The Life of Thomas Hardy
acquaintance with Continental European literature displayed by the author of the Wessex Novels, one will find that he is limited to the French and German of comparatively recent times, as is only to be expected—notwithstanding the fact that he may here and there make a casual allusion to Dante's Inferno in describing a scene, or the fact that that character-monstrosity, Dare, in A Laodicean, may quote Italian and Spanish proverbs to show that he is a real citizen of the world.
French expressions, phrases, and proverbs, such as en l'air, coup d'ceil, incredules les plus credules, raison d'etre, ensemble, tete-a-tete, and so on, are very common, and show at least a superficial acquaintance with the language, although they might perhaps be regarded by purists as barbaric impedimenta to a good English prose style. A more agreeable effect, perhaps, is made by his occasional introduction of a French song into the story. Thus, in A Pair of Blue Eyes, Elfride sings, ('Je I'ai plante, je I'ai vu naitre," etc., to Stephen Smith; in Two on a Tower, the worldly-wise Louis Glanville sings in an undertone, "Tra deri, dera, L'histoire n'est pas nouvelle!" The best and most famous example, however, is Clym's singing of "Le point du jour," as he works as a furze-cutter in The Return of the Native.
References to the literature of France are not numerous. There is passing mention of the "delicate imposition" of Rochefoucauld and of ('la jalousie retro spec tif" of George Sand. More important is the acquaintance shown with the sceptical ratiocinations of the Dictionnaire Philosophique and with the symbolist and decadent schools of modern French poetry.
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