Pater's Appreciations and the Problem of "Feuillet's La Morte"

First published in Macmillan's Magazine in December 1886, Pater's "Feuillet's La Morte" has received little comment. If critics mention it at all, it is only to question Pater's editorial decision, account for it as a response to his fear of public rebuke, or emphasize the essay's lack of substance. It is an entirely different kind of piece than the other essays in the volume, more a typical Victorian book review than a Paterian appreciation. This article offers a solution to the "problem" of "Feuillet's La Morte." The review functions in Appreciations as a kind of foil or counterpoint to Pater's embrace of Flaubert in "Style." By including in his volume an appreciative review of a writer who aesthetically and politically stands in opposition to French realism, Pater is counterbalancing or complicating the attention he gives to Flaubert, the controversial representative of French realism.