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THE AUTHOR'S PURPOSE
foundations to see if they be stout enough to bear the weight of the heavier structure. Otherwise it would be better to tear it down, stone from stone, and begin all over again. No thumb rule can be given for the discovery or manufacture of the Author's Purpose. If you find yourself compelled to ask, like the little prince in Les Rois En Exile, "Donnez moi des idées sur les choses," then you had better lay aside your ambition to write.[1] But perhaps the
- ↑ Interesting in this connection is Daudet's own statement of the origin of Kings in Exile:"Of all my books this (Kings in Exile) is unquestionably the one which I found most difficulty in standing on its feet, the one which I carried longest in my head in the stage of title and vague outline, as it appeared to me one October evening on Place du Carrousal, in the tragic rent in the Parisian sky caused by the fall of the Tuileries."Dethroned princes exiling themselves in Paris after their downfall, taking up their quarters on Rue de Rivoli, and when they woke in the morning and raised the shades at their windows, discovering those ruins—such was the first vision of Kings in Exile."
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