The Confession of a Child of the Century

a Century, Complete, by Alfred
de Musset

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Title: Child of a Century, Complete
Author: Alfred de Musset
Release Date: October 5, 2006 [EBook #3942]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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Produced by David Widger

CONFESSION OF A CHILD OF THE CENTURY
(Confession d'un Enfant du Siecle)
By ALFRED DE MUSSET

With a Preface by HENRI DE BORNIER, of the French Academy

ALFRED DE MUSSET
A poet has no right to play fast and loose with his genius. It does not
belong to him, it belongs to the Almighty; it belongs to the world and
to a coming generation. At thirty De Musset was already an old man,
seeking in artificial stimuli the youth that would not spring again.
Coming from a literary family the zeal of his house had eaten him up;
his passion had burned itself out and his heart with it. He had done his
work; it mattered little to him or to literature whether the curtain fell on
his life's drama in 1841 or in 1857.
Alfred de Musset, by virtue of his genial, ironical temperament,
eminently clear brain, and undying achievements, belongs to the great
poets of the ages. We to-day do not approve the timbre of his epoch:
that impertinent, somewhat irritant mask, that redundant rhetoric, that
occasional disdain for the metre. Yet he remains the greatest poete de
l'amour, the most spontaneous, the most sincere, the most emotional
singer of the tender passion that modern times has produced.
Born of noble parentage on December 11, 1810--his full name being
Louis Charles Alfred de Musset--the son of De Musset-Pathai, he
received his education at the College Henri IV, where, among others,
the Duke of Orleans was his schoolmate. When only eighteen he was
introduced into the Romantic 'cenacle' at Nodier's. His first work, 'Les
Contes d'Espagne et d'Italie' (1829), shows reckless daring in the choice
of subjects quite in the spirit of Le Sage, with a dash of the dandified
impertinence that mocked the foibles of the old Romanticists. However,
he presently abandoned this style for the more subjective strain of 'Les
Voeux Steyiles, Octave, Les Secretes Pensees de Rafael, Namouna, and
Rolla', the last two being very eloquent at times, though immature.
Rolla (1833) is one of the strongest and most depressing of his works;
the sceptic regrets the faith he has lost the power to regain, and realizes
in lurid flashes the desolate emptiness of his own heart. At this period
the crisis of his life was reached. He accompanied George Sand to Italy,

a rupture between them occurred, and De Musset returned to Paris
alone in 1834.
More subdued sadness is found in 'Les Nuits' (1832-1837), and in
'Espoir en Dieu' (1838), etc., and his 'Lettre a Lamartine' belongs to the
most beautiful pages of French literature. But henceforth his production
grows more sparing and in form less romantic, although 'Le Rhin
Allemand', for example, shows that at times he can still gather up all
his powers. The poet becomes lazy and morose, his will is sapped by a
wild and reckless life, and one is more than once tempted to wish that
his lyre had ceased to sing.
De Musset's prose is more abundant than his lyrics or his dramas. It is
of immense value, and owes its chief significance to the clearness with
which it exhibits the progress of his ethical disintegration. In
'Emmeline (1837) we have a rather dangerous juggling with the
psychology of love. Then follows a study of simultaneous love, 'Les
Deux Mattresses' (1838), quite in the spirit of Jean Paul. He then wrote
three sympathetic depictions of Parisian Bohemia: 'Frederic et
Bernadette, Mimi Pinson, and Le Secret de Javotte', all in 1838. 'Le Fils
de Titien (1838) and Croiselles' (1839) are carefully elaborated
historical novelettes; the latter is considered one of his best works,
overflowing with romantic spirit, and contrasting in this respect
strangely with 'La Mouche' (1853), one of the last flickerings of his
imagination. 'Maggot' (1838) bears marks of the influence of George
Sand; 'Le Merle Blanc' (1842) is a sort of allegory dealing with their
quarrel. 'Pierre et Camille' is a pretty but slight tale of a deaf-mute's
love. His greatest work, 'Confession d'un Enfant du Siecle', crowned
with acclaim by the French Academy, and classic for all time, was
written in 1836, when the poet, somewhat recovered from the shock,
relates his