Le Cahier brun (1847–1868), Augmenté de notes intercalées dans le deuxième cahier (1867–1868), Troisième cahier (1869) by Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve (review)

Complementing the Cahier vert (edited by Raphaël Mohlo (Paris: Gallimard 1974)), the Cahier brun preserves the reflections, observations, and impressions penned by Sainte-Beuve over twenty years (1847–68). Outwardly, it is a collection of anecdotes, portraits, and searing criticism aimed at contemporaries and peers. Yet reminiscences, frustrations, dissections, and denunciations of the shortcomings of particular visions— literary, political, ethical, or meta physical—all trace an intimate journey into the workings of Sainte-Beuve’s own pensée, foregrounding a confrontation of the self in the quest for truth. The heterogeneity of these topics reflects a dynamic of the mind and is reflected in the organic layout of the text, which jumps from one figure to another and from recounting an event to reflecting on an unrelated topic. A sample page juxtaposes a confession of Sainte-Beuve’s antipathy towards Saint-Marc Girardin with a subtly mocking account about Félicité de Lammenais, leading figure of the Catholic revival and erstwhile spiritual guide to Sainte-Beuve: Lammenais is ridiculed and entertained by the poetsongwriter Jean-Pierre de Béranger’s response to his desire to own a carriage. The reflection and anecdote are followed by a meditation on the vacuity of existence, and an evocation of, and comment on, an epigram by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus, which turns again to life and death (p. 18). In this sense, the notebook is what Patrick Labarthe calls a library, charting Sainte-Beuve’s readings over the years, and a ‘laboratoire’ (p. viii), as, beyond the crossed-out phrases that show a text in the making, the cahier contains cross-references, marginalia with notes to self to rework or employ images and passages for articles, and the appended insets that complete or nuance the author’s perspective. Such openness and fluidity subordinate chronology to an inner rhythm, measured by the desire to articulate and preserve occurrences that arrest Sainte-Beuve’s attention: intellectual pleasures and scholarly pursuits intermingle with experiences of professional frustration, personal affections, and loss—a number of obituaries mark the passing of figures who had shaped Sainte-Beuve’s generation. Events appear only as fragmentary reactions to particular figures and episodes. For instance, 1848, its aftermath, and the growing disenchantment with Lamartine emerge through Sainte-Beuve’s thoughts on the discourses in the Assemblée (Adolphe Thiers, Louis-Mathieu Molé, François Guizot), exchanges of opinions transcribed from his correspondence (with Hortense Allart), and journeys across Paris, interspersed with comments on his readings from Herodotus, Lucretius, or Les Girondins in the context of the revolution. By contrast, the notebook is sparse on personal details; for example, Sainte-Beuve’s resignation from the post of curator at the Bibliothèque Mazarine, following accusations of his having benefited from secret government funds, is alluded to briefly as ‘une affreuse calomnie’ (p. 93). Throughout, a constellation of recurrent personages and topics outline his mental and social universe: from the Romantics, the Académie, and Port-Royal to the people with whom he interacts or to whom he reacts (Lamartine, Chateaubriand, Cousin, Pierre-Paul Royer-Collard, Hugo). Labarthe’s amply annotated edition illuminates Sainte-Beuve’s wide-ranging literary and political references, providing a window onto his culture and time. The pagination reproduced from the original (in bold on the sides) gives a sense of continuity, while the appended insets and final, unfinished cahier (1869) offer further glimpses into his thought, method, and interests.