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98ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW throughout the writer's work. Chapter Three, "Individual Reactions to Decadence," concentrates on Drieu's three works of fiction of the prewar period, Bleche, Une Femme à sa fenêtre, and Le Feu follet. Their main features of interest are an increasing complexity in psychological analysis and social criticism and an evolution from the particular to the general. Drieu's fiction of the early 1930s — Drôle de voyage, La Comédie de Charleroi, Journal d'un homme trompé, and Beloukia — is analyzed in Chapter Four, "The Quest for Identity." Its principal significance lies in a widening range of points of view, the introduction of an exotic element, and a somewhat surrealistic conception of women as a means to mystical experience, although, as Leal points out, "women remain essentially an 'atmosphere' or a 'climate' in which men move in search of their elusive ideal" (p. 82). "The Polyphonic Novels," Chapter Five, is devoted to Rêveuse bourgeoise and Gilles, the first of which embodies Drieu's vision of French society during the first twenty-five years of the twentieth century and his denunciation of the impossible longing by the bourgeoisie for a world of action and adventure. Gilles continues the depiction of modern society begun in Rêveuse bourgeoisie and completes the portrait of the "Gille" figure of the earlier works. It also introduces the concept of the writer's function in relation to society and the inevitable problem of "refraction" resulting from the writer's necessary distortion of reality. In Chapter Six, "Art, Sacrifice and the Cosmic Order," Leal demonstrates that Drieu's last novels, L'Homme à cheval, Les Chiens de paille, and the unfinished Mémoires de Dirk Raspe represent an evolution from the exclusive preoccupation of the individual with his historical situation toward an examination of the relationship of the artist with his world. The conflict between the elusive unity of the self and its social and metaphysical function is apparently resolved by a symbolic self-sacrifice which Drieu concluded to be the ultimate resolution of the antimony between the individual and the unity of creation. This study will prove useful to the reader unacquainted with Drieu's works. Of particular value is a summary at the end of the first four chapters. For those, however, who wish to know more about the relationship between the writerand his time, certain questions remain unanswered. For example, one wonders what is the exact nature of the "decadence" that Drieu condemns. Is the term "decadence" to be taken only in its historical sense? There are indications that Drieu could be situated in the esthetic tradition of decadence originating in the nineteenth century. Leal states at the outset that his concern is with literary rather than autobiographical elements, but the repeated allusions to the theme of the conflict between the individual and society are not sufficient to situate this strange author in the prevailing atmosphere of his time. Passing references to Nietzsche, Camus, Malraux, and Sartre are illuminating, but they are never developed as much as one might wish. PATRICIA HOPKINS Texas Tech University Ted Lerow and Tea Lerow. Koscher Hanswürste made in USA. Berlin: StoedtnerVerlag , 1981. 13Op. Als Christian Morgensterns Der Gingganz 1919 postum erschien, nannte Kurt Tucholsky den Dichter den "Busch unserer Tage". Er bekundete seine eigene Bewunderung für Wilhelm Busch, den "großen Philosophen", an dessen Werk sich Book Reviews99 eine ganze Generation "verlustiert" habe, und betonte die Parallele zu den Gedichten des Verfassers der Galgenlieder: "Es ist aber auch zu hübsch: man lacht sich krumm, bewundert hinterher, ernster geworden, eine tiefe Lyrik, die nur im letzten Augenblick ins Spaßhafte abgedreht ist — und merkt zum Schluß, daß man einen philosophischen Satz gelernt hat". Ted und Tea Lerow werden es mir nicht verübeln, daß mich ihre kleine Gedichtsammlung sowohl an Busch und Morgenstern als auch an Tucholsky erinnert hat. Da gibt es die skurilen Verse und komischen Wortverformungen des einen, die absurde und doch durchaus realistische Welt des anderen und die satirische Spitze des dritten. Und immer wieder hat der Leser das oben beschriebene Erlebnis, wenn er sich mit den Gedichten der Lerows beschäftigt. Einige Attribute drängen sich dem Rezensenten...

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