Huysmans and ELT Authors

52 REVIEWS Huysmans and ELT Authors G. A. Cevasco. J.-K. Huysmans: A Reference Guide (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1980). $24~75Ö". Joris-Karl Huysmans, although a peripheral figure in relation to the authors considered in ELT, was virtually the "godfather" of the I89OS decadent movement and he played an influential role in the development of several writers of the period. This guide to articles in English about him is therefore a useful tool for researchers of the 1880-1920s era. Professor Cevasco in his Introduction briefly relates the basic facts about the various books written by Huysmans, with some discussion of the many English translations of them, and gives concise comments on the relationship between him and the English authors he influenced. The short first section of the guide lists, with some details, the translations into English of the Huysmans titles. The major section gives a chronological run-down of the books and articles dealing with him and his works, starting with Paul Bürget's "Paris Letter" in the Academy (July 1880) and continuing year by year through I978 with listings of books and articles about Huysmans or containing significant material related to him. Each listing is briefly annotated in the manner of the ELT secondary bibliographies , giving a concise summary of significant facts. There is also a 15-page index which makes the book even more usable than frequently is the case in similar chronological listings. That Professor Cevasco thoroughly knows his subject is attested by the 19 articles by him dating from 1957 to 1978, which are among the nearly 700 entries in the second section. This figure, however, does not present a true picture as nearly 100 entries indicate reprints listed under a number of different dates. To cite an extreme example, George Moore's Confessions of a Young Man is listed 21 times, with no indication of which of several revisions is being reprinted, and in fact some of the citations are of simply new impressions of previous printings. The author does, it should be said, in each case refer the reader to Moore's bibliography, where those who want to untangle the details of the various printings can find the answers. Oddly enough, he fails to list the important edition edited by Susan Dick (Montreal & London: McGill-Queen's UP, 1972), which includes not only the original text but all substantial changes made in subsequent editions . In spite of these repetitions, Cevasco seems to have recorded everything that has been published in English about Huysmans and his is definitely a splendid source of information relating to other ELT authors in addition to Moore, particularly Oscar Wilde, Arthur Symons, Aubrey Beardsley and John Gray. Cherry Plain, NY Edwin Gilcher ...