12241 F3 1918 RAY PR6STON:BOW t Hi LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO rtifc THE NOVELS OF FERDINAND FABRE INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE AND A DISCUSSION OF HIS POSITION IN LITERATURE BY 'RAY PRESTON BOWEN, PH. D. Assistant Professor of Romance Languages Syracuse University BOSTON RICHARD G. BADGER THE GORHAM PRESS Copyright. 1918, by Richard G. Badger All Bights Reserved MADE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA THE GORHAM PRESS, BOSTON, U. S. A. TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER PREFACE A few years ago my interest in Ferdinand Fabre was aroused by a series of lectures on the realistic novel of the nineteenth century given by Professor Chabert at the University of Grenoble. I was persuaded that the author of a novel that must rank with Madame Bo-vary among the masterpieces of this school merited careful study, and that L'Abbe Tigrane could not be the only one of his novels to possess marked literary excellence. Further reading amply verified my first opinion. No attempt, so far as I knew, had ever been made to gather into one account the facts of the life of Ferdinand Fabre, nor to submit his novels as a whole to any extend- ed study. Such, then, was the problem I set for myself in a doctoral dissertation later presented at Cornell Uni- versity. The scope of my undertaking included not only the facts of the life and literary career of this author, so far as they were obtainable, but also a comparative dis- cussion of all his novels to the end of discovering their general tendencies, and of establishing an adequate esti- mate of the writer's relatidn to his own period. I was able to conclude that Fabre cannot justly be considered, like Abbe Prevost, the author of one book. Although L'Abbe Tigrane displays! at their best his master powers as a creative writer, several of his other novels must also be included among the noteworthy works of fiction in France during the last fifty years. Because of a natural timidity to bring himself before 7 8 Preface the eyes of the public, Fabre remained largely in seclu- sion. His life attracted but slight attention; his death, too, passed almost unnoticed. It often happens that the death of an author proves the occasion for renewed in- terest in his life and works. Thus it was with Daudet who died but a few weeks before Fabre. Reporters eagerly sought the detailed facts of his life, and critics began more carefully to study his writing. Fabre's death unfortunately occurred at a time when the newspapers and periodicals were devoting all available space to the Zola trial. My chief source of biographical data, therefore, was not reviews and newspaper articles, although they were of some value, but rather the author's own novels, for he put himself in all he wrote, and especially two volumes of memoirs, Ma Vocation and Ma Jeunesse. For con- siderable new material I am indebted to M. Ferdinand Duviard, grandson of Ferdinand Fabre, who has in his possession all the unpublished works of his grandfather as well as his literary correspondence; and also to M. Paul Marais, Curator of the Bibliotheque Mazarine. I wish here to thank them both for their kindness in writing me at some length, and for their sympathetic in- terest in my own work. R. P. B. Syracuse University, February 1918. CONTENTS PAGE Preface 7 Introduction The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 13 Chapter I Classification of the Novels 48 Chapter II Les Courbezon 52 Chapter III The Autobiographical Novels 62 Chapter IV The Novels of Peasant Life and Man- ners 81 Chapter V The Ecclesiastical Novels 93 Conclusion 125 Bibliography 133 Index 137 THE NOVELS OF FERDINAND FABRE The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre INTRODUCTION THE LIFE AND LITERARY CAREER OF FERDINAND FABRE FERDINAND FABRE was born June 9, 1827, l at Bedarieux, capital of L'Herault in Lower Languedoc. The town is surrounded by great moors in which the river Orb has its source. Nearby is the Espinouse range with its great peaks Tantajo and le Roc-Rouge. His father, Frangois Fabre, was a : local architect. His mother, Rose Sicard, came of a pious family of Mont- pellier. Ferdinand, like Chateaubriand, was the young- est of a large family. He received his early education at the college of Be- darieux, but fond of life out of doors, he neglected his studies, until finally his work in the seventh class was so unsatisfactory that his father decided to place his further education in charge of his brother, Abbe Fulcran Fabre. 2 So in the fall of 1842 young Ferdinand went to live with his uncle in the neighboring parish of Camplong. Al- though love for his mother made him reluctant to leave 1. I here quote Monsieur Duviard. In the more recent edi- tions of the encyclopedias this date is commonly given 1830, doubtless based upon the statement in Ma Vocation (1889), p. 17, that Fabre began his journal in 1842 in his twelfth year. See also Ma Jeunesse, p. n. In Mon Ami Gaffarot (1894) he gives his age as 13 in 1842, but in Julien Savignac (1863), pp. 6, 8, he says he was 13 years old in 1840, which would place his birth during the year 1827. 2. Ma Vocation, p. 2. Julien Savignac, ch. VII. 13 14 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre her, the prospect of greater liberty at the home of his uncle delighted him. There, more than ever before, fas- cinated by the great beauty of his native Cevenol Mount- ains, 3 he enjoyed the freedom of unrestrained life out of doors, passing his days in company with the goatherds, and with the mountain hermits, 4 who were known as the Free Brothers of Saint Francis. 5 He was a very af- fectionate boy who easily gained friends. As "monsieur le neveu," he enjoyed the respect of his uncle's parish- ioners and soon won their confidence, an advantage of great value later in his literary work. The two years spent in this way, under the kindly, if somewhat indulgent, care of the simple priest and his housekeeper, the faith- ful Prudence Ricard, both of whom the boy dearly loved, furnished Fabre with material for over half his novels. In 1844 Ferdinand entered le petit seminaire de Saint- Pons de Thomidres where he lived with "M. 1'Abbe Dubreuil, mainteneur de 1'Academie de Jeux floraux, grand vicaire de Mgr. 1'eveque de Montpellier." 6 Here he received his first really systematic education. The in- struction was of course very orthodox. He remained 3. Cf. Barnabe, p. 77. Des le berceau, par une pente mys- terieuse de mon ame que personne n'expliquera, j 'avals etc conquis a la nature, a nos montagnes, surtout a nos superbes montagnes cevenoles, d'un profit si severe, si noble, si hardi, ou se decouvrent toutes les richesses : des eaux qui defient 1'eclat et la purete du cristal, des betes fideles et aux pieds surs, des homines honnetes, energiques et courageux. Cf. also Ma Vo- cation, p. 419. La nature s'empare de moi des que je me trouve seul avec elle. 4. Ibid., p. 255. 5. For a description of these lay brethren see the introduc- tion of Barnabe. 6. Ma Vocation, p. 23. The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 15 practically ignorant of modern French literature, for he was told that with the exception of Chateaubriand and Bonald there had been no writers worthy of mention since ijSgJ We know very little of his life at the preparatory seminary. He must have devoted more time to his studies than previously, for he won a first prize in Latin. 8 At the end of three years he returned to Be- darieux. His family were then in very straitened circumstances, due to an unprofitable business venture that M. Fabre had undertaken in constructing a high road from Agde on the sea to Castres across the mountains. 9 In 1842 by a loan of 40,000 francs, practically her whole fortune, Mademoiselle Angele Sicard, sister of Madame Fabre, hoped to prevent a complete ruin. Her brother-in-law being unable to repay any of the sum, she was forced three years later to leave her home in Montpellier and live with her sister at Bedarieux. 10 From that time she exerted great influence in the affairs of the family. Under the present circumstances it seemed quite im- possible for Ferdinand to continue his education. He attempted to help his father in his trade, but found he had no adaptability for the work. The long cherished desire of his father to send him to the University of Mont- pellier to study medicine had to be abandoned. His Aunt Angele had set her heai-t on his becoming a priest. 7. Ibid., p. 300. 8. Ibid., p. 25. Cf. Renan, E., Les Souvenirs, Le broyeur de lin, II. 9. Gosse, Edmund, Ferdinand Fabre (Contemporary Re- view, April, 1898). Also cf. Ma. Jeunesse, p. 29. 10. Ma Vocation, p. 30, and Mon Ami Gaffarot, p. 4. 1 6 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre The summer of 1847 she went to Montpellier, and on her return announced that a rich and pious cousin, Clo- tilde Sicard, a nun in the convent of La Visitation de Sainte-Marie, was willing to assume the payment of Ferd- inand's board until he should complete his studies at the higher seminary in Montpellier. He hesitated to ac- cept the offer, for, as he frankly stated to his aunt, the young man who is as readily attracted as he by the charms of the opposite sex, is not destined for the life of a celibate. The father hoping that the medical career might yet be possible did not urge him. His mother, although she would have liked to see her son a priest, feared that his incli- nations were not such as to lead him to the Church. However, the thought of the poverty of the family so frightened him that prospects of offering them a home in his future parish finally persuaded him to yield to his aunt's insistence. Thus November 13, 1847 Ferdinand and his mother started for Montpellier. During the journey the boy experienced many misgivings and suffered much mental distress. He protested against the interference of his aunt and blamed her for starting him upon a career where he apprehended failure. Arrived at the city, they spent several days visiting relatives and friends, especially his cousin, and also an intimate friend of his aunt, Made- moiselle Fouzilhon, all persons of extreme piety who rejoiced at the advent of young Fabre to the grand seminaire. Encouraged by their enthusiasm, Ferdinand, on the 27th of November, 11 entered the seminary as a u. Ma Vocation, p. 176. The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 17 candidate for clerical orders with less trepidation than he had anticipated. His mother's parting words to him were, "Tu me diras bien la verite dans tes lettres, tu me la diras tout entiere. Ta tante Angele ne saura rien." 12 At the seminary he became acquainted for the first time with the "catholic poets," Lamartine, Hugo and Musset. As objects despicable in their wickedness his Uncle Fulcran had forbidden him all novels. Although this simple minded priest had never read a novel, he had been taught by the Church that they were created by the devil to entice men into the paths of wickedness. 13 Ferd- inand, who had accepted this verdict in good faith, was never greatly tempted to enter the mysteries that lay concealed between the covers of books not ecclesiastical, until he chanced upon Jocelyn. At last he could no longer resist the temptation to buy such a wicked book. For months he struggled with the temptation to learn the story of the unhappy priest and his love for Laurence, but finally his sense of guilt became so intense that he threw the book into the river Ley. 14 His craving for books, however, had begun. The Christmas recess of 1847-48 Fabre spent at the home of Mademoiselle Fouzilhon, where he made the acquaintance of several young ladies in whose society he found much pleasure. He was particularly fascinated by a certain Madame de Sauviac, who deliberately set out to win his affections. Though not really enamoured of her, he could not easily forget her. This visit proved to 12. Ibid., p. 182. 13. Cf. Cathinelle, p. 252. 14. Ma Vocation, p. 423. 1 8 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre be of the utmost importance in regard to his vocation, for after this taste of social life, he became restless under the restraints of the seminary. Now he began seriously to doubt his fitness for the life there. He fancied that he did not belong among these young priests whose submis- siveness of mind and resignation of heart he did not possess. 15 His anxiety arose not from any conscious lack of moral conviction or spiritual faith ; these never entered into the problem. Rather his misgivings were due to a growing conviction that God did not intend him for the life of a celibate. Respecting as he did the sanctity of the priesthood, he was shocked at the free and easy life of some of the young abbes. To him the cassock implied a life in which the instincts and emotions of other youths were to be sup- pressed as wholly evil. He began to realize that the other young men, many of them peasants, in no sense shared his exalted opinion of their calling. His sensitive moral nature received a rude blow on learning that his roommate felt it not inconsistent for a seminarist to pass a whole month at a small inn, though it was owned by his father, where soldiers came with women to drink and carouse. Uncle Fulcran's training still held full sway over him. During the next few months his dislike for his vocation increased rapidly. He records in his journal, "Coute que coute, secouer le joug. Un peu d' audace et je serai libre!" 16 In another place we read, "Ma situation est le comble de 1'abaissement moral." 17 Apparently he 15. Ma Vocation, p. 324. 1 6. 17 avril. 17. 23 avril. The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 19 was meeting the issue with the utmost frankness, for he declares, "Si je ne puis vivre ici, avec les idees d' ici, 1'enseignement d'ici, les contraints d'ici, je me retirerai de cette partie engagee avec Dieu, mais \ je ne tricherai point." 18 It was this uncompromising attitude toward his obligations and a fearless analysis of his own feelings, rather than honesty in his thinking on matters of dogma, as was the case of Renan, 19 that finally released him from the bonds of Church discipline. "Accepter la pretrise, c'est accepter le gibet," 20 he declared. Love for his mother and concern for his aunt's disappointment still held him from suddenly breaking with the seminary. He sought comfort and help from his favorite book, the Confessions of Saint Augustine. Finally on June 23 he went to Father Laplague, the director of the seminary and his spiritual advisor, to whose pleadings he replied, "Je ne suis qu'un homme et, je le devine, je ne serai jamais qu'un homme." 21 The sympathetic Father endeavored to persuade him that his nature, almost feminine in its sensi- tiveness, would find free expansion in the Church. 22 The night of June 24 the crisis came. When it was passed he picked up the cruifix, which, in mad delirium, he had dashed to the floor, and pressed it ardently to his lips. Early in the morning he wrote to his mother. "Grand Seminaire, ce 24 juin. Cinq heures du matin. 18. Ibid. 19. Renan, Les Souvenirs, Le broyeur de lin, II. 20. 22 juin. 21. Ma Vocation, p. 431. 22. Ibid., p. 433. 20 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre Ma mere cherie, La lutte ou j'ai manque perir prend fin des ce moment. Dieu ne veut pas que je sois pretre et je ne le serai point. Une lumiere m'a eclaire cette nuit, j'ai vu le Fils a la droite du Pere, et la volonte d'en haut m'a etc clairement manifestee Que deviendrai-je dans le monde ou je tombe brus- quement, comme precipite du ciel? Je 1'ignore. Je sais seulement que les miseres dont j'y serai accable ne seront rien comparees a celles qui m'assailliraient dans la vie ecclesiastique, pour laquelle je ne suis pas fait. Le sanctuaire m'epouvante a 1' egal de 1'Enfer. Croyez-moi, ma mere, Dieu n'est si redoutable qu'a ceux qui ne se detachent pas de lui, qu'a ceux qui 1'aiment. C'est vous avouer qu'il n'entre dans ma resolution que des motifs nobles, des motifs dignes de votre enfant respectueux et soumis, de votre enfant malheureux, qui n'eut jamais plus besoin de votre tendresse et de vos soins. II me semble du reste que, desormais, je vais vous aimer, davantage, mon pere, ma tante et vous. Je me suis rendu a moi-meme et, du meme coup, je vous suis rendu. Ferdinand. 23 Madame Fabre came to him at once, and Ferdinand was permitted to leave the seminary June 29, 1848, never again to take up his studies for orders. He was beloved by his teachers in the seminary and departed with their respect and kindly wishes. A keen sense of the privation required of a priest was clearly the final cause of Fabre's withdrawal. He felt himself incapable of the sacrifice. He says that a semin- 23. Ma Vocation, p. 441. Ma Jeunesse, p. 26. The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 21 arist must give himself up to his Superior, and must sur- render his personal dignity and honor, and woe unto him who returns to claim what is no longer his. 24 This he could not do. When he saw others take orders and assume un- moved the sacred vows, he felt that they had no con- ception of the significance of the step. To him they were incapable of profound emotion. Father Laplague once said to him, "Prenez-y garde, mon enfant, votre sensi- bilite sera Tobstacle de votre vie, elle vous perdra." 25 It proved to be the obstacle to his clerical life, but obviously it has been the source of his literary effectiveness. This sensitiveness often impelled him to withdraw from the other students to dream beside the river Ley. The grand- eur of the mountains stirred in him a longing for a full expression of his whole nature. 26 Such freedom in thought and conduct was denied to a seminarist. The period following his departure from the seminary was one of great unhappiness. Having abandoned a vocation that promised success to himself and protection to his needy family, he was received by his former friends with suspicion and distrust. They could not understand that religious sincerity, and not indifference, had caused him to break with the Church. For the most part the people of his native community with whom he had mingled were unusually devout, their religion even taking often the form of asceticism. Incapable of appreciating his sufferings they deserted him. In his loneliness he escaped 24. Ma Vacation, p. 423. Cf. p. 113, the same idea in the discussion of Lucifer. 25. Ma Jeunesse, p. n. 26. Cf. Pellissier, G., Ferdinand Fabre, Revue Bleue, VII, P- 237. 22 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre to the fields, woods, and mountains and to isolated spots there to seek solace from nature, 27 the companion of his youth. He poured forth his sorrow in verse in imitation of Lamartine. These elegiac poems which were never published, he called Larmes. 28 During these dreary days he also read a great deal, and for the first time from the romantic writers of the nineteenth century. His enthusiasm for Lamartine, Hugo, Musset, and especially Dumas, pere, 29 inspired him with the desire to live in Paris with other young poets. Meanwhile he was greatly distressed by his help- lessness to decide upon a profession. Those who had read his poems advised his going to Paris. Although his father endeavored to turn him to a more immediate means of livelihood, he sympathized with his son's literary ambi- tions, and, toward the end of October 1849, accompanied him to Paris. Ferdinand and his father stopped at the modest hotel Walter Scott. M. Fabre, who in 1810 had been employed on the palace of the Emperor, was fairly familiar with the city. The first few days they spent sight seeing. Neither he nor his father had any idea what the young man was to do. Like Flaubert he ventured to read law for a short time. With some thought of studying medicine he contemplated entering the clinic of the Hopi- tal de la Piete, conducted by his friend, Dr. Michon; but he does not seem to have done so until a few months later. The longing to enter the field of letters made him restless, 27. Brisson, A., Portraits intimes, III, p. 298. 28. Ibid. 29. Un Souvenir Intime, written in commemoration of the inauguration of the statue to Alexandre Dumas, pere, in Place Malesherbes, Nov. 4, 1883. The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 23 and as he had letters to M. M. Viennet and Florens, 30 both members of the Academy, he appealed to them. They gave him the desired encouragement that he so much needed. In December his father returned to Bedarieux, and now for the first time Ferdinand was forced to make his way alone without the help and guidance of his family. Lack of funds worried him, and added to the dreariness of these first lonely months in Paris, which was just recover- ing from the revolution of 1848. Fabre found himself, then, not in an atmosphere of romanticism, as he had ex- pected, but on the contrary suddenly plunged into a world of practical economic concern. 31 In his disappoint- ment and loneliness he again set to writing poetry. These verses and also those which he had written earlier, he read to some students and young litterateurs in the Latin Quarter to whom he had letters of introduction. His poetry lacked originality and ease of versification and so had but a cool reception. Grieved at this he escaped to the solitude of his own room, conceiving a profound dis- like for the cenacles and cafes litteraries of the left bank. 32 Since he could not find sympathy and encouragement from others, he decided to avoid them, thinking that within himself lay power and inspiration sufficient to gain him recognition. In 1852 he tried to find a publisher for his poems. Arsene Houssaye of the Artiste in refusing them, advised 30. d'Echerac, A., Litter ature Artistique. (In La Gallerie Contemporaine, t. I., 2ieme serie, (No. 69, 187 ,). 31. Cf. L'Avenir, (Lcs Feuilles de Lierre.) 32. Pascal, Ferdinand Fabre, {Revue Bleue, XIX, 1903, p. 623.) 24 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre the young man to try prose. 33 Charpentier, however, published them for him, February I, 1853, under the title of Feuilles de Lierre. In the preface he gives his con- ception of modern poetry which is like a great oak, the main branches being Hugo, Musset, Lamartine, Beranger, Vigny. In striking contrast to the originality and independence of his novels, Fabre shows here con- siderable lack of confidence. The young poets are like ivy twining about these branches, thus under cover of their genius and glory. This first volume was in imitation of Gilbert, Chenier, Musset, and of the odes and ballads of Hugo. On the cover he announced a poem, Paola, and a novel, Maucreux, named after an ancient chateau of his own country; 34 also three nouvelles, Benedict, Uhis- toire d'une gamme, Un membre de I'lnstitut dans les Pyrenees, and Bonjour Lunettes, adieu fillettes. None of these were ever published, except a part of the first. After this first attempt he followed the advice of Hous- saye. According to Fabre himself, on coming to Paris he was still very ignorant. 35 In order to fill up the lacunae in his education he attended lectures in philosophy, his- tory and literature at the Sorbonne, following those of 33. Claretie, ]., Le Temps, 17 fev. 1898. 34. Ibid. 35. October 7, 1888, he writes to a Paris editor, "Apres des etudes baclees a la diable, d'abord chez un oncle, cure de Camplong, qui ne savait grand'chose; puis au petit seminaire de Saint-Pons, chez des abbes qui ne savaient rien; puis au grand seminaire de Montpellier chez des Lazaristes qui venus de Paris n'etaient pas tous des imbeciles, j'arrivai en octobre 1849, dans le voisinage du Jardin des Plantes." (Pascal, o/>. cit., p. 623). Cf. Renan's statement of his ignorance on com- ing to Paris, op. cit. Le petit seminaire de Saint Nicholas. The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 25 Michelet with keen interest. No doubt the influence of the great historian was evident later in Fabre's protests against the Jesuits. 36 Now he felt free to read whatever authors he- wished, his conscience no longer denying him the pleasure of knowing the wicked writers that so tempted him as a seminarist. In fact, so keen was his appetite for knowledge that during the years of 1850-53 he scarce- ly left the Sorbonne, the College de France, or the Hdpital de la Piete, where he most assiduously followed the clinic 37 of Dr. Michon. A severe attack of indigestion resulted from such close application to study, and he was compelled to return to his native mountains to re- cuperate. 38 In July, 1853, after a six months absence he returned to Paris. 39 During his absence his ardor for the lectures at the Sorbonne had cooled. He planned, however, to devote some time to the study of Latin and Greek, and physiology. Again he associated himself with Dr. Michon, and in order to be near the clinic took a small room at the Hotel du Jardin in rue Copeau. He had, however, returned to Paris with the set purpose of devoting himself to writing. Accordingly he began a novel entitled Etienne Thibaut, which he destroyed as soon as he had it completed. He tried another, Rolande, which he burned. A third, Benedict, suffered 36. Cf . Le pretre, la femme, et la famille. Les Jesuites. 37. Cf. Flaubert and Les Goncourt. 38. Pascal, op. cit., p. 623. 