Baudelaire: At the Limits and Beyond by Babuts Nicolae

Review by: J. A. Hiddleston

Nineteenth-Century French Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3/4 (SpringSummer 1999), pp. 424-425
Published by: University of Nebraska Press
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424 Nineteenth-Century French Studies

only moderately dissimulated, either escaped notice or was no longer considered relevant
in the Third Republic by 1875.
While the Occidentales are dated 1855-1874, Banville's Rimes dores are dated from 1863
to 1875, with one poem ( "A Eugne Delacroix.") added to the last edition in 1890. Rimes
dores has somewhat less metrical variety than the Occidentales: there are twelve poems in

quatrains, one in rhymed couplets ("Le bon Critique"), and nine sonnets.
In Rimes dores, Banvillemay well have underscored 'Ta foi du pote dans la salubrit
de l'art" (270).
Thematically, he ranges from Ronsard to the Romantic poets and widens
his horizon to include painting, music, and the theater. He describes intimate gatherings at
the home of Prier, the Director of the Opra ("La Lyre dans les Bois") and Gautier ("Une
Fte chez and writes a wide-ranging
Gautier") poem on "Le Thtre" for Jules Bonnassies's
new journal, Le Thtre.
It is striking, however, that the joy taken in the arts always implies
the presence of an uncomprehending and even hostile segment of society from the Second

Empire on into the Third Republic. For this reason, I do not share Edwards's sense that the
four sonnets of 1868 ("Le Musicien," "L'chafaud," "La Blanchisseuse," and "Le
Pompier") strike "une note discordante" (271). In these sonnets, the talents and heroism of

anonymous individuals go unnoticed or repudiated by a self-indulgent and unseeing

segment of society. The white-haired old violinist has been chased
away from the
courtyard by the porter ("Le Musicien," 199). Mothers have dragged their children, in
whom there is still a reflection of celestial majesty, to witness the execution at dawn
("L'chafaud," 200). The proud laundress pays no heed to the dirty old man whispering
lascivious words in her ear: "Elle va d'un pas libre et sur ses tresses d'or / Superbeselle
porte un grand paquet de linge" ("La Blanchisseuse," 201). "Ce pompier tout couvert de

poussire et de sang / Expirait dans la nuit et dans la boue infmes" ("Le Pompier," 202).
These sonnets simply reflect, in an understated manner, the coarseness and indifference of
a society against which art, joy, and heroism struggle with dogged persistence.
In this volume alone, Peter J. Edwards has successfully reached a laudable goal in
bringing the much neglected poetry of Thodore de Banville back to the attention of

poetry lovers and dix-neuvimistes alike. The achievement of the entire edition by Edwards
and his able collaborators is a monument of careful research, scholarly emendation, and
editing, presented in clearly formatted texts accompanied by fascinating illustrations. Hats
off to all!

Binghamton UniversitySUNY Carrol F. Coates

Babuts Nicolae. Baudelaire: At the Limits and Beyond. Newark: U of Delaware P, 1997.
London: Associated UP, 1997. Pp. 182. Cloth $34.50. ISBN 0-87413-644-X.

This book comprises eight essays on Baudelaire, two of which have already been pub
lished, in Symposium and Nineteenth-Century French Studies, together with a longer introduc
tion explaining the 'cognitive approach' with which the author has for some time been as
sociated. The method can be defined briefly as an attempt to establish the coherence of
the texts under discussion and distinguish 'the poet's struggle to meet the constant chal
lenge to his identity, at the limits of his personality, of knowledge, and of poetry.' It in
volves identifying the dynamic pattern or 'metaphoric field' of a text, such as the 'rain
bathed suns' of Marie Daubrun's 'eyes shining through their tears' or the tension between
oneness and multiplicity in the 'peuple muet d'infmes araignes' of "Quand le ciel bas et
lourd...."

Chapter 1 examines the problem of the unity of the Baudelairean self in relation to the
familiar dichotomy of 'vaporisation/centralisation' which the author sees as mirroring the

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Reviews 425

centrifugal and centripetal force of language itself. Closeanalysis of "A une heure du
matin/' "Les Foules," "Le Vieux Saltimbanque," "A une passante" and "Les Fentres" re
veals the poet's struggle against the negative forces of dispersion and irony, and the need
to establish kinship with an elite, a spiritual family, and 'become Baudelaire through the
act of writing. Chapters 2 and 3 similarly deal with the seemingly irreconcilable opposition
of the drives towards God and Satan in "Le Mauvais Vitrier" and "Mademoiselle Bistouri,"
and the positive and negative poles of Maistre's notion of redemption through the suffer
ing of the innocent in "A celle qui est trop gaie" and "Rversibilit." In both chapters, the
dynamics of the self/other relationship lead to an urgent posing of the problem of identity.
The interpretation of "Une mort hroque" in chapter 4 is among the most original, and
is noteworthy for the importance it gives to the reaction of the narrator and the spectators
to Fancioulle's mime and martyrdom. Through them, apparent failure is turned to tri
umph, and
through death art is able to outstrip time and attain a measure of freedom and
immortality. The argument is supported throughout by illuminating parallels and contrasts
with Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral and Anouilh's Becket. Chapters 5 and 6 focus on two of
the great poems of 1859. "Le Cygne" is seen ultimately as the celebration of a self engaged
in a drive beyond fragmentation to re-establish its lost unity in experiencing exile as a new
form of mnemonic exhilaration, while the analysis of "Le Voyage" distinguishes two jour
neys, in sections vii and viii, the one towards life, the other towards death, and seeks to
place the poem in the perspective of a tradition that it both denies and reaffirms. The last
two essays are less concerned
with specific poems. Chapter 7 revisits the great question of
allegory and
correspondence, and takes issue with the view associated with de Man,
Benjamin and Greenblatt that allegory fails to recover the pure visibility of truth and fails

consequently to present reality. Allegory and correspondence, it is argued, bear witness to

the poet's belief that they are not only links to the visible world, but to the ultimate reality
that is its foundation. Finally, chapter 8 assesses the poet's struggle to achieve unity in his
life and work. After an account of the impact of the 'conseil judiciaire' and his relations
with publishers, Baudelaire is firmly placed at the center of the Western tradition of po
etry.
One is impressed by the critical balance and intertextual dexterity of this eminently
sane approach which is both modest and confident in the defense of its readings. Its strict
fidelity to the texts makes it intolerant of ideologically driven interpretations originating
elsewhere, and its sensitive response to the texts' mnemonic appeal confirms that poetry,
like painting, not only springs from the memory of the poet but speaks directly to that of
the reader. My only misgiving is that occasionally due weight is not given to the ironies
and ambiguities of the texts, particularly of "Les Fentres" which is give a positive message
in spite of its concluding sentence.

Exeter College, Oxford J. A. Hiddleston

Daniel, Robert R. The Poetry of Villon and Baudelaire. Two Worlds, One Human Condition.
New York: Peter Lang, 1997. Pp. 196. ISBN 0-8204-3472-8.

With this attractively presented and elegantly written study, Robert Daniel has demon
strated that Franois Villon and Charles Baudelaire, separated by four centuries and thus
inhabiting "two worlds," nevertheless had a common view of the human condition.
Although many critics through the years have pointed to resemblances between the two
no one, until now, has undertaken a sustained
poets, comparative study of their works.
Given the profound dissimilarities in tone, style, and poetic language and form, it's easy to

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