Daily Blague

In 1919, Scribner's published a collection of articles by Edith Wharton that had appeared in various publications, and called it French Ways and Their Meaning. The pieces had been written primarily to introduce American soldiers to the French alongside whom they would soon be serving; our War Department, as it then was, placed the collection in the libraries of all troop ships. It is hard to guess what a young, unsophisticated soldier would have made of Mrs Wharton's knowledgeable idolatry. If I found it an easy read, that's probably because I already share most of its prejudices. I am thinking of writing to Diane Johnson - now that I have her address - and suggesting that she give us an update on the French ways that Mrs Wharton discusses. I'd love to hear Ms Johnson's take on this extract from the Preface:

The French are the most human of the human race, the most completely detached from the lingering spell of the ancient shadowy world in which trees and animals talked to each other, and began the education of the fumbling beast that was to deviate into Man. They have used their longer experience and their keener senses for the joy and enlightenment of the races still agrope for self-expression. The faults of France are the faults inherent in an old and excessively self-contained civilization; her qualities are its qualities; and the most profitable way of trying to interpret French ways and their meaning is to see how this long inheritance may benefit a people which is still, intellectually and artistically, in search of itself.

Well, now that we've settled that!

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