Read-along – The Counterfeiters (2 of 6)
Part One, Chapters 10-18 – and Cocteau's reviews
Dear Counterfeiters,
We’ve finished Part One of The Counterfeiters – what are your thoughts? Please do share yours in a comment below. Here are my impressions:
A quick note on literary reviews.
As we have seen, the Comte de Passavant seduces Olivier into becoming his ‘secretary’ by offering him the editorship of a new literary review.
There’s a level of irony here, because Gide’s first readers were reading instalments of The Counterfeiters in issues of La Nouvelle Revue Française, the review that Gide himself had founded in 1909, with Jacques Copeau and Jean Schlumberger.
The editorship of La Nouvelle Revue Française was taken over in 1911 by Gaston Gallimard. He set up the magazine’s book publishing arm, Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française, which became Librairie Gallimard in 1919 and, in 1961, Éditions Gallimard, which is still one of the leading book publishers in France.
For the last hundred years, La Nouvelle Revue Française has been perhaps the most prestigious French literary magazine, with contributors including Anatole France, André Malraux and Jean-Paul Sartre. It continues to be published quarterly by Éditions Gallimard. You can subscribe here.
But it was not alone when it was founded. Paris in the early twentieth century was a melting pot of literary experimentation and many young artists and writers founded reviews in order to state their ideals and announce new literary movements. Examples include Vers et Prose (1905) founded by Paul Fort and Les Soirées de Paris (1912) founded by Apollinaire, which had contributions from Alfred Jarry (who appears as a character in The Counterfeiters.)
The fact that the Comte de Passavant is backing a literary review is one of several reasons why he is thought to be modelled on the poet, playwright and film director, Jean Cocteau.
Gide had a complex relationship with Cocteau and if he did use him as the model for Passavant, it’s not a complementary portrait. Like Passavant, Cocteau had an aristocratic background and an air of affected refinement, he was homosexual and developed intense relationships with young protégés.
Cocteau also founded a sequence of reviews. The first, Schéhérazade (1909-1911), was published in the same year as – and in direct competition with – La Nouvelle Revue Française.
Cocteau later founded Le Mot (1914-1915), an anti-German review . . .
. . . and Le Coq, later Le Coq parisien, (1920-1921).
Whether or not Passavant is a cipher for Cocteau, Gide was portraying a topical intellectual phenomenon, and Passavant’s literary review, The Flat Iron, would have fitted well amongst these contemporary periodicals.
This week we’re moving to Switzerland to read Part Two, Chapters 1-7. I hope you enjoy them! I look forward to discussing with you on Friday 23rd.
Here are links to our previous The Counterfeiters posts:
The Schedule (11 April)
André Gide (21 April)
0. Le Jardin du Luxembourg (2 May)
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I do love the layers in this book. Relationships within relationships, known and not know by the characters. Journals, poems, and books within journals. Then there is Gide himself, discussing what the character who perhaps represents himself is writing. Just a delight. I am trying not to worry too much about who each of the characters is related to. It's almost too much to keep track of.
I found the style and openness of the book quite shocking at first but am finding it fascinated now. I think the journal sections are masterly at helping the story unfold.