Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/187

 THE NOVEL I73 young Freneh count, who after experiencing much of the world's deception, · renounces the pleasures of life and becomes a Carthusian monk. The novel is real ly the story of his two loves, both of which arouse great emotions and bring great disappointments. Gustave loses his mother early, and thus the love for which he so greatly yearns is absent in his early years. At length he makes the acquaintance of a fellow student, Armand, to whom he becomes bound by a fervent and ideal friendship. Then Gustave faUs in love with a beautifui young widow named J ulia, and he is in the seventh beaven of rapture, with love and friendship shining upon him. But soon the sky darkens. Armand proves a false friend and a duel ensues, while J ulia is discovered to love another. Friend­ ship and love have proved hollow, and the disillusionment generates egotism. Gustave says : 11 J ust as we gradually prepare a person for the reception of bad news, that he may not be over­ whelmed by the weight of sudden sorrow, p rovidence also gradually opens to us the knowledge of the human heart, that we may learn to bear the hurden of our know­ ledge. First one man. deceives us, and the wound, how­ ever deep, heals in time and makes our heart harder. Then we learn to doubt men more and more ; we lose our cherished ideals, but we bear it because we place Iess and Iess confidence in men, and the wound made by deception becomes Iess keen. Then our friends abandon us, our lover proves false, and we dare not trust anybody. A dreadful experience ! Yet time, which has robbed us of so many treas ures, has taught us to retire into ourselves and thus, although we stand alon e, we can endure it because we have become selfish."