The Library of French Fiction

EDITED BY
BARNET J. BEYER

Copyright 1919
By E.P. DUTTON & COMPANY

All Rights Reserved

Printed in the United States of America

PREFATORY NOTE

Two Banks of the Seine, by Fernand Vandérem, belongs to the class ofliterature immortalized by Alphonse Daudet. In it we catch the slightlyironic but good-natured tone familiar to those who have read Sapho;and we perceive the author applying objective psychology tolife—Parisian life. For M. Vandérem is not only Gallic, but vitallyParisian. His attitude towards men and women is sophisticated; but hisart is always fresh and true. He is a realist who does not disdain tomake use of romance when it suits his purpose.

Two Banks of the Seine is an interesting story wherein the life of theLatin Quarter and that of the upper classes are brought into sharpcontrast. This supplies the author with ample material suitable to hispeculiar bent. He handles his material with clear vision, often withdelicate sympathy, and never without humor. The men and women in thebook are sketched with a sure pen, and are put and kept in motion by afirm hand. They are made to move about briskly before us and to speakwith the accents of life. Like all great novelists, M. Vandérem is moreinterested in character and human relationships than in plot. His bookis not so much a novel in the ordinary sense as a comedy of manners.

Our author knows his Parisian well. He has studied him in the home andin the street; at work and at play. Few contemporary novelists afford usa clearer insight into the workings of the mind of the elusive Parisian,or a more intimate knowledge of his temperament.

M. Vandérem has written a number of novels besides Two Banks of theSeine; it is sufficient to mention here his Charlie and his LaVictime, works of unusual merit.

Barnet J. Beyer.

26th February, 1919.

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