39. Mon Cos Lit., p. 151. Edmund Gosse erroneously states that Fabre did not return to Paris until he was thirty-two years old. (Contemporary Review, April, 1889). At that time Ma Jeunesse had not been published. > 26 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre a somewhat better fate, in that the first part was printed in the Monde Artistique et Litteraire. This periodical, however, led but a struggling existence and soon died. With it perished all of Benedict.* Many a lonesome hour he spent in his small room working over his style, for he lacked the ease of composition of a George Sand. Through a priest of Saint Sulpice Fabre secured a position as tutor in a family of distinction where he learned the customs "du grand monde," 41 an opportunity that proved of great value afterwards in writing Madame Fuster and Un Illumine. Later, however, his father was able to give him some financial assistance, 42 which enabled him to devote more time to reading and study. During the next ten years he worked very hard, and for the most part in the library of Sainte Genevieve. He read voraciously. Apparently his acquaintance with the nineteenth century heretofore had been limited to the Romantic school, for he says as late as 1854 he scarcely understood Balzac and Stendhal. 43 This would indicate that he still thought of himself as a romanticist and that he had not yet begun to think seriously along the lines 40. Pascal, op. cit., p. 623, in a letter written Oct. 7, 1888, by Fabre to a journalist in regard to his unpublished works. Same letter referred to in note, p. 14, Cf. Levallois, J., Me- moires d'un critique-Le Milieu du siecle, p. 134. He says : "Parmi les collaborateurs-fondateurs du Monde litteraire et artistique (Jules Rouquette editeur) se trouvait un vif et charmant ecrivain, aussi inconnu que moi. Dans notre mo- deste recueil Ferdinand Fabre entreprit un roman intitule Benedict. 41. Brisson, op. cit., p. 299. 42. Sarcey, F., Les Devcinards, (La Revue Hebdomadaire, 19 fev. 1898, p. 423). 43. Un Souvenir Jntime. The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 27 that were later to classify him among the realists, if not the naturalists. 44 He also read English literature, es- pecially the novels of Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot and Trollope, and the Vicar of Wakefield.^ He attempted journalism but without success. Le Figaro accepted one of his roman en feuilleton, but when he called for his pay Villemessent cried out, "On va vous payer, mais n'y revenez plus." 46 His failure caused him to consider seriously returning to Montpellier to study medicine. Never once, however, did he entertain any thought of re-entering the Church. During these years Fabre knew the groups of students and young litterateurs of the Latin Quarter, and entered into the animated discussions of art and literature at the Cafe de la Renaissance and elsewhere. 47 In these cot- eries his sensitiveness received many rude shocks, from which he suffered for several days in the solitude of his little room. Never very confident of his own ability, he was easily discouraged by unfavorable criticism. The pious training received from his mother and his aunt, and es- pecially from Abbe Fulcran naturally kept him from the freer habits of his friends, and prevented his ever fully enjoying the life of the great metropolis. The Paris where he lived, except for the brief period spent at Les Batignoles, in the quiet street of Puteaux, was the Paris of books and schools. The vast tumult of Parisian pas- 44. Naturalism is usually defined as scientific realism. (Cf. Doumic, Hist, de la lit. /row., p. 566). 45. See Lc Roi Ramire. 46. Brisson, op. cit., p. 299. 47. Cf. Souvenir Intime and Un Illumine, Pascal, op. cit., p. 656. 28 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre sions were but a spectacle to him. 48 Fabre thus recounts the origin of Les Courbezon. 49 Dining one evening in August 1857, with a group of friends, he was questioned concerning his literary pro- jects. His simple reply that he intended to describe the manners and customs of his native Cevenol people, produc- ed an outburst of laughter. Stung by their taunts he fled to the solitude of his room, and conceived the setting and plot of his first novel. It was to be the story of a simple parish priest, a sort of Saint Vincent de Paul, sacrificing all he had to charity, and dying as a result of his passion. He chose the name Courbezon simply because it was euphonious. 50 In order to be entirely alone he rented a room for two months with a peasant family at Celle- Saint-Cloud. There in the country he wrote the first pages of his novel. He enjoyed this retreat during the holidays of the pupils whom he had been tutoring. Their vacation over, he was forced to return to Paris to take up his task of earning a living. The following winter was a hard one, for still poor, he could ill afford to devote his time to profitless novel writing. During the day he often went to the outer boulevards and in the shade of the fortifications wrestled with his perplexing problems of style. Often he returned at night discouraged and ex- hausted from his efforts. These spells of depression kept him in his room for days, but finally faith in himself con- quered his despair. At night he regained strength and 48. Pascal, op. cit., p. 623. 49. Man Cos litteraire, pp. 157-162. 50. It was the name of a farm belonging to his brother-in- law. (Man Cos Litteraire, p. 159.) The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 29 courage to take up his task once more. Getting out of bed he would set to work with renewed hopes for the future. It was then that his pages seemed to him at their best. 81 As much of Les Courbezon was written in comparative isolation, Fabre found himself quite out of touch with other writers and publicists who might be of use to him when he wanted to publish the book. La Revue des Deux Mondes refused it. 52 In December 1860, with many misgivings as to the quality of the work, he took the manuscript of his novel to the Revue Contemporaine. At the office door his courage failed him, so slipping the package into the mail box, he hurried away. He waited months before hearing from it. Finally, however, he received three lines signed by Alphonse de Colonne, di- rector of the Revue: "Les Courbezon etaient un roman remarquable; ils paraitraient prochainement." 53 The book was afterwards published by Hachette & Co. in June 1862. There were 4,000 copies of the first edition. 54 Even after it appeared in book form, Fabre waited months again for some criticism in the journals. During this suspense he found joy and relief in the composition of Julien Savignac. Each night he would decide that on the following day he would go consult the leading critics, such as Sainte-Beuve of Le Constitutionnel, or Cuvillier- Fleury of Les Debats, or de Pontmartin of La Gazette de France, or Jules Levallois of I/ Opinion Rationale, 51. Man Cos Lit., pp. 162-165. 52. Echerac, op. cit. 53. Man Cos Litteraire, p. 169. 54. Ibid., p. 171. 3O The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre but in the morning his natural timidity gained control, and he merely worked the harder on Julien. At last, April 7, 1863, Sainte-Beuve spoke in Le Constitutionnel of the "vaillants essais, des consciencieuses etudes de Ferdinand Fabre, un fort eleve de Balzac." 55 His posi- tion was established, and the press was interested in him. La Gazette de France of April 22, contained a very favor- able criticism by de Pontmartin. Contrary to what is usually the case with writers and artists, Fabre in his first book outlined the definite confines of his literary field. Les Courbezon was both a clerical novel and a roman-champetre. Since the realistic novel was little known to Fabre as late as i854, 57 it is worthy of special note that within three years he should have begun a work in method es- sentially realistic in its portrayal of life in the provinces. The realists had, heretofore, associated the priest only with events purely incidental to clerical life, as in Le Cure de Tours, and in Madame Bovary. 58 Even in Le Cure de Village the character of Veronique completely overshadows that of Abbe Bonnet. Amedee Pichot at once compared Fabre to Trollope, 59 whose Barchester Towers appeared in 1859. His predecessors did not enter the Church itself and there find the sole motive for their stories as did Fabre. His training and education had 55. See Man Cos Lit., p. 172; also Nouveaux Lundis, t. V., p. 2 (1863). 56. Godet, Ph. Bib. Univ., vol. 48, Oct., 1890, p. 10. 57. See p. 26. 58. Doumic, R., Le Cos de Ferdinand Fabre. (R. des Deux Mondes, t IX (1903), p. 929). 59. Revue Brittanique (1863). The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 3 1 peculiarly qualified him to do just this thing. Therein lay the uniqueness of his position as a disciple of Balzac. Fabre's second novel was strictly representative of the roman-champctre. While writing Les Courbezon he longed to write a story about his life at the home of his uncle at Camplong, for he felt that what had so charmed his life as a boy was well worthy of artistic treatment. He began Julien Savignac in November 1859. He took keener pleasure in it than in Les Courbezon, for it con- tained more of personal reminiscence. It appeared in February 1863, eight months after his first novel. It de- lighted Pontmartin who in criticism said," En somme Julien Savignac me semble plus parfait que Les Courbezon, et ne laisse plus de doute sur les aptitudes du talent vigour- eux de M. Ferdinand Fabre, qui sait se plier aux delica- tesses des plus exquises natures feminines, qui ne sacrifie ni 1'ideal au reel, ni le reel a 1'ideal, et qui sans rien perdre de ses excellentes qualites de paysagiste, donne une valeur suffisante a 1'etude des sentiments et des caracteres. Les Courbezon pouvaient n'etre qu'une bonne rencontre, un adroit coup de pioche dans une mine inexploree: mais Julien Savignac est la plus heureuse et la plus concluante des recidives. Desormais nous comprenons que 1'auteur de ces deux charmants volumes decline le titre de plus "fort eleve de Balzac," 60 qui lui a ete decerne par un il- lustre critique. Non, M. Ferdinand Fabre n'est plus et ne peut plus etre que son propre eleve, car M. Ferdinand Fabre est decidement un maitre." 61 Pontmartin proved to be correct in his estimate, for it soon became evident 60. See p. 30 . 61. Gazette de France, (1863). See Man. Cos Lit., p. 173. 32 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre that Fabre was establishing a distinct genre of his own. Mademoiselle de Malaveille appeared in 1865. Purely imaginative, it lacked Fabre's most characteristic note, personal experience and reminiscence. Desirous of describing sections of? his native mountains that were wild and more remote than those described in in earlier novels, Fabre places the scene of Le Chevrier,* 2 in the higher ranges of the Cevennes. 63 Pascal asserts 64 that in picturing to himself the scenes and characters of his rustic stories of the mountains and moorlands of his native country, Fabre more easily and clearly formulated his ideas in patois. This patois, however, not being read- ily understood outside the region, the author of Le Chevrier conceived the idea of putting into the mouths of his characters the speech of the renaissance, that of Rabelais, Montaigne, Amyot, which for its quaintness of phraseology, resembled more his patois than did the classic French. 65 George Sand in her romans-champetres was really his inspiration for this, i Her language, however, was so modified as to be intelligible to both Parisian and provincial. Fabre was even more successful than was the author of Francois Le Champi. On the score of the peasant language, nevertheless, Sainte-Beuve criticized Le Chevrier in a letter to Fabre under the date of September 27, i867. 66 "Cher Monsieur, 62. 1867. 63. Mon Cos Lit, p. 177 64. Op. cit., p. 658. 65. See the present author's article on the language of Le Chevrier, Modern Philology, March, 1918. 66. Correspondence, t. II, p. 211. The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 33 Depuis que j'ai regu Le Chevrier, j'ai bien des fois pense a vous, et, si mon remerciment n'est pas alle plus tot vous trouver, c'est que ma sante me dispose souvent a remettre ce que j'aimerais le mieux faire. II faudrait toute une dissertation pour traiter avec vous les questions que souleve ce roman d'art et de style. II y a des etudes doublement savantes dans votre tableau; celle du pays et des moeurs, celle du language. Sur ce dernier point, vous avez pris, en quelque sorte, le taureau ou du moins le bouc par les comes; en soutenant la gageure pendant un aussi longtemps, vous avez fait un tour de force. Mais selon moi, ce n'est qu'un tour de force. J'aurais mieux aime que cet essai de language rustique composite, a la maniere de George Sand et de Paul Courier, ne regnat point durant toute 1'etendue du livre. Si vous aviez pris la parole vous-meme, si de temps en temps seulement vous aviez introduit vos personnages avec le langage observe et studieusement na'if que vous leur pretez, vous auriez sauve quelques invraisemblances, quelques incompatibil- ites, et donne, ce me semble, plus de satisfaction au lecteur. II y a un peu de contention a vous suivre, tout en goutant de charmants passages. Je ne vous donne point ces im- pressions rapides pour jugement. II faudrait aussi ecouter vos raisons, car vous en avez eu ; et, dans tous les cas, vous avez fait dans cette oeuvre acte d'artiste. 67 Frederic Mistral was much pleased with the qualities that Sainte-Beuve questioned. At the instance of friends Fabre sent Mistral a copy of the book, and wrote him requesting an opinion of its worth. In reply he said in 67. Pascal. Op. cit., p. 658. (Date of letter was June 26, 1868. Pascal quotes it as 1866.) 34 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre part,"Le Chewier est un livre consciencieux et ecrit goutte a goutte d'observation locale. On voit que vous avez beaucoup hante les causses des Cevennes, que vous avez vecu de la vie des rdiou, que vous avez reve 1'idylle sous les plantureux chataigniers. On sent que vous aimez votre pays natal, que vous aimez la gent rustique ; et vrai fils de la terre, vous comprenez le sens du paysage, et ce que dit le vent, et ce dont parle 1'arbre et ce que pense 1'homme. Us sont parfaits, vos paysans, et vos person- nages sont vrais, vivants et sympathiques. Vous n'inventez pas la nature. Vous exprimez avec bonheur ce qu'elle a mis autour de vous, et vous 1'exprimez d'une maniere savoureuse et charmante," 68 Mistral saw, then, in Fabre a realist whose descriptions were not unaffected by per- sonal sympathy. It seemed to Fabre that Le Chevrier contained the subject matter for a play. So in 1880 he dramatized the story in modern French, changing the name to L' Hospitaller e. It was produced once, March 26, 1881, at Cassel, Germany, under the title of Felice. 69 Like Flaubert, while writing one type of novel, Fabre was eager to be working on another. He sought relief from Les Courbezon in Julien Savignac. So in the midst of his description of rustic life in the Cevennes his Im- agination was fired with a desire to write a sort of Comedie clericale. He says, "Qui mieux que moi, frais emoulu de deux seminaires, qui mieux que moi, parmi les ecrivains de ma generation, avait ete prepare a pareille 68. Pascal, op. cit., p. 659. (Date of letter, July 4, 1868, was furnished by M. Duviard.) 69. M. Duviard. The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 35 oeuvre?" 70 His opportunities for studying all phases of ecclesiastical life were exceptional, even almost unique in their range. He felt as if he were entering a privileged field. He was above all an observer and, like the Gon- courts, wished to write only of what he knew by actual experience. "Dans 1'Eglise, j'etais saisi, touche tout de suite," he says. "II n'etait pas un detail, du benitier au tabernacle, dans le domaine des choses, du plus humble desservant au Souverain Pontife, dans le domaine des hommes, qui, empreint pour moi de quelque souvenir suave ou terrible, ne me remuat tete et coeur. Ici, sous les voutes d'une cathedrale, dans le palais d'un eveque, dans le presbytere d'un doyen, dans un couvent de regu- liers, j'allais de ma libre allure, j'etais a la maison, tout m'appartenait, les echos me repondaient d'une voie amie," 71 With this definite policy in mind, he conceived the plot and manner of treatment of L'Abbe Tigrane, which is generally conceded to be his masterpiece. Sometime during the year of 1872 Fabre requested Francisque Sarcey to use his influence with Marcelin, the editor of La Vie Parisienne, a weekly devoted to clever delineation of the various phases of modern life, to let him place a novel there. The famous critic told him that his only chance with Marcelin would be a highly colored study of clerical life. 72 Fabre gladly followed the suggestion and three months afterwards sent his friend a nouvelle, which although not suited for La Vie Paris- 70. Mon Cos Lit., p. 181. 71. Mon Cos Lit., p. 182. Also cf. letter to Pontmartin, March 31, 1881, (Pascal, op. cit., p. 659). 72. Sarcey, op. cit., Rev. Heb. 19 fev. 36 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre ienne, proved to be the beginning of L' Abbe Tigrane. The previous year Fabre had been invited to pass the autumn with a pious friend at his Chateau Montgauch in the department of L'Ariege. There he met several priests, one of whom greatly aroused his interest and curi- osity. He was a well educated man, who had for years been striving for an appointment to a bishopric. It was an exact portrayal of this priest, a compact essay of twenty pages, that Fabre sent Sarcey, who was greatly impressed with the intensity of the description. 73 He wrote to the author that it was rather the subject matter for a novel than a nouvelle. A second time his suggestion was fol- lowed and the result was a book that appealed to so emi- nent a critic as Walter Pater almost more than any work in modern fiction. 74 The book appeared the igth of May, i873. 75 Barbey d'Aurevilly calls attention to the origin- ality of the book in that there are no women characters. 76 A novel without women appearing in Paris in the igth century ought, by all theories of popularity, to meet with complete failure. On the contrary it at once brought fame to the author. It is all the more a tour de force because love, both with himself and with his heroes, was unusually vehement. It reminds one of Flaubert's phe- nomenal success with the bourgeois type which he hated. Fabre shows that the passion of ambition can interest as 73. Brisson, op. cit., p. 301. 74. Gosse, op. cit., p. 526. 75. Translated into English by Rev. Leonard Woolsey Ba- con, N. Y., 1875. 76. Le Roman Contemporain, p. 183. There are two minor women characters. Baroness Thevenot, moreover, is essen- tial to the portrayal of Tigrane. The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 37 completely as the banal passion of love. To rise in the Church hierarchy is a sort of specialized ambition peculiar to a priest, because he is neither lover, husband, nor father. 77 By the crushing of other natural passions in the life of a celibate, all his energy concentrates in this one avenue left open to him. This is the study presented in L'Abbe Tigrane. The theme is to be found in Fabre's first novel, where he makes Abbe Ferrand say, "L'ambition est notre incurable plaie." 78 Although the personal friendship of Fabre and Taine dates from only about 1889, we read in a letter under the date of May 12, 1873, Taine's appreciation of Tigrane. "Depuis Madame B ovary il n'a paru que trois ou quatre rornans, et celui-ci ( Tigrane} en est un, puisqu' on y trouve de la verite, des types, deux grands caracteres, point d'amour, et un monde des plus inconnus et des plus import- ants. Nous ignorons la France, le paysan, 1'ouvrier, le pretre, le seminariste, le couvent, la caserne. Balzac n'a fait qu'un quart de la grande enquete sociale et morale ; quand je vois quelqu'un qui la recommence avec competence et impartialite, j'eprouve un vif plaisir. . . .On me dit que, dans un autre roman, vous avez aussi peint les moeurs clericales, et que vous les avez touchees de pres, je vous felicite d'avoir garde la haute indifference de 1'artiste qui n'a pas de rancunes, et qui dit le bien aussi librement que le mal. L'Eveque et Tigrane sont de noble et grande espece. Avec Balzac et Stendhal (Rouge et Noir, Cure 77. Barbey d'Aurevilly, op. cit., p. 183. Cf. also Quarterly Review,vo\. 38, p. 190, and Jules Lemaitre, Les Contemporains, II, p. 297. 78. Les Courbezon, p. 89. 3 8 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre de Tours} ce sont nos seuls portraits ecclesiastiques." 79 A new phase, then, is apparent in Fabre's literary develop- ment. To Mistral his descriptions were touched with personal feeling. To Taine he is an impartial portrayer of character. In that respect he is a naturalist, but neither in Tigrane nor in any of his later novels does he enter into the pathological studies and scientific analysis of vice that is the special pride of naturalists, such as the Gon- courts and Zola. The publication of this remarkable study of sacerdotal ambition, brought the author enemies as well as friends. The catholic press did not accept it kindly, and an un- successful attempt was made to have the book placed upon the Index. 80 The Church party were not so ready as was Taine to recognize the impersonal point of view. Pontmartin, who had been so prompt to praise both Les Courbezon and Julien Savignac, remained now absolutely silent. Fabre was both surprised and grieved to learn that he was accused of malevolent intent in writing the book. 81 In Le Marquis de Pierrerue, which appeared in 1874 in two volumes, La rite du Puits qui parle and Le Carmel de Vaugirard, Fabre transplants himself to Paris. In proper names only does he seem to introduce what was familiar to him as a boy. The story has to do with his early years at Paris, and of all his writings it gives us the best idea of his life there as a student. To a large ex- 79. Pascal, op. cit., p. 661. 80. Cf. Le R. P. Colomban, published in the same volume with Norine. 81. Cf. Mon Cos Lit., p. 175. The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 39 tent he lends his own character to Theven Falzonet, and is recounting his own experiences in his search for know- ledge. Although he felt himself a stranger in Paris, he is as truly writing from observation and personal experience as in his Cevenol novels. "La maison des missions etrangeres de la rue du Bac" was known to him just as the presbytery and the seminary were. 82 In 1890 he con- densed the two volumes into one under the name of Un Illumine. Barnabe, which appeared in September 1874, was dedi- cated to Hector Malot, as an expression of friendship. The story is again an idyll of his boyhood, telling of his relations with one of the Free Brethren of Saint Francis. 83 Young Ferdinand learned to know intimately these coarse men, as he learned to know all classes in the parish of his uncle at Camplong. Mon Oncle Celestin was published in 1881. Here and in Monsieur Jean (1886), the author leads the reader intimately into his life at Camplong, portraying the beautiful character of his uncle with a greater admiration and affection than in any of his other novels. M. Pellissier thinks that "Mon Oncle Celestin" is one of the most exquisite characters in all French rom- antic literature. 84 La Petite Mere appeared in Le Temps in 1887. There were four volumes in book form : La paroisse du jugement dernier; Le Calvaire de la baronne Fuster; Le combat de la fabrique Bergonnier; L'Hospice des enfants assistes. 82. Topin, M., Romanciers contemporains, p. 192. 83. These men lived in mountain hermitages, and were for the most part dirty brawling beggars. Recruited from the fields, they lacked all clerical consecration. 84. Ferdinand Fabre, Revue des Revues, 1903, vol. 46, p. 437. 40 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre Later Fabre condensed these four into one which appeared in 1887 under the title of Madame Fuster. In May 1878 appeared Le Roman d'un peintre. It was the biography of his friend, Jean-Paul Laurens, the artist, whose acquaintance he made in i866 85 through that other close friend, Antonin Mule, to whom the book is dedicated. A similar conception of art immediately drew Fabre to Laurens. The work of both bore strongly the impress of their personalities, which were not unlike. They were both fond of ecclesiastical subjects, and Lau- rens illustrated some of Fabre's books. 86 He also painted a life size portrait of his friend for his rooms in the In- stitute. Fabre was decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1878. On the death of Jules Sandeau, he was appointed, April 27, 1883, to succeed him as Curator of the Bib- liotheque Mazarine. He held this office until November 1 8, i893. 87 In that capacity he occupied a suite of rooms in the Institute, 2 rue de Seine, where he lived quietly in comparative seclusion until his death, without other in- cident in his life than the publication of his books. On ac- count of his literary attainments, La Societe de gens de let- tres in February 1891 awarded him the first prize on the Chauchard Foundation. In 1884 appeared Lucifer, the second of his strictly clerical novels. Here he speaks out most boldly and bit- terly against the government of the Catholic Church. 