
Henry Céard
Auteure: Ronald Frazee
Nombre de pages: 200Here for the first time is an authoritative account of the life and literary activity of a long-neglected writer of the French naturalist school. Its appearance now is especially timely in view of the recent revival of interest in Zola, Maupassant and Huysmans, and the publication of the complete Goncourt Journals. Cérard's written works were virtually neglected by his contemporaries as well as by most historians of the naturalist movement. However, his novels, short stories, and plays had good critical receptions, and in providing this study of the author, as well as a comprehensive bibliography of all his works, Mr. Frazee is performing a valuable service for students of literature. As an artist Cérard was perhaps less powerful than Zola or Goncourt, but one appreciates, as Mr. Frazee has noted, "la prédominance de l'esprit d'analyse sur l'esprit d'imagination." An important contribution was his early experimental novel Une belle journée; this explored in depth a single day in a character's life, and was the first of a number of such novels, which culminated in Joyce's Ulysses. While attempting to give Cérard his due as an artist Mr. Frazee, in seeking to discover the...