Book Reviews

Book Review
Title: Willibald Alexis: A German Writer of the Nineteenth Century
Author: Lionel Hugh Christopher Thomas
Publisher: Basil Blackwell: Oxford
Date: January 1, 1964
ASIN‏: ‎ B0000CMATN

Thomas’ forward sets the tone for this evaluation of Willibald Alexis’ literary accomplishments, and his place in the pantheon of nineteenth-century writers. The limits are succinctly conveyed in the quote, “…whose work seems now assured of a modest place among the minor classics of nineteenth-century literature” (p. v). A “modest” place among the “minors”—this qualified assessment is reinforced throughout the book—with all sincerity, no more, no less.

Notwithstanding the above, Thomas seems truly attracted to this writer and his work. He simply, or carefully, maintains a realistic perspective regarding the subject’s achievements. Alexis’ popularity was never great—neither among the public nor the critics. He received occasional praises for a few of his novels. Perhaps his most lasting achievement was his sixty-volume case history of true court cases (Der neue Pitaval). They were drawn from “legal files and annals of many different countries” (81), requiring exhaustive research over thirty years. This stand-out work really does represent a major contribution to social and legal history (81). The greatly influenced the detective genre of literature and popularized the modern detective story.

Alexis was most fond of the historical novel, and wrote several, though none became very popular. He translated Sir Walter Scott’s historical novels as well as creating his own œuvre in that genre. In other books and articles, also wrote about contemporary life in Berline the city where he spent most of his life.

While critics were not always his friend, he himself was a literary critic, and a well-respected critic for a time.

Alexis had many other talents. For example, he had a law degree, and by all accounts was considered a brilliant attorney. He was multi-lingual, speaking fluent French, Spanish, and English (as well as his native German). He was also a local authority, holding the municipal government post of vice deputy of Berlin.

Alexis’ many varied interests worked to his disadvantage, as he never focused on a single manageable direction. In addition to the above-mentioned interests, he pursued journalism, politics, editing, publishing, reviewing, poetry, drama, translations, general nonfiction, legal history, entrepreneurship, finance, business enterprises, travel writing, among others. Viewing the wide expanse of pursuits, it becomes easy to understand why none were developed too deeply.

In Alexis’ later years, he fell into depression, disillusioned about the taste of the reading public (which never truly appreciated his writings), and regretful that he never quite broke through into popular acceptance in any of his works.

While this story sounds sad, Alexis did in fact have a good life. He had a very good marriage that lasted all his life, he always had at least a small circle of friends and fans of his work, he and his wife traveled, especially one very happy year in Italy, and he was never too poor (though never very rich). His writing earned his living, albeit a modest one.

All of the above observations of the life and work of Willibald Alexis are very succinctly presented by the excellent writing of Alexis’ biographer Lionel Thomas. The book is not easy to find, but if you can get your hands on it, I certainly recommend the biography to anyone interested in history, literature, or German culture of the nineteenth century.

Book Review
Title: Life of C. K. Scott Moncrieff
Author: Jean Findlay
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0374119270

They say hereditary talents sometimes skip a generation. In this case it skipped three or four generations. The subject of the biography is one of the most talented writers (albeit lesser known) of the twentieth century, CK Scott Moncrieff. He was the undisputed premier literary translator of the period, especially noted for his translations of Proust and Stendhal. The talented author of this biography is his great-great-niece, Jean Findlay.

Findlay tells a well-balanced thorough story of Scott Moncrieff’s short life (1889–1930). She reveals the pain and struggle behind Scott Moncrieff’s astounding achievements. As F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “Scott Moncrieff’s Proust is a masterpiece in itself” (297). Scott Moncrieff’s lifetime overlapped with that of Proust, knew the times and understood the subtleties and depth of Proust better than subsequent translators and critics who would try their hand many years later. In fact, Proust himself reviewed and approved of Scott Moncrieff’s translation, giving it the ultimate recommendation, and definitive authority on the work. Findlay brilliantly fleshes out the subtleties of Scott Moncrieff’s translations. She brings us into the times and the mind of her ancestor in a fascinating case study of rare genius.

From his earliest years, Scott Moncrieff was a natural when it came to languages. For example, to get into Winchester (the best high school in England), he had four days of eight exams (half-day for each exam). He mastered the exams, and especially excelled in the Greek and Latin exams. This was not to graduate from high school, but to get in, at age 13. He had translated Ovid’s Metamorphoses with adult understanding (which he had memorized earlier in his life) (35). He ultimately graduated from university with degrees in Law and Literature with first-class honors.

