world was created by a
benevolent God according to a certain
plan: “God has done well all that he has
done.” As such, the problem of social
misery reduced itself to a straying from this
grand design. Consequently, the answer
would be found when man discovers the
secret. And this is precisely what Fourier
was convinced he had done. All that re-
mained for him to do was to put the plan
into action. And this, as we shall see, is ex-
actly what he tried to do in his attempts to
find a trial phalanx.
The mystery of God’s design, Fourier
wrote, was unravelled by him in 1798
when, by chance, he discovered “the
calculus of attraction.” Beginning with the
premise that a harmonious relation existed
between the natural world of the heavens
and the social world of the earth, he con-
cluded that the moving force in both was
the principle of attraction. Therefore, what
Newton uncovered concerning the material
world, Fourier unveiled in reference to the
moral world.
At last the time had come, reasoned
Fourier, to undo two thousand years of his-
tory “imbued with a doctrine termed
Morality, which is a mortal enemy of
passioned attraction.” The transformation
would take place, in his view, when man
allows himself to be guided not by morali-
ty but by his thirteen passions, that is, the
five senses; the four social passions of
friendship, ambition, love, and family feel-
ing; the three distributive passions of the
cabaliste (the passion for intrigue), the
papillon (the passion for diversification),
and the composite (the passion for combin-
ing passions) ; and, finally, harmony (the
passion which serves as a synthesis for all
the others).
To affect the change men and women
would have to be gathered into phalanxes
consisting of 300 families and between
1,500 and 1,600 persons. Each phalanx
would comprise a long stretch of land close
Winter 1974
 to a stream of water, contiguous to a forest,
intersected by hills and adaptable to a
varied cultivation. The inhabitants would
be drawn from every age, character, level
of income, and educational and p r a c t i d
background. Every case would be taken to
obtain the greatest number of variations
possible. For the greater the variety, the
easier it would be to establish harmony in
a brief span of time.
These phalanxes, in no way, would
resemble the socialistic experiments in
America by the followers of Mother Ann
Lee or Cabet. Nor would they reflect the
ideas of Owen or Saint-Simon with which
Fourier had little sympathy “One cannot
conceive,” he wrote, “how these sacerdotal
play-actors can command so large a follow-
Disciplme
ing. Their dogmas are ... monstrosities Essays in
. .;
. to preach in the nineteenth century, Literary Criticism and Culture
the abolition of property and heredity.”
Since the phalanx was to be built on the by George A. Panichas
principle of attraction, there really would with a foreword
be no need of implementing it through by C. Wilson Knight
revolution. Nor would it be necessary to
have any recourse to force; even though The ways in which literary and cul-
one may find, as Gide has, a random tural values touch and then con-
message of the necessity of using “coercive nect a r e indeed unique. This uni-
measures” on civilized man “for his own queness is vividly experienced here
good.” Priests and ministers would be asGeorge A. Panichas employs criti-
given a considerable place. For religions cism to illuminate a wide range of
are “far superior to the uncertain sciences,” pressing cultural problems in their
because “they have had the honor of pass- literary, social, and religious con-
ing true judgments upon the condition of texts. .Vigorously anti-radical and
civilized man : they rightly consider him anti-romantic, these essays call for
in a state of exile and of divine punish- a return to classical values of life
ment.” and thought. By pursuing and ex-
The ideas of Fourier are thus too eclectic panding the critical function this
to win any wide acceptance in the Utopian volume promises to be a lasting and
Socialist camp. On the other hand, his fail- highly original contribution to the
understanding of the human condi-
ure to include envy and indolence among
tion. 400 pages, cloth, $17.50
the human passions is not likely to endear
him to anyone who takes a serious view of
original sin. And yet, there have been some
followers, few but faithful. For them the
present collection should provide the excite-
ment of synthesizing their leader’s thought.

Reviewed by TIMOTHYA. MITCHELL

Modem Age 111

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