Robert A. Maguire, Ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974. Pp. 415. $17.50

schools; and there is a massive clandestine the grandfather of one of the children
movement South to the sea. For the students who remember the good old days—the
the sea is synonymous with summer, and days before the society of consumption
both mean "freedom from school." symbolized by the bulldozer which de-
stroys the old man's farm—and who help
T h e novel is a bitter denunciation of the the children to fight against the establish-
rigid French school system which classifies ment. Perhaps Rochefort is even suggesting
children at the age of eleven, closing that the very old, another powerless group,
permanently the doors of higher educa- should join with the women and children
tion and meaningful work to those (often to bring about a revolution.
in lower social classes) who are not brilliant,
h a r d working, obedient a u t o m a t o n s . Like most of Rochefort's other novels,
Rochefort shows that those who are this one will probably be accused of
thought to be idiots and taught that they pornography. Actually it contains very few
have no value as human beings can be erotic passages and is more shocking in its
creative, resourceful, intelligent—and more philosophy of sexual freedom than in any
important—happy, when freed from the specific examples of free love. As in
Stiftung atmosphere of the classroom. Archaos . . ., the children's love is
cloaked in an aura of innocence and purity
Since her second novel, Children of which is precisely the o p p o s i t e of
Heaven, Rochefort has had a continuing pornography.
interest in children. Gradually she began
to see them as the hope of the corrupt Although the thesis of the author is
industrial society. In her essay about the readily apparent to the casual reader,
nature of writing, C'est bizarre, l'écriture, Encore heureux . . . is much more than
1970 ("Writing is wierd") she explains that a roman à thèse and its message is much
it was at a public discussion on Children broader than a specific condemnation of a
of Heaven that she finally realized that it specific society or educational system. Its
was only from the very young that the light tone amuses and enchants the
needed changes in society might come— reader. With a Pied Piper-like power it
that was why little children kept popping calls us away from the boring routine of
up in all her books (pp. 35-36). tradition-bound existence and makes us
all want to follow the children on their
In two other novels Une Rose pour march to the sea.
Morrison, 1966 ("A Rose for Morrison")
and Archaos ou le jardin étincelant, 1972
("Archaos or the glittering garden") she Lucy M. Schwartz
has maintained that children or child-like
adults are more enlightened than others
and should lead mankind toward a better
future life. Both novels are, in a sense,
an indictment of contemporary society.
Archaos is an anarchical Utopia of the Dark
ROBERT A. MAGUIRE, ED.
Ages which has been "covered up" by Gogol from the Twentieth Century.
historians who had a vested interest in Princeton: Princeton University
concealing the fact that a society based on Press, 1974. Pp. 415. $17.50.
free love and free food can work. Une
Rose . . . presents a future society in
an ecological disaster area where the moon Every writer should be reexamined by
is only a fond memory passed on in poetry each new generation of readers and
from previous generations. This society critics because tastes and opinions change
has an Orwellian repressive government with new realities. This is especially true
run by men and old people. (The despot about Nikolay Gogol, a leading Russian
is named ironically "Sa Sénilité.") In both writer of the nineteenth century. In
Archaos and the future society of Une Russia, he has been considered to be one
Rose . . . the women and the young of the most important writers for a century
form an alliance to overthrow the dictator- and a half, but abroad, the interest in him
ship of the old men. has begun to grow only in the last few
decades. T h e reasons for this may be that
Yet men are not uniformly condemned good translations of his works were long
in Encore heureux . . . T h e r e are a few in coming and that something peculiarly
exceptions like the kindly old farmer and Gogolian is lost in any translation. Now
Brief Mentions 165

