THE DE GONCOURT DIARY.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 September 1922, Page 5

THE DE GONCOURT DIARY.

PUBLICATION PROHIBITED. SCANDAL AND LIBEL. London, August 12. The diary of the De Goncourt brothers, says the Paris correspondent of the London Daily Mail, has been found too full of scandalous anecdotes concerning wellknown living people to allow of publication as directed in Edmond de Goncourt’s will. The Government Censor reports that the dairy contains much fiction, in addition to indecency and libel. After being sealed the manuscript was returned to the s.ecret archives of the French National Library. The brothers De Goncourt (Edmond, 1822-96, and Jules, 1'839-70) afford perhaps the most famous instance of literary collaboration. In writing their novels which include ‘Germinie Lacerteux” and “Mme. Gervaisais,” each composed the same incident independently, and the two versions were afterwards moulded into one. After Jules’ death Edmond wrote “La Faustin” and other novels and books on art. The De Goncourts were pioneers of the naturalistic school, and attempted to set forth the naked facts of life. They kept a diary on which Edmond based the much-discussed “Journal des Goncourt, 1887-92.”