85. Le Roman d'un peintre, p. 235. 86. L'Abbe Tigrane, Julien Savignac, Le Chevrier, L'Abbt Roitelet. 87. M. P. Marais. The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 41 Against the Jesuits particularly is his attack directed. Even in his first novel he condemned celibacy as being un- natural, but in Lucifer apparently he considers it a wick- ed principle. His main cause for protest, however, is against the Church organization and hierarchy. He no longer limits himself to recounting, but declaims against what he calls the servility of the clergy. 88 Between the dates of Tigrane, 1873, and Luctfer, 1884, occurred the triumph of naturalism, the type of literature that portrays all conditions of life as they are, and often with the definite intent to protest and with the purpose to improve. Far more than Tigrane, Lucifer implies such a motive in the author. Fabre's early fondness for personal liberty would infallibly lead him to protest against a regime that denied it to others. He himself asserts that his ideas toward the Church had through the years been gradually assuming more definite shape, and growing more bitter. 89 He had lost other friends than Pontmartin. Many of his readers, however, were more pleased with Lucifer than Tigrane. Among these was About. But it must be remembered he had already written La Question Romaine, an anti-clerical protest, and felt more incensed than Fabre against the power of the Jesuits. In the peaceful retirement of his rooms he lived over again in his books his life in the Cevennes. The first of these novels of earlier days were Monsieur Jean and Toussaint Galabru (1887). He would often pause in his writing to listen to the happy gold finch, which he had brought from Bedarieux. The bird's singing revived 88. Doumic, op. cit., p. 933. 89. Mon Cos Lit., p. 175. 42 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre memories of former escapades in company with the friends of his boyhood. The result was perhaps the prettiest of all his love idylls, Norine, (1889). The following year he wrote L'Abbe Roitelet, and also Xaviere, of which there were several copies de luxe printed, at 50 francs each. 90 This honor greatly pleased Fabre. In 1891 there appeared Sylviane and Germy. Mon Ami Gaffarot was printed in La Revue de Paris, 1884. Taillevent was published the same year. Ma location (April 30, 1889) is practically an auto- biography of the years 1845-48, based on what purports to be a daily journal begun at the instance of his Uncle Fulcran, during the boy's stay at Camplong, with hope of teaching him to express his thoughts in terms of pious sentiments. Although the journal failed to contain many pious sayings, it does furnish data as to what was most formative in his mental and spiritual development. When the uncle died in iSyi 91 his papers were burned and with them most of Ferdinand's journal dating from 1842-45. Only the last note book was saved, and it was this frag- ment that Fabre later embodied in Ma Vocation. 92 ' If this met with success, he intended publishing Ma Vocation litteraire, a journal of Paris, describing his struggle to 90. They contained thirty-six photogravures, nine in each of the four parts. 91. M. Pellissier is incorrect in saying that when Abbe Ful- cran died, Ferdinand went to the "Petit seminaire de la Mon- tagne noire" (Etudes Lit. Contemp). He was probably misled by the last paragraph of Monsieur Jean. While at the petit seminaire he frequently spent his vacations with his uncle. (Doumic, Le Cos de Ferdinand Fabre.) 92. Mademoiselle Abeille (fragments de mon journal), 1887, was also a part of Ma Vocation. The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 43 throw off his almost crushing load of ignorance on first coming to the capital. The religious note in the title was to indicate the ardor with which he took up literature and the heroism with which he resisted all opposition to a career of letters. His religious enthusiasm and sincerity merely changed its course into literature. His aims were just as noble and pure as had been those of his ecclesiastical call- ing. 93 Much suffering from rheumatism and other illness prevented his undertaking this second volume of souvenirs which would have been of inestimable value in under- standing his earlier literary ideals. The first chapters of Ma Jeunesse were interrupted by illness, and in the form in which they were published in 1903, they are little more than notes. The first part, en- titled Ma Jeunesse, is, however, more nearly complete than the other two. Here he again recounts his exper- iences at the higher seminary, which he told much better in Ma Vocation. He also tries to show how his point of view and general attitude toward the sacred calling of the priesthood differs from that held by the majority of the peasant boys when they are about to take the eternal vows imposed by the Church. Mon Cas Litteraire, fragmentary as it is, was probably the beginning of his projected Ma Vocation Litteraire. The last part, Monseigneur Fulgence, also incomplete, is an expression of his thoughts in regard to the proper relations of Church and State. He was also working on another novel, call- ed Le Bercail, 94 only a small fragment of which wa? written when his last illness came upon him. The sub- 93. Pascal, op. cit., p. 622. 94. Gosse, op. cit.. p. 525. 44 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre ject matter of this fragment is the isolation and misery to which a man is reduced who breaks violently with the Church. 95 He is an object of suspicion and hate, and is treated as an outcast by those whom he has left. 90 Fabre once said to M. Brisson, when discussing his projected novel, "Rien n'est plus terrible. Vous n'imaginez pas les confidences que j'ai recueillies. Ces gens-la sent des martyrs." 97 We may infer, then, that Le Bercail would have been of the nature of Lucifer, a psychological novel. In his later years he brought against himself much ani- mosity on the part of the ultramontanists, who saw in his L 'Abbe Tigrane and Lucifer only the set purpose of at- tacking the pontificate of Pius IX and the oecumenical decisions promulgated through the Syllabus of 1870. Stung by the accusations of his enemies in 1889, '* e de- fended himself and stated his old position in terms as clear as any on record. "Je ne suis pas alle a 1'eglise de propos delibere pour la peindre et pour la juger, encore moins pour faire d'elle metier et marchandise; 1'eglise est venue a moi, s'est imposee a moi par la force d'une longue frequentation, par les emotions poignantes de ma jeunesse, par un gout tenace de mon esprit, ouvert de bonne heure a elle, a elle seule, et j'ai ecrit tout le long de 1'ame. . . . De la une serie de livres sur les desservants, les cures, les chanoines, les eveques." 98 Here it would seem that he had not approached the Church in an unfriendly spirit, but the Church having come to him, he, as a realist, por- 95. M. Duviard. 96. Cf. Vignerte in Lucifer, p. 393. 97. Brisson, op. cit., p. 302. 98. Ma Vocation, p. 20. Cf . also letter to Pontmartin, March 31, 1881 (Pascal, op. cit., p. 659). The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 45 trayed all that he saw and felt therein. Neither does his statement prevent our believing that he expressed his own convictions in the words of Jourfier, and that he was assuming the role of the naturalist." He was a candidate three times for the Academy. Twice election was almost within reach, but an opponent had appeared at the last moment, and for political, not literary reasons, he was defeated. Eventually it was thought he was sure of election. His modesty forced his friends to seek votes for him. Jules Lemaitre, Jules Claretie, Henry Houssaye, Ludovic Halevy were among his most loyal supporters. When working for himself, it is said that he used to draw from his pocket a letter, yellow with age, written by Taine expressing his esteem for the author of Le Chevrier, and display it as evidence of his claims for the honor he sought. Faguet was one of his op- ponents and he said that wherever he went seeking votes for himself he was told, "Nous sommes pour cette election, engages avec M. Ferdinand Fabre." 100 Fabre suffered during much of his life from rheumatism and asthma, and during the last three years from neuralgia in his right shoulder, so that months at a time he could not write a line. During the last months of 1897 he was so feeble that he was unable to seek votes for the coming election of the Academy, but depended solely upon his friends. Previously some of the members had voted against him 99. M. Duviard says in a recent communication, "Je vous affirmer de la fac.on la plus absolue que M. Fabre non settlement n'appartenait pas a la coterie anticlericale que vous me nommez, mais n'a meme jamais etc anticlericale en son particulier. II respectait 1'Eglise et 1'etudia impartialement." 100. Sarcey, op. cit. 46 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre because they considered his writings anti-religious, others because they were too clerical ; but now all obstacles seem- ed removed. The cardinals were appeased and he was to be chosen to the chair of Meilhac at the next election in March 1898. He died February n, from a compli- cation of la grippe and pneumonia. He was buried the 1 5th of February in Montparnasse cemetery. The pall bearers were Paul-Jean Laurens, Jules Claretie, Jules Lemaitre, and Henry Houssaye, with the exception of Laurens, all members of the Academy. The addresses were delivered by Lemaitre and Houssaye. 101 A monu- ment to Fabre's memory was placed in the Luxemburg gardens in 1903. The bust of the author rests upon a pedestal upon which is sculptured a goat herd and his goat. Fabre was survived by his wife whose maiden name was Hermance de Beauregard, of the noble family of Bourdier de Beauregard of le Bourbonnais. 102 She was a woman of superior mental power, and had been her husband's sympathetic collaborator in his last works. The only complete happiness of his life, says Sarcey, was to have a wife who understood him, admired him and loved him with all her soul. 103 fev., 1898. Ferdinand Fabre was genial and kind, 104 though pre- serving to the end of his life the ecclesiastical stamp of the seminary. His personality had something akin to the ruggedness of his native mountains, for he possessed a 101. Le Temps, Feb. 15, 1808. 102. M. Duviard. Madame Fabre is still living (1916). 103. Sarcey, F., op. rit. Cf. Claretie, J., Le Temps, le 17. 104. M. Marais. The Life and Literary Career of Ferdinand Fabre 47 virility and firmness that never seemed to yield. 105 He was well informed on all questions of political, social or economic moment. 106 An entertaining and brilliant con- versationalist, 107 he won many friends. Though a nat- urally retiring disposition kept him from joining the literary circles of Paris, he knew personally most con- temporary authors of first importance. Among his literary correspondents 108 were Edmond About, Th. de Banville, Barbey d'Aurevilly, Jean Bertheroy, Cherbuliez, Jules Claretie, G. Clemenceau, Alphonse Daudet, Alex- andre Dumas, fils, Octave Feuillet, Ludovic Halevy, J. M. de Heredia, Jules Lemaitre, Hector Malot, Frederic Mistral, Emile Ollivier, Pailleron, Jean Richepin, Sainte- Beuve, F. Sarcey, Victorien Sardou, Turgenev, Taine and Zola. Though his readers were many, and his novels received the highest prices from editors and publishers, 109 yet, because of the nature of his subjects, 110 Fabre never attracted any considerable attention from the general public. Therefore, in proportion to his merit, little honor has been paid to this author of at least three masterpieces of the realistic novel, Les Courbezon, Mon Oncle Celestin, L 'Abbe Tigrane. 105. Brisson, op. cit., p. 660. 106. Pascal, op. cit., p. 660. 107. M. Marais. 108. M. Duviard. 109. Pascal, op. cit., p. 662. no. Alphonse Daudet once said to Fabre, "En vous speciali- sant ainsi, mon cher ami, vous n' aurez jamais pour vous ce public qui fait le grand succes les femmes." (Jules Claretie, La Vie a Paris, 1809, p. 30.) CHAPTER I CLASSIFICATION OF THE NOVELS FABRE'S literary career may be considered in three periods. The first, extending from 1862 to i8fc>8, in- cludes Les Courbezon (1862), Julien Savignac (1863), Mademoiselle de Malaveille (1865), Le Chevrier, (1868). With the exception of the third, they all belong among his most important works, and represent each of the three types into which his works may be divided; namely, the autobiographical, the ecclesiastical, 1 and those that deal primarily with peasant life and manners. The period is marked with a certain degree of experimen- talism, physio-psychological analysis, 2 which almost wholly disappears in his later novels with the exception of LAbbe Tigrane and Taillevent. The second period, from 1873 to 1884, contains UAbbe Tigrane (1873), Le Marquis de Pierrerue (1874), better known by the title of Un Illumine 3 (1890), Barnabe (1874), La Petite M&re (1877), more familiar under the name of Madame Fuster (1887), Le Roman d'un Peintre (1878), Mon Oncle Celestin (1881), Lucifer 1. I use the word ecclesiastical rather than clerical, for as a broader term, it includes the government, organization and activities of the Church, and also her position in regard to modern thought. The strictly clerical novels are Tigrane and Lucifer. 2. See Pascal, F., Ferdinand Fabre, Revue Bleue XIX (1903). 3. In discussing these works I shall hereafter refer to the better known titles 48 Classification of the Novels 49 (1884), Le Roi Ramire (1884). Excepting Barnabe and Mon Oncle Celestin the novels of this period are clearly anti-clerical, suggesting at least, the in- fluence of Lamennais, Michelet, and Taine. They oppose the Regular clergy as hostile to the best interests of France. It is a fair inference also that Fabre, during the years following the war of 1870, shared the opinions of his two most intimate friends, Jean-Paul Laurens and Antonin Mule, 4 who were both ardent republicans, bitter toward the Church because of her disloyalty to France when she was invaded by the enemy. 5 While Fabre was writing LfAbbe Tigrane and Le Marquis de Pierrerue, Laurens was at work on his famous paintings, Le Pape Formose et Etienne VII (1872), and L'Interdit (1875), by which he sought to portray the vicious scheming of the Church for selfish ends to suppress ruthlessly all opponents. 6 After 1884 Fabre abandoned the strictly clerical novel to return to the happier field of his youth and life among the peasants. The novels of the third period, from 1886 to 1894, again have their scenes laid in the Cevenol mountains. They are Monsieur Jean (1886), Toussaint Galabru (1887), Norine and Cathinelle (1882), UAbbe Roitelet (1890), Xaviere (1899), Sylviane (1891), Germy (1891), Mon Ami Gaffarot (1894), Taillevent (1894). These stories contain many superior descriptions, and re- count several idyllic incidents with all the sympathy and 4. Laywer and litterateur, son of Bernard Mule, famous leader of the Republicans of Toulouse. 5. Le Roman d'un Peintre, p. 294. 6. Le Roman d'un Peintre, p. 308. Fabre speaks of Lau- rens as a member of "notre ecole." Ibid., p. 312. 5O The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre tenderness that characterize Mon Oncle Celestin, but as a whole they are dull and show little variety. Norine and L'Abbe Roitelet alone equal the excellence of the previous stories of the same type. They all, in one way or another, treat the religion of these simple-minded priests, a sort of self-deluding asceticism, with a dry humor that is often more derisive than kindly. Any further classification cannot be wholly satisfactory since all the novels, with the two exceptions of Madame Fuster and Un Illumine, whose scenes are laid in Paris, have to do with both peasant and priest. For the purpose of comparison, however, I have divided them into three groups on the basis of primal interests. Les Courbezon, as the author's first novel, is of peculiar significance in its relations to both the ecclesiastical and peasant novels, and so deserves to stand alone unclassified. Mademoiselle de Malaveille, not autobiographical, nor yet dealing to any extent with either peasant or priest, is unique. More largely than any other of the novels it is a product of the imagination. Like Le Roi Ramire, it has to do with the Spanish emigres in Southern France. Notwithstanding the highly romantic conception wherein a Spanish hidalgo, disguised as a sheepshearer, becomes enamoured of a lady of noble birth in Languedoc, the book fails as an interest- ing love story. 7 7. Note. The author in not rendering in fuller detail the conjugal incompatibility of the aristocratic Armande de Mala- veille and her peasant husband, Cyprien Cabrol, misses, as in Taillevent, a good opportunity of developing a phychological novel after the manner of Balzac or Flaubert. Even so, this realistic treatment of the minor characters excels the ro- mantic presentation of the two lovers, Cyprienne and Jose. Classification of the Novels 51 The other novels readily fall into one of three classes. Of the autobiographical Julien Savignac is the first. It describes the beginning of his life at Camplong in the home of his uncle Abbe Fulcran. The others are Barnabe, Man Oncle Celestin, Monsieur Jean, Xamere, Norine, Cathinelle, Germy, Sylviane. In Mon Ami Gaffarot, Fabre substitutes for his uncle, his aunt Angele. L'Abbe Roite- let and Toussaint Galabru are presented from a new point, that of the Paris writer, as in Le Chevrier, returned to visit the scenes and friends of his boyhood. There are but two novels that bear primarily upon peas- ant life and conditions : Le Chevrier and Taillevent. The significance of certain statements, rather than the nature of the stories, classifies Le Roman d'un Peintre and Le Roi Ramire among the ecclesiastical novels. The latter skillfully portrays the unreasoning attitude of mind that blindly devotes itself alike to King and Church as repre- senting one cause. The remaining books of this same group are UAbbe Tigrane, Luctfer, Un Illumine and Madame Fuster. CHAPTER II LES COURBEZON AS Thomas Hardy in his first novel, "Desperate Remedies" discovered his genius in portraying the Wessex peasant, so Ferdinand Fabre in his first novel, Les Courbezon, discovered his in portraying the peasant of the Cevenol region of lower Languedoc. Besides the peasant he also found here the second expression of his genius in his description of the country priest. Although the type of priest by which he gained his reputation as a cleri- cal novelist is very different from the simple-minded, kind-hearted Abbe Courbezon, this latter is the more persistent in his later novels. Pancol, too, displays those characteristics that are nearly always present in his rustic lovers. Like Hardy again, Fabre believes that animalism makes the nobler man. The other characters that fre- quently occur elsewhere, though under different names, are Cecile, 1 the lovely, motherless young girl, her 'aunt, La Panole, 2 the vicious termagant; and the usurer Ver- noubrel. 3 With the exceptions of "Monsieur le neveu," and Prudence, the housekeeper, we are, from the begin- ning of his literary career, introduced to those individuals 1. Felice, (Le Chevrier), Meniquette, (Julien Savignac), Marie, (Man Oncle Celestin), Xaviere father is dead, (Xaviere), Norine (Norine). 2. See p. 58. 3. Malgrison, (Le Chevrier). 52 Les Courbezon 53 most natural to Fabre's literary art, those that are most constantly with us. The plot of Les Courbezon, though simple, is complex compared with any other of the author's novels. The book is both a roman-champetre and a clerical novel. The two themes are brought together by what appears to be a very original device. The presence of Abbe Courbezon in the parish of Saint-Xist was the result of a clever move on the part of one of the lovers of the pious Cecile to outwit his rival. As she was greatly devoted to attend- ance at mass, it appeared logical that the most direct ap- peal to her heart would be through her religious emotions. So the crafty Fumat used his influence to locate in her village the prospective new parish church. But, as later events proved, the power of the Church on religious souls is far stronger than the passion of love. Thus Fumat lost his suit through the very means whereby he felt con- fident of winning it. The priest is merely the primal cause of the circumstances that produce the action of the plot. About him revolve the actors, whose passions and ambitions make the story. The author not only presents an experimental study of the peasant, but he also intro- duces those problems of Catholic discipline and organi- zation which he treats more at length in L'Abbe Tigrane and Lucifer. What there is of plot is revealed first in the conflict of the two men for the hand of Cecile; the unscrupulous scheming on the part of Fumat to ruin Justin financially, and the latter's more natural and more direct way of dis- posing of his enemy by murdering him. Justin finds, however, that the strife is more intense and hopeless 54 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre against his second adversary, the power of religion upon the devout mind of Cecile to draw her to the life of a nun. Finally persuaded that the innocent abbe is to blame for Cecile's persistent refusal to marry him, at the instigation of his mother he tries to kill the priest. In the struggle that ensued on the high bank above the pond, Justin is thrown backwards into the water and is drowned. By unnatural interference with the love passion that is in- herent in all people, the Church in the name of religion, is the cause of Justin's unhappiness and untimely death. In the portrayal of chief characters Fabre follows rather consistently the somewhat romantic method of contrast, and arrangement in pairs. Antoine Fumat and Justin Pancol as rivals in love are so paralleled. The former was a widower about forty years old, temperate and quiet in conduct, but miserly and selfish, whose mo- tives in paying court to Cecile were purely mercenary. Pancol, in the full vigor of his young manhood, was a wild and worthless sort of fellow, but generous and big-hearted and filled with a true love for the girl. Fabre, after the manner of an experimental novelist, 4 explains the disposition of Antoine on a physio-pyschologi- cal basis. 5 He is small, pale and thin, but cunning and 4. Cf. Pascal, op. cit., p. 658. Also cf. Mile, de Malaveille, pp. 52, 154, and Taillevent, p. 72. 5. See Les Courbeson, p. 146. "Certains physiologists pre- tendent que la perfection absolue de 1'ame, qui constitue 1'homme de genie ou celle du corps, qui fait les Antinoiis, cree, parmi nous, les seuls etres absolument bons. Chez les autres, 1'inclination au mal serait en raison directe de leur imperfec- tion morale ou physique. Cette opinion des physiologistes, que nous ne voudrions certes pas accepter sans restriction, trouve par hasard son entiere justification dans le caractere de Fumat." Les Courbezon 55 cruel, like all weak men, he says, suffering from physical illness. It is rare that an individual whose soul or body has been arrested in its development, does not avenge himself on another for the cruelty of nature. His incli- nation to evil is in direct ratio to his moral or physical imperfections. The character, then of Fumat was in per- fect harmony with his rickety and sickly bodily condition. His greed for gain, the common vice of the peasant, seem- ed born of his weakness. Whatever affection he was cap- able of, he had given it all to his chestnut trees and to his vineyards. Here, as elsewhere in his character descrip- tions, Fabre confines himself largely to portraying moral and mental states, with little reference to external ap- pearance. Fumat's desire to win Cecile arose from no natural instinct, but from a distortion of moral principle, in that, for natural love he substituted the lower motive of personal greed. Neither was his hatred for Justin Pancol the result of normal jealousy of a lover towards his rival, but was rather the consequence of material cupid- ity. In the accomplishment of his revenge he pursued means entirely fitting to his purpose. Instead of the method of direct revenge adopted by Justin, who, having seized his enemy, dashed out his brains and threw his body into a pond, Fumat attained his end by the more round- about process of financial ruin. Thus while Pancol's ambition was spontaneous, springing from a motive nat- ural and inherent in character, Fumat's was external, worldly, and concerned with matters that lay wholly out- side the natural man. It is very apparent that Justin has the author's complete sympathy, for the efforts cf the police to discover Fumat's assassin were very flimsy and 56 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre completely futile. We feel, as in the case of Fredery in Le Chevrier, that a character so worthless deserves to be killed. He was cunning and crafty, and his opponent violent and brutal. "Pauvre Justin! Pauvre Justin! cent fois plus violent, plus brutal, plus coupable qu' Antoine Fumat, et pourtant cent fois plus tendre, cent fois plus homme." 