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Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1866 > March > Bibliographic News > Fantastic story, by Théophile Gautier
Fantastic story, by Théophile Gautier
In the latest issue of the Spiritist Review, last December, we said a few words about this novel, that was edited in feuilleton in the “Moniteur Universel” and that is now published in a book. Unfortunately the space does not allow us to make a detailed analysis, and in particular cite some passages whose ideas are incontestably extracted from the same source as Spiritism; but considering that most of our readers have already read it, it would be superfluous to provide a report here. We will only say that the part attributed to the fantastic is certainly a bit large, and that one must not take every fact by the letter. It is necessary to say that this is not a treaty of Spiritism. The truth is in the bottom line of the ideas and thoughts, that are essentially Spiritists and presented with finesse and enchanting grace, much more than in the facts, whose possibility is sometimes challenged. Despite being a romance, it has great importance, first for the name of the author, and because it is the first work of a writer from the press, where the Spiritist idea is categorically confirmed, and that appears at the time when contradiction seemed to be navigating the wave of attacks against this idea. The form of the romance also had its utility; it was certainly preferred to the strictly doctrinal aspects, in this transition. Thanks to an apparent lightness, he touched everything in the idea. Although Théophile Gautier is one of the favorite authors from the press, the press itself showed an uncharacteristic sobriety about this book. The press did not know if it should have been blessed or censored.
To criticize Théophile Gautier, a friend, a comrade, a writer beloved by the public; to say that he had written an absurd book, it was something difficult; praising the book would be an exaltation of the idea; keeping silence about a popular name would be an insult. The novelistic style kept the embarrassment away; it allowed to say that the author had created a beautiful work of imagination, and not conviction. They talked, but not much. That is how we see skepticism compromising. We noticed something very singular: the day in which the book was released there were cards, in all booksellers, with a small ad publicized abroad. A few days later all the ads had disappeared. In the slim and rare notes in the newspapers we found significant confessions, undoubtedly due to a slipup of the author. The “Courrier du Monde Illustré”, on December 16th, 1865 brings the following: “One must believe that the poet Théophile Gautier, unnoticeably, without professing the doctrine, without even having probed much of these unfathomable questions of Spiritism and somnambulism, just out of the intuition of his poetic genius, hit the nail on the head, fled with the box office and found the “open sesame” of the mysterious evocations, for the book that he published as a feuilleton in the “Moniteur” with the title Spiritist, agitated violently all those that deal with such dangerous questions. The emotion was overwhelming, and to assess its reach is necessary to cover every newspaper of Europe, as we do. The whole Spiritist Germany stood up as one, and like all those that live on the contemplation of an idea and only have their eyes on that idea, one of the most serious institutions of Austria pretends that the Emperor himself ordered this prodigious novel by Théophile Gautier, in a way to deviate France’s attention from matters of politics. First statement, whose reach I do not exaggerate. The second one hurt me for its fantastic side. According to the German periodical, the poet of the Comedy of Death, much agitated as a consequence of a vision, would have gotten very sick and taken to Geneve, and with fever, forced to wait for a hospital bed for several weeks, victim of strange nightmares, glowing hallucinations, a constant toy of errant Spirits. In one morning, they would have found the disperse pages of the Spiritist manuscript, by the foot of his bed.
Not attributing to the inspiration that guided the pen of the author of Avatar, such a fantastic source, we strongly believe that once involved in that subject, the writer of The Romance of a Mummy would have become ecstatic with those visions, and that in the paroxysm he would have designed these remarkable descriptions of Heavens, one of his most beautiful pages. The correspondence that led to the publication of Spiritist is extremely curious. It is a shame that, out of convenience, we did not request one of the letters received by the poet of Enamels and Cameos.”
We do not do literary criticism here, otherwise we could find the catalogue utilized by the author in the article something of doubtful taste, that also seems to fault a bit for lack of clarity. We confess not have understood the phrase of the frog; it is, nonetheless, cited verbatim. This must be, perhaps, attributed to the difficulty of explaining where the renowned novelist found such ideas, and how he dared to present them without a laugh. But, the most important thing is the confession of the sensation produced by such a book throughout Europe. One must acknowledge, therefore, that the Spiritist idea is very lively and spread out; then it is not a miscarriage abort. How many people are placed in the category of cretins or idiots by the stroke of a pen of our adversaries! Fortunately, their judgement is not definitive. Mr. Jaubert, Mr. Bonnamy and many others appeal to the sentence. The author classifies these questions as dangerous. But, according to him and his comrades in criticism, these are nonsense and ridicule novels. Well, how can a nonsensical novel be dangerous to society? It is one of the two: the bottom line is that there is or there isn’t something serious with this. If there isn’t, where the danger? Had we originally listened to the declarations of danger to most of the great truths that shine today, where would we be in terms of progress? Truth is dangerous only to the coward that dare not face it or to those with self-interest.
