Produced by Hélène de Mink and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) Transcriber's note: Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected, see the small list of corrections at the end of this e_book. THE CHILDREN OF ALSACE THE CHILDREN OF ALSACE (_LES OBERLÉS_) BY RENÉ BAZIN AUTHOR OF "THE NUN," "REDEMPTION," ETC. _WITH A PREFACE_ BY DR. ANGELO S. RAPPOPORT NEW YORK JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXII PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN PREFACE René Bazin is already known to the English public as a writer of exquisite charm and wonderful sensibility. "The Nun," "Redemption," and "This My Son" have revealed his powers to appreciative readers. Bazin is not only an original writer, a charming story-teller, but also a deep thinker, a clear delineator of human character and life, a wonderful landscape-painter, and a bold realist. For it is real life, humble, poignant, palpitating, which we meet in his stories. Life, full of misery and suffering, but also of pity and charity, of self-sacrifice and heroic traits. Bazin is a passionate admirer of Nature, and this admiration and love manifest themselves in his preference for pastoral and rural scenes, and his description of nature and peasant life. Nature and climate, M. Bazin thinks, exercise a paramount influence upon the soul, and produce deep and permanent impressions. But in none of his books has he laid so much stress upon this mysterious influence of a country upon the soul of its inhabitants as in "Les Oberlés," which is now placed before English readers under the title of "The Children of Alsace." For it is the country of Alsace, with her woes and sorrows and sufferings, her aspirations and hopes and dreams, which speaks to us through the mouth of Jean Oberlé, the hero, who mysteriously feels the influence of soil upon his soul, and is drawn to France, since Alsace is sighing under the German yoke, and her weeping soul has fled to France, there to wait the day of delivery and freedom!