6 Here Fabre states definitely his esti- mate of the natural man, whose passions have not been perverted by worldly ambitions. It must be noted also that Justin's crime affected him but little. The hopelessness of his suit for Cecile, how- ever, altered completely^ his appearance. He became pale, thin and timid, gone was the muscular strength which had so easily dealt the death blow to his enemy. The soul, so intimately linked to the body, does not suffer without reacting upon it. Justin's physical change was the direct consequence of his despair. 7 Thus instead of merely as- suming that the weakened body is but an outward ex- pression of the soul's distress, Fabre attempts to explain it as resulting from failure to satisfy the demands of the emotional nature, which are also physical needs. When an opportunity presented itself to do an errand for Cecile, Justin's heart was revived, and thereafter he began to regain bodily vigor. Renewed prospects of enjoying her favor were sufficient to rehabilitate the former moral and 6. Les Courbeson, p. 343. 7. Les Courbezon, pp. 340-3. "Cependant, comment expli- quer cet incroyable affaissement physique? II etait la conse- quence de 1'aneantissement de ses esperances. Le corps ne tarda pas a recevoir le contre-coup des emotions de Tame. Les joues de Pancol, animees d'un rouge yif, palirent, puis se creuserent; enfin toute la machine, atteinte dans son res- sort principal, s'affaissa." Les Courbezon 57 physical man. Once more disappointed and his hopes blighted, a blind rage, an inner fever, drives him to rush from one place to another, gesticulating wildly and mut- tering curses, and threatening to kill Cecile, if she further resists him. 8 In a frenzy he makes his way to the site of the murder of Fumat, and there experiences a sudden rev- olution of emotion. His fury is spent, he falls wearily to the ground, crying out, "Cecile, Cecile, voila pourtant ce que j'ai fait pour toi." He spent the night there in utter exhaustion. At dawn he returned home to indulge in a regular drunken debauch. 9 His moral strength be- came more and more broken, and excited to desperation by the nagging of his mother, he finally attempted to kill Abbe Courbezon. The unexpected outcome was the drowning of Justin himself. The tragic ending is char- acteristic of Fabre, 10 suggesting a pessimistic fatalism that runs through pratically all his important works. 11 Cecile possesses both religious temperament and the love instinct, one neutralizing the other. She can never decide definitely to enter the convent, nor bring herself to the point of accepting Justin whom she learns to love. Up to a certain time her soul had been dominated solely by religious emotions and impulses to give lavishly of her wealth to charity. 'Finally, however, her heart had to submit to the common law, and she was drawn by the 8. Cf. Eran, p. 83. 9. Les Courbezon, pp. 401-3. Cf. Eran, p. 84. 10. Cf. Julien Savignac, Le Ckevrier, Un Illumine, Madame Fuster, Barnabe, Man Oncle Celestin, Lucifer, Xaviere, Tail- levent. 11. Exceptions, Mile, de Malaveille, L'Abbe Roitelet, Mon Ami Gaffarot, Monsieur Jean, Sylviane, Germy, Le Roman d'un Peintre. \ 58 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre desire to be a wife and mother. She would have yielded to the promptings of her heart but for the influence of her early piety which still inclined her to the life of a nun. Her refusal to marry Pancol caused his crime and untimely death. In the end, however, the mother instinct proves more powerful than her religious nature, and she seeks happiness in the care of the children left to her charge. It is the same theme that the author takes up again in Madame Fuster, although the fate of the nobly born Madeleine is far more tragic. 12 With La Pancole Fabre introduces a character that ap- pears in several other novels. 13 She is ugly, cruel, vicious, and dominated by the one passion of greed. Her affection for her only son, Justin, is subservient to her desire to gain control of Cecile's property. As in Xaviere 1 * and Tail- levent, 15 this land hunger becomes so violent that it results in crime. The indictments against the avaricious pea- santry are no more direct in Les Paysans and in La Terre than in these novels. Fabre explains this abnormal craving and the utter disregard of human life that ac- companies it as resulting from a coarse nature' and an un- developed intelligence. Civilization has given to the man of the city a more delicate and refined sense of which the peasant has been deprived. There is no mean to his pas- 12. See p. 119. 13. Cf. La Combale in Barnabe, La Galtiere in Mon Oncle Celestin, Benoite Ouradon in Xaviere. 14. Xaviere, pp. 185, 275. 15. Taillevent, p. 226. 16. Mile, de Malaveille plainly corroborates Balzac's belief in the conspiracy of the peasants against the rich (Les Paysans, introductory letter). Les Courbezon 59 sions; when he strikes, he strikes to kill. 17 In his description of the money lender, Verncubrel, Fabre resembles Balzac, not only in the portrayal of the person, but also in the detailed account of his lodgings. 18 Fabre does not enter so completely into precise sums, but his financial transactions have the same pitiless exaction as Balzac's, and his miser's methods are fully as unscrup- ulous, and as ruinous to the peasants. 19 Abbe Courbezon and Mgr. Bienvenu both made their appearance in i862. 20 They represent the same type of kind-hearted country priest dominated by the spirit of Christian charity. Hugo has painted an almost complete- ly romantic ideal, while Fabre has created a French Vicar of Wakefield, 21 whose passion for erecting charitable institutions involved him in even more overwhelming dis- asters than those that befell good Dr. Primrose. Abbe Courbezon was the victim of an altruistic ambition, which in its power was not less absolute than the thoroughly selfish ambition of Abbe Tigrane. Abbe Courbezon had no idea of the significance of the Church as a political organization. His seminary ed- ucation accorded with his mental capacities. He learned from his professors what they intended he should and no more. He read only those books that a priest should know 17. Les Courbezon, p. 145. Cf. Renan, op. cit., Le broyeur de lin, III. 18. Les Courbezon, pp. 149-150. Cf. M. Grandet, in Eu- genie Grandet. 19. Cf. Malgrison, in Le Chevrier. 20. Feuillet's Histoire de Sibylle also appeared in 1862. 21. Cf. Sainte-Beuve, N. Lundis, IX, p. 450. Also Pater, W., Ferdinand Fabre, An Idyll of the Cevennes. (Essays from the Guardian, p. 123). 60 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre and wisely stopped there. 22 He was not interested in Spanish mysticism, but believed naively in the miracles as the Church taught them. With all his simplicity of mind, he possessed the beautiful soul of a saint Vincent de Paul. As he surpassed his colleagues in spirituality, so his most intimate friend, Abbe Ferrand, outweighed them intellectually. These two men summed up the spirit of the Church. To Courbezon the Church should be devoted to the happiness of men, where as to Ferrand, her chief duty was to carry the torch of faith above the heads of all. His logic led him to justify the Church hierarchy and the principle of obedience. The last part of the book unfortunately involves much theological discussion. M. Geraudon-Gineste 23 asserts that in Abbe Ferrand, Fabre expresses his own views in regard to the struggle between science and faith. This could hardly be, for Fabre championed the freedom of the human conscience 24 as a necessary corollary of the full expression of personal liberty and dignity. Les Cour- bezon as well as his later clerical novels, protests against the condition of servility of the lesser clergy. 23 Pancol, a creature of instinct, is clearly to the author's mind a higher expression of the normal man than the clergy who bear the stamp of their degrading servitude. In Abbe 22. Les Courbezon, p. 28. Cf. Estaunie, M., L'Empreinte ; Pellissier, G., Etudes contemporaines, serie II, p. 183, also Julien Savignac, pp. 119-120, for effect of seminary education on mind of young clericals. Cf. Renan, op. cit., Le broyeur de lin, III, for an account of the books permitted to the seminar- ists. 23. Nouvelle Revue, CXII (1898). 24. Ma Jeunesse, p. 264. 25. Les Courbezon, p. 82 Les Courbezon 6l Courbezon, however, all sense of servility is lost sight of in the beauty of his passion for unselfish giving. Les Courbezon in its intensity of character description is more largely a novel of peasant life and manners than one of clerical life, although in the discussion of the Church and clergy Fabre introduces several of the types, and deals with many of the conditions, which he treats at greater length in his two strictly clerical novels, L 'Abbe Tigrane and Lucifer. CHAPTER III THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVELS I IN Julien Savignac Fabre introduces us to his life at the presbytery of Camplong under the care of his uncle and his housekeeper. Although doubtless the first part of the story recounts to some extent Fabre 's own ex- periences at school in Bedarieux, the book is of greater importance in its relation to the author's own ideals and temperament. He portrays himself, like his peasants, as a child of instincts and violent impulses. To him the child of nature is never essentially vicious; only those whose ambitions are purely selfish and material are really bad. 1 A man of vehement passions appears to be a favor- ite type. Its persistence throughout his novels, and the vigor of the portrayal would seem to be in some sort a reflection of his own personal experience. In explaining the developement of Julien's character, Fabre again adopts the scientific method. The psycholog- ical changes attendant upon the passing from adolescence to early manhood, intensified and harassed a disposition already somewhat violent in temper until the boy became a bully among his school mates. This irritable condition increased until confinement to school work became im- i. Cf. Fumat, and Pancol, p. 54. 62 The Autobiographical Novels 63 possible. So he and his friend, Adrien, spent their days in trapping birds. The consequent failure in their studies brought severe punishment to Julien. The chapters de- scribing the garret scene and the struggle between the blind authority of the father and the obstinacy of the son, 2 the intervention of the mother and the kindly uncle, 3 the hours passed in the public square at night in darkness peopled with robbers and filled with monsters, 4 and the rescue by the mother, and the final reconciliation brought about by the sympathetic Abbe Savignac, 5 are among the very best of those in which Fabre describes his boyhood. Only in Barnabe does he show such a complete under- standing of a boy's motives of conduct. From what we know of Fabre's early life we are led to believe that in these pages he is describing his own feelings of revolt against blind authority and his struggle for personal free- dom. Abbe Savignac took Julien to live with him at Camp- long, where he found the life of the presbytery much to his liking, in spite of a certain exacting regime established by his uncle. His rebellious disposition soon disappeared. Though this revolution in character was largely the result of the wise discipline of the kindly priest, the influence of the beautiful Meniquette was not lacking. His first love had its beginning during the truant days of Julien and Adrien when the two presented Meniquette with a cage full of birds. Love and jealousy were born at the same 2. Julien Savignac, pp. 44-45, 57-58. 3. Ibid., pp. 59-60. 4. Ibid,, pp. 63-64. 5. Ibid., pp. 74-75. 6. Cf. Barnabe, pp. 41, 42. 74, 64 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre time in the heart of Julien, and both grew together in vehemence. The struggle between these two emotions, and the resulting cruel tragedy constitute the chief interest during the remainder of the novel. Love reacted outwardly upon Julien as it did upon Pancol. 7 When Meniquette used to sit sewing before the window of the room where he was preparing his les- sons, Julien always did his best. On other days, however, he was dull, and his exercises were full of mistakes and covered with blots. 8 Although Adrien's affection for Meniquette had always inspired jealousy, it was not until he heard him singing that Julien realized the extent of his dislike for his former friend. In fancying that Meni- quette took greater pleasure in the voice of this peasant, than in his own success in his studies, he felt his former maliciousness return. 9 He no longer desired to do his work well, nor to please his uncle and good Zabeth, the housekeeper. On learning from Meniquette that, in spite of her greater love for Julien, she had resolved to marry Adrien in order to fulfil her promise, the boy's anger in- cited him to such brutality that he knocked her down upon a heap of stones and then ran away leaving her there. He even tried txTkill his rival by pushing him from the foot bridge into the swollen Salagou. Both fell into the rushing torrent. Adrien with the kindness and devotion 7. See p. 56. _ 8. Julien Savignac, pp. 117-118. 9. Fabre explains this condition scientifically. "Les pas- sions, dans 1'adolescence, peut-etre parce qu'elles s'exer- cent sans but bien defini, sans 1'impitoyable contrepoids de la raison, acquierent chez certaines natures un caractere de vio- lence extreme, (p. 160). Cf. Jean Christophe, t. I. by Ro- main Holland. The Autobiographical Novels 65 of a brother, and after a hard struggle, rescued his enemy. The illness that followed this episode did not cool the fire of Julien's hate. His love had all the impetuousness of his jealousy. Scarcely realizing his conduct, one day he rushed wildly after Meniquette and covered her hands with kisses. She fled from him. Then throwing himself exhausted upon the ground, he experienced the awakening of the love instinct. He thought of woman as an ideal of beauty and loveliness. 10 Now for the first time there burst upon his mind the idea of possessing Meniquette for his own. He felt, moreover, that this adoration of an ideal, and its actual possession, would not be the full gratification of his desires. Fabre does not tell us what was lacking to make it complete. His realism includes little sensuality. 11 He avoids it by paralleling human and animal instinct. 12 In spite of his excesses Julien has won our sympathies by the sincerity of his passion. He is the victim of emotions which are those of a child of nature, his con- duct does not arise from petty selfishness. The tragic ending is due to his exhaustion from the conflict within him. During the mass at the marriage of Adrien and Meniquette, the bride's veil catches fire, because Julien as acolyte is too weak longer to grasp the candle. This denouement in its intensity of tragic quality is character- istic of Fabre's genius a beautiful bride burned to death 10. Julien Savignac, pp. 199-202. Cf. Taillevent's love for Riquette where the analysis is not so definite. (Taillevent, p. 262). n. Cf., however, Toussaint Galabru. 12. Julien Savignac, pp. 199-202. Cf. Sylviane, p. 67. See also p. 82 discussion of Le Chewier. 66 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre at the marriage altar at the hands of one who loves her more passionately than does her husband. Her death is the direct result of Julien's inability to conquer his master passion of love. In Julien Savignac Fabre has given himself the dif- ficult task of portraying the character of a boy experienc- ing the love natural to a youth several years his senior. Along with his description of this intense love we must take his word for its genuineness 13 he presents incidents that are convincing in their appeal to our sense of what is probable in young lovers. Julien does not desire the privilege of kissing Meniquette without a struggle. When she meekly submitted her cheek to his caresses, he is dis- appointed. It is as if he were kissing his mother. "C'etait la rose des Alpes sans epines, mais aussi sans parfum." 14 Neither is she contented with just the love of a "brother." If that is all there is to their love making, she would much rather return to setting traps for birds. Julien, like all boys, in his insane scheming for vengeance against Adrien, completely disregards the possibility of unpleasant after effects. 15 Thus in the descriptions of his own youthful experiences Fabre appears to be a more accurate observer of life than in his studies of peasant lovers such as Pancol and Eran. As in many of his other novels, 16 Fabre here, too, con- ceives of his leading characters in pairs, and, by means of 13. See preamble. 14. Julien Savignac, p. 100. 15. Julien Savignac, p. 249. 16. Les Courbeson, Le Chevrier, L'Abbe Tigrane, Man On- cle Celestin. Note particularly the contrast between the two hermits, Barnabe and Venceslas. (Barnabe, pp. 390-391). The Autobiographical Novels 67 contrast, something after the manner of Hugo though avoiding his extremes, throws into relief their dominant qualities. Julien, a member of a bourgeois family, was nervous and timid, highly imaginative and emotional, though obstinate, and under provocation, desperate; Adrien, the son of a peasant, strong and stolid, lacked completely all intense passion. He was actuated by senti- ment rather than passion. Julien suspected that he loved his native village more than he did Meniquette. His affection for his former roommate was a far finer expres- sion of his nature than his love for his fiancee whose loy- alty he accepted as a matter of course. Never once did he suspect her sacrifice nor Julien's hatred. The latter's capacity for love as well as for jealousy surpassed his comprehension. L'Abbe Savignac, unlike his brother who was a man of affairs, understood the human heart, and thought all men could be reached through kindness and sympathy. 17 Both loved Julien; the difference lay in the outward ex- pression of their affection. Julien, himself, marveled at his uncle's insight into the various sides of his nature, ex- cept only his admiration for the opposite sex. 13 This singular moral phenomenon was due to his seminary training. For his uncle "aimer" had but one object, "Dieu." Indirectly Meniquette's death resulted from this defect in the priest's nature. Had his uncle suspected Julien's suffering, he could not have been cruel enough to 17. Cf. Monsieur Jean, pp. 242-243. 18. Julien Savignac, p. 119. 19. Cf. Man Oncle Celestin, p. 186, "Je ne devrais aimer que Dieu." 68 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre ask him to serve at the nuptial mass. Fabre seldom draws his women characters so forcefully as his men. They act more often as foils whereby the men stand out more distinctly. 20 Taken by herself Mad- ame Savignac represents merely a typical mother; but considered in comparison with her husband she adds great- ly to the definiteness of his portrayal. Meniquette is much less an ideal, and far more a real person than Felice in Le Chevrier, yet alone she would be of little importance. Through her, however, the character of Adrien becomes clearly defined. Zabeth, the housekeeper, whether under this name, or Marianne, 21 or Prudence, invariably furnishes a comic element to relieve the sombre tone evident in much that Fabre wrote. She is the one female character who exists for her own sake, serving as no foil to any others. Though very much of a shrew, she is loyal and kindhearted to a fault, the faithful protector of the interests of the simple abbe and his nephew. Fabre succeeds better in portraying personalities than in describing external appearances. We know very little about what his characters look like, but we know quite completely what they think and how they act. Occasion- ally he attempts a description of clothes as in the case of the peasants in Abbe Savignac's choir, or the attire of the wedding guests. The impression, however, is vague and unsatisfactory. 20. In contrast to this compare La Galtiere (Man Oncle Celestin) and Madame Fuster. 21. See Barnabe and Mon Oncle Ctlestin. In the other auto- biographical novels she is Prudence. The Autobiographical Novels 69 The new personalities, then, that he has created for us in the first of his autobiographical novels are primarily the Abbe of Camplong, his nephew, and the housekeeper. We shall meet these three under different names more often than any other of Fabre's characters. II Barnabe is essentially an introduction to M-on Oncle Celestin presenting the setting, scenery and characters. Early in the book the kindly curate and his housekeeper, Marianne, disappear from the action. Thus for a short time Ferdinand 22 escapes their surveillance to mingle with the people of the canton, ignorant, superstitious peasants, almost wholly without religious devotion. 23 He goes to live with the uncouth and disreputable mountain hermit, Barnabe Laverune, a member of the Free Brothers of Saint Francis. 24 Quite aside from its interest in presenting a study of the semi-clerical hermits of the Cevenol mountains, Barnabe is of special value in interpreting Ferdinand's youth, the period preceding the birth of those passions described in several of the autobiographical novels. Here, as in Mon Oncle Celestin, we feel the wholesome charm of the boy carefully reared in a religious home, before his nature has been affected by the strong emotions of early manhood. With all his innocence he is a real boy devoted 22. No name is used in Barnabe or Celestin for Ferdinand. He is referred to as enfant, fillot, petiot, or "Monsieur le neveu." 23. See p. 88. 24. See p. 39. JO The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre to out of door life. In his enthusiasm for it, he cries, "Quelle vie! quelle delicieuse, quelle enivrante vie, sur ces roches isolees, avec un ane, un ermite, la liberte pour compagnons." 25 Not only does he love the mountains, the rocks, the streams, the birds and animals and the sun- shine, but he has the feeling of a poet for the phenomena of nature. 26 Barnabe 21 in its three parts epitomizes the main themes of Fabre's novels which deal with country life ; a portray- al of his boyhood, the love idyll, and lastly the gruesome tragedy when Barnabe hangs himself in a prison cell. This scene assumes added horror when witnessed by Ferd- inand whose life had been so carefully guarded from the ugly, frightful things of the world. Ill Mon Oncle Celestin presents an idealized portrait, drawn as by a boy under the spell of affectionate admir- ation for his uncle. His love struck so true a note that "Mon Oncle Celestin" is as real a character as the author has created. Long before the story is ended the reader knows intimately the desservant of Lignieres-sur-Graveson, and, with "Monsieur le neveu" loves him dearly. We understand his affection for "les tasses de M. 1'Abbe Com- bescure" with their rosebuds and profusion of falling leaves, the beauty and freshness of which never fade ; we enjoy with him, the mutton soup, the egg-plant, and above 25. Barnabe, p. 225. Cf. Mon Oncle Celestin, p. 164. 26. Barnabe, pp. 275-280. 27. Ibid., pp. 280-285. The Autobiographical Novels 7 1 all the "oreillettes sucrees;" we share his feelings toward his superiors in the hierarchy, once his fellow students at the seminary. Though this same kindly priest appears in nearly one half of Fabre's novels, in none of the others is he so care- fully and intimately portrayed, and in no other is he so completely the central figure. Here his kindliness, and moral strength assume greater power. He is strictly a masculine type, for his moral and spiritual eminence is of the kind that denotes virility and fearlessness. Unlike Abbe Courbezon he is the victim of no charitable or pious illusions. His is the normal life of a man who has estab- lished the highest standards of rectitude and righteousness for himself, who, however, is tolerant and sympathetic toward others. His spirituality reveals more clearly his human qualities. However guilty in other respects, Fabre's priests are invariably chaste, and so no attack against this virtuous man, the most exalted of all the author's characters, could come with more tremendous force than Abbe Clochard's persistent intimation that Celestin is the father of Marie's child. Already broken in health he could not long survive such an indignity. The vindictive Clochard, in violently pushing his way into the chamber of the dying abbe to announce brutally his suspension from the ranks of the clergy, achieved his revenge. 28 Before he could escape down the stairs in the dark, "Mon Oncle Celestin" was dead. Poor innocent Marie not comprehending the signifi- cance of her bodily weakness, like Tess of the D'Urbe- 28. Cf. Abbe Montrose in Les Courbeson. 