A not less serious fact, that several papers promptly published, as if it were proved, is that the Emperor had ordered this novel to distract France’s attention from political matters. This is obviously a supposition only, for admitting the reality of the source, it is not presumable that it had been publicized. But this very supposition is a confession regarding the strength of the Spiritist idea, since it acknowledges that a sovereign, the greatest politician of our days, could have considered it suitable to produce such results. Had it been the thought behind the execution of this work, it seems to us that it would have been superfluous due to the fact that the papers were fighting one another for the primacy of attention, with all the noise they made about the Davenport brothers. The clearest thing in all this is the fact that the adversaries of Spiritism cannot understand the prodigious speed of progress of the idea, despite everything they do to have it halted.
Since they cannot deny the fact that becomes more evident every day, they strive to look for the cause everywhere, where it is not, in hopes of attenuating its importance.
In an article entitled “Books of today and tomorrow”, signed by Émile Zola, the Événement, on February 16th, gives a tiny summary of the work in discussion, followed by these remarks:
“A short while ago the Moniteur carried a fantastic piece of news of Théophile Gautier: Spiritist, a book just published by Charpentier bookstore. The book is for the greatest glory of the Davenports; it takes us for a ride in the land of the Spirits, showing the invisible, and revealing the unknown to us. The official journal provided there the bulletin of the other world. But I am suspicious of the faith of Théophile Gautier. He has an ironic bonhomie that smells disbelief miles away. I suspect he entered the invisible for the simple pleasure of describing imaginary horizons his way. The bottom line is that he does not believe a word of the story he tells, but he likes to tell it, and the readers will enjoy reading it. It is, therefore, all for the better, at the highest possible skepticism. Irrespective of what Théophile Gautier writes, it is always picturesque and original poetry. He would be perfect if he did believe in what he says – and this would be perhaps regrettable.”
Singular logic and confession, and even more logic conclusion! If Théophile Gautier believed in what he said in Spiritist, it would be perfect! The Spiritist doctrine then leads to perfection those that assimilate it, from what it follows that if every human being were Spiritist, they would all be perfect. Someone else would have concluded: “Let us hasten to disseminate Spiritism…”, but no: it would be a shame!
How many people repel the Spiritist beliefs not out of fear of becoming perfects, but simply for the fear of having to be forced to mend themselves! The Spirits scare them away because they speak from the other world, and that world causes horror. That is why they cover their eyes and their ears.
To criticize Théophile Gautier, a friend, a comrade, a writer beloved by the public; to say that he had written an absurd book, it was something difficult; praising the book would be an exaltation of the idea; keeping silence about a popular name would be an insult. The novelistic style kept the embarrassment away; it allowed to say that the author had created a beautiful work of imagination, and not conviction. They talked, but not much. That is how we see skepticism compromising. We noticed something very singular: the day in which the book was released there were cards, in all booksellers, with a small ad publicized abroad. A few days later all the ads had disappeared. In the slim and rare notes in the newspapers we found significant confessions, undoubtedly due to a slipup of the author. The “Courrier du Monde Illustré”, on December 16th, 1865 brings the following: “One must believe that the poet Théophile Gautier, unnoticeably, without professing the doctrine, without even having probed much of these unfathomable questions of Spiritism and somnambulism, just out of the intuition of his poetic genius, hit the nail on the head, fled with the box office and found the “open sesame” of the mysterious evocations, for the book that he published as a feuilleton in the “Moniteur” with the title Spiritist, agitated violently all those that deal with such dangerous questions. The emotion was overwhelming, and to assess its reach is necessary to cover every newspaper of Europe, as we do. The whole Spiritist Germany stood up as one, and like all those that live on the contemplation of an idea and only have their eyes on that idea, one of the most serious institutions of Austria pretends that the Emperor himself ordered this prodigious novel by Théophile Gautier, in a way to deviate France’s attention from matters of politics. First statement, whose reach I do not exaggerate. The second one hurt me for its fantastic side. According to the German periodical, the poet of the Comedy of Death, much agitated as a consequence of a vision, would have gotten very sick and taken to Geneve, and with fever, forced to wait for a hospital bed for several weeks, victim of strange nightmares, glowing hallucinations, a constant toy of errant Spirits. In one morning, they would have found the disperse pages of the Spiritist manuscript, by the foot of his bed.
