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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: GAG-GEO |
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GAUZE , a light, transparent fabric, originally of silk, and now sometimes made of linen or cotton
flowers
cotton
cannot be surpassed. Gautier's poetical work contains in little an expression of his literary peculiarities. There are, in addition to the peculiarities of style and diction already noticed, an extra- ordinary feeling and affection for beauty in art and nature, and a strange indifference to anything beyond this range, which has doubtless injured the popularity of his work.But it was not, after all, as a poet that Gautier was to achieve either profit or fame. For the theatre, he had but little gift , and his dramatic efforts (if we except certain masques or ballets in which his exuberant and graceful fancy came into play) are by far his weakest. It was otherwise with his prose fiction. His first novel of any size, and in many respects his most remarkable work, was Mademoiselle de Maupin (1835). Unfortunately this book, while it establishes his literary reputation on an imperishable basis, was unfitted by its subject, and in parts by its treatment, for general perusal, and created, even in France, a prejudice against its author which he was very far from really deserving. During the years from 1833 onwards, his fertility in novels and tales was very great. Les Jeunes-France (1833), which may rank as a sort of prose Albertus in some ways, displays the follies of the youthful Romantics in a vein of humorous and at the same time half-pathetic satire. Fortunio (1838) perhaps belongs to the same class. Jettatura, written somewhat later, is less extravagant and more pathetic. A crowd of minor tales display the highest literary qualities, and rank with Merimee's at the head of all contemporary works of the class. First of all must be mentioned the ghost-story of La Morte amoureuse, a gem of the most perfect workmanship. For many years Gautier continued to write novels. La Belle Jenny (18'64) is a not very successful attempt to draw on his English experience, but the earlier Mililona (1847) is a most charming picture of Spanish life. In Spirite (1866) he endeavoured to enlist the fancy of the day for supernatural manifestations, and a Roman de la momie (1856) is a learned study. of ancient Egyptian ways. His most remarkable effort in this kind, towards the end of his life,vvas Le Capitaine Fracasse (1863), a novel, partly of the picaresque school, partly of that which Dumas was to make popular, projected nearly thirty years earlier, and before Dumas himself had taken to the style. This book contains some of the finest instances of his literary power.Yet neither in po}}ms nor in novels did the main occupation of Gautier as a litrrary man consist. He was early drawn
chief
Accounts of his travels, criticisms of the theatrical and literary works of the day, obituary notices of his contemporaries and, above all, art criticism occupied him in turn. It has sometimes been deplored that this engagement in journalism should have diverted Gautier from the performance of more capital work in literature. Perhaps, however, this regret springs from a certain misconception. Gautier's power was literary power pure and simple, and it is as evident in his slightest sketches and criticisms as in Emaux et camees or La Morte amoureuse. On the other hand, his weakness, if he had a weakness, lay in his almost total in-difference to the matters which usually supply subjects for art and therefore for literature. He has thus been accused of " lack of ideas " by those who have not cleared their own minds of cant; and in the recent
critical current against form andto transparent fabrics of whatever fibre made, and to the fine-woven wire-cloth used in safety-lamps, sieves, windgw-blinds, &c. End of Article: GAUZE If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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