The World of Jean Anouilh by Leonard Cabell Pronko (review)

BOOK REVIEWS THE WORLD OF lEAN ANOUILH, by Leonard Cabell Pronko, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961, 264 pp., notes, text of translated quotations, bibliography. Price $4.50. On their leading playwright the French have not as yet produced a major critical work. The only volume-length studies are those by Hubert Gignoux (1946), Jean Didier (1946), Robert de Luppe (1959)-all short, impressionistic essays among which Gignoux's is doubtless the most worthwhile. In English, however, we have the excellent book Edward Owen Marsh wrote in 1953 to introduce Jean Anouilh to the English public and now the more thorough, scholarly study by Leonard Pronko. The World of lean Anouilh is a definition and demonstration first of the playwright 's themes and second of the "dramatic values" discernible in his work. That is to say, after presenting the various aspects of the human condition which constitute Anouilh's basic preoccupation-the futility of all man's striving, the inescapable "obscenity" of his existence, his loneliness, etc.-Professor Pronko considers the means by which the dramatist conveys his message. To this end he examines modes of realism, the use of myth, significance of characters, and the device of presenting life in terms of a play. Although one might at first glance think that Professor Pronko's division is the conventional one of themes and techniques, it is not really this. Under modes of realism, he discusses fantasy and fact, appearance and reality, the instability of the ego. Under characters: social types, family relations. Under myth: the use to which Anouilh puts classic lore compared with what other playwrights ancient and modem have done. In other words, technique is not discussed for itself, but as an indirect approach to theme. We can read on the dust jacket: "Throughout, Professor Pronko has sought to illuminate Anouilh's vision of man." With the second part leading us back to the first and the first part, of necessity, already implying what the second will state, we have somewhat the impression of turning around and around the same subject. Professor Pronko is aware of this, for he declares in his introduction, "As in the classics, the structure, the characters, and the style are so closely bound up with the themes that it is impossible to discuss one without the others." I am not convinced, however, that it is not preferable to try at least to isolate the components of an art more completely. Ideally, it seems to me, an analytical study moves in a straight line, without circles or returI1&-leaving restatement for the conclusion. But Professor Pronko's method has the advantage of strong emphasis and persuasiveness. The picture he paints of Anouilh's universe is so vivid and complete that it unquestionably constitutes the major work on the subject to date. Moreover, by its scholarly discretion it runs little risk of being invalidated even though Anouilh may have many more years of productivity before him. There are no impassioned utterances or prognostications like the one Gignoux makes by way of a flourish to end his book-that now (1946) Anouilh has arrived before a wall and can escape only through comedy or religionl In regard to the possible evolution of Anouilh's thought, Professor Pronko's sober assertion that his basic views seem never to have changed appreciably will probably stand the test of time. For him, the differences in the plays merely indicate different focusing. Man's struggle against his past is the theme of the first group; the refusal of reality dominates 436 1962 BooK REvIEws 437 in the second; compromise with life, in the third. But, in all, man's basic condition appears the same and the solutions to his problems either in the direction of intransigence or conformity remain tentative with Anouilh. Professor Pronko scrutin1zes the evidence, suggests possible trends, but refrains from making categorical formulations on inconclusive evidence. He is equally honest in his judgment of Anouilh's thought, making no exaggerated claims for his author's profundity or wisdom or even uniqueness. Anouilh "is a dramatist first of all" and the "philosophy expressed through his plays must be considered an indication of the dramatist's...