Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/928

* DAUDET. 804 DAUGHTERS OF AM. REVOLUTION. his brother, "awoke in him at the same instant as his literary talent," and it never slumbered, even when, as occasionally hajjpened, the talent nodded. "It is style that jjerfiunes a book," he said, and his own had a studied and unique fragrance from the first. Zola describes him at this time as "living on the Romance of the Rose, a love allegory, on the outskirts of the city with other poets, a whole band of joyous Bohemians," whom he was to picture in Ja-cl;. Yet he lived with them and left them without losing the bloom of his youth, the freshness of his mind, or the straightforwardness of his character. His work attracted notice, and in 1801 Empress Eugenie, fascinated by his poem on Les Prunes, induced the Due de Jlorny, the Minister of State, to give Daudet a sinecure secretai'yship, Ai'hich he held till jMorny's death (1805) and turned to good account in Le nabab. Holding this Government jiost, he traveled on nominal commissions to Algeria, Corsica, and Sardinia, gaining health and supplementing an always deficient sense erf color while he gathered material for Arabian and Corsiean stories, used in his Lcttrcs de mon moiilin and Confesdii Uiiidi, as well as for his greatest novels, yuina Rottme- stan and Le nabab, and for the scenery of the first exploits of his immortal Tartarin. He now first learned to know Gambetta, Mistral, and others, from whom he caught the secrets of Provencal character; he attempted the drama, and felt in 1805 sufficient confidence in his liternry future to resign his Government position. In ISO" he finished l.e petit chose and married an almost ideal helpmeet — a woman of letters, whose northern French common sense supple- mented and directed his southern ardor, compel- ling him, as it were, to realize tlie possibilities of his genius. Her influence was obvious in his next book, Lettres de mon mouUn (1869), which contains some exquisite bits of story-telling in lighter vein. Then came the war with Germany to give his mind a sterner temper. In that ter- rible year (1870-71) it was that his genius came to full ripeness, which manifested itself first in Tartarin de Tarascon (1872). This, with its se- quels, Tartarin siir les Alpes (1886) and Port- Tarascon (1890), is a masterpiece of subtle cari- cature of the effervescent imagination of Prov- ence, that creates its own environment and yet charms in spite of its own self-deception. A sec- ond volume of short stories, Contes du liindi (18731, fulfilled his promise of the Lettres de mon moulin and added a stronger note in such stories as La dernin-e classe, Le siege de Berlin, Le jeu an hillard, and Le bac. Less admirable in tone are the Lettres a vn absent (1871), now canceled in Daudet's works, and Robert Uelmont (1874), sketches of wartime, interesting because they contain preliminary studies for Jaclc and Le nabab. In 1874 Daudet entered on the high road to fortune as well as fame with his first 'Parisian drama,' the novel Fromont jenne et Risler aine. translated imder the name of its feminine incarnation of evil. .S'i'/oHic. Here, as later, he showed himself an idealistic student of reality, choosing as his scene what he could view from his study window and gathering notes in street • and shop and parlor, masses of which are among his literary remains. He had now found a new power and discovered the joy of sustained creative effort. Each novel now marks progress — Jacl; (1876): Le nabab (1877) ; Les rois en exit (1879) ; and Xiinia Jlonmrstan (ISSl). Then comes a change in method with L'erangeliste (1883), no longer a drama, but 'an observation,' a jisychic study, a cauterization of cant and hypocrisj-, not a novel of action, Sapho (1884), too, is more a demonstration than a narration, though some regard it, as did Daudet himself, as the crown of his achievement. It was the last novel written before nervous disease laid hold on him. It is a work of great power, but its realism verges on the pathologic, and its story of facile love, that saps the strength of heart and mind, is disagreeable reading. The novels of Daudet's decline are L'immortel (1888), a satire on the French Academy, as inexplicable as it was cruel, with an imputation as improbable as it was unjust; Rose et Ninette (1891), a story of di- vorce; La petite paroisse (1895), a study of jealousy. His reminiscences are embodied in Trente ans de Paris (1888) and Souvenirs d'nn homme de lettres (1889). The posthumous Sonticn de fainiUe, a bitterly sarcastic picture of French political life (1898), and a volume of stories, triial or saturnine. La Fcdor, also pub- lished after Daudet's death, complete the list. Since 1885 Daudet had been an intense ner- vous sulferer, with alternating periods of great activity and dead calm. Death came suddenly at table in the family circle. Daudet had ex- quisite subtlety rather than forceful virility. He charms by variety and suppleness, and by shifting of scenes and keys. He is more im- pressionist than logician. He seldom shows more than one side, even of a complex character, and is better with women than men. But though he lacked interpretative insight, he had an acutely sensitive imagination, and was able to give of the society in which he lived the broadest, most varied, and, in the main, most faithful image, while he leaves on his readers the imjiression of a noble and sympathetic character. There are several translations of Daudet's chief novels and a uniform edition of them ( Boston, 1900). with critical introdiictions. Consult: Leon Daudet. Alphonse Daudet, and Ernest Dau- det. Mon frire et moi (Eng. trans, of them both, Boston, 1898) : Bruneti&re, Le roman natura- liste (Paris, 1896) ; Doumic, Portraits d'ecri- rains (id.. 1892). DAUDET, Ernest (1837—). A French novel- ist and historian, born at Nimes. May 31, 1837. He is a brother of Alphonse Daudet, of whom he wrote an interesting biographical sketch. Alon frcre et nwi (1882), translated as an appendix to Alphonse Daudet. by Leon Daudet (Boston, 1898). His noteworthy novels are: La Vfnns de Gardes : Flenr de peeM ; Marthe : and La Prin- ecsse de Lenie (1900). He has written also an Histoire de Vemifiration (1886-90) during the French Revolution, and an Histoire des conspira- tions roiialistes dn midi (1881) in the same period. DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN RE- VOLUTION, Society of. A woman's ]iatri- otie society, organized in Washington, D. C, October II, 1890. It has for its" objects the perjietuation of the memory of those who achieved American independence, the collection of relics of early American days, and the erec- tion of monuments on historic sites. Member- ship is restricted to those women of whose ances-