Racine. Athalie (review)

Book Reviews J. Dryhurst. Racine. Athalie. London: Grant and Cutler Ltd., 1994. Pp. 88. In Athalie, Racine gives us nothing less man the critical moment of confrontation upon which depends me very possibility of Christianity. By murdering her royal grandchildren, and mus apparently severing the line of David, Athalie plunges die Chosen People into a crisis of succession and generates a primordial schism in the divine system of filiation. And, whereas me execution of its eponymous "hero" would seem to constitute the play's tragic resolution, die more profoundly disturbing tragedy of Athalie is, as Bardies has reminded us, that the threat of violence cannot be so efficiendy removed from me kingdom of God. Offspring of a common father, the peoples of Juda and Israel must be forever intertwined, destined to repeat a violent past (as me chorus portends, Joas will later murder his childhood friend, Zachrie). Heady stuff for me sixmform and beginning university students for whom J. Dryhurst's introduction is intended. Dryhurst's guide to Athalie, number 102 in we series Critical Guides to French Texts, edited by Roger Little, Wolfgang van Emden and David Williams, is a useful basic discussion of Racine's final, and difficult, literary statement. Dryhurst moves efficiently through necessary descriptions of the rules of classical French drama, the nature of Racinian syntax and vocabulary, die historical circumstances that brought Athalie to St-Cyr and the play's origins in die Old Testament ; also appended to die book is a brief history of Jansenism which students will find helpful . The guide is divided into nine chapters, each of which examines important aspects of the history , background, characters, and setting of the play. And, despite frequent efforts to understand and interpret Athalie through appeals to present-day common sense and periodic generalizations about human behavior, Dryhurst situates effectively the fundamental issues at hand in die play. On the matter of reading Amalie as a properly tragic figure, rather than as merely a "monstrous" one, for example, Dryhurst writes interestingly about the importance of understanding her in dramatic , as well as historical, terms. Although one might take issue wifli a bibliography that, with few exceptions, does not list Racine or Athalie scholarship published after 1974, Dryhurst's guide is, in sum, a valuable resource for those readers new to Racine's literary universe in general and to mis challenging and beautiful play in particular. Jeffrey N. Peters University of Kentucky Luc Fraisse. Proust au miroir de sa correspondance. Paris: SEDES, 1996. Pp. 514. FF. 130. Dès les années cinquante, lorsque les premières lettres de Proust commencèrent à être publi ées ici et là , elles trouvèrent leurs détracteurs, lecteurs déçus par cette masse de "potins mondains, (de) remerciements dithyrambiques, (de) reproches alambiques, (de) condoléances, bref tout le ramage de la coquetterie et du snobisme", comme l'affirme joliment Luc Fraisse (11). Ces lettres s'avéraient écrites non par le génial écrivain, mais par l'homme Marcel Proust, tout aussi insignifiant peut-être que le Bergotte rencontré par Ie héros à un dîner chez les Swann. La gageure du livre de Luc Fraisse est que, sans renier la célèbre distinction proustienne entre l'homme et l'auteur, entre Ie "moi social" et Ie "moi profond", il met à jour les rapports étroits entre les deux. Dans les quelques cinq mille lettres de Proust, il tente de distiller les constantes du caractère de celui-ci, dans sa vie individuelle ainsi que dans ses relations avec les autres. De manière remarquable, il montre comment chaque particularité psychologique, même la plus Vol. XXXVIII, No. 3 95 ...