With his intimate understanding of Proust and his milieu, Scott Moncrieff was able to translate the seven volumes of Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past in eight years. For comparison, in 2002, it took a new team of seven translators seven years of dedicated time to do the same task that Scott Moncrieff had done alone in eight. Further, during that same eight-year period, Scott Moncrieff also translated Stendhal, Pirandello, and kept up his other journalistic work. In one six-year period, he translated fifteen volumes, compiled a genealogy, and wrote thousands of articles and letters. To let those achievements sink in for a moment, one sees a once-in-a-century stratospheric mind that had no peers.

Findlay also brings Scott Moncrieff’s everyday habits to life with compelling detail. Being a member of the family, she had access to thousands of pages of diaries and letters whose contents are made public for the first time in this biography. Scott Moncrieff never had a home as an adult. He moved around between various locations in Great Britain, France, and Italy. He was a solitary worker, but a very sociable friend during his brief breaks from work. He ate his meals out. He breakfasted, lunched, and supped with friends, colleagues, family members, and many famous figures of the times. These stories alone offer a fascinating look at the early twentieth century and the well-known figures of the time.

Scott Moncrieff had a strong sense of family responsibility as well. He supported and paid for the education of nine nephews and nieces after his two brothers’ illness and death. His maturity was no doubt accelerated by his experiences fighting in World War I. Due to Scott Moncrieff’s law degree, he entered the army as an officer. He saw action at the First Battle of Ypres, and others. Findlay provides very detailed events and experiences of Scott Moncrieff in the war. He developed a deep sense of faith (including conversion to Catholicism in 1915) and camaraderie among soldiers, and he kept a strong positive attitude despite the horrors of prolonged trench warfare. He was injured several times–he received a permanent injury in one leg that caused a painful limp for the rest of his life. He was awarded the Military Cross, the 1914–15 Star, the Silver Badge, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal (132).

After the war, Scott Moncrieff became a British spy. He joined Military Intelligence, liaising with MI5. The stated qualities that Scott Moncrieff possessed, which made him an ideal spy, were “sense of honour, courage, acumen, brains, audacity, and presence of mind” (210). He was assigned to the Office of Passports, covertly. There was an innocent community of English writers in Italy, so Scott Moncrieff’s journalism and being a professional translator, mingling with that expat community, constituted a perfect cover. Among other assignments, he monitored and reported on Mussolini’s naval and military activities. He stayed and worked as a British agent in Italy for eight years.

Jean Findlay’s biography gives us a window into a brilliant mind and a fascinating character that circulated in a highly charged period of history. In turn, Scott Moncrieff gives English speakers a window into the brilliance of Proust, Stendhal, Pirandello, and others. After a hundred years, Findlay brings her ancestor back to the fore and reminds us of this forceful and sublime figure. She does it with an aesthetic excellence that makes this biography a masterpiece of literature in its own right.

Book Review
Title: Flaubert: A Biography
Author: Herbert R. Lottman
Publisher: Little Brown & Co
Date: January 1, 1989
ISBN: 978-0316533423

This biography of Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) is a great story and Herbert Lottman is a great storyteller. Flaubert finished law school and then promptly forgot all about law and embarked on a literary life, becoming one of the greatest novelists of the nineteenth century.

The book chronicles the struggles and failures and illnesses that plagued Flaubert throughout his life. He labored with excruciating scrupulousness over every word and punctuation in his writing. That slow exacting process, combined with regular periods of illness when he couldn’t work at all, explain why Flaubert’s output was small in comparison with other novelists. His good friend and colleague Émile Zola, for example, published well over 20 major novels. Flaubert published about six major works (depending on who you ask): Madame Bovary, Salammbô, Sentimental Education, Temptation of Saint Anthony, Three Tales, and Bouvard et Pécuchet.

Flaubert’s closest literary friends, those he spent the most time with, and corresponded with the most, included Émile Zola, Alphonse Daudet, Ivan Turgenev, Edmond de Goncourt, Jules de Goncourt, Théophile Gautier, and perhaps closest was George Sand. Flaubert was also close friends with a number of the French aristocracy, especially Princesse Mathilde Bonaparte, daughter of Napoleon’s brother Jérôme Bonaparte; and Prince Louis-Napoléon, the only child of Napoleon III, Emperor of France.

Given Flaubert’s august social circles, the story of Flaubert necessarily weaves in and out of larger Nineteenth-century French history. The political landscape becomes a complementary side story in the life of Flaubert. His movements and life conditions are very much affected by the 1830 July Revolution, Revolutions of 1848, Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Overthrow of Paris by the “Paris Commune” in 1871, among others.

Flaubert never married or “settled down,” but there were very special relationships that he cherished. These are touchingly shown throughout his biography, and how he navigated these amid his work and his extensive travels, and his mixed emotions and personality conflicts within himself—all of which played a rôle in his ever-troubled personal life.

Herbert Lottman produced a minor masterpiece of his own, in this compelling novelistic story of the life of Gustave Flaubert. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in literature, French history, or in simply reading good books.

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Also see: Gustave Flaubert’s Sentimental Education.