Volupte: The Sensual Man

One of France's greatest critics, Sainte-Beuve (1804-1869) has often been called the ``father of modern criticism'' as he was one of the first to read authors' lives from--and into--their work. It's fitting, then, that his first (and luckily, only) novel contains much of himself. Written as a missive from an older cleric named Amaury to a young man tempted by sensuality, the novel recounts Amaury's youthful adoration for Madame de Couaen, the pure wife of a local nobleman; his more earthy relationship with Madame R--; his subsequent disillusionment; and his refuge in God. In her introduction, translator Rose points out that Marquise de Couaen and Mme R--probably both represent Adele Hugo, Victor's wife and, from 1833 to 1837, Sainte-Beuve's mistress. But it's hard to push the roman a clef reading too far. The bulk of the novel takes place against Napoleon's Consulate and early Empire, complete with convincing details of Moreau and Pichegru's assassination attempt (1804) and Austerlitz (1805), when Sainte-Beuve was an infant. Early in the book, Sainte-Beuve shows early glimmers of his grasp of the human psyche (or rather the male psyche) when describing both the Marquis de Couaen's fear of dying unremembered and the course of Amaury's teenaged desire, but most of the book is filled with moralizing 18th-century sentiment that doesn't translate well. The text has no notes and the brief introduction says more about the abuse of women which ``nearly stuns the present-day reader'' (only if you see Sainte-Beuve's women as entirely passive and mindless) than it does about germane subjects like Saint-Simonism, Port-Royal, Jean Hamon or Lammenais. As a result, this edition is of little use to any save the scholar. (July)