Morris: Irving^ s Fiction in France 9 



works, in his judgment, are the History of New York, the Sketch- 

 book, Bracebridge Hall, and the Tales of a Traveler. 



Xavier Eyma. One of the most noteworthy contributions made 

 by France to the Hterature on Irving comes from the pen of Xavier 

 Eyma. It was pubhshed in the Revue contemporaine in 1864. It 

 appeared also, in the same year, as an introduction to a translation 

 of Irving's History of the Conquest of Granada. M. Eyma passed 

 several years in America and wrote nearly a dozen books about it. In 

 fact, it was these books, in which he treated of American life, manners, 

 legends, and history, that brought him into public notice. His opinion 

 of Irving is much more favorable than any of those we have been con- 

 sidering, which in view of his uncompromising hatred of democracies 

 is rather surprising. It will not appear so strange, however, if we 

 assume that the article in question was originally written as an intro- 

 duction to the book above mentioned. 



He begins by asserting^ that altho France has not as yet sufficiently 

 recognized American literature, the hour of justice will come. He 

 regards Washington Irving as the man whose mission it was, in the 

 first place, to imbue his own country with a ''taste and a passion for 

 letters", and, in the second place, to overcome the prejudices that 

 were entertained against American literature in England and in 

 France. For the accomplishing of this task he thinks Irving had all 

 the requisite qualities: wit, cleverness, keenness of observation, 

 deep literary feeling, and exquisite grace of expression. Irving's 

 literary success, says M. Eyma, not only in America but in England 

 and France as well, was not the result of a calculating art, of cunning 

 devices, of a continuous striving for effect, but of his ''native spon- 

 taneity". So successful was he in the longer short story, in the 

 opinion of this writer, that he had "no reason to fear rivals even 

 among the cleverest writers who have excelled in this difficult and 

 graceful form of literature". The Sketch-book, he asserts, contains 

 some stories "that will endure as marvels of grace, sentiment, and 

 style"; the Tales of a Traveler comprise a "series of charming sketches", 

 and the volume of tales of the Alhambra is a veritable gem. "Whether 

 we consider it pure romance or romantic history, all men of taste", 

 he says, "will regard it as a masterpiece." 



The only criticisms he offers are on Sabnagundi and Bracebridge 

 Hall. The former work he thinks sadly aged. So rapidly has the New 

 World changed, he says, that there is not a single portrait in Sal- 

 magundi that is recognizable. So wholly of another epoch does it 



9 Revue contemporaine, XL (1864), 576, 