72 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre villes, wandered from farm to farm seeking work. As soon as her employers realized her condition they sent her away, few of them manifesting any pity for her. At length in her distress she returned at night to the pres- bytery thinking to arouse Marianne, or some other mem- ber of the household, but not the good curate, who she knew had need of his rest. However, her sense of shame, at the moment of knocking at the door, impelled her to flee and hide in the old ruin Castelas. On the night her child was to be born, her friends rescued her. They took her to the presbytery where she was cared for by the faith- ful health officer, Anselm Benoit, and Marianne. Too weak, however, to endure her suffering she died the next day. In the suffering and death of Marie Galtier, as- sociated as they are with the infamous persecutions of the saintly Abbe Celestin, Fabre presents the most pathetic of his tragic denouements. Since Fabre here reveals his characters as seen by a boy they represent no complex natures. They are, for the most part, entirely good or entirely bad. Those under the influence of Uncle Celestin share his integrity. Only Galtier seems to possess both good and evil tendencies. Though kind-hearted he is helpless to defend Marie from his wife's cruelty, or to resist his desire for intoxicating drink. La Galtiere is even more ferocious and despicable than La Pancole. The moral degenerate, Pigassou, her- mit of Saint Raphael, is a more general representative of the Free Brothers of Saint Francis than the admirable and loyal Adon Laborie. Santi Belli, as the smooth-tongued Italian peddler of religious images, introduces a new character. Since he is more completely master of his pas- The Autobiographical Novels 73 sions, he is more guilty than his comrade. He is respon- sible for Mane's tragic end. Marianne, the housekeeper, again furnishes the humorous touches that brighten the sad tone of the story. Her shrewdness keeps the boy in ignorance of the real facts in the case of Marie, as of all other things undesirable for small boys to know. She, too, is idealized, and no longer resembles the querulous servant of the other novels. The principal charm of the book consists in the child- like simplicity with which the story is told. Only now and then does the author abandon the role of "Monsieur le neveu" to discuss matters beyond the grasp of a youth. One regrets that so manly a fellow is reduced to eaves- dropping in order to be able to report certain conversations essential to the story, but not to his own good. The episode 29 on top of the cathedral tower well illustrates the boy's artlessness. "Monsieur le neveu" experienced the keenest embarrassment when Marie naively insisted upon showing him the white scar just above her ankle. She even begged him to touch it. At the very moment when he was unaccountably yielding to the temptation, suddenly a terrifying sound rent the air even the heavens were stirred at his wickedness. Frightened he rushed down the long winding steps, out into the cloister, where he found his uncle quietly reciting his prayers and Galtier ringing the Angelus. The method of treatment precludes a discussion of any of the ecclesiastical problems of Fabre's clerical novels. 29. Celestin, pp. 115-117. 74 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre Indirectly, however, he does attack the hierarchy. 30 How well Abbe Celestin used to know these superior officers when they were students together in the seminary! The vicar-general then used to borrow his shaving glass every week. It was he, too, who had spilled ink upon one of his favorite books, and had never even thought of replac- ing it. Reflecting on these intimacies the unambitious abbe was somewhat disturbed in his confidence in the dignity and worthiness of the hierarchy. 31 However, in this novel, Fabre concerns himself little with questions of Church organization and discipline. He is merely describing the saintly character of "Mon Oncle Celestin," and in so doing has presented to the lit- erary world a masterly portrayal of Christian ideals. IV The novels of the last decade of Fabre's life are dis- tinctly inferior to his earlier novels. In subject matter he limits himself largely 32 to incidents in his life as a boy, imagination playing a large part in his descriptions. He introduces few new characters except Galibert, and adopts no new literary principles except in Sylviane and Mon Ami Gaffarot where he resorts too frequently to the de- 30. See Celestin, p. 37. The hierarchy to the simple priest is an "iron chain." Cf. same expression in Tigrane, p. 238. Cf. also Celestin, p. 199, "C'est surtout dans le clerge catho- lique, si rudement discipline, qu'on sait ce que valent ces mots : Le maitre 1'a dit, magister dixit." 31. Cf. Xaviere where the clergy are related to the poorer peasants. Mgr. Pannetier is first cousin to Michel Pannetier, the wretched chestnut harvester, (p. 207). 32. Taillevent is an exception. The Autobiographical Novels 75 vice of placing his story in the mouth of a garrulous peas- ant. His attitude toward the religion of the simple folk living in this isolated region has apparently changed. Whether he imagines himself still a boy, or a visitor re- turning from Paris, he sets forth in a very light vein this religion of the country. With his uncle, his Aunt Angele, 33 and the priests, it is a sort of asceticism; with the peasants it is still superstition. He displays very little sympathy or respect for his uncle's efforts to convert the faithless of his parish. With dry humour he tells of the conversion of Germy out in the woods. The pious abbe left the good God in the ciberium on a nearby rock and knelt with his nephew in the water-soaked grass by the brook. Wearied by his uncle's prayers the boy began to amuse himself by ringing with all his might the bell he carried to announce to the peasants that God was passing that way. 34 Germy was converted, but poor Ferdinand contracted a severe cold that confined him to the presby- tery for many weeks. The absolution enforced upon the dying Galabru presented a spectacular ceremony, but one wanting in solemnity and reverence, even though God had joined this crowd of excited peasants, and shared their enthusiasm for the conversion of the sorcerer. 35 The kindly Abbe Fulcran lacks his former dignity and moral strength. In Xaviere he is even unjust in his ef- forts to maintain peace, and in Sylviane his ingenuousness approximates stupidity. The bibulous warden, Vigneron, 33. Man Ami Gaffarot. 34. Germy, ch. IV. 35. Toussaint Galabru, ch. XV. 76 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre undertakes to entertain the Christmas guests of the mayor of Camplong by relating two miracles. As 1 in Sterne, the main theme is lost in many digressions and interruptions, until the reader despairs of ever learning what the two miracles were. The humour of the tales, none too ob- vious to be sure, entirely escapes the credulous abbe whose remarks, inspired by respect for all religious topics of whatever nature, lends to the book its chief interest. A coarse animalism 36 marks many of these later novels, especially Sylviane, and Toussaint Galabru. In Monsieur Jean Fabre reverts to a realistic description of the early sex instincts, 37 this time primarily in the crude peasant girl Merlette. Here, too, Galibert is introduced, who ap- pears again in Xaviere. In spite of his licentiousness, he is treated kindly by the author because of his generous and kindly impulses. He is the real hero of Xaviere, for Abbe Fulcran and Prudence must depend upon him to de- fend the helpless girl from her mother. Norine and L'Abbe Roitelet are the best of the novels of the author's later life. Norine especially must be con- sidered one his masterpieces. 38 In order to understand completely the spirit of Ferdinand Fabre one could easily confine himself if he wished to this brief story, where in greater fulness even than in his longer novels he reveals his gentle and sympathetic personality. A love idyll of the peasantry, the story begins in a little Cevenol village at 36. Cf. Pellissier, op. cit., p. 237. 37. Cf. Julien Savignac, also Cathinelle. 38. Giraudpn-Gineste says, "En vain chercherait-on parmi les oeuvres issues de 1'effort litteraire de cette fin de siecle, des pages plus fraiches, plus ravissantes, plus exquises." (Op. cit, p 704) . Cf . also Pater, op. cit. The Autobiographical Novels 77 the season of ripe cherries. Years later the scene is trans- ferred to Paris, where through the medium of an escaped goldfinch, Fabre meets again the acquaintances of his youth. The bird flies into his rooms in the Institute. Recognizing it at once as a goldfinch of the Cevennes, he captures it. This little bird recalls for him the fascin- ation of his native mountains. Its song revives his heart wearied by the life of the great city, and carries him back to the simplicity of his boyhood. Its song, too, attracts that attention of the owner, who comes to claim her gold- finch. She proves to be Norine, and takes Fabre to see her husband, once the robust peasant lad, Justin, but dying now from a long illness. His last days are made happy by the frequent visits of "Monsieur le neveu." One of the most pleasing and original episodes in all Fabre's novels is the midnight mass celebrated in the parish of Abbe Roitelet in the presence of all the peasants with the cattle. 39 Man and beast joined in the swelling anthem in adoration of the Holy Child, which, however, continued its peaceful slumber undisturbed. As it lay in the arms of Jeanne Miguel, impersonating the Holy Vir- gin, its finger tips gleamed in the flickering light of torch and candle like diamonds flung down from on high into the mother's lap. So faintly did the peasant mind con- ceive the spiritual symbolism of the representation, that Miguel at the impressive moment when the host was raised aloft thought the occasion opportune for inviting M. Fabre to his home to enjoy there the convivialities of Christmas day. To him as to the others of his class, the 39- L'Abbe Roitelet, chapters VII- VIII. 78 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre scene was a spectacle and nothing more. 40 L'Abbe Roite- let like Norine shows marked freedom from those elements of unpleasant realism that characterize the other novels. While the autobiographical novels are inferior to the others from the point of view of motivation and plot con- ception, they excel in power of pictorial description. Perhaps Fabre's most distinguishing charateristic is choice of unusual incident around which he builds his novels or with which he concludes them. The stories of his life at the home of his uncle are peculiarly illustrative of this phase of his genius. We recall the tragic death of Meni- quette at the marriage altar; the scene at the inn where "Monsieur Jean" squanders his few francs on bits of finery for Merlette; Xaviere's fall from the cherry tree; the conversion of Germy; the midnight mass of Abbe Roitelet, and also his temptation to stroke the glossy feathers of the eagle that he had confined in his study; the beggars' New Year described in Sylviane; the im- promptu procession of priest and peasants up the snowy mountain path to give absolution to the dying Toussaint Galabru who was already too near death to be conscious of the ceremony; Ferdinand's experiences with the dis- orderly hermit Barnabe and the latter's suicide in the prison; and also the episode of the escaped goldfinch. All of these are proper subject matter for a short story. Fabre displays extraordinary feeling for his uncle's foibles, and an intimate understanding of the peculiarities 40. See p. 88. The Autobiographical Novels 79 of his gentle nature. Often incidents, trite in themselves, assume an exquisite artistic effect when given the natural setting of Abbe Fulcran's simple desires and quaint point of view. How fully the author understands why the dif- fident abbe is unable to write more than the salutation to his old friend, Mgr. Pannetier ; 41 and why he used the precious Saint-Jerome for a vestry ; 42 how reverently he describes his love for the porcelain cups of Abbe Cour- bescure, 43 and explains the significance of his old shaving glass 44 with its past associations ! He renders admirably the impression made on a boy's mind by the wonderful "lampe Carcel," 45 his uncle's clock, organ and accordeon. 46 The autobiographical novels reveal more directly than do the others the author's personality, which is best dis- closed in his description of his Uncle Fulcran. They have as their main purpose, however, a presentation of his own life during the period of puberty. The significance of this crisis seems to haunt him. Although in veiled terms he discusses it with a persistence and frankness not found in any other modern author so far as I know. 47 He divides his early life into two periods. During the first he does not realize the difference existing between man and woman. Later he becomes a slave to his passions. Usually he clings to the old idea of man being in the pow- 41. Xayiere, p. 135. 42. Ibid., p. 165. 43. Mon Oncle Celestin. 44. Cf. Fraycourt, Paul, Le journal d'un cure de campagne, p. 16. 45. Xavicre, p. 135. 46. Mon Oncle Celestin. 47. I do not even except Jean Christophe by Remain Rol- land. 80 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre er of woman. Marie Galtier, however, is totally at the mercy of Santi-Belli. Fabre's love of nature, also, is clearly associated with this phenomenon in his life. In these novels the peasants and the clergy are purely inci- dental to the description of his own boyhood. His best presentation of these characters he reserves for his other two types of novels. CHAPTER IV THE NOVELS OF PEASANT LIFE AND MANNERS BOTH Fabre and George Sand in their treatment of peasant life gave themselves a task which Balzac avoided, for they chose to tell their stories in a vernacular that would at least suggest that of the region of which they wrote. George Sand, in order that she might write in a language that would resemble the native speech of her beloved Berry, and yet be understood by all her read- ers, imagined that she was recounting the story of Frangois le Champi both to a peasant and to a resident of Paris. Fabre in Le Chevrier made use of the device of a peasant of Larzac telling his love experience to a friend from Paris. This plan had at least the two advantages of novel- ty 1 and probability. It also heightened the realistic impres- sion that the author wished to convey to the mind of the reader, and explained the indelicacy of much of the langu- age, and justified, to a large extent, the rather detailed descriptions of the sordid conditions of farm life among the peasantry. 2 The theme is that of Julien Savignac, but the two boys differ in age and in social position. Although there is no intellectual relationship to be established between the two, 1. See Fabre's letter to Sainte-Beuve of Oct. 5, 1867 (Pas- cal, op. cit., p. 658). 2. See present author's article, The Peasant Language of Le Chevrier, Modern Philology, March, 1918. 8l 82 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre there is a marked similarity in emotional experience. The conception of love in Le Chevrier is on a very much lower level, more evidently partaking of the nature of ani- mal instinct. Fabre, unlike George Sand, 3 finds great similarity between the peasants and the animals they tend. 4 Animals show affection and aversion quite as demonstra- tively as men, and these feelings are even more persistent than with us. 5 When the baby is born" to Felice, her at- titude toward it is that of a mother goat to her kid.'"' Not only is this likeness 7 brought out by similes, but the im- pression is maintained by lending to the entire story from the very beginning the atmosphere of the barn yard. After discussing very frankly the business of breeding goats, by which the peasants of that section earn their living, the first chapter closes with the word abouqnissage in Italics. In portraying the incidental details of tend- ing these goats, Fabre's realism passes very easily into coarse naturalism. This picturing of farm life 8 and its details of stable cleaning are necessary for a full realiza- tion of the environment and atmosphere that produced the peasant whose whole nature craved the companionship of woman. There is practically no plot, for Eran is not interested 3. Cf. Franqois le Champi, Avant Propos. 4. Le Chevrier, p. 49. "L'homme se ressemble aux betes beaucoup plus que Ton ne le croit." Also p. 77, "Voila un animal qui en remonterait a plus d'un humain." 5. Cf. Galabru, p. 233, and the introduction to Roitelet. Cf. also G. Sand, La Mare au diable, ch. I. 6. "La nature grise les meres des hommes comme des ani- maux." (p. 30). 7. See page 91. 8. Cf. Zola. La Terre, and La Faute de I' Abbe Mouret, pt. III. The Novels of Peasant Life and Manners. 83 in episodes that make a story. He merely recounts the history of the birth and growth of his love instinct, de- tailing with it much of the peasant's daily life. An in- creased love of nature is intimately linked with his other emotions. As he sits at the foot of the great oak on his return from the fair, listening to the birds, he fancies that they are singing more beautifully than ever before. As he thinks of Felice, he realizes that she appeals to his soul as distinct from any physical desire. He cannot, however, reason out the significance of woman as an ideal in his experiences as did Julien Savignac as he sat alone in the meadow facing the same problem. Eran is conscious of a feeling in the presence of Felice that does not resemble the happiness of the days when they with Fredery used to tend the goats. Now, too, he is jealous of Fredery, but he does not understand why. Though wanting the intel- ligence of Julien, who belonged to the bourgeois class, Eran differs from George Sand's peasant, who merely enjoys the life peculiar to him without feeling any desire or need to describe his emotions. 9 Eran does feel that need, and its expression is the subject matter of the novel. Like Meniquette, Felice loved both her wooers, but having promised herself to Fredery, she remained faithful to her word, and urged Eran to seek another wife. Like a savage, he picked her up in his anger, and rushed away to escape his rival. When she fainted in his arms, his out- burst of brute strength and violent abuse melted into ten- derness. These two extremes frequently follow each other in the peasant nature, which is addicted to emotional g. Op. cit., L'Avant Propos. 84 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre revolutions. 10 The more intense the love passion, the more violent is the brutal reaction of anger. When Felice threatened to throw herself into the pond if he came a step nearer, Eran fell down before her even more helpless than she had been a few minutes before. Finally realizing the futility of his suit, he left the farm where Felice lived, and returned to his own hut at Soulaget. There he experienced such a burning thrist that he tried to quench it by drinking quantities of water. His lips, like red glowing coals, burned his ringers, for they had kissed Felice, and so had drawn to them all his blood. Nothing afforded him relief. As he gazed upon his dead mother's crucifix, still hanging upon the wall, the Christ gave no sign of understanding his suffering. Again his crazed passion burst forth and he dashed the crucifix against the wall, and then tramped upon it in his fury. The devil who prompted him to this wickedness seemed to lend him his bat-like wings, for, as if by magic, he suddenly found himself furiously climbing the steep path to theAgathon farm, through a storm quite in keeping with his own inner struggle. Through the dim light he dis- cerned the vague outline of his lady's window. His soul strangely quieted, he conceived the idea of climbing into her room. The moon now lighted one corner of it. By this light he thought to discover the object of his love lying in all the beauty of calm sleep. No one lay upon the bed. Enraged once more he fell upon the clothing and tore it in his teeth. His anguish continued into the night. At early dawn he sought relief in feeding the goats in 10. Cf. Pancol. Cf. also Godet, Ph., Bib. Universelle, Oct., 1890, p. 373. The Novels of Peasant Life and Manners. 85 the stables. Once more he returned to his own home, and soon yielded to the fascination of Frangon, a girl of very dif- ferent character. His entire being demanded the friend- ship of a woman; without it he felt capable of becoming a worthless rake. His veins seemed on fire with passion, at times he felt stifled by it. Like Pancol 11 he rushed from one part of the country to another to quench this fire. His language became vile and abusive. His turbu- lent emotions also affected his physical appearance. 12 He began now to realize that woman appeals both to a man's moral and physical nature, and that the same woman may not appeal to them both. "Vrai est que Felice possedait toute mon ame, Franc,on possedait tout mon corps," 13 he declared. In part three, which is en- titled Frangon, Eran explains this twofold struggle with- in him. Although he soon wearied of Frangon, he could not escape the power of her fascination. He went to work in the same mill with her lest the miller win her affections from him. Jealous of the attentions shown her by other young peasants, he carried her away in a passion of fury into Pays-Bas to the grape harvesting. There she passed as his wife. Her appeal was so transient, that he wondered why his body should continue in this strange region, and his soul remain at Mirande. His jealousy rose to a demoniacal pitch, however, when she disappear- ed with one of the other vintagers. He started in pur- suit. If he should ever find her, he intended to cover 11. See p. 57. 12. Cf. Pancol and Julien, pp. 56, 64. 13. Le Chevrier, p. 161. 86 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre her cheeks both with kisses and blows, for those two acts expressed the twofold nature of his feeling for her. When he discovered her in the seaport town of Cette as the mistress of a stranger, his passion was so far spent that he willingly abandoned her. As a reaction against what he had just been experiencing, there arose in him a natural and whole hearted impulse to help some one. So he flung his wallet with all his earnings to Fredery standing on the deck of a recruit ship sailing for Africa. Thus far fleshly and brutal instinct had had almost com- plete mastery over Eran's better self. Fabre's portrayal of animal passion has not been relieved by the idealism that permeates George Sand's roman-champetre. With her the love element is far more a matter of the heart, and her heroes are not incited solely by brute instinct. Eran wanted a wife because his nature demanded one. He did not long primarily for a home and for children to cheer him. This note is revealed only toward the end of the book. When Eran returned to Felice, his kindness to her ex- ceeded that shown to his mother whom he had dearly loved. He wanted to marry her, and to adopt Fredery 's child. Felice hesitated to accept Eran's offer of marriage. At last she consented, but on the night of the wedding she drowned herself. She had saved the reputation of her child, but still loyal to the love she bore Fredery, she chose suicide rather than live in wedlock with Eran. Felice is but Meniquette transposed to another novel. As in Julien Savignac, the concluding tragedy raises the general tone of realism into the romantic. Again the death of the heroine is but the result of a passion, or The Novels of Peasant Life and Manners. 87 sentiment, which has gained our respect, if not our sym- pathy. We felt very tenderly toward Julien's love, and we admire deeply the loyalty of Felice. The various characters in Le Chevrier represent pas- sions or influences rather than individuals. The author has employed his usual method of contrast in portraying them. Fredery lacked moral stamina and a sense of responsibility. The young girls of the community shunned him, not because of his violent passions, but be- cause of his weak moral character. He did not possess the sense of what is honorable and generous that ac- companied Eran's violent passions. Eran, although the victim of purely animal instincts, was more noticeably the master of manly qualities. He combined those quali- ties that seemed to produce the author's favorite hero. Whether he has grown up among the goats in the stables, or has been carefully raised in the pious atmosphere of a presbytery, the chief traits of character are the same. The two girls are distinct, not as individuals, but as two natures differing in their appeal to Eran's passions. Malgrison 14 and Abbe Alquier represent influences felt rather than characters seen. The usurer is like an evil spirit, blighting joy and domestic happiness throughout the community. The priest brings encouragement where- ever he goes, appearing at those critical moments when spiritual and religious comfort is most needed. The author reveals this principle of contrast in his method of presenting his subject matter, as well as in describing the characters. The spirit of the story is clearly poetical, 14. Cf. Balzac's money lender, Rigon (Les Paysans). 88 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre while its foundation of details rests on coarse realism. The author constantly juxtaposes the two conceptions, but so skillfully that he avoids bathos. The realism of farm life is frequently relieved by passages of poetical thought, and poetical fancy lowered by the introduction of common- place actuality. Immediately upon Eran's burst of ex- alted sentiment in wooing the lovely Felice, comes the suggestion that they can easily earn a living by breeding goats. 