Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v4.djvu/181

 Louisiana Novels 593 Mexicain (1859), dealt with the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, claimed to have been inspired to write his play during a sojourn among certain venerable ruins in Mexico ; in reality he was only making over the Guatimozin of M. Madrid, which had appeared on the French stage as early as 1828. L'Hermite du Niagara (1842), a mystire by the novelist Alfred Mercier, should be mentioned here. Victor Sejour, the dramatist, though born in Louisiana, does not call for treatment, since he left the United States at an early age. The novel owed its prosperity between 1845 and the Civil War chiefly to popular magazines like La Revue Louisianaise, Les VeilUes Louisianaises, La Violette, and L'Echo National, whose feuilletons are now an interesting mine. In this period there was a demand for historical tales and stories of Louisiana life; as witness the following titles, announced by La Revue Louisianaise: Histoire de toutes des rues de la Nouvelle-OrUans, par un Vieux Magistral; Une Famille Creole; Or et Fange, mysteres of New Orleans. Garreau's Louisiana, the source of Canonge's France et Espagne, appeared in Les Veillees Louisian- aises in 1845. It is long and formless, though the style is clear and the history fairly faithful. Garreau was virtually the first novelist to attempt a re-creation of colonial Louisiana. Charles Testut, one of the most prolific of writers, author of Portraits Litteraires de la Nouvelle-Orleans, and of several vol- umes of poems, and editor-in-chief of Les Veillees Louisianaises, wrote three historical novels, Saint-Denis, Calisto, and Le Vieux Salomon. They were produced to fill space in his magazines; they are long, loosely composed, and often forced in language and sentiment. Yet they are eloquent, and rich in Louisiana lore. Whole pages are borrowed from Gayarre; in Calisto a long digression begins with the words ' ' Comme le dis- ait Charles Gayarre." Saint-Denis (1845) recounts the ad- ventures of the Chevalier Juchereau de Saint-Denis in New Mexico, whither he has been sent by Governor Cadillac of Louisiana to open up new channels of trade, and where he falls in love with Angela, the governor's daughter, and fights a duel for her. Calisto (1849) is an extraordinary tale. The scene is laid at Carrolton, now a part of New Orleans. Sophie de Wolfenbuttel, a German princess, is brutally treated by her husband Alexis, a Russian prince. He struck her one day, and VOL. Ill 38