Review: [untitled]

Author(s): Thomas C. Spear

Source: The French Review, Vol. 63, No. 2 (Dec., 1989), pp. 383-384
Published by: American Association of Teachers of French
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/394793 .
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REVIEWS 383

memory" (31). But there is nothing in the text to indicate that the photograph
caused the epiphany. In fact, we cannot tell from the notation anything about the
moment of memory and Proust's decision to use the paving stones. The triggering
mechanism is much less important than the phenomenon itself. Pugh makes a
similar assumption about the famous group of trees seen from the train (26 and
81). Such suppositions are harmless enough and may be true, but they cannot be
proven-at least by the available evidence. Pugh is ready to accept Painter's dating
of the madeleine episode as being around New Year's Day 1909, but he does not
believe that the original moment of illumination for the novel was an involuntary
memory experience (50 and 84). The real beginning was the two walks, the "deux
c6tos" that are later discovered to be one circular path (58). With this key to his
work in hand-the unification of the writer's childhood memories into a fiction-
alized geography-Proust began organizing his material, linking characters, and
creating the world of la Recherche(67 & 83).
Professor Pugh is very good on summarizing how Proust shifted the material
once he realized that he would be able to achieve his goal of writing a great literary
work. What began as a critical essay would be "reshaped to make it a personal
revelation, not just a critical appendix"(76 & 78). In his conclusion, Pugh states that
Proust made a series of choices that led him towards the goal of becoming a writer
and that these choices all "operate on the level of composition, they are questions
of structure, not of experiences happening in Proust's daily life" (85). Given the
Bibliotheque Nationale's recent acquisition of the remaining thirteen known note-
books and the continued examination of all the manuscript material, it is clear that
the last word has yet to be said on the genesis of la Recherche.Based on the evidence
available and studies done to date, Pugh's for the most part judicious and common
sense use of the material makes his study a valuable handbook for the Proust
scholar.

University of Alabama, Birmingham William C. Carter

BUCKLEY, WILLIAM K. CriticalEssayson Louis-Ferdinand Ctline.Boston: G. K. Hall &

Co. 353 Pp. $40.00.
William K. Buckley's collection assembles a wide variety of thought on Cdline:
38 different articles of which eight were especially written for this volume. The
work of a great number of renowned "Cdlinians"is represented here, interspersed
with some important studies from diverse sources, translated, when necessary,
into English. In fact, this volume can serve as a critical introduction to Cdline for
the English speaker.
With the exception of his own, Buckley has maintained the essays in their form
as originally published, thereby bringing alive critical viewpoints from different
periods of Cdline's continually controversial career. Given the large number of
essays, some repetition and discrepancy is inevitable. The noninitiated might be
tempted to believe that the more recent essays are more credible but this is not
always the case. For example, Anthony Burgess writes that Cdline's most well-
known polemical bomb, Bagatellespour un massacre,has not reappeared in print
because Gallimard fears embarrassment if they republish it (342); Cdline's wife
was quoted earlier as the sole possessor-and therefore determining factor-of
publishing rights (333). Amusing mistakes occur when writing about C61ine's
infamous head injuries, stating, for example, that he "had to undergo several
384 FRENCHREVIEW

operations on his skull" (54). When speaking of this "grave head wound" (200),
George Steiner writes, "Lorgorrheais the very condition of Cdline achievement and
limitation (his head injury may be pertinent)" (202). A 1971 essay reminds us that
"it has been clearly established that Cdline was never wounded in the head" (260).
One must therefore make one's way through this collection with judgment,
weighing one appreciation of Cdline against another (a more thorough index could
help in such comparison). G. K. Hall perhaps made demands upon Buckley for
establishing this compilation for their "Critical Essays on World Literature Series,"
but a brief biography of the contributors would certainly have been of benefit: to
know which of these scholars read Cdline in the original French, what they have
previously written on him, their institutional affiliation, etc. This might not give
us an indication of their political or literary qualifications, but could give weight to
their arguments and methods of evaluation. This is not necessarily true for several
well-known critics: included in this volume are such diverse articles as Leon Trot-
sky's perspicuous essay of 1935, Andre Gide's curious analysis of Bagatelles,and
John Updike's gratuitous opinion concerning Cdline's "Facism [sic], and his collab-
oration with the Nazis" (334). Updike's resume of a book on (not by) Cdline shows
what occurs when one evaluates Cdline's political ideology without having read his
pamphlets.
Leaving aside the mediocre readings (and there are several), this volume includes
some excellent Celinian scholarship. Irving Howe, for example, writes a fine essay
which shows Cdline's powerful mind, nevertheless unequal to his "boundless cre-
ative energy" (59). David O'Connell's essay gives a very clear background presen-
tation of the historical and literary events which have led to the formulation of
Cdline's reputation. David Hayman writes in a rich English prose all too rare in
literary criticism, and has a perceptive grasp of the power of Cdline's words-a
"faith in the efficacy of language" (168)-words as actions coming from this infa-
mous "clown of reaction" (163). Colin Nettelbeck notices the original "fusion of
novel and autobiography" (269) found in Cdline's last novels, particularly the way
in which Cdline's "self-deprecatory and comic mode" (277) helps render his accounts
of the events of WWII more believable than official histories. These examples can
suggest the diversity and quality of some of the many essays contained in this
collection.
Buckley's introduction cites a number of important books published on Cdline,
many of which were written by the contributors he has chosen. The essays them-
selves could lead the interested reader to pursue critical study into such texts and
will certainly add to an understanding of Cdline, especially by compiling such a wide
variety of analytical approaches. Paths are also opened to many new areas of study:
through the less interesting essays (where improvement can be made), by direct
suggestion (e.g. Erika Ostrovsky's presentation of Cdlinian mythology), or by giv-
ing new approaches to Cdline's language (see the chapter translated from Henri
Godard's major study). This volume explores and reflects very well the diversity
of Cdlinian criticism.

CUNY, Lehman College Thomas C. Spear