CHAPTER X. Lesage, Marivaux, Prévost, Crébillon 325

LESAGE, MARIVAUX, PRÉVOST, CRÉBILLON 325

The subjects of the chapter--Lesage: his Spanish connections--Peculiarity of his work generally--And its variety--Le Diable Boiteux--Lesage and Boileau--Gil Blas: its peculiar cosmopolitanism--And its adoption of the homme sensuel moyen fashion--Its inequality, in the Second and Fourth Books especially--Lesage's quality: not requiring many words, but indisputable--Marivaux: Les Effets de la Sympathie (?)--His work in general--Le Paysan Parvenu--Marianne: outline of the story--Importance of Marianne herself--Marivaux and Richardson: "Marivaudage"--Examples: Marianne on the physique and moral of Prioresses and Nuns--She returns the gift-clothes--Prévost--His minor novels: the opinions on them of Sainte-Beuve--And of Planche--The books themselves: Histoire d'une Grecque Moderne--Cléveland--Le Doyen de Killérine--The Mémoires d'un Homme de Qualité--Its miscellaneous curiosities--Manon Lescaut--Its uniqueness--The character of its heroine--And that of the hero--The inevitableness of both and the inestimableness of their history--Crébillon fils--The case against him--For the defendant: the veracity of his artificiality and his consummate cleverness--The Crébillonesque atmosphere and method--Inequality of his general work; a survey of it.