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(LES OBERLÉS)
BY
AUTHOR OF "THE NUN," "REDEMPTION," ETC.
WITH A PREFACE
BY
DR. ANGELO S. RAPPOPORT
NEW YORKJOHN LANE COMPANYMCMXII
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
René Bazin is already known to the English publicas a writer of exquisite charm and wonderful sensibility."The Nun," "Redemption," and "This MySon" have revealed his powers to appreciativereaders. Bazin is not only an original writer, acharming story-teller, but also a deep thinker, a cleardelineator of human character and life, a wonderfullandscape-painter, and a bold realist. For it is reallife, humble, poignant, palpitating, which we meetin his stories. Life, full of misery and suffering, butalso of pity and charity, of self-sacrifice and heroictraits. Bazin is a passionate admirer of Nature, andthis admiration and love manifest themselves in hispreference for pastoral and rural scenes, and hisdescription of nature and peasant life.
Nature and climate, M. Bazin thinks, exercise aparamount influence upon the soul, and produce deepand permanent impressions.
But in none of his books has he laid so much stressupon this mysterious influence of a country upon thesoul of its inhabitants as in "Les Oberlés," which isnow placed before English readers under the titleof "The Children of Alsace." For it is the countryof Alsace, with her woes and sorrows and sufferings,6her aspirations and hopes and dreams, which speaksto us through the mouth of Jean Oberlé, the hero,who mysteriously feels the influence of soil upon hissoul, and is drawn to France, since Alsace is sighingunder the German yoke, and her weeping soul hasfled to France there to wait the day of deliveryand freedom!
"Les Oberlés," or "The Children of Alsace,"possesses all the elements necessary for a real drama,for a great tragedy, namely, the clash of conflictingpassions, emotions, and duties. And these conflictingpassions arise where one has a right to expectpeace and goodwill. The author introduces us toa divided family, and we see the husband rise againsthis wife, the son against his father, and the brotheragainst the sister. Their different modes of thinkingand of feeling, their ambitions and dreams, turn thesebeings, united by the ties of blood, into enemies.But "Les Oberlés" is not only a family drama,tragic, irreparable, but also depicts the love of thenative soil, a love almost physical, in conflict withthe love for the Greater Fatherland. It also showsthe clash of two civilisations, the Latin and theTeuton, which for forty years have now been wagingwar on the soil of conquered Alsace.
All these elements make "Les Oberlés" a reallytragic novel—a novel full of dramatic incidents, ofpoignant scenes, but