What French Writers Think About England.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 419, 19 October 1889, Page 3

What French Writers Think About England.

In the 'St. James's Gazette ' of the 6lh of : July, it was recomraehded fto ;M; .Jules'* Lemaibre that he should employ f his spare ,bime in > learning English.'*: -The, same &d- , vice- might be given to many pther leading French writers* It may be of interest to know the -opinion of some of those distinguished gentlemen .on, the matter. As for M. Jules Lemaibre, he was once asked to write an article for one of the moat important London periodicals. ' What for ?' he answered. ' I don't care about acquiring any reputation in England. They don't want to know what I think, and I don't want' 'to 'tell them.' The same request made to M.Alexandre Dumas met with this reply ; ' Bother the English ! They ta,ke our plays, make a mess of them, and never pay us a sou.' Emile Augier observed : 4 Pooh ! I don't like the idea of writing for people who don't understand cooking.' Renan said : ' 1 profess the deepest interest and respect for England, but I really ,-feel it a duty todevotetomyowncountry the powers which age and infirmities leave me.' Said Alphonse Daudet : ' How can I write for a country wheie there is hardly any sun at all ?' Paul Bourget, on the contrary," is quite a literary 'anglomane. He dreams of rehabilitating the contemporary English novel, which is rather looked down on just now in the country of Balzac, Stendhal, Flaubert and Zola. This tendency has drawn on his head a severe rebuke from the two leading critics, M. Jules Lemaitre, already mentioned, and M. Brunetiere, of the "Revue dcs Deux-Mondes." 'Very pleasant books, indeed, those two volumes of 4 ' Etudes et Portraits,'" they wrote — or words to that eftect ; 'but why does M. Bourget take so much to English ways and customs?' As lor M. Guy De Maupassant, he considers English literature uninteresting, not excluding the works of Shakspere, which, to speak truth, he scarcely ever reads, as he happens not to know a word of English, and does not think much of translations.