15 Eran's language is always picturesque, and his imagination that of a poet. In Le Chevrier Fabre presents his most effective study of peasant life*. These people are so ignorant, that, al- though the time of the action of the story is 1848, they think they are still living in the time of Napoleon I. They have heard about his "recent" return from Saint- Helena, and about his wonderful campaign against Mos- cow in order to take Africa from the Africans. 16 They have no understanding of the revolution of 1848. Baduel's letter, dated December 23 of that year, and addressed to Emperor Napoleon at Paris, is very illuminating. Evi- dently these peasants thought they were voting for Napoleon I when they elected Louis Napoleon to the presidency. These meridionaux are superstitious as well as ignorant. For them the outward forms of worship constitute only a spectacle. 17 Catholicism has changed very little these 15. Le Chevrier, p 81. Cf. La Faute de I'Abbe Mouret, where Zola adopts the same method in contrasting the park Paradou with the barnyard of the presbytery 16. Le Chevrier, p. 269. 17. Cf. Celestin, p. 62; Barnabe, p. 316; Tigrane, p. 180. See p. 78. The Novels of Peasant Life and Manners. 89 peasants of the mountains, 18 and they remain the pagans they once were. At the feast of Saint Fulcran 19 there was little or no reverence on the part of the peasants. The ceremony appealed to them only as an entertainment. The saint as a religious personality had no significance. For them Jesus was born on Christmas at the midnight mass. Christ and the devil are real persons who appear in bodily form if the occasion seems to demand it. One often sees the devil like a black knight mounted on a red ass 20 riding through the country. When Eran is about to yield to the crazed passion of lust, Frangon's prayer mir- aculously cools his emotions. He is no longer a man of flesh, but has suddenly become like an inanimate object. Seeing Christ on the other side of the hedge, he falls on his knees to finish the prayer that the girl in her flight had forgotten. When he raised his head he saw in the moon- light the good Lord passing up over the top of the moun- tain, the shortest way back to heaven. 21 When the same temptation came again to him with Felice, Christ inter- ceded in person and he was saved from the sin. Until Eran's passions of love were satisfied, he was unable to return, with any peace of mind, to his work as a goatherd or tiller of the soil, 22 which had always been a source of pleasure and consolation until the spirit of restlessness came upon him. That physical and moral 18. Celestin, p. 63. 19. Mon Oncle Celestin, ch. X. 20. Le Chevrier, p. 321. Cf. Taillevent, p. 24. 21. Le Chevrier, p. 178. 22. Cf. in Taillevent Frederic's inability to assume charge of his farm until he experienced new hope in his love for Madeleine. 9O The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre need met, like all peasants, he was perfectly contented with his lot, for a man is a peasant or not according to whether he loves or detests the soil. 23 If tilling the land wearies the arm, it rests the soul. What peasant who has quarrelled with his wife or hired hands or become irritated by his children has not felt his anger pass in putting his spade into the hard rebellious ground. 2 * In the presence of the adversities of nature the peasant is stoical, 25 and trusts in the earth as the devout man trusts in God. 20 The peas- ants do not complain of their poverty, for loving the soil above all else, 27 from it they derive their courage, honesty, religion, glory and joy. To them the land is the rude nurse of the human race. 28 In thus glorifying the toil of the peasant and his love for the soil Fabre again re- sembles George Sand. Like Pouvillon 29 he believes that the land claims the toiler, 30 and that gradually nature 23. Le Chevner, p. 191. 24. Le Chevrier, p. 212. Cf. Taillevent, p. 223. "Le con- tact journalier avec la terre communique a ceux qui la remu- ent une force, superieure aux plus accablantes calamites de la vie" Love for the flocks has the same effect. Taillevent, p 23- 25. Taillevent, p. 224. 26. Ibid., p. 227. 27. Le Chevrier, p. 156, and Taillevent, p. 126. Cf. also Taillevent, p. 26. "L'amour dont ils enveloppaient la terre, la terre au service de laquelle on les avait plies des 1'age le plus tendre, les empechait d'eprouver 1'humilite de leur con- dition. Ils travaillaient, et travailler leur etait joie." 28. Taillevent, p. 26. Cf. Barnabe, p. 323. 29. Cf. Lemaitre, J., Les Contemporains, serie 5, p. 15. 30. Cf. Taillevent, p. 87. "Les gens de la montagne ceven- ole, que la nature a traites en maratre, car lorsqu'elle leur ouvre ses flancs, ce n'est pas pour les nourir, mais pour les reprendre, les recuperer jalousement, apres une vie de fatigues extenuantes, de sueurs meurtrieres, d'efforts desesperes." Cf. also Xaviere, p. 246. "D'ailleurs, la terre me suffit ; quand elle ne voudra plus de ma sueur, elle me prendra." The Novels of Peasant Life and Manners. 91 practically absorbs him. 31 According to M. Pellissier Fabre is the first to present the peasant in all the truth of his character. 32 He has described him, it is true, in all the various phases of his comparatively simple life, telling of his joys and sorrows, his toil and his diversions, his religion, his avarice and in- tense greed for land, and especially his love for the soil he works, his home and family ties, and more than all else his passions of love and hate. He has portrayed his good qualities as well as his sins. Fabre always as- sumes the part of an observer, not an indifferent observer like Flaubert, but one who manifests sympathy and in- terest which enlarges for him the understanding of his subject. Outwardly he regularly depicts him as strong, robust, heavily bearded and with hairy arms and breast, 33 more a beast than man. In fact, in similes he constantly likens him to animals. 34 His love passion is primarily animal instinct. 35 Fabre does not idealizf his 31. Celestin, p. 59. "Ou bien est-il aux champs des etres que 1'heredite a si intimement lies a la nature, qu'il faudrait les confondre avec les arbres, les troupeaux, qui les en- tourent." 32. See Petit de Julleville, Histoire de la lang. et de la lit. f ran. tome VIII, p. 251. 33. Taillcvent, p. 94, Galabru, p. 310; Barnabe, pp. 189, 254; Savignac, p. 66; Xaviere, p. 113. Akin to this tendency is one more unusual in that he is fond of mentioning the hair growth on the lips and cheeks of women. Sylviane, p. 22; Gaffarot, p. 173; Ramire, p. 16; Galabru, p. 46; Xaviere, p. 114. Ma Jeunesse, p. 29. 34. Sylviane, pp. 23, 31, 49, 76, 259; Galabru, pp. 90, 120, 133, 240; Xaviere, pp. 203, 256, 117; Monsieur Jean, p. 54; Le Chev- rier, p. 49. 35. See Sylviane, p. 67, where Vigneron very quaintly ex- presses the idea. "Vous n'etes pas sans avoir remarque, vous autres, que, dans tous les pays, en France et en Espagne, 92 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre rustic lover as does George Sand. As a child of nature he is not guilty of sin for his excesses of passion, whether of love or of anger and jealousy. The author's range of peasant characters is limited. For the most part he portrays them as a class. As leading characters they readily conform to certain types. Pancol, Eran, Gali- bert, Justin Lebasset differ little but in name. The ter- magent type does not vary at all. Fumat and Landri- nier 36 are alike. In his clerical characters, however, Fabre paints individuals rather than types. dans la montagne ensemble et dans la plaine, les gargons en fleur de jeunesse sont coutumiers de regarder du cote des filles et que les filles, sur cet article, se comportent comme les gargons. Us ne le font pas expres, c'est plus fort qu'eux. Au fait, les betes se conduisent-elles autrement? Non! non! Chacun a son tour casse son licol, et le bon Dieu, qui voit les folies de ses creatures, ne dit rien, ne bouge pas au ciel, ou il continue de se promener tranquillement en compagnie de la Vierge et des saints." 36. See Xavidre. CHAPTER V THE ECCLESIASTICAL NOVELS I L'ABBE Tigrane, the first of the ecclesiastical novels, presents the study of a priest, who, a victim of the passion of ambition, rose through determination and poli- tical scheming, from the ranks of the peasantry to the bishopric of Lormieres. He sought election to this see twice. The first time Abbe de Roquebrun, a member of the Regular clergy, was chosen in preference. Hatred rankled in his heart for ten years. As Director of the Seminary at Lormieres, he opposed the authority of his bishop, even organizing a revolt among the local clergy. The long struggle for mastery between the powerful wills of these two men, gradually broke the health of Roquebrun, and he finally died at Paris where he had gone secretly with the definite purpose of insuring for his private secretary, Abbe Ternisien, the nomination as his successor. The bishop's body was brought to his own diocese for interment, but Tigrane, having been appointed vicar-general, forbade the use of the cathedral for the obsequies. The doors being locked, the coffin was left unsheltered in the open square before the cathedral during a violent thunderstorm. Abbe Lavernede and other loyal followers of the deceased bishop, against the orders of Tigrane, secured the keys, and the remains of 93 94 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre the beloved bishop were finally borne into the cathedral for burial. The efforts of Mgr. de Roquebrun in behalf of Abbe Ternisien were futile. Rome, desiring in her bishops men of strong will and clever mind, approved the civil nomination of Tigrane. Instantly bishop, Ti- grane, encouraged by his one loyal friend, Abbe Mical, made the goal of his ambitions the papal chair. The action of the story is almost entirely confined to the cloisters about the cathedral Sainte Irenee. The name Tigrane was given to Rufin Capdepont as a young man by his fellow seminarists, because certain qualities in his character and personal appearance con- stantly reminded them of a tiger. An indomitable pride had already rendered him selfish and unsympathetic. Lack of popularity intensified this pride and drove him to seek relief and satisfaction, if not pleasure, in excelling his fellow students in scholarship. He was wanting in filial affection. So long as his mother was well, he saw no reason for spending his vacations at home, for thereby he would lose valuable time that might be spent in read- ing in the seminary library. Having already realized that he would be called upon in life to battle with men, rather than with the subtleties of faith, he decided to de- vote much time to the study of history as more directly helpful to that end. After his ordination he was appoint- ed vicar of one of the churches at Lormieres, for the bishop desired to keep near him a man of his intellectual attainments. The duties of simple parish priest proved irksome. 1 Faithfulness in administering the sacraments, i. Cf. Jourfier, p. 106. The Ecclesiastical Novels 95 and in confessing pious souls, in visiting the sick, and in burying the dead, would not advance him far in the Church hierarchy. By political means only could he at- tain the rank that ambition coveted for him. Therefore he became tutor to the son of Baron Thevenot, an in- fluential member of the Chamber of Deputies, and went to live at Paris. The Baron's political influence Tigrane turned to further his own ends. Realizing the power of the Baroness in official social circles, he ingratiated himself completely into her favor. His relations with her resemble in no way those of a Julien Sorel. Capde- pont, as a priest, held in high regard his ecclesiastical obligations ; he was pious and faithful in all his religious practices. He had absolutely nothing in common with the libertine priests of the previous century. 2 Ambition had dried up the sentiments of his heart. 3 Bareness Thevenot was merely a factor in the success of his tyran- nical aspirations. Ambition blinded him to the indeli- cacy of his position. This unworthy means to an end resulted not from inconsiderate audacity, much less from moral corruption, but from a natural simplicity of mind, incident to his clerical training, which left him in ignor- ance of a certain side of social relationships. Through his protector's influence Capdepont's name was finally in 1831 placed on the government's list of candidates for the 2. Tigrane, p. 38. Cf. Renan, op. cit., Le Petit Seminaire Saint Nicolas I. "Je n'ai connu que de bons pretres." Also cf. Lemaitre, J., who, too, once studied for the priesthood. He says few priests break their vows and practically none are wanting in the faith they preach. (Lcs Contemporains, II, p. 297). 3. Tigrane, p. 37. 96 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre episcopacy. His hopes, however, were soon shattered in the change of political party in power. He persuaded himself that his own interests and perhaps the inter- ests of heaven, too 4 required him to abandon the The- venot family since they no longer enjoyed political favor. He then returned to the seminary at Lormieres, and was soon afterward appointed its Director. The feebleness of the aged bishop gave Tigrane an opportunity of be- coming familiar with the details of diocesan administra- tion. At the death of the bishop, Abbe Armand de Roque- brun, through the political influence of a brother, succeed- ed him. Capdepont at once made the new incumbent the object of implacable hate. Forgiveness had no part in Tigrane's moral nature. Therefore, no amount of pol- itical favors, gained for him at Paris by Roquebrun, ameliorated in any way his unrelenting hostility toward this man who was to him a usurper. Fabre says that the intensity of Tigrane's resentment may seem inexplicable to a layman, for the latter has no idea of what the episco- pacy means to a priest. 5 The bishop alone enjoys full sacerdotal power; he is to be consulted by the Pope him- self in regard to all changes in dogma and ecclesiastical discipline. 6 Because of the supremacy that the realization of his ambitions would accord Capdepont, his failure was the more exasperating. It stirred within him a furor for persecution that not infrequently vented itself in as- sault upon any one who, for the moment, was the object of his anger. He would often knock senseless to the ground 4. Tigrane, p. 42. Cf. Mr. Slope in Barchester Towers. 5. Tigrane, p. 51. 6. Ibid. The Ecclesiastical Novels 97 Abbe Mical, his one loyal friend, and even threaten to kill him. 7 On the death of Roquebrun, instead of renewed hopes, Capdepont experienced a singular reactionary depression. It was not the power of Paris or Rome that he feared, but divine power which he had left out of consideration in his intense strife for worldly recognition. He fell into an introspective mood, analyzing his motives in his long struggle for the bishopric. At first it was only for the glory of the Church that he sought to climb the lad- der of the hierarchy. Later it became a selfish aim, grow- ing in intensity through the long martyrdom of his ambi- tions. Consistently maintaining the ecclesiastical point of view, he felt keenly the stinging humiliation of seeking advancement in the Church by political means. For the priest there can be no superior outside the Church hier- archy. The laity should bow before the clergy, but never the clergy to the laity for any advancement in ecclesiasti- cal circles. 8 As he sat in the ante-chamber of the Minis- tere des Cultes, waiting his turn on a basis with other office seekers, he felt to the full the shame and degradation which the Concordat had brought upon the Church and her priests. His willingness to submit to this humiliation indicates how completely he was a slave to his ambitions. Nevertheless, we feel that he was the victim of a passion so powerful, and under the circumstances so natural, that he deserves our sympathy rather than contempt. During these periods of dejection and discouragement 7. Ibid., pp. 50, 101, 236. 8. Ibid., p. 137. Cf. Renan, op. cit., Le Petit Seminaire Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet, I. 98 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre Tigrane displayed a gentle nature quite in contrast to his former fierce impetuousness. On hearing the name of Roquebrun, however, he at once yielded to his impulse of anger and hatred. His ambitions had not in the least abated. When Ternisien opened the coffin of the deceased Roquebrun so that the working people and the clergy might view their bishop, Capdepont's glance instantly riveted itself upon the miter and the episcopal ring. Envy completely mastered him, and, a prey to his monomania, unconscious of those about him, he quickly stooped and would have stolen the ring had not the gentle Ternisien, suddenly roused to a state of fury in the presence of such desecration, violently pushed the man back. To the as- tounded crowd, the vicar-general seemed a demon and in his eyes "shone the fire of hell." 9 At last a dispatch from Paris informed Capdepont of his civil nomination to the vacant see. Impelled by the purely selfish instinct to report his success to his enemies in order to humiliate them, he ran excitedly to Sainte Irenee, where Lavernede was directing the interment of Roquebrun. Once in the crowd of priests he regretted his rashness. It was too late to retreat. He must now appear worthy of being the hierarchical head of his clergy. Suddenly mastering his riotous emotions, he entered the sacristy, calm and majestic in his self composure. With impressive dignity he admitted his injustice toward Mgr. de Roquebrun, and humbly besought the clergy to pardon him, declaring that his hostility was due to a violent temper which often went beyond control. His opposi- 9. Tigrane, p. 197. The Ecclesiastical Novels 99 tion to the bishop, he explained had arisen from his too ardent espousal of the tenets of the Gallican party. Re- cently he had had reason to recede from his former posi- tion, for on certain points his convictions had changed. Finally he wished to announce his nomination as bishop of Lormieres; he hoped that all of them would favor its ratification at Rome. Infuriated a moment later by cer- tain accusations of Lavernede, he felt his self-possession weaken before the violence of his rage. He dared not look upon his enemy, lest he should yield to the temptation to hurl himself upon him. "Quelle lutte, si le monta- gnard de Harros, un moment pacific par le sentiment de son ambition satisfaite, en arrivant a ne pouvoir plus tenir en bride ses passions, qui s'elanceraient pareilles a des betes feroces, gueule beante et griffes deployees. II etait manifeste qu'a cet instant meme, Rufin Capdepont liv- rait a ses instincts en revoke la plus acharnee bataille de sa vie. La tete de notre heros, cette tete si fiere, retom- bait sur sa poitrine, de telle sorte que la revolution dont sa face etait le theatre sans doute echappait completement aux yeux," 10 He won the struggle, but his strength was exhausted by it ; he could no longer sustain the role of "resigned victim." 11 He called for help, and supported by the loyal Mical, departed, requesting the guests to pray for him. At the door he paused to address to the higher clergy a request that if they wrote to Rome they should have it reported to the Holy Father that his health being completely broken, he doubted if he could assume the heavy responsibility of the episcopacy. 10. Tigrane, p. 271. n. Ibid., p. 272. IOO The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre "Quel comedien!" murmured Lavernede. Conscious of the hostility against him in the diocese Capdepont considered it the part of prudence to live the life of a recluse, feigning ill health. In so doing he obeyed the supreme law of his interests and not of his happiness. Often the lonesome cloister, des Minimes, where he lived with Abbe Mical, resounded with the cries which the wounds inflicted upon his character, his dignity and his high position, wrung from him. Even after Pius IX had ratified his appointment, Tigrane continued his life of isolation, having sacrificed to his ambition the respect and good will of both laity and clergy. The power of his office was his sole reward. Although the character of Tigrane is more penetrat- ingly analyzed in its gradual development, the descriptions of the other priests are not less clearly drawn. Roquebrun, as Capdepont's chief antagonist, was an aristocrat and ultramontanist. His charity endeared him to the hearts of the working people, 12 just as Tigrane's want of human sympathy had inspired hatred. He had the great fault of a violent temper, as his enemy had the redeeming vir- tue of a high sense of priestly rectitude and honor. Ro- quebrun belongs to the Courbezon type in his excessive and unwise charity, and in his delightful optimism in the presence of personal discomfort. Abbe Ternisien is the type naturally suited to the monastic life. Gently nur- tured in the highest ideals of the Christian Church, he was entirely unfitted to battle with the outside world. A life intimately associated with the organization of the . Cf. Jourfier, p. 109. The Ecclesiastical Novels 101 Church, its turmoil and political machinations, was too turbulent for his timid disposition. After the cruel dis- illusionment in matters of ecclesiastical government, suf- fered at the hands of Cardinal Marfei, the polished dip- lomat, cold and unfeeling in an official capacity, sympath- etic and warm hearted at other times, Ternisien eagerly returned to the Franciscan monastery at Tivoli, to take up again a life compatible with his idealistic temperament. Of the two priests, Lavernede and Mical, the former is the devoted friend of Roquebrun, Mical the advisor and trusted confident of Tigrane. Alike in their fearlessness and in their capacity for loyal friendship, they differ in the fact that, while 'Lavernede is impetuous, and suscept- ible to attacks of righteous indignation that drive, him into acts of violence and indiscretion, Mical is cautious, self-controlled, and almost Machiavelian in his insight into the characters, motives, and ends that dominate the activities of the Church. Lavernede has not the same appreciation of the nature of his calling as something quite apart from the secular professions, as have his col- leagues. To him the cause of righteousness has supremacy over clerical affiliations. Turlot and Clamonse are con- summate cowards. 13 With all their piety they reveal to a striking degree, even in the higher clergy, that servility and moral weakness which Fabre persistently condemns. Mical shrewdly remarks to them, "Je ne sais qui, de Cap- depont ou de vous, a donne les preuves les plus eclatantes de degradation morale." 14 Although these various priests stand out clearly as in- 13. Cf. Don Abbondio in / promessi sposi by A. Manzoni. 14. Tigrane, p. 239. IO2 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre dividualities differing widely in disposition and tempera- ment, they have, with the possible exception of Lavernede, the same attitude toward the laity. Tigrane, who clings but lightly to his Gallican theories, and for expediency's sake readily abandons them, feels that he has experienced the deepest possible humiliation in being forced to curry secular favor. Nothing humiliates a priest more than to make confessions to the laity. 15 The Regular clergy, particularly, assume such an attitude. Even more than an open fight between two priests, Ternisien dreaded a scandal within the Church. He feared the enemies of religion would shout, "Just see how the priests live among themselves." 16 The Superior of the Capuchins accused Lavernede of having lost the spirit of his vocation when he desired to give Capdepont's perfidy as much publicity as possible, thereby to hamper his election as their bishop. The clergy as a whole maintained that it was better to bury the beloved Roquebrun in the city cemetery than to let the outside world learn of the dissensions within their orders. 17 A priest must always consider first the reputation of his order and of the clergy in general. The laity is the natural enemy of the clergy. Evil exists not among priests, but among other people, whom it is the duty of the clergy to save. It is worthy of note that Fabre allies the sympathies of the working classes with Roquebrun. 18 They are free 15. Tigrane, p. 158. 16. Ibid., p. 164. 17. Ibid., p. 201. 