Correspondance générale (review)

The great Renan scholar Jean Pommier once described Henriette Psichari’s edition (Calmann-Lévy, 10 vols, 1947–1961) of Renan’s works to me as ‘l’édition dite définitive des Œuvres dites complètes’, and the correspondence is a good example of what he had in mind. Jean Balcou notes that, of the 203 letters in the first volume of the Correspondance générale, 116 are unpublished, and the following volumes also contain a large amount of unpublished material; the Psichari edition by and large reproduced (without checking against the manuscripts) the versions previously published, particularly by Renan’s daughter, Noémi, concerned to edit or ‘correct’ the manuscripts before her. More than a century after the author’s death, it was the time to attempt to assemble the complete correspondence of a major figure in his century who was in contact with many of his important contemporaries. The Prière d’insérer of the first volume announces seven volumes in all, to be published over five years; at the present rate, however, the final volume might be expected in about 2048. The first volume takes us to the moment when Renan leaves the seminary and launches into the life of his time, and yet the image that emerges is strikingly consistent with that of the later Renan: the man who, while protesting his straightforwardness, lack of worldly wisdom and disinterestedness, nevertheless, by roundabout means, an awareness of the importance of establishing useful acquaintances, a sharp eye for his own interest, succeeds in manoeuvring successfully through the complexities of life. The letters show that, far from being what Balcou calls a ‘tragédie’, the process that leads Renan out of the Church is a lengthy one, in which the only drama comes from the need to decide where his interest lies: to stay in the Church with an assured career, or to venture into the outside world with a view to making his way in an environment unknown to him. It is to his credit that, on intellectual grounds (respect for Christianity, but refusal of Church dogma), he opts for the second course. He has much to do: his education within the Church means that he has no qualifications recognized by the State, and he quickly climbs the academic ladder up to the agrégation and beyond to the doctorate. During these early years, he takes care to cultivate those likely to be of use to him in his career. He is successful to the extent that, for example, in 1849, he is charged with a mission to follow the French army into Italy and to collect material in the rich collections to be found in a variety of locations. Unfortunately, for so important a subject, the editor of the first volume has done a very bad job. He has, where possible, gone back to the manuscripts, but does not indicate substantial divergences between them and the Psichari edition. The proof-reading is poor (there are five errors on the back cover alone). References and cross-references are almost systematically defective. The state of the text is a serious matter. Having pointed out certain ‘particularités’ characteristic of Renan’s writing at the time, and having told us that his ‘étourderies sont marquées par [sic]’, he then lets pass a large number of what may indeed be ‘étourderies’, but which are just as likely to...