A NIGHT IN THE LUXEMBOURG
BY
REMY DE GOURMONT
WITH PREFACE
AND APPENDIX
BY ARTHUR RANSOME
JOHN W. LUCE AND COMPANY
BOSTON MCMXII
CONTENTS
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. By Arthur Ransome
A Night in the Luxembourg. By Remy de Gourmont
A Night in the Luxembourg
APPENDIX: REMY de GOURMONT. By Arthur Ransome
AUTOGRAPHS—
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
A general, but necessarily inadequate, account of the personalityand works of one of the finest intellects of his generation will befound in the Appendix. I am here concerned only with Une Nuit auLuxembourg, which, though it is widely read in almost every otherEuropean language, is now for the first time translated into English.
This book, at once criticism and romance, is the best introductionto M. de Gourmont's very various works. It created a "sensation" inFrance. I think it may do as much in England, but I am anxious lestthis "sensation" should be of a kind honourable neither to us nor tothe author of a remarkable book. I do not wish a delicate and subtleartist, a very noble philosopher, noble even if smiling, noblerperhaps because he smiles, to be greeted with accusations of indecencyand blasphemy. But I cannot help recognising that in England, as inmany other countries, these accusations are often brought against suchphilosophers as discuss in a manner other than traditional the subjectsof God and woman. These two subjects, with many others, are here themotives of a book no less delightful than profound.
The duty of a translator is not comprised in mere fidelity. He mustreproduce as nearly as he can the spirit and form of his original, and,since in a work of art spirit and form are one, his first care must beto preserve as accurately as possible the contours and the shading ofhis model. But he must remember (and beg his readers to remember) thatthe intellectual background on which the work will appear in its newlanguage is different from that against which it was conceived. Whenthe new background is as different from the old as English from French,he cannot but recognise that it disturbs the chiaroscuro of his workwith a quite incalculable light. It gives the contours a new qualityand the shadows a new texture. His own accuracy may thus give his workan atmosphere not that which its original author designed.
I have been placed in such a dilemma in translating this book. Certainphrases and descriptions were, in the French, no more than delightfulsporting of the intellect with the flesh that is its master. In theEnglish, for us, less accustomed to plain-speaking, and far lessaccustomed to a playful attitude towards matters of which we neverspeak unless with great solemnity, they became wilful parades of theindecent. It is important to remember that they were not so in theFrench, but were such things as might well be heard in a story told ingeneral conversation—i