Théodore de Banville: un passeur dans le siècle (review)

This volume aims to contribute to the rediscovery of the work of Théodore de Banville. Philippe Andrès, the leading light in Banville studies in France, illustrates the complexities of Banville as a key figure in the literary and artistic history of the nineteenth century. The volume is very much a biography but one that strives to emphasize Banville's achievements not just as a poet but also as a dramatist, a writer of contes, and a literary and aesthetic critic. In particular, Andrès stresses the importance of Banville as a prolific contributor to journals. A champion of the lyric tradition in France, Banville emerges equally forcefully here as a pioneer of new forms in both poetry and narrative prose, but one who defies classification in any literary school. 'Réduire l'oeuvre au domaine poétique [. . .] ne suffit plus!' (p. 11). Thus Andrès signals that his study will celebrate Banville's accomplishments in all the genres. Central to the analysis is the view of Banville as a passeur, a crossroads where various influences interconnect. Andrès is a perceptive biographer, stressing the importance of the writer's Normand background, his arrival in Paris, his delicate health, and his predilection for reading and reverie. As a modus operandi, Andrès fuses biographical detail with a chronological evaluation of Banville's collections and the critical reaction to them. Interestingly, he outlines the significance of Banville's friendships with other writers, among them Hugo and Baudelaire. Andrès deftly shows how his subject grew not just as a poet but as a writer of prose and drama. If the years 1847 to 1856 were 'les années difficiles' (p. 77), Andrès explains how Banville evolved as an aesthetic theorist while trying to make sense of the tempestuous sociopolitical events going on around him. Shakespeare, Byron, Goethe are just some of the other influences as Banville emerges not only as a multifaceted writer in his own right but as 'un artiste d'une grande culture concernant l'art contemporain tant musical que pictural' (p. 160). We are made aware of the increasing importance of writing for the theatre in Banville's career. Thus 'la poétique banvillienne ne se sépare pas d'une perception théâtrale du monde' (p. 185). He is the passeur, reflecting the symbolism of a Verlaine while prefiguring the innovations of an Apollinaire. Andrès sums up his approach by imagining Banville with the camusiens in the famous Camus-Sartre rivalry of the mid-twentieth century. This is reflected in the poetry and the drama but also in the contes and again in his journalistic contributions. His dedication to the Eiffel Tower in 1889 is emblematic of a man and an artist who in the fin de siècle was avidly anticipating the 1900s. His death in early 1891, argues Andrès, enables us to consecrate him as a phare — a leading light of nineteenth-century French literature and artistic life but also as a forerunner of the twentieth century.