Not attributing to the inspiration that guided the pen of the author of Avatar, such a fantastic source, we strongly believe that once involved in that subject, the writer of The Romance of a Mummy would have become ecstatic with those visions, and that in the paroxysm he would have designed these remarkable descriptions of Heavens, one of his most beautiful pages. The correspondence that led to the publication of Spiritist is extremely curious. It is a shame that, out of convenience, we did not request one of the letters received by the poet of Enamels and Cameos.”
We do not do literary criticism here, otherwise we could find the catalogue utilized by the author in the article something of doubtful taste, that also seems to fault a bit for lack of clarity. We confess not have understood the phrase of the frog; it is, nonetheless, cited verbatim. This must be, perhaps, attributed to the difficulty of explaining where the renowned novelist found such ideas, and how he dared to present them without a laugh. But, the most important thing is the confession of the sensation produced by such a book throughout Europe. One must acknowledge, therefore, that the Spiritist idea is very lively and spread out; then it is not a miscarriage abort. How many people are placed in the category of cretins or idiots by the stroke of a pen of our adversaries! Fortunately, their judgement is not definitive. Mr. Jaubert, Mr. Bonnamy and many others appeal to the sentence. The author classifies these questions as dangerous. But, according to him and his comrades in criticism, these are nonsense and ridicule novels. Well, how can a nonsensical novel be dangerous to society? It is one of the two: the bottom line is that there is or there isn’t something serious with this. If there isn’t, where the danger? Had we originally listened to the declarations of danger to most of the great truths that shine today, where would we be in terms of progress? Truth is dangerous only to the coward that dare not face it or to those with self-interest.
A not less serious fact, that several papers promptly published, as if it were proved, is that the Emperor had ordered this novel to distract France’s attention from political matters. This is obviously a supposition only, for admitting the reality of the source, it is not presumable that it had been publicized. But this very supposition is a confession regarding the strength of the Spiritist idea, since it acknowledges that a sovereign, the greatest politician of our days, could have considered it suitable to produce such results. Had it been the thought behind the execution of this work, it seems to us that it would have been superfluous due to the fact that the papers were fighting one another for the primacy of attention, with all the noise they made about the Davenport brothers. The clearest thing in all this is the fact that the adversaries of Spiritism cannot understand the prodigious speed of progress of the idea, despite everything they do to have it halted.
Since they cannot deny the fact that becomes more evident every day, they strive to look for the cause everywhere, where it is not, in hopes of attenuating its importance.
In an article entitled “Books of today and tomorrow”, signed by Émile Zola, the Événement, on February 16th, gives a tiny summary of the work in discussion, followed by these remarks:
“A short while ago the Moniteur carried a fantastic piece of news of Théophile Gautier: Spiritist, a book just published by Charpentier bookstore. The book is for the greatest glory of the Davenports; it takes us for a ride in the land of the Spirits, showing the invisible, and revealing the unknown to us. The official journal provided there the bulletin of the other world. But I am suspicious of the faith of Théophile Gautier. He has an ironic bonhomie that smells disbelief miles away. I suspect he entered the invisible for the simple pleasure of describing imaginary horizons his way. The bottom line is that he does not believe a word of the story he tells, but he likes to tell it, and the readers will enjoy reading it. It is, therefore, all for the better, at the highest possible skepticism. Irrespective of what Théophile Gautier writes, it is always picturesque and original poetry. He would be perfect if he did believe in what he says – and this would be perhaps regrettable.”
Singular logic and confession, and even more logic conclusion! If Théophile Gautier believed in what he said in Spiritist, it would be perfect! The Spiritist doctrine then leads to perfection those that assimilate it, from what it follows that if every human being were Spiritist, they would all be perfect. Someone else would have concluded: “Let us hasten to disseminate Spiritism…”, but no: it would be a shame!
How many people repel the Spiritist beliefs not out of fear of becoming perfects, but simply for the fear of having to be forced to mend themselves! The Spirits scare them away because they speak from the other world, and that world causes horror. That is why they cover their eyes and their ears.