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Raymond Radiguet by James P. McNabReview by: Charlotte Frankel GerrardThe French Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Oct., 1987), pp. 117-118Published by: American Association of Teachers of FrenchStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/393720 .Accessed: 26/10/2012 11:30

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REVIEWS 117

Valery not only admired the works of these and other composers, but despite his lackof specific musical training, he sought to understand how their concerns related to hisdomain of expertise. In part II of his study Stimpson examines the relationship Valery

saw between music and poetry on a theoretical level. He is careful to note at the outsetthe ambivalence of Valery's reaction to music-his desire to experience the fullness ofits intoxicating force and his fear that this very intensity would overpower his intellectualacuteness. He proceeds to describe the change that occurred as Valery came to viewmusic in the light of the classical ideal embodied in Stravinsky's creations and then mapsout the gradual development of Valery's theory of composition as he worked out hisdefinition of classicism.

Although the organization of this section is at times difficult to follow, it does prepareus for the third and most impressive part of Stimpson's study, in which he gives his fullattention to the musical techniques revealed in Valery's poetry. He discusses in detailthe five intricate

stagesof

compositionas

Valerysaw it,

movingfrom the initial disordered

moment of inspiration to the point when the poet/pianist lets go of his text and allowsit to be published. He analyzes the role of melody, which refers to the structure of apoem's themes, the forms that images and ideas assume as they are woven into thefabric of the text. And he then examines the way in which themes/melody and words/notes combine and contrast with one another to create ever more complex and expansiveharmonies or associations. Stimpson reaches the high point of his presentation in thechapters concentrating on the verbal music or the specific use of sounds in Valery'spoetry and on the importance of the recitative as the ultimate expression of musicalcomplexity. Although Stimpson chooses examples from many different poems spanningthe range of Valery's career, his extended references to La Jeune Parque, Les pas, Le

Cimetiere marin, La Pythie, La Fausse morte, and his detailed synthesizing readingof LaDormeuse are particularly impressive for they reveal the depth of his understand-ing and the degree of his insight. Stimpson's critical approach is conservative, but hehas both made us aware of what music really meant to Valery and enabled us toexperience the full range of that influence.

University of Tennessee, Knoxville Karen D. Levy

McNAB, JAMES P. Raymond Radiguet. Boston: Twayne 1984. Pp. 169. $21.95.This study of Raymond Radiguet is clear and interesting. It is a welcome examination

of a somewhat neglected figure too frequently merely lumped together with Jean Cocteauor mentioned because of the Gerard Philippe film based on Le Diable au corps. ProfessorMcNab goes much further and offers the reader the important facts in the life of thisprecocious genius, as well as showing him to be not only a novelist but also a poet. Infive highly readable chapters, McNab vividly treats Radiguet's life (region, family,childhood, Paris literary scene, Cocteau, and death); Radiguet's poetry (Les Joues en feu,Devoirs de vacances, Le Bonnet d'dne, Couleurs sans danger, and Jeux innocents); Radiguet'sfiction (a chapter each for le Diable au corps and le Bal du Comte d'Orgel); and Radiguet'saesthetics (most of his criticism has been gathered into volume 2 of the OCuvrescompletes). The conclusion highlights some interesting observations: the importance forRadiguet of World War I, his early affair with the model of the heroine of his masterpiece,his good relations with his family, his personality described as sphinxlike, lucid,

frugal of word, gesture, and facial expression (132); his rapid fame; his lack ofreli,-However, on this last point, there are some unfortunate repetitions: p. 121 and F

and the double documentation (155, 156). Likewise, the reader learns more that

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118 FRENCH REVIEW

that Bronya Perlmutter nearly married Radiguet (29, 134) and that Bernard Grassethelped gain a deferment for the young author (32, 134). The last couple of pages havesome repetitions, as well.

As with other volumes in the Twayne series, McNab's presentation is solid, informa-tive, and good reading. It certainly is useful, helpful, and enjoyable.

Indiana University Charlotte Frankel Gerrard

KNAPP, BETTINA, French Theatre 1918-1939, New York: Grove Press, 1985. Pp. [ix] + 193.This very well illustrated book is an excellent introduction to modern French theatre.

Bettina Knapp gives a panoramic view of Dada, Surrealism and the Theatre of Cruelty(Tzara, Breton, Soupault, Vitrac, Artaud), farce and satire (Crommelynck and Ghelde-rode), and mythic theatre (Cocteau, Giraudoux, Anouilh, and Claudel). In each case, she

concentrates on the landmark events in the history of theatre and provides fascinatinginformation about the productions themselves, original casts, costumes, scenery, anddirection. Her interest is primarily in examining revolutionary theatrical experimentation.The first section on Dada and surrealist theatre explains the theatrical significance ofTzara's 1920 masterpiece, The Gas Heart, a kaleidoscopic collage of verbal gymnastics,originally performed by Soupault as Ear, Aragon as Eye, Peret as Neck. 1920 was alsothe year of Breton's disorienting anti-play, If You Please, first acted by Breton, Soupault,and Paul and Gala Eluard. The Gas Heart and If You Please were intended to convey theabsurdity and eroticism of life in cutting, imagistic, and discontinuous dialogue. RogerVitrac's play Victor (coldly received in 1928 but acclaimed in 1962 when Anouilh revivedand directed

it),ridiculed, in

shocking language, every aspectof human behavior and

society. After a concise description of the intentions of Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty,Bettina Knapp focuses on his 1935 production of The Cenci, for which costumes andscenery were designed by Balthus. The Cenci, like the Theatre of Cruelty in general, wasto be comparable to a plague, a horrendous disorder which would unleash psychic fire,provoking horror and vertigo and finally collective purification in the audience.

The plays Knapp chooses to represent the theatre of tragic farce and satire areCrommelynck's 1920 The Magnificent Cuckold, restaged in Moscow in an importantproduction in 1922, and Ghelderode's 1927 Escurial in which semi-human monstersbrought to life a chaotic, disruptive, sadomasochistic vision.

Under the rubric of mythic theatre, Knapp groups Cocteau's Orpheus, Giraudoux's

Ondine and The Madwoman of Chaillot, Anouilh's Traveller without Luggage, and Claudel'sBreak of Noon, plays she considers relatively classical in technique and vision. Theirintention was less to fall into the irrational than to draw from a common heritage inorder to deal with personal and collective problems. She discusses the electrifying firstproduction of Orpheus, in 1920, directed and acted by Georges Pitoeff; the difficultconditions surrounding Jouvet's 1945 production of Giraudoux's The Madwoman ofChaillot, the 1936 production of Anouilh's The Traveller without Luggage, directed andacted by Pitoeff, with music by Milhaud; Claudel's Break of Noon, written in 1905 andfirst produced in 1948, directed and acted by Barrault.

This dense although slim volume is a mine of information and insight, a useful toolfor all students of theatre.

Williams College Susan Dunn