18. Cf. the loyalty of the glass workers to Jourfier in Luci- fer. Cf. also the attitude of the working classes in Taine, H., Regime Moderne, L'Eglise, Bk. V, ch. Ill, p. 149. The Ecclesiastical Novels 103 to express vigorously and loyally their friendship, while the clergy are tied, and cannot openly support a just cause. In that quarter of the city where the paper factories were, the mourning for the dead bishop, although less religious than in the convents, was more human. The sig- nificance of L'Abbe Tigrane is not, as has been affirmed, 19 revealed in the assertion that while the Church can- not lie, its officers can, and sometimes ought to, 20 but consists rather in a demonstration of what the author affirmed in Les Courbezon, "that after all priests were but men." 21 The clergy, by separating themselves from the laity, lead an artificial life. While in public they may be different, in their private lives they resemble much the lives of other men. 22 Ternisien is the only one who im- presses us with his spirituality. His nature required a life that was wholly isolated from the desires of the normal man. 23 God and the spiritual world were the two es- sentials of his daily life. The other characters are first of all men with human- passions and emotions, who hap- pen here to be playing the role of priests. Capdepont, Mical, Roquebrun, and the rest might easily step out of their vestments and fit into politics or any other situation. The story impresses one as a powerful description of human character, to which the ecclesiastical setting is secondary. 24 19. Wells, B. W., A Century of French Fiction, p. 337. 20. Tigrane, p. 293. 21. Courbezon, p. 82. 22. Cf. Trollope, A., Bar Chester Towers, and Quarterly Re- vierv, July 1899, also Giraudon-Gineste, L., Nouv. R. (1898) CXI I, p. 702. 23. Tigrane, p. 52. 24. Cf. Doumic, op. cit., p. 936. IO4 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre The preceding statements apply more particularly to the strong, self-willed men who are the leading characters in the drama. The lesser clergy, however, bear a stamp of shameful servility and belong to a different class. Tigrane easily instigated a revolt among the priests of the diocese against the authority of Mgr. de Roquebrun. When the bishop appeared suddenly among them, how- ever, all signs of opposition vanished as if by magic. A slave by signing a protest, does not thereby free himself from long habits of servitude. Fabre recalls the statement of the Cardinal-Archbishop of Rouen: "Mon clerge est un regiment : il doit marcher, et il marche !" 25 The majority of the clergy, in the struggle between Tigrane and Ro- quebrun, have no convictions as to the merits of the quar- rel, but fear merely to ally themselves with the losing party. None of the clergy, in fact, is ever free from the terrible absolutism of the hierarchy. Constant apprehen- sion obliterated all sense of personal dignity and honor- ableness in Turlot and Clamonse, both scholarly men and directors in the seminary. As the latter chapters of Les Courbezon involved ques- tions of Church authority, so those of UAbbe Tigrane discuss the problems of Church administration. If one were to draw a conclusion from Fabre's account of the methods of ecclesiastical organization and discipline, I think it would be that a diplomacy entirely unworthy of the dignity of the Christian Church has resulted from the unnatural affiliation of Church and State effected by the Concordat. To place a spiritual institution on a 25. Tigrane, p. 124, "cette parole hautaine prononcee au Senat le n mars, 1865." The Ecclesiastical Novels 105 secular basis is always disastrous to the cause of relig- ion. 26 Whatever direct attack the author may have in- tended, it is against the individuals 27 and the policies of the Church and not against her religion. The system of ecclesiastical organization and discipline has been respon- sible for the faults of these priests. The implacable Ti- grane was the product of the principle of celibacy; the hierarchy held in submission the admirable qualities of Abbe Lavernede, and reduced to a condition of abject 26. Note. In Mgr. Fulgence Fabre discusses at length the question of the affiliation of Church and State. He declares that Church and State have been constant rivals (cf. Taine. Regime Moderne, L'Eglise, Bk. V, ch. Ill, p. 138) under the Concordat, and that the Church has not been loath to take revenge whenever an occasion was presented (p. 253). Treaties and concordats have always been injurious to either Church or State. In either case it is religion that suffers, which needs to be ratified by neither Pope nor Emperor in order to live in the human soul. (p. 256). The State has not charge of souls, only of civil interests. Allow the Republic sufficient time and it will denounce the Concordat. The con- flict will not be open warfare, the troops of the Pope re- maining concealed. The Church is unwilling to fight in the open. The immense population of the religious orders com- pose a formidable army whose methods are not easily seen. The Jesuits and Dominicans are not primarily the protectors of religion. They are politicians, who through their piety gather adherents from the members of the old parties still in favor of monarchy ( p. 263). Cf. Lucifer and Madame Fus- ter. Cf. also Roi Ramire, p. 153. "Je ne range 1'Eglise dans au- cun parti ; 1'Eglise est au-dessus de tous les partis, et mon avis est au'on rabaisse singulierement la majeste, la grandeur, la divinite de 1'Eglise de la meler aux tristes passions qui agitent nos temps troubles. "La question du Roi est la question du Roi, rien de plus ; une question absolument humaine, une affaire entre homines." P- ISS- 27. Cf. Delfour, Abb6, La religion des contemporains, t II, p. 210. 106 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre cowardice abbes Clamonse and Turlot ; ecclesiastical poli- tics produced the wily and astute Mical, whose keen analysis of character and motives led him to exclaim, "O sainte Eglise Catholique! il faut bien que quelque chose de divin reside en toi, puisque tes pretres n'ont pu reussir a te perdre." 28 II Lucifer tells the story of a priest's attempt to overthrow the power of the Jesuits and to secure for himself per- sonal and religious freedom. Bertrand Jourfier was the son of a republican, the avowed enemy of the Jesuits, and grandson of the Conventionist Philarete Jourfier, who voted for the death of the Catholic King, Louis XVI. In order to avenge the father upon the son, the Jesuits endeavored to prevent his ordination. This opposition led him, in spite of mental and spiritual misgivings as to his vocation, 29 to take the orders of sub-deacon. He had inherited strong republican and Gallican tendencies not in strict accord with the theories of Church discipline. His nature, stamped with the traditions of his family, could tolerate no opposition, nor humiliation of personal dignity, without there being aroused within him the most bitter and violent resentment. As a priest he found the ritualistic side of the service uninteresting, and the duties of confession and of administration of the sacraments irksome. 30 The Jesuits, anxious to secure as members 28. Tiarane, p. 245. 2g. Lucifer, p. 71, "La verite est que je suis entre dans 1'Eglise sans avoir entendu clairement a mon oreille la voix de la vocation.'' 30. Cf. p. 94. The Ecclesiastical Novels 107 of their order 31 the most promising young priests, were attracted by his sermons, and used their influence to pre- vent his preaching at all unless he joined the Society. His unyielding pride, and his vituperation directed against all monastic orders gained for him the name of Lucifer. Through their influence he was removed from his posi- tion as second vicar to that of simple desservant in a re- mote mountain parish. Proving hostile to the religious orders established in that locality, he was again trans- ferred to Mireval. There Count de Servies succeeded in having him appointed cure doyen of Saint-Saturnin les Murs. In this capacity his tenure of office no longer de- pended upon the bishop, but upon the civil authori- ties. 32 In his subordinate position Jourfier had used discretion in his utterances against the Regular clergy, and especially during the last few years when he had been the sole support of his widowed sister and her son. His responsibility was poignantly brought to his mind by the tragic fate of Abbe Vignerte, who having been ex- pelled from the Church, wandered an outcast and vaga- bond, among the mountains. 33 The possibility of a like fate had moderated the violence of his attacks against his enemies. Freed from such a danger, he yielded to his desire to protest against the increasing power of the Com- pany of Jesus; a desire the more violent for having been long subdued. 31. Cf. Bishop Duponloup. See Renan, op. cit., Le Petit Seminaire Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet. 32. A desservant may be removed at the will of the bishop, but a cure cannot be removed except by the sanction of the government. 33. Lucifer, p. 113. Cf. p. 44. Io8 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre Like Ferrand, Capdepont, and Celestin, Jourfier was a student of ecclesiastical history. At the instance of his loyal friend, Abbe Couzalou, dean of the canons of the cathedral of Saint Optat at Mireval, he undertook to write L' Histoire generate de I'Eglise. The fortune of the late Canon Barthet being at his disposal for the con- summation of this great work, he resigned his post as cure doyen to become canon of the local chapter. Practi- cally in seclusion he worked steadily at the history. The Gallican tone of the first volumes incensed the Jesuits. Shortly after the establishment of the Republic of 1870, through the efforts of Count de Servies, Jourfier was nominated to the bishopric of Sylvanes. He declared he had no hierarchical ambition and would not accept the nomination. He felt daily more and more convinced that he had lacked completely the divine vocation on taking his vows. His friends persuaded him, however, that as an enthusiastic republican, his duty required him to accept a position in which he could effectively oppose the Jesuits, hostile to the new government. The Con- gregations powerful in the diocese of Sylvanes, refused to obey their bishop. Jourfier made his episcopal visit to Rome with the hope of exacting obedience by means of a reproval from the Holy Father. Pius IX, completely under the influence of the Jesuits, received him with ap- parent coolness. Cardinal Finella told him that he had erred in demanding obedience from the Regular clergy, for they were under the immediate authority of the Pope. Only the Secular clergy owed obedience to the local bishops. Like Lamennais, he returned from Rome dis- couraged, having lost faith in the justice of the Pope and The Ecclesiastical Novels 109 his cardinals. 34 Completely disheartened he lived as a re- cluse in his palace, 35 even denying himself to his friends. He failed to reconcile himself with the ideals of the Church. All attempts at self analysis did not solve the problems that burdened his heart. His resignation as bishop would give the victory to his enemies ; open suicide would be unworthy of the dignity of his family and would bring scandal upon the Church. A manner of death that would appear the result of accident persistently pre- sented itself to his mind. Before his death, however, Bertrand longed to remove the body of his grandfather, the Conventionist, from the unconsecrated ground where he had been interred at the time of the restoration of the monarchy and to give him Catholic burial in the cemetery of Mireval, where the family had long been the leading manufacturers of the city. As bishop, although of another diocese, Jourfier felt that he could authorize the transfer and the eccles- iastical burial. When he wished to celebrate a requiem in his former church of Sainte-Eulalie, he found the doors had been locked against him by order of the Jesuit bishop. However, at the head of a long procession of working people, who loved dearly Bertrand 36 and revered the memory of his grandfather, he found his way into the cath- edral of Saint Optat. Mass was celebrated, absolution given, the burial service completed without molesta- tion from his enemies. They succeeded, however, in win- ning away from him his nephew, Abbe Jean Montagnol, 34. Cf. L'Abbe Froment in Zola's Rome. 35. Cf. Abbe Trigane. 36. Cf. Mgr. de Roquebrun in Tigrane. HO The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre who secretly joined the Regulars and went to Italy. After returning to Sylvanes, Jourfier became more morose, and his attacks of anger were more violent. He no longer desired to belong to the Church, for she had de- ceived his hopes, his thoughts, his life, and had become a prison from which there was no escape. 37 Christmas eve, just before the midnight mass, he rushed madly from the lonely tower which he used as a study, out into the vio- lent storm. A few monents later his dead body was dis- covered lying bruised and bleeding at the base of the high wall overlooking the river. In the darkness and blinding snow, he had apparently lost his way and had fallen over the parapet. L'Abbe Jourfier 38 is probably the author's most vigor- ous creation. He represents a man whose whole nature is more fully developed than in any other of Fabre's priests. In the violence of his anger and in his inability to control it, he resembles Tigrane. He has less tact, however, than Capdepont, and is far more susceptible to kindness, which, in fact, always calmed his overwrought emotions. His excesses of passion and his sudden changes of mood were due to celibacy. His nature would have been subdued by the gentle affection of a wife and child- ren. 39 The early years of Jourfier's priesthood were passed in a kind of moral inertia. He felt his moral strength weaken, however, on hearing the confession of the interdicted Abbe Vignerte. Then he realized the 37. Lucifer, p. 391. 38. Cf. Pellissier, in Petit de Julleville, op. cit. t. VIII, p. 249. 39. Lucifer, p. 106. The Ecclesiastical Novels in peril of his situation. His entire body trembled when confessing any woman, even though the poorest peasant in the parish. His victory over the flesh after years of struggle, was an experience that Tigrane never felt to any such degree. Cardinal Finella, who had trained his ear to detect the voice of God, heard only that of the man in the bishop of Sylvanes. 40 Unlike the Jesuits he re- tained a very definite idea of his duty toward his country and his family. Both were realities that had not been ab- sorbed by love for God. A friend of the working peo- ple, he felt that their problems had a more vital import- ance for the development of mankind than did matters purely ecclesiastical. 41 To him honor and bravery were the characteristics of an honest man. He respected Mayor Mouilleron, who, when ordered by the mob to cheer the Republic, shouted "Vive 1'Empereur." This man dared to maintain his convictions in the face of danger. As a layman it was his privilege to be honest, a privilege that Jourfier struggled for in vain. In Lucifer Fabre presents a powerful study of the soul of an intelligent young priest, torn and exhausted by mental conflicts 42 and crises. He portrayed the terrible moral dilemma in which a man perceives one side of his nature hopelessly battling with another. 43 Vows once taken could not be broken, yet, for Abbe Jourfier those vows were wrong in that they prevented his moral and spiritual development. To break them would be no less 40. Lucifer, p. 320. 41. Cf. Zola, Rome. 42. Cf. Taine, op. cit., Bk. V, ch. Ill, p. 142. 43. Cf. Deschamps, G., Vie Litteraire, Ferdinand Fabre, Le Temps, 13 fev. 1898, 112 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre a crime than to live on under false appearances. At the very beginning of the book, the author differentiates be- tween two classes of priests those who little realize the portent of their vows and whose chief motive in enter- ing the Church is a means of livelihood without too ardu- ous duties, 44 others whose natures have been profoundly stirred by the tremendous significance of the vow, sacerdos in aeternum, and who enter upon their duties with trepi- dation lest they be unworthy of their very high calling with its great responsibility. To this latter class Jourfier belonged. He maintained that Church and State should be separate, and that no priest should ever take part in the political world, or adopt the principles thereof. 45 On the other hand, he was preeminently interested, like his ancestors, in the political welfare of his country, and felt that he ought to assume an active part in the national upbuilding of France, torn constantly by opposing political parties. As a clerical he felt that he did not attain to the high standard of his ancestors in their honesty of con- victions and the service rendered to mankind. Strong physically, and of a vigorous and passionate nature, Bertrand Jourfier overcame the temptations of the flesh only after a long hard struggle. Though he could master his physical nature in accordance with the laws of the Church, he could not subject his mind to her dictates. 46 According to Jules Lemaitre 47 Jourfier, how- 44. Lucifer, p. i. 45. Lucifer, p. 230. "Un pretre est un etre a part." Cf . note p. 105. 46. Cf. Abbe Froment in Zola's Lourdes. 47- Op. cit., t. II, p. 297. The Ecclesiastical Novels 113 ever honest 48 and upright, lacked completely the eccle- siastical mind. For him religious morals opposed natural morals. 49 Many of the sentiments which form the basis of the virtues of a layman, such as care for one's honor and self respectability, and independence of thought are crimes for the orthodox priest, 50 who, sacrificing personal rights, must surrender himself entirely to the Church and her dogmas. 51 Jourfier in his efforts to reconcile the two standards of morals finally declared that all religions lie, for reason is the divine gift to man. Whatever God there is, must reside in reason. 52 Very different was the conclusion of Abbe Ferrand, 53 who too, was a scholar of vigorous intellect. By establishing the premise of Church dogma, he is mentally honest in his attitude and deserves respect as a priest. Jourfier, on the other hand, 48. Lucifer, p. 342. "Je suis un honnete homme, et un hon- nete homme, entre dans 1'eglise catholique, ne saurait se con- duire autrement que je me conduis." 49. Cf. in Madame Fuster, p. 453, the point of view of the philosopher Nadalewski, and that of the priest, Phillapou. Nadalewski : "Un pretre est-il dispense d'etre un honnete homme?" Phillapou: "II se peut se presenter des cas 6u un pretre se trouve dispense d'etre un honnete homme selon le monde, 1'honnetete selon le monde n'etant pas tou jours 1'honnetete selon Dieu. Mais un pretre ne se trouve jamais dispense d'etre un honnete pretre." Cf. similar situation in G. Sand's Mademoiselle La Quintinie, p. 332 (Paris, 1880), where the philosopher Lemoutier says to Abbe Moreali, "Soyez homme, soyez un membre de la societe universelle, ne fut-ce qu'un instant dans votre vie." 50. Lucifer, p. 342. "Je deyais me montrer digne des miens partout et toujours. Ce sentiment n'est pas chretien." 51. Ibid., p. 389. "Le pretre est un etre > qui s'abandonne, se sacrifie, abdique; et lui, (Jourfier) trop entier pour s'oublier lui-meme, n'avait su rien faire de cela." 52. Ibid., p. 396. 53. See p. 60. H4 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre lacking the ecclesiastical mind, by honest thinking is led to utter despair and, like Lamennais, to revolt against the authority of the Church. The opposite of Jourfier is the typical Catholic priest. 54 As far as any conclusion is concerned Fabre begs the whole question as to the merits of Jourfier's case. If his defeat is the result of the want of the true vocation, 55 he does not necessarily deserve vindication, nor the Church condemnation. Though this be true, the author does give, as in Un Illumine, 56 a very definite impression of the Church as being excessively selfish, and cruelly indif- ferent to the affairs of humanity outside its own interests. It is a prison 57 where the inmates are not allowed to think and act freely. The Jesuits are arrogant, selfish, and cowardly. Though ardent royalists, on hearing the cries of the mob who threatened the palace of the bishop they all (for their own safety) eagerly shouted, "Vive la Republique!" As leader of the order, Cussol declared, "La Compagnie n'a 54. Cf. Lemaitre, J., op. cit., t. II, p. 297. 55. Lucifer, p. 389. "Ses combats eternels dans 1'Eglise etaient la consequence logique du disaccord de ses penchants natifs avec la fonciton 6u il avait etc pousse." 56. The Marquis de Pierrerue had devoted his fortune and surrendered his daughter to the cause of the Church, but when he died in poverty, he was scarcely given honorable burial rites. "Cetaient la les funerailles que la religion catholique faisait a rhomme qui lui avait sacrifie sa fortune, sa famille, sa vie ! Un pretre auxiliaire, un simple pretre pour le Fondateur de la Societe de Secours !" The closing chapter renders the whole point of the story. The Church as an in- stitution is selfish and hard, and lacking the Christian love of the young libertin artists, who in their poverty are always willing to deny themselves in order to help those in greater need. 57. Lucifer, p. 116. The Ecclesiastical Novels 115 jamais hesite a hurler avec les loups quand elle ne pou- vait faire autrement." 58 Monseigneur Fournier, appoint- ed through the political influence of his brother, an army officer, 59 who gained the favor of the King by helping him trap a deer/' had no interest in the war against Prussia, 01 in 1870, except in so far as the Imperial Family might be endangered, especially the Empress, for upon her depended his further progress. The spy Amynthas, whose presence the reader constantly feels lurking near, seems to interpret the spirit of the Society. In Lucifer Fabre brings to a climax his discussions of Church hierarchy, chastity, and the servility of the clergy. There is no progress in the Church except by consent of the Regular clergy. 62 The ignorant priests, who for the most part know nothing of the history of the Church, and much less of the nature of the order to which they give their blind support, are totally in the hands of the Jesuits. Upon them depends their honor and their liv- 58. Lucifer, p. 220. 60. Lucifer, p. 99. 59. Cf. Mgr. de Roquebrun. 61. Cf. Madame Fuster, p. 530. "La guerre qui soulevait tant d'enthousiasmes a la fois et tant d'anxietes, laissait la Paroisse du Jugement-Dernier en une parfaite quietude." Cf. also Ibid., p. 359. Phalippou was indifferent to the fate of France, though greatly irritated that the French troops had been summoned from Rome to protect the frontiers of their native country, leaving the Eternal City and the Pope defenseless before the threatened invasion of Garibaldi, "ce fleau de notre civilization." Elsewhere this monk says, "Les malheurs de la France ne sont rien comparees aux malheurs de 1'Eglise." (p. 387). 62. Lucifer, p. 16. Cf. Taine, op. cit., Bk. V, ch. Ill, p. 136. Ii6 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre ing. 63 The law of chastity which is an evil 6 * in Church discipline, was established for political rather than moral or religious reasons. 65 In his account of the clergy's reception of Mgr. Fournier Fabre presents his most highly colored descriptions of the disgusting servitude and self abnegation of the secular priests in the presence of their bishop. Their degrading humility caused Jourfier to cry out in protest. They had lost their manhood, and all moral sense in their complete subjection to the Regular clergy. 66 Lucifer differs from L'Abbe Tigrane in the relative importance of the minor characters. Here they figure primarily as a background which throws into higher relief the superiority of Jourfier. As second vicar he lacked the assurance that God would lend him strength in proportion to his needs; such an assurance, however, his colleague, Abbe Luzernat, a rich, jovial young priest of influential family, enjoyed to the full. The cowardice and lack of patriotism of the Jesuits furnish a striking contrast to Jourfier's fearless love for his country. Even more strik- ing is his loyalty to family traditions, which is emphasized by the entire want of those qualities in his nephew. The gentleness and kindness of Couzalou had the most effect 63. Lucifer, pp. 50, 169. 64. Cf. Michelet, Le pretre, la femme et la famille, pp. 308, 3n. 65. Lucifer, p. 152. 66. Lucifer, p. 106. Cf. Taine, op. cit., Bk. V, ch. Ill, p. !3S- "Un tel regime institue la dependance presque univer- selle, par suite, la soumission parfaite, la docilite empressee, 1'obeissance passive, 1'attitude courbee et flechissante de 1'in- dividu qui ne peut plus se tenir debout sur ses propres pieds." Cf. Michelet, Le pretre, la femme et la famille, p. 308, and Les Jesuites, Conference VI. The Ecclesiastical Novels HJ upon the passionate nature of Lucifer. The Gallican See- ondat was loyal to Jourfier until the latter threatened open rebellion against ecclesiastical authority. Then without a moment's hesitation he forsook him. Jourfier's con- victions and sense of justice could lead him to a revolt against the Church, but to Secondat obedience was the highest moral duty of a priest. L'Abbe Tigrane and Lucifer are alike in their unity of interests, there being no collateral plot as in Les Courbezon and Mon Oncle Celestin. Both are merely psychological studies with much the same external setting. The per- sonality of Jourfier, however, makes a much more general appeal than does that of Capdepont. His mental and moral conflicts are akin to the experiences of a larger number than the intense passion of Tigrane. In many respects they repeat the tribulation of Lamennais. Not only is Jourfier Fabre's most vigorous character, but in him he most nearly realized his favorite hero, the man who fearlessly and persistently, though hopelessly, con- tends for personal emancipation in faith and conduct. Ill Un Illumine and Madame Fuster differ from Fabre's other ecclesiastical novels, in that their action takes place at Paris, and that in them the author introduces the ele- ment of love in his discussion of religion and the Church. The first one deals with the sad fate of two lovers whom the Church prevented from marrying. The other de- scribes the sadness and desolation of a home ruined by the invasion of religious asceticism. Ii8 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre Madame Fuster presents the study of a wife and mother whose religious devotion resembled that of a mystic. 