THE PARISIANS
By Edward Bulwer-Lytton
PREFATORY NOTE.
(BY THE AUTHOR'S SON.)
"The Parisians" and "Kenelm Chillingly" were begun about the same time,
and had their common origin in the same central idea. That idea first
found fantastic expression in "The Coming Race;" and the three books,
taken together, constitute a special group, distinctly apart from all the
other works of their author.
The satire of his earlier novels is a protest against false social
respectabilities; the humour of his later ones is a protest against the
disrespect of social realities. By the first he sought to promote social
sincerity and the free play of personal character; by the last, to
encourage mutual charity and sympathy amongst all classes, on whose
interrelation depends the character of society itself. But in these
three books, his latest fictions, the moral purpose is more definite and
exclusive. Each of them is an expostulation against what seemed to him
the perilous popularity of certain social and political theories, or a
warning against the influence of certain intellectual tendencies upon
individual character and national life. This purpose, however, though
common to the three fictions, is worked out in each of them by a
different method. "The Coming Race" is a work of pure fancy, and the
satire of it is vague and sportive. The outlines of a definite purpose
are more distinctly drawn in "Chillingly,"--a romance which has the
source of its effect in a highly wrought imagination. The humour and
pathos of "Chillingly" are of a kind incompatible with the design of "The
Parisians," which is a work of dramatized observation. "Chillingly" is a
romance; "The Parisians" is a novel. The subject of "Chillingly" is
psychological; that of "The Parisians" is social. The author's object
in "Chillingly" being to illustrate the effects of "modern ideas" upon
an individual character, he has confined his narrative to the biography
of that one character; hence the simplicity of plot and small number of
dramatis personae, whereby the work gains in height and depth what it
loses in breadth of surface. "The Parisians," on the contrary, is
designed to illustrate the effect of "modern ideas" upon a whole
community. This novel is therefore panoramic in the profusion and
variety of figures presented by it to the reader's imagination. No
exclusive prominence is vouchsafed to any of these figures. All of them
are drawn and coloured with an equal care, but by means of the bold,
broad touches necessary for their effective presentation on a canvas so
large and so crowded. Such figures are, indeed, but the component
features of one great form, and their actions only so many modes of one
collective impersonal character,--that of the Parisian Society of
Imperial and Democratic France; a character everywhere present and busy
throughout the story, of which it is the real hero or heroine. This
society was doubtless selected for characteristic illustration as being
the most advanced in the progress of "modern ideas." Thus, for a
complete perception of its writer's fundamental purpose, "The Parisians"
should be read in connection with "Chillingly," and these two books in
connection with "The Coming Race." It will then be perceived that
through the medium of alternate fancy, sentiment, and observation,
assisted by humour and passion, these three books (in all other respects
so different from each other) complete the presentation of the same
purpose under different aspects, and thereby constitute a group of
fictions which claims a separate place of its own in any thoughtful
classification of their author's works.
One last word to those who will miss from these pages the connecting and
completing touches of the master's hand. It may be hoped that such a
disadvantage, though irreparable, is somewhat mitigated by the essential
character of the work itself. The aesthetic merit of this kind of novel
is in the vivacity of a general effect produced by large, swift strokes
of character; and in such strokes, if they be by a great artist, force
and freedom of style must still be apparent, even when they are left
rough and unfinished. Nor can any lack of final verbal correction much
diminish the intellectual value which many of the more thoughtful
passages of the present work derive from a long, keen, and practical
study of political phenomena, guided by personal experience of public
life, and enlightened by a large, instinctive knowledge of the human
heart.
Such a belief is, at least, encouraged by the private communications
spontaneously made to him who expresses it, by persons of political
experience and social position in France, who have acknowledged the
general accuracy of the author's descriptions, and noticed the suggestive
sagacity and penetration of his occasional comments on the circumstances
and sentiments he describes.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
They who chance to have read the "Coming Race" may perhaps remember that
I, the adventurous discoverer of the land without a sun, concluded the
sketch of my adventures by a brief reference to the malady which, though
giving no perceptible notice of its encroachments, might, in the opinion
of my medical attendant, prove suddenly fatal.
I had brought my little book to this somewhat melancholy close a few
years before the date of its publication, and in the meanwhile I was
induced to transfer my residence to Paris, in order to place myself under
the care of an English physician, renowned for his successful treatment
of complaints analogous to my own.
I was the more readily persuaded to undertake this journey,--partly
because I enjoyed a familiar acquaintance with the eminent physician
referred to, who had commenced his career and founded his reputation in
the United States; partly because I had become a solitary man, the ties
of home broken, and dear friends of mine were domiciled in Paris, with
whom I should be sure of tender sympathy and cheerful companionship. I
had reason to be thankful for this change of residence: the skill of Dr.
C_____ soon restored me to health. Brought much into contact with
various circles of Parisian society, I became acquainted with the persons
and a witness of the events that form the substance of the tale I am
about to submit to the public, which has treated my former book with so
generous an indulgence. Sensitively tenacious of that character for
strict and unalloyed veracity which, I flatter myself, my account of the
abodes and manners of the Vril-ya has established, I could have wished to
preserve the following narrative no less jealously guarded than its
predecessor from the vagaries of fancy. But Truth undisguised, never
welcome in any civilized community above ground, is exposed at this time
to especial dangers in Paris; and my life would not be worth an hour's
purchase if I exhibited her 'in puris naturalibus' to the eyes of a
people wholly unfamiliarized to a spectacle so indecorous. That care
for one's personal safety which is the first duty of thoughtful man
compels me therefore to reconcile the appearance of 'la Verite' to the
'bienseances' of the polished society in which 'la Liberte' admits no
opinion not dressed after the last fashion.
Attired as fiction, Truth may be peacefully received; and, despite the
necessity thus imposed by prudence, I indulge the modest hope that I do
not in these pages unfaithfully represent certain prominent types of the
brilliant population which has invented so many varieties of Koom-Posh;
[Koom-Posh, Glek-Nas. For the derivation of these terms and their
metaphorical signification, I must refer the reader to the "Coming
Race," chapter xii., on the language of the Vril-ya. To those who
have not read or have forgotten that historical composition, it may
be convenient to state briefly that Koom-Posh with the Vril-ya is
the name for the government of the many, or the ascendency of the
most ignorant or hollow, and may be loosely rendered Hollow-Bosh.
When Koom-Posh degenerates from popular ignorance into the popular
ferocity which precedes its decease, the name for that state of
things is Glek-Nas; namely, the universal strife-rot.]
and even when it appears hopelessly lost in the slough of a Glek-Nas,
re-emerges fresh and lively as if from an invigorating plunge into the
Fountain of Youth. O Paris, 'foyer des idees, et oeil du monde!'--
animated contrast to the serene tranquillity of the Vril-ya, which,
nevertheless, thy noisiest philosophers ever pretend to make the goal
of their desires: of all communities on which shines the sun and descend
the rains of heaven, fertilizing alike wisdom and folly, virtue and vice;
in every city men have yet built on this earth,--mayest thou, O Paris, be
the last to brave the wands of the Coming Race and be reduced into
cinders for the sake of the common good!
TISH.
PARIS, August 28, 1872.
