Proust in Perspective: Visions and Revisions (review)

L'Esprit Créateur other means such as asterisks or dashes" (2). These markings are found in two different editions of Euripides that Racine possessed, the Aldine of 1503 and the Stephanus of 1602. They are in ink (black or red), and pencil (grey or red), with pencil often representing an early or passing interest in a passage which Racine might later ink for a "closer look," as it were. This hieroglyphic evidence answers the first of all the questions that source studies elicit: how do we know that an author did in fact consult a particular work? The care that characterizes Phillippo's method extends to her style: it would be hard to find a book where the subjunctive had such free play. This is but a reflection of the author's admirable modesty, for she understands that she can note a passage that interested Racine, and then but suggest the choices he made and the transformations he effected. She warns us straightaway of the pitfalls of proposing a facile correspondence between Racine's readings and the composition of his plays: it is impossible to make chronological connections between the moment of annotation and the time of play writing. Another danger that Phillippo herself does not altogether avoid is attributing to Euripides an inspiration that Racine may have found in one of the Greek playwright 's imitators, prominently Seneca. After warning that the annotations follow no coherent plan, Phillippo points out four patterns of interest that arise from Racine's reading of Euripides: scholarly or linguistic concerns, stagecraft , dramatic narrative, and character and emotion. Both in the chapter on "Racine as Reader" and elsewhere, Racine is shown to be attracted to Euripides for his pathos and passion, which comes as no surprise to Racine scholars. One of the real surprises in Phillippo's study is the amount of material from Euripides' Ion that Racine probably used for Athalie. Racine's reactions to Ion can also give us an idea of how he might have structured his aborted lphigenia in Taurus. Phillippo devotes much of her space to the three plays that Racine did directly adapt: the Phoenissae, lphigenia in Aulis, and Hippolytus. Particularly interesting for the racinien are the lengthy comparisons of the two Phaedra plays in chapter 4 and the conclusion. Noting the passages in Euripides that Racine chose to highlight, she reveals that Racine was drawn to scenes where Phaedra expresses both her guilt and her innocence, thereby putting to rest to the long-standing idea that Racine borrowed from Euripides for his portrayal of Phèdre the victim and strictly from Seneca for Phèdre the sinner. We are also treated to some intriguing speculations on the influence of the play Medea on Andromaque, a connection several of us have suggested over the years. Source criticism seems to have caught a second wind lately, if one may judge from the notes in George Forestier's Pléiade edition of Racine's theater and the interdisciplinary perspectives of Alain Niderst's Le Travail de Racine (Saint-Pierre-du-Mont: Eurédit, 2001). Silent Witness represents an enlightened form of this methodological approach, giving an inside view of Racine's creative process that allows us to look over his shoulder in the atelier d'artiste. Euripides served not only as a literary model for Racine but also spurred his imagination to transcend the boundaries of his culture and its aesthetics. For that reason this book will serve as necessary reading for those revaluating the role of Greek models in the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns. Ultimately , since Racine was able to adopt the bold and soaring conceptions of his Greek master to the strictures of French tragedy and the refined tastes of classical France, he was undoubtedly worthy of the title he sought for himself: l'Euripide français. Ronald W. Torin University of Califomia,Santa Barbara Armine Kotin Mortimer and Katherine KoIb, eds. Proust in Perspective: Visions and Revisions. Urbana and Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Pp. 316. Although the source of the volume edited by Armine Kotin Mortimer and Katherine KoIb, Proust In Perspective: Visions and Revisions, is the symposium on Proust...