In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

324 MODERN DRAMA December over, was Gorky really so naive that with all his knowledge of Stalin he failed to perceive the inevitable consequences of establishing the Union of·Soviet Writers and formulating a single binding literary method? Apart from such details as the reference to Chekhov as "the old doctor" (p. go), I would also quibble at the occasional violence which Wei! commits on the English language, e.g. "autodidact" (p. 21, etc.), "simplistic" (p. 55), "memoiristic" (p. 74, etc.), "defigurement" (p. 151). This critical jargon is an unfortunate blemish on what is the best book available on Gorky's literary development in either English or Russian. JAMES B. WOODWARJ) University College of Swansea THE THEA TER IN THE FICTION OF MARCEL PROUST, by John Gaywood Linn, Ohio State University Press, Columbus, 1966, 274 pp. Price $6.00. In reviewing a recent spate of studies on Marcel Proust, I gave vent to my feeling that far too much was being published on this author, that we had been led over the same ground too many times, either by guides who merely want to show us what Proust means to them or by scholarly gleaners who exhibit as a great harvest some pretty paltry grain. Without vitally new information or interpretation of Proust, scholars might better look to more neglected areas of study and let the public read Proust himself for awhile. The present book reminds me how difficult it is to maintain a stand which nevertheless seems to me still, in theory, a very correct one. Professor Linn has taken as his subject the theatrical and dramatic references in Proust's work, the sort of topic selected for Ph.D. theses-limited, specific, not yet treated as such. From an academic point of view, the work surely merits "mention tres bien." The references are all counted and labeled. In A La Recherche there are "almost five hundred metaphorical and direct allusions to theater and drama," twenty-five or more actors and actresses are mentioned, nearly fifty plays and thirty dramatists introduced in some way or another. Each reference is thoroughly investigated and put in its proper setting in time and place. Fair credit is given other studies which have already touched on the subject of Proust and the theater. Although the work is scrupulously and painstakingly documented , it is presented in a clear, easy prose that belies the enormous erudition upon which it rests. The question is now whether it is anything more than a piece of research rigorously conducted and lucidly presented. I am inclined to think it is. With the same methodical care with which he collected and catalogued Proust's references to the theater, Linn enumerates the organic functions which they fulfill in the work. That they help establish verisimilitude, define a milieu, delineate character, create mood may be taken for granted, although their importance in these functions might not have been fully realized without the evidence offered here. But Linn wishes to demonstrate that, in addition, references to the theater constitute a significant structural element in Proust's work. We know that Proust considered metaphor the basis· for all art. His frequent recourse to the theater for the borrowed term weaves a theater theme into the basic fabric of his work. Witness the Phedre situation entwined in the story of Swann's love and Marcel's. In the beginning of the work, the world of the theater is side by side with the real world of society. In the gradual evolution of the novel, these worlds seem to be in movement, sometimes one partially eclipsing the other, ultimately taking each other's place: actresses are real in their art and duchesses are fake 1967 BOOK REVIEWS 325 in their life. The great finale of the novel is entirely a metaphor of theater, with all his old friends appearing to Marcel as actors aged by make-up. The theater, then, is very intimately involved in the basic thematique of A La Recherche. Allusions to plays mark the lapses of passing time, the all-important theme. The actresses Berma and Rachel serve as touchstone for Marcel's views on art. In depicting his spiritual adventure-the mistakes...

pdf

Share