Part 1 (1/2)
Le Pet.i.t Chose.
by Alphonse Daudet.
PREFATORY NOTE
In this volume appear two new appendices, which will also be added to all others of our Series: (1) _Questionnaires_, which are not meant to usurp the teacher's freedom in _viva voce_ practice of the language, but to select for attention certain questions, so that their answers may be carefully prepared by the pupils after the portions of the text to which they refer have been read through. If this is done the _viva voce_ practice will gain in definiteness and precision without in the least preventing spontaneous questions being asked _ad libitum_.
(2) _Sujets de Redaction_, which are intended to offer something better than the usual subjects set for ”Free Composition,” and have the supreme advantage of being connected with the work in hand. Sufficient guidance is given to enable every pupil to deal with the topic in a sensible manner; but at the same time there remains ample scope for the exercise of ingenuity and imagination, and the effort of composition cannot fail to test and to cultivate a faculty for giving expression to whatever knowledge the pupil has gathered in his reading. Whether these subjects are to be handled _viva voce_ or in writing must be left to the decision of the teacher.
INTRODUCTION
Alphonse Daudet was born at Nimes on May 13, 1840. The Daudets were of lowly origin. Alphonse's grandfather, a simple peasant, had in 1789 settled at Nimes as a weaver. His business prospered so much that he died leaving a small fortune; Vincent Daudet, his fourth son, and a young man of great ambition, was determined to rise out of the cla.s.s in which he was born and acquire for himself and family a high social status.
In 1830 he married, greatly against the wishes of her parents, Adeline Reynaud, whose father owned the largest silk manufactory in the town.
His affairs were fairly flouris.h.i.+ng when he was suddenly ruined by the Revolution of 1848. Unable to meet his liabilities, he sold his business and removed to Lyons with his wife and children. He was, however, anxious that his sons, of whom Alphonse was the third, should have the best education his scanty means would allow, and Alphonse and his elder brother Ernest-the ”mere Jacques” of _Le Pet.i.t Chose_ and his lifelong companion-were first sent to the monastic school of St. Pierre, and then to the Lyons Lycee.
Young Alphonse, who from his birth had been rather delicate, was not a model boy. He loved to play truant, and it was only through his brother Ernest, who, to get him out of many a sc.r.a.pe, wrote notes to his teacher signed in his father's name, that he escaped punishment. But he showed signs of great promise. He learned his lessons in half the time that his school-fellows did, was always at the top of his cla.s.s, and was gifted with a marvellous power of observation. He composed several poems- amongst others _La Vierge a la Creche_ and _Les Pet.i.ts Enfants_,- also a novel, all of which were declared by his master to have been amazing productions for a boy of his age.
But Fortune did not smile on the Daudet family at Lyons any more than at Nimes. After ten years of hard and bitter struggles, the home was broken up. M. Daudet became traveller for a firm of wine-merchants in the North, his wife and daughter remained in the South. Ernest-who had on leaving school acted as bookkeeper to his father, then as a receiver of pledges in a p.a.w.nbroker's shop, and lastly as a clerk in a forwarding office-went to Paris to try his fortune in the world of letters, whilst Alphonse was sent as an usher to a college at Alais, for his father was unable to pay the fees for his final school examination.
The year that he spent at Alais was the unhappiest in his life.
His small stature, his youth-he was now only fifteen years old-his ”gauche” appearance, were not calculated to inspire the boys with any respect for him. They played him all sorts of tricks, and the masters refused to uphold his authority. Often, in order to escape his tormentors, he would rush up to his bed-room and there give vent to his despair by shedding floods of tears, lying awake at night and biting the bedclothes to choke his sobs. Yet, brave philosopher that he was, Le Pet.i.t Chose never lost heart. The dream of his life was to retrieve the family fortunes, a dream which one day was to be fully realized. At last, however, at the end of his tether, he wrote to Ernest telling him all his troubles, and great was his joy when he received a letter back, asking him to come at once to Paris.
On a cold, grey, foggy November morning Alphonse Daudet arrived in Paris, with only two francs in his pocket. His railway fare had been lent him by one of the masters at Alais, and he had had nothing to eat or drink on the journey, which had taken forty-eight hours, except a little brandy and water kindly offered by some sailors who travelled with him.