Gogol is often analyzed even by critics SUSAN CAHILL, ED.
whose knowledge of Russian is not perfect. Women and Fiction
This anthology of essays translated from
Russian is directed primarily at such New York: New American Library,
readers and critics of Gogol. 1975. Pp. 379. $2.25.
The selection of essays, subjective Women and Fiction is a collection of
though it must of necessity be, shows the twenty-six short stories, about women and
editor's consummate knowledge of Gogol. written by women. Edited by Susan
He has selected, edited, and translated Cahill, who has selected stories that are
the following essays: Dmitry Merezhkovsky, "extraordinarily moving and convincing
"Gogol and the Devil"; Valéry Brusov, portraits of women and their lives by
"Burnt to Ashes"; Valerian Pereverzev, extraordinary writers" (p. xvi), the col-
"The Evolution of Gogol's Art"; Ivan lection is successful in its purpose: a two-
Yermakov, " 'The Nose' "; Vyacheslav fold lesson in consciousness-raising. First,
Ivanov, "Gogol's Inspector General and the it offers in its subject matter a broad and
Comedy of Aristophanes"; Vasily Gippius, perceptive study of the experience of
"The Inspector General: Structure and Prob- being female. Second, and this is per-
lems"; Boris Eichenbaum, "How Gogol's haps even more important, the reader
'Overcoat' Is Made"; Dmitry Chizhevsky, cannot escape the awareness that each of
"About Gogol's 'Overcoat' "; Alexander the twenty-six women who have written
Slonimsky, "The Technique of the Comic these stories is a very good writer indeed.
in Gogol"; Leon Stilman, "The 'All-Seeing
Eye' in Gogol" and "Men, Women, and Included are stories that are primarily
Matchmakers." about marriage (by Katherine Anne
Porter), divorce and remarriage (Edith
Such a wide selection attests to the Wharton), marriage and desertion (Grace
editor's intention of showing Gogol from Paley), and the death of a spouse (Kate
several points of view in the twentieth Chopin). There is also the loneliness of
century. Almost every major school of widowhood (Hortense Calisher and Mary
criticism is represented, even the Sym- Lavin), the beginning of an affair (Edna
bolists, despite the fact that the younger O'Brien), and the destructive effects of
members of this movement are absent. society on the black family (Ann Petry
All but one (Eichenbaum) of the essays and Alice Walker). Women are seen in
are translated here for the first time their relationships with children (Eudora
and should be of great interest and help Welty, Kay Boyle, and Tillie Olsen), and
to nonspecialists. caught between their relationships with a
man and with a child (Margaret Drabble).
The essays are so distributed as to cover There are women in social situations,
several important facets of Gogol's work. feeling ill at ease at a party (Virginia
Six are of a general nature; two deal Woolf) or on what begins as a routine
with The Inspector General and "The Over- visit to a doctor's office (Flannery
coat" and one with "The Nose." Dead O'Connor). A young girl's first experience
Soub, Gogol's greatest work, does not have with death is shown (Katherine Mansfield),
an essay devoted entirely to it, but the a woman's grief for her dead infant
story figures in five of the general (Maeve Brennan), and another woman's
essays. The length of the essays ranges apparent but unadmitted guilt after an
from a fifty-page monograph or chapter abortion (Julie Hayden).
from a book to a brief analysis of a
single topic. There are also stories on more unusual
situations: a nun who almost falls in love
The reader of these essays, fluently (Joyce Carol Oates), a wife and mother who
translated and adequately annotated, commits suicide (Doris Lessing), another
should be able to understand fully why wife and mother who is a transvestite
Gogol has always been held in such high (Jean Stubbs). Additionally there are
esteem by his compatriots. The lengthy stories on the relationship between women
introduction by the editor, surveying the and the arts: a pioneer woman's thwarted
critical reception of Gogol since the love for classical music (Willa Cather), an
beginning, makes this valuable book even adolescent's difficulty in continuing to
more useful. demonstrate the talent she had shown as
a child (Carson McCullers), a mother's
attempt to find an office in which she
Vasa D. Mihailovich can write undisturbed (Alice Munro).
166 The International Fiction Review

Robert A. Maguire, Ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974. Pp. 415. $17.50

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schools; and there is a massive clandestine the grandfather of one of the children

Brief Mentions 165

166 The International Fiction Review

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