67 In her affections God took the place of husband and daughter. General Baron Fuster, returning home after a campaign of several years, broken in health, was dismayed to find his house filled with priests and nuns, for the Ordre du Jugement Dernier 66 was established there. He soon per- ceived that religion had destroyed for him all the joys of home and family. 69 In order to win back his wife's love he feigned great enthusiasm for her religious devotion. "On ne joue plus avec Dieu qu'on ne joue avec le feu." 70 Thus the General, in spite of the warnings of his devoted friend, Nadalewski, a sceptic philosopher, was naively caught in his own trap. On his death bed he received absolution. The net of the Ordre du Jugement Dernier gradually enveloped him in its meshes, and he bequeathed the bulk of his fortune to this new monastic society. 67. Cf. Madame Jeanne Autheman and Eline Ebsen (L-'Evangeliste, Daudet, 1883), who were protestants, Eline Ebsen experienced the hypnotic trances of the advanced mystic due to her nervous temperament. Mme. Autheman convert- ed her husband, a Jew, and after his death turned all his im- mense wealth to her own evangelistic work. 68. A new monastic order founded by R. P. Phalippou. 69. Madame Fuster, pp. 8, 9, 10 ; p. 88, "Vous et votre Dieu, vous vous etes empares de ma femme, vous me 1'avez ravie. On fait le desert autour de moi sous pretexte d'etablir le rpyaume de Jesus Christ." Cf. George Sand's Mile. Let Quin- tinie, p. 70, "partage son ame avec le pretre." The situation of Colonel La Quintinie resembles that of General Fuster. Cf. Paul Fraycourt in Dupecus (1908). Cf. also Michelet in Le pretre, la femme et la famille, pp. 18, 63, and Les Jesuites, Conference VI. 70. Madame Fuster, p. 235. The Ecclesiastical Novels lig Even more than her father, Madeleine Fuster was the victim of her mother's religious mania, for, possessing a very different disposition, she desired to become a wife and mother. Her mother and R. P. Phalippou opposed her betrothal to Daniel Nadalewski. The Franco-Prus- sian war intervened to prevent a conclusion of the strug- gle, for Daniel died in battle. At the close of the war and after the death of General Fuster, the Baroness, coldly indifferent to her daughter's mental and physical sufferings, tried to force her to become a nun. She sought refuge and help from her friends, the sceptic Nad- alewskis. Madeleine, through grief for the loss of Dan- iel, was constrained, however, to turn to religion for solace, 71 becoming a Sister of Charity in an order which did not require permanent vows. A spirit of unselfish Christian charity dominated the workings of the entire institution. Against such an order the free-thinking Polish philosopher entertained no objections. Among the orphans of the Hospice des Enfants Assistes "la petite mere," as Madeleine was called by the children, dis- covered her long lost god-child, Loulou, who took the place of Daniel's child in her imagination and love. 72 In spite of the peace that filled her soul, Madeleine's strength of body was so broken, that in a few weeks she died. "Pauvre Madeleine! assassinee par les siens," declared Stephane Nadalewski. 73 Madame Fuster is the author's strongest female char- acter of the religious type. Unfaltering determination, 71. Madame Fuster, p. 515. Cf. also Un Illumine, p. 380. 72. Ibid., p. 501. 73. Ibid., p. 509. I2O The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre and not love and kindly sympathy, guided her. Madeleine, however, is not so clearly drawn as are Fabre's peasant girl characters. She is far from being so lovely as Marie Galtier, and her death is less pathetic and not so force- fully described. The author's rendering of the motives and methods of the monastic institutions of the Regular clergy is clearly unfriendly. He has given, moreover, a kindly and sym- pathetic portrayal to those persons whose love for human- ity exceeds their love for God. The Church and the monastic orders, however, have met with no reverses, nor have they received any positive accusations or attacks. In Lucifer Fabre approximated more open invective. IV However impersonal Fabre may claim to be in his descriptions of Church discipline and policies, he has chosen to observe and report more often than any other that side of ecclesiastical life and activities that displeased Taine and Michelet. He disapproved of the alliance of Church and State, 74 and of the principle of celibacy. 75 His convictions were those of a Gallican 76 and a repub- lican. 77 He protests against the absolutism of the hier- 74. See pp. 105, 112, and also Lucifer, pp. 230, 234, 296; Tigrane, pp. 133-1355 Celestin, p. 310. 75. Courbezon, p. 349; Tigrane, p. 37; Mme. Fuster, p. 310; Lucifer, p. 146. 76. Used in the sense of being opposed to the ultramontane party, and to the increasing power of Rome in the Church of France. 77. Note Fabre's sympathy for the working classes, and their dislike for the Church: Lucifer, pp. 230, 234, 296; Tigrane, pp. 111-112. The Ecclesiastical Novels 121 archy, 78 insisting that it has reduced the clergy, especially the lesser clergy, to a degrading condition of servi- tude. 79 He condemns the control 80 the Regular clergy have over the Church and ruthlessly exposes their meth- ods 81 of securing and retaining their control. He calls attention to their want of patriotism, 82 and descrihes the home, the peace and happiness of which have been ruined by the mischievous intrusion of these priests, portraying their pernicious influence upon the mind of the wife and mother. 83 Yet one who so evidently dwells upon the evils of the organization of the Church and her policies need not be considered hostile to the religion she professes. His purpose might well be that of the reformer who wished to purify rather than to condemn. 84 While Fabre seems to have chosen to write rather of the evil than of the good in the policy of the Church's organization, he has been impartial in his descriptions of her priests, for he portrayed good priests as often as bad. The lesser clergy he represented more as individuals than he did the peasants, but in general the former, too, are des- cribed as a class. His leading clerical characters, how- 78. Celestin, p. 37; Tigrane, 238; Lucifer, pp. 116, 169, 391. 79. Courbezon, p. 82; Celestin, p. 198; Tigrane, pp. 13, 88, no, 124, 237-240, 245; Lucifer, pp. 106, 218. 80. Mme. Fuster, pp. 158-159; Lucifer, pp. 16, 17, 48-50, 75, 90, 100, 1 68, 289, 362, 392. 81. Tigrane, pp. 102, 103, 106, 293; Lucifer, pp. 154, 168, 298, 307- 82. Mme. Fuster, pp. 330, 359, 387; Lucifer, pp. 194, 205. 83. Mme. Fuster, pp. 8, 9, 36, 88. 84. Cf. The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre, The Quarterly Review, July, 1899. 122 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre ever, are as different as men are different from each other. 85 He has established practically no types, except that of Abbe Celestin, the simple-minded, kindly priest. His portraits include peasant, bourgeois and nobleman, and range from the humblest desservant to the Cardinals and Pope. Most frequently he describes the Secular priests. Many of them he accuses of exercising the func- tions of a priest as a mere means of livelihood. 86 Their greatest fault, however, is their pusillanimity. In his descriptions of the Regular clergy, and of the priests in the higher ranks of the hierarchy, Fabre displays his master qualities of character portrayal. Each bears the stamp of a distinctive personality, even though often clearly resembling in certain respects other characters. Roquebrun is nobly born, and Capdepont is the son of a peasant, both possess violent tempers, but otherwise they are unlike in their dispositions. Valette and Sccondat both vicars general, had gained their rank by very different means. Valette, abject before the Jesuits, secured their approval because of his timidity. Secondat, a little, old man, almost ridiculous because of his physical defects, while not without fear, had gained his appointment through his astuteness and sagacity. Mical and Laver- nede, essentially the same in their bravery and loyalty to a friend, devoted themselves to opposite ideals. Jean Montagnol resembled Bernisien in his longing for the monastic life, but he lacked completely his spirituality and refinement. Cardinals Maffe'i and Finella, both 85. Cf. Kahn, G., Nouv. Rev. (1903), t. XXII, p. 557. 86. Lucifer, p. I. The Ecclesiastical Novels 123 equally gifted as diplomats, were very unlike in personal appearance. Maffe'i, though old and somewhat stooped, had once been of imposing physique. Finella is dim- inutive, and slight and frail in body. Fabre's monks do not personify a class of men, manifesting identically the same ideals, and the same implicit devotion to their vocations. Their motives for choosing this kind of life vary, and their individual dispositions do not accord the same degree of submission to the requirements of their orders. The author's supreme conceptions are of course his portraits of Abbe Courbezon, Tigrane and Lucifer. They represent three very distinct personalities. Courbezon is contrasted in temperament and in mentality to the other two. He has no idea of the Church as a political insti- tution. Capdepont and Jourfier are men of powerful intellectual qualities, and possess much the same temper- ament. They differ primarily in their attitude toward their respective vocations. Spirituality is clearly not an essential qualification of the vocation of either of them. Ambition expresses the dominating force in the character of one; pride in that of the other. Pride demands that a man maintain his mental, moral, and spiritual indepen- dence ; ambition easily sacrifices personal liberty and digni- ty to an exterior authority. The Church requires this sacrifice of her priests. Fabre has here portrayed the mind that can naturally adapt itself to the organization and discipline of the Church, and also the mind that can not accept such a yoke. Tigrane typifies one extreme, Luci- fer the other. Nowhere has Fabre used to better advan- tage his principle of contrast than in his description of Lucifer, for, by his masterful portrait of one who lacked 124 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre completely the ecclesiastical mind, he has most clearly indicated what qualities of mind and character are es sential to the typical priest. 87 87. Cf. Lemaitre, J., op. cit., p. 297 ff. CONCLUSION AMONG modern novelists Ferdinand Fabre was an inventor because, as we have seen, he emphasized cer- tain aspects of human life that had been neglected by his predecessors. His novels are not, as Edmund Gosse af- firms, entirely unlike those of any other writer. 1 We have found them closely related in thought, and often in manner of treatment, to other novels of the same period. His early life, spent in close touch with nature, and his clerical education gave him a special preparation for his literary career. From these two sources he drew the inspiration for nearly all he ever wrote. Such a limited field implied intensive cultivation. This intensiveness accounts for his introducing into literature for the first time the peasant in all the truth of his character, 2 and for his success in his conscientious and exact 3 portrayal of clerical life and man- ners. It explains how it was possible for him to describe certain aspects of that life which other writers had dis- regarded, and why he could render interesting events and characters which in the hands of a less thoroughly trained author would have been dull and ineffective in their ap- peal. As a regionalist Fabre created a place in literature for the various aspects of nature and humanity in his native Cevennes. 4 The greater part of his literary material 1. Op. cit., p. 516. 2. See p. 91. 3. Lemmaitre, J., Funeral address, Le Temps, 16 fev. 1898. 4. Doumic, op. cit., p. 935. 125 126 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre comes from living over again in his mind some phase of his childhood and youth passed in those mountains. His autobiographical less than his other novels resembled the works of other writers. Being purely episodical, the re- verse then of his clerical novels, they differ completely from Anatole France's Le livre de man ami and Alphonse Daudet's Le Petit Chose. Since childhood and youth occupy an inconspicuous place in French literature, 5 Fabre displays unusual literary independence in devoting eleven novels to the events of about two years of his boyhood. In his studies of peasant life and manners, however, Fabre lends himself to comparison. His realism may be justly said to follow a middle course between George Sand's optimism and Balzac's pessimism. George Sand wrote of what was good and true 6 in the peasant, while Balzac and Zola sought to depict his vices. Fabre repre- sents the greater realism in that he impartially reports the good as well as the bad. He failed to discover in the peas- ant the richly endowed child of nature as did Auer- bach. 7 He found the peasant largely a man of animal instincts, though at the same time retaining nobler manly qualities than the servile clergy whose personal dignity was suppressed by the Church. Like Thomas Hardy Fabre has painted a definite peasant peculiar to his native environment. Balzac, on the contrary, described a gen- eral peasant suited to any rural community. His clerical characters, however, Fabre does not limit 5. Seippel, M. P., Romain Rolland, L'homme et I'oeuvre, p. 128. 6. Preface to La mare au diable. 7. Schwarswaldere Dorfgeschichten. Conclusion. 127 to one locality or country. His originality here lies merely in his choice of a very restricted milieu. He writes of the priest in relation to his ecclesiastical life, his fellow priests, and to his superiors. 8 In this respect he resembles Anthony Trollope more than any French author except Paul Fraycourt. 9 If one could change the English protes- tant atmosphere of Barchester Toiuers to one of French Catholicism, and eliminate the women characters and the social life, there would be left a clerical novel similar to L' Abbe Tigrane. Although less masterfully drawn Mr. Slope closely resembles Tigrane. Though ambitious, he lac'rs Capdepont's hypocritical smoothness and indomitable will. Trollope does not concentrate upon one incident as does Fabre. This diffusion of interests weakens the cen- tral effect even though increasing the interest of the story. Fraycourt as a disciple of Fabre confines his plots wholly to ecclesiastical life. He does not possess, however, his master's powers of vigorous description and dramatic effect. His Abbe Sinoir 10 is a very weak imitation of Tigrane. Neither Trollope nor Fraycourt has been able to people his pages so thickly with priests as did Fabre. They lacked his rare gift of individualizing characters. 8. Note. It is important to distinguish carefully between ecclesiastical and religious life. Religion but furnishes the atmosphere and setting in which the action takes place. (Cf. Doumic, op. cit., p. 936). 9. Besides Fraycourt, one might mention Ferdinand Hame- lin, Le journal d'un pretre, (1908) ; Francis Poinctevin, La robe du moine, (1882) ; Ives le Querdec, Lettres d'un cure de campagne, d'un cure de canton. Their works are not strictly novels. 10. Journal d'un cure de campagne. De la charrue a la pourpre describes the rise of a plow-boy to a bishopric. He does not resemble Abbe Capdepont. 128 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre By portraying individuals rather than types Fabre has again shown himself to be more of a realist than Balzac, whose leading characters, though the product of a highly complex environment, tend to be a logical result of a ruling passion. According to Taine they are but "pedestals of a statue which is their master passion." 11 Although Ti- grane is the victim of his passion, he remains an individual distinct from his ambition. He does not represent a personification of clerical ambition. Fabre carefully distinguishes between the personality and the "master faculty." 12 His characters, however, possess little power of resisting this "master faculty," 13 and in the end their helplessness brings about a tragedy, either upon the victim of the passion or upon another. A pessimistic fatalism closely resembling Hardy's phil- osophy of determinism runs through nearly all that Fabre wrote. The lives of his peasants are for the most part sad, and unrelieved by prospects of pleasanter days. In concluding his stories Fabre gives no indication of future happiness to follow present sorrows, nor any suggestion of a delayed justice for wrongs endured. He implies no solace for the bereaved Landry, the lover of Xaviere, whose burial took place in a snow storm. The Marquis de Pierrerue sacrificed his daughter and devoted his for- tune to the Church, which when he died in poverty even 11. Essais de critique, p. 147. 12. Cf. Sainte-Beuve, Nouveaux lundis, X, p. 262. 13. Cf. Les Courbeson, p. 401, "Sublime et terrible privi- lege de la passion qui opere chez tous les hommes avec une egale puissance, qui ne distingue pas 1'ignorant du philosophe, le rustre du raffine, le pauvre du riche, mais qui leur puvre a tous deux impartialement et a la fois le meme paradis ou le meme enferl" Conclusion. 129 refused him obsequies befitting his rank. For the honest and high minded Jourfier suicide furnished the only relief from his anguish. The author does not even relieve the hopelessness of his situation by implying that he experi- enced a moral justification. The Church remained com- pletely unaffected by the tragedy. Feuillet would doubtless explain this fatalism in Fabre as due to a lack of profound religious faith. 14 We may accredit it rather to a romantic touch in his nature, together with his fond- ness for antitheses, and his love for nature. Like Daudet, Fabre puts himself too much into his writing to be an impersonal observer after the manner of Flaubert and Maupassant. He leaves us in no doubt re- garding his preference for the Rousseauistic character of Pancol as contrasted with the mercenary Fumat, nor re- garding his admiration for Venceslas, who, though a mountain hermit too, maintained a sense of personal digni- ,' ty and honor which the coarse and greedy Barnabe did not feel. 15 He expresses frank contempt for the servile clergy who had no semblance even of personal pride. He esteems more highly the selfish Tigrane, or the unscrup- ulous Mical. Fabre's personal interest in his characters, then, would exclude him from the pure naturalists. Moreover, if we accept as a definition of naturalism the application of the scientific method to the study of human nature, he is not sufficiently scientific to receive that classification. If we limit naturalism to that portion of literature which aims to portray without reserve all phases of human na- 14. Cf. the closing chapters of L'histoire de Sibylle. 15. Barnabe, p. 390. 130 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre ture, Fabre must be considered a naturalist. Though avoiding Zola's extremes in painting human misery, he frankly portrays the sordidness of daily life among the peasantry. He declares' that human nature constitutes the beginning and end of all art, 16 and he chose to depict it fully in all its aspects familiar to him. Unfortunately he restricted his studies of human nature to a class whose lives do not make universal appeal. He did not possess Balzac's versatility in associating his char- acters with affairs and events of general interest. Even in Madame Fuster and in Un Illumine where the subject matter touches the interest of a larger reading public, the ecclesiastical setting in which the action takes place and undue emphasis upon details that encumber the plot, have prevented the books from attaining greater success. In fact, had Fabre subjected many of his novels to a thorough process of curtailing as in the case of La petite mere and Le Marquis de Pierrerue, he would have gained many readers. A naturally clerical turn of mind led him to discuss at too great length ecclesiastical matters which greatly delay the action of the simple plots, and cause his novels as a whole to lose in force and in effectiveness. Especially is this true of Les Courbezon and Mon Oncle Celestin. In L'Abbe Tigrane he has concentrated upon his main theme, so also in Norine and in Julien Savignac. For this reason these books stand among his best. Notwithstanding defects Fabre deserves great praise for his success along lines where others have failed, or at 16. Le roman d'un peintre, p. 236. Cf. also Ibid., p. 276. "Pour les fils de ce siecle, il n'est pas d'art ep dehprs de 1'humanite." Conclusion. 131 least feared to venture. They lacked the special talent necessary for a sympathetic, and at the same time, exact description of the private lives of priests, who remain apart from the affairs that engage other men. Fabre's gallery of clerical portraits is so rich and so varied that it de- serves a far more extended and specialized study than has been possible in a discussion devoted to all his novels and not restricted to one single phase of them. The full power of the artist's genius can not be estimated until such a study has been made. We may judge already, however, of his success in describing the peasantry, for the range of his characterization is limited. The peasant has in- terested relatively few writers, and we have been able to draw definite comparisons. The priest, on the other hand, has appealed to many novelists, but no other writer has found in him the inspiration for practically all his best novels. I venture the opinion that, when Fabre's clerical characters have received an exhaustive study, his contribution to the master characters in any one field of realistic literature will equal, if not surpass, those of any other author of the same period. We may conclude, then, that Ferdinand Fabre was more of a realist than Balzac, and less of an idealist than George Sand, the two writers he most resembles. He is not suf- ficiently scientific or impersonal to belong to the pure naturalists, nor psychological enough to be considered a predecessor of Paul Bourget. He has, however, made two distinct contributions to the work of the realists: he portrayed for the first time a peasantry in the full truth of their character, and in his descriptions of the priest he alarged upon the work of his predecessors by presenting 132 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre an original study of a new aspect of clerical life. While L'Abbe Tigrane must stand unique of its kind among the famous novels of the nineteenth century, Fabre's other novels also have enriched modern fiction Norine must be classed among the best love idylls in modern French literature, and L'Abbe Roitelet, because of the originality of the story and the exquisite simplicity with which the author tells it, deserves special praise. To these shorter works we must add four truly great novels, Les Courbezon, Mon Oncle Celestin, Julien Savignac and Lucifer. BIBLIOGRAPHY Fabre, F., Feuilles de lierre, (1853). Les Courbeson, (1862). Julien Savignac, (1863). Mademoiselle de Malaveille, (1865). Le Chevrier, (1868). Un grand coupable. (Aux bureaux du journal "le soir," 1872. See catalogue of the Bibliotheque Nationale, vol. 49, p. 122). L'Abbe Tigrane, (1873). Le Marquis de Pierrerue, 2 vols. (1874). La rue du Puits qui parle, Le Carmel de Vaugirard. Barnabe, (1874). La petite mere, 4 vols., (1877). La paroisse du jugement-dernier, Le Calvaire de la Baronne Fuster, Le combat de la fabrique Bergonnier, L'Hospice des ewfants assistes. Le roman d'un peintre, (1878). L'Hospitaliere, ( 1880) . Mon Oncle Celestin, (1881). Lucifer, (1884). Le roi Ramire, (1884). Monsier Jean, (1886). Madame Fuster, (1887). Toussaint Galabru, (1887). Mademoiselle Abeille, (1888). Ma Vocation, (1889). Norine, Cathinelle, Un souvenir intime, Le R. P. Colm- ban, (1889). Un Illumine, (1890). L'Abbe Roitelet, (Nouvelle Collection, 1890). Sylviane, (1891). Germy, (Nouvelle Collection, 1891). Mon Ami Gaffarot, (1894). Taillevent, (1894). Ma Jeunesse, Mon Cos Litteraire, Monseigneur Fulgence, (1903). Oeuvres Choisies de Ferdinand Fabre, extraits et notice de M. Maurice Pellissier, (Delagrave, 1899). 133 134 The Novels of Ferdinand Fabre Bainville, J., Ferdinand Fabre, (Revue de France, mai 1898). Baring-Gould, S., In Troubadour Land; A Ramble in Provence and Lan- guedoc, (London, 1891). Barbey d'Aurevilly, J., Le Roman Contemporain. Bousquet, H., Le pays de Ferdinand