Volume 28, Number 5 · April 2, 1981
The French Complaint
By John Weightman
The Horror of Life
by Roger L. Williams
University of Chicago Press, 381 pp., $22.50
This arresting title may lead the reader to expect some great Promethean outburst, but in fact what we have here is a book by a distinguished professor of history at the University of Wyoming, consisting of a preface followed by five chapters, each devoted to the medical-cum-psychological case history of a celebrated French writer of the nineteenth century. The physical and mental sufferings of these five men—Charles Baudelaire, Jules de Goncourt, Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant, and Alphonse Daudet—are very familiar to students of French literature. All five died comparatively young. Before death, Goncourt and Maupassant lapsed into imbecility. One of the most poignant phrases in literary history is the doctor's comment on Maupassant during the last months of his life: 'Monsieur de Maupassant s'animalise,' with its ironic contrast between the particle of nobility and the ignoble verb. Baudelaire, the greatest poet in the language according to some critics, became speechless during his last phase and could only give vent to the crude oath: 'Cré Nom!' (Sacré Nom de Dieu). Although Flaubert and Daudet retained their powers of expression until the end, they suffered at times the tortures of the damned and had frequent recourse to drugs.
Review, 2905 words
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