From the Editor’s Desk

13 The French Review Having recently received a few messages which indicate that the French Review’s evaluation process for submitted articles is not as widely understood as I had thought, I would like to explain that process.Our journal’s longstanding policy for submission and selection of articles,which is shared by all reputable scholarly journals,is based on‘blind’ peer review: the evaluators (our Assistant Editors) do not know the identity of each article’s author.Each submitted article is sent to two evaluators,who reply with comments and suggestions.If they concur in their recommendations—to publish or not to publish (no Shakespearean pun intended)—the issue is settled.If they do not concur,the author receives the results of the evaluations (which are also‘blind’) and has an opportunity to revise the submitted article before it is sent to a third (and final) evaluator. In all cases, submitted articles can be improved through the evaluation process,since the author has an opportunity to take into account (as opposed to accepting uncritically) the comments and suggestions of experienced and knowledgeable peer reviewers. As it happens, I am in a good position to understand the frustration felt by some colleagues when I inform them that one of their articles has not been accepted for publication. Before becoming Editor, I submitted over the years a total of fifteen articles to the French Review, six of which were rejected. Regardless of the outcome, the evaluators’ comments and suggestions helped me improve my research and my writing (and the rejected articles, after revisions, were later accepted by other journals). In short, our evaluation process is fair, thorough, and usually quicker than that of most comparable scholarly journals. Authors whose articles are not accepted for publication in the French Review should not be discouraged: the evaluators’ comments and suggestions are not a dead end, but the building blocks of revised and improved articles that can eventually be published elsewhere. I would like to thank two former members of the editorial team for their service to our journal and our profession: Myrna Delson-Karan (St. John’s University), Assistant Editor, and Frederick Toner (Ohio University), Review Editor, Society and Culture. We welcome Zakaria Fatih (University of Maryland, Baltimore County), who has served as Assistant Editor, and who is now serving as Review Editor, Society and Culture. Two important reminders: — The call for papers for our Vol. 89 (May 2016) Special Issue: Alcools, drogues et visions: littérature et paradis artificiels (deadline for submission: Aug. 1, 2015). — The start of the French Review Book Series (first announced in the Vol. 88.2 [Dec. 2014] editorial). For details, please see the Announcements section (303). Edward Ousselin, Editor in Chief From the Editor’s Desk Addendum Je n’ai pas l’habitude de commenter l’actualité dans ces brefs textes, qui sont normalement consacrés au fonctionnement de notre revue, ne serait-ce qu’en raison des délais habituels liés à la production de chaque numéro (mise en page, épreuves, imprimerie). Mais je voudrais saluer la mémoire des dessinateurs et journalistes de Charlie Hebdo, assassinés pour avoir ‘blasphémé’, ainsi que des victimes des meurtres antisémites de la Porte de Vincennes, en janvier 2015. Il se trouve que lorsque j’ai pris connaissance de ces atrocités, je venais de lire un article sur Étienne Dolet, auteur et éditeur qui fut accusé de blasphème et d’hérésie, avant d’être étranglé puis brûlé avec ses livres à Paris en 1546, sous le règne de François Ier et au nom d’un Dieu de paix et de miséricorde. Le fait que de nos jours on puisse commettre un massacre pour de tels motifs, là encore au nom d’un Dieu de paix et de miséricorde, a évidemment constitué un traumatisme national, un de ces ‘malheurs exemplaires’ de l’histoire de France, pour reprendre l’expression de Charles de Gaulle dans ses Mémoires de guerre. Alors que des terroristes avaient visé, le 11 septembre 2001, des symboles du pouvoir économique et militaire des États-Unis, ceux du 7 janvier 2015 ont cherché à abolir des valeurs...