He had not dared to spend the little he had left after buying his ticket, for he thought it better to go without food than reach Paris penniless.
His brother met him and took him to his lodgings in the ”Quartier Latin.”
Ernest, who had come to Paris with introductions, had obtained a post on the staff of an Orleanist newspaper, _Le Spectateur_, at a salary of 2 a week. In his Trente ans de Paris and _Souvenirs d'un homme de lettres_, Le Pet.i.t Chose graphically tells us how, when his brother was at work, he wandered through the second-hand bookshops, where he was allowed to look through the new books on condition that he did not cut the leaves, and how one day, after fruitless interviews with publishers, when loitering along the banks of the Seine, he made the acquaintance of an editor, who became interested in him and agreed to publish his first little volume of charming poems, _Les Amoureuses_ (1858). Thus at the age of eighteen did Daudet make his debut in the literary world. The first rung was reached in the ladder of fame, and success was not long in coming.
He became a regular contributor to the _Figaro_. One of his poems, _Les Frunes_, was recited at the Tuileries before the Empress Eugenie.
She liked it so much that she was led to inquire who the author was.
On being told he was a poor man starving in a garret, she at once requested the Duc de Moray, President of the Corps Legislatif, to offer him a post as secretary in his department, a sinecure, with a handsome salary attached.
This gave him plenty of time to devote to literature, but hard work soon told on so delicate a frame. In 1861 he broke down owing to overwork, and went to Algeria and Corsica to recruit, collecting materials for future novels. In 1866, seized with a keen desire to visit once more his native town, he went South, where he wrote part of his autobiography, _Le Pet.i.t Chose_. In the following year (1867) he married Mlle. Julia Allard, whom he met at his parents' home. It was a case of love at first sight.
The marriage was an ideally happy one, and Daudet owed much of his future success to his wife, who corrected his proofs, criticized his characters, and encouraged him in every way she could.
For thirty years Daudet, now famous, continued to work, though only intermittently. He published, with increasing success, _Le Pet.i.t Chose_ (1868), _Tartarin de Tarascon_ (1872), _Fromont jeune et Risler aine_ (1874), _Jack_ (1876), _Le Nabab_ (1877), _Les Rois en exil_ (1879), _Numa Roumestan_ (1881), _L'evangeliste_ (1883), _Sapho_ (1884), _Tartarin sur les Alpes_ (1885), _La Belle Nivernaise_ (1886), _L'Immortel_ (1888), _Port-Tarascon_ (1890), _Rose et Ninette_ (1892), _La Pet.i.te Paroisse (1895)_, and _Le Tresor d'Arlatan_ (1897).
His last novel, _Soutien de famille_, appeared after his death.
The best known works of his earlier years, besides _Les Amoureuses_, are his _Lettres de mon moulin_ (1869) and _Les Contes du lundi_ (1873).
Daudet remained all his life the delicate, fragile Pet.i.t Chose.
Ten years before his death-which was tragic in its suddenness when it did come-a severe illness overtook him, and slowly but surely his iron will broke down under the physical and mental strain which its ravages had brought on him. One evening, sitting at supper with his family, he had scarcely begun to eat when he fell from his chair. His wife and son ran to his a.s.sistance, but saw at once that the end had come.
He died in Paris on December 18, 1897.
Daudet was a thorough _Meridional_. Born a Provencal, he never lost his early affection for the South. Impulsive, fiery in temper, and rather given to exaggeration, he possessed beneath a cheerful and handsome exterior a kind, sympathetic heart, and was generous to a fault.
Having known what it was to suffer extreme poverty and feel the pangs of hunger, he was full of pity for those who had to face the stern realities of life. He was a close and accurate observer of humanity.
He describes not only what he _felt_ but what he _saw_. When a youth he always carried a notebook in which he would write down any little object of interest that came across his path. His characters, however, are not mere photographs, but pictures of real men and women painted with the infinite care of a skilled artist. His personality permeates all he wrote, and in this lies his charm.