Finally he has tried to write a realistic work, and you cannot find a scene in it that is one of the commonplace situations in realism. No infidelity, no child-murder, no atrocious swindling! It has the air of being written as a wager. We have come, indeed, to the point of limiting realistic art to the portrayal only of that which is trivial, low, and worthless. Reality has become with us a synonym for ugliness. We have calmly laid down these definitions. “Every work is realistic which paints vile characters and repulsive scenes, even if these characters be morbid and these scenes be the artificial dreams of a sickly imagination. Unrealistic is every work in which any account is taken of the virtues which are the current coin of most lives.” A writer must be possessed of a rare independence of mind, combined with no ordinary confidence in himself, to maintain that both nobility of soul and elevation of character are also realities. This is the point of view adopted by M. Henry Bordeaux. There is more true realism in his book than in fifty chosen from among the works of the most famous “Naturalists.” The figures in it all live. The study of provincial manners is very finely developed in it. One chapter might seem a little exaggerated, if one did not feel that its truth is photographic. It is the one in which the Mayor, officially ordered to tell Madame Guibert of the death of her son who had been killed by the enemy, is afraid to compromise himself by crossing the threshold of people classed as reactionaries and sends a policeman in his place! Added to it all is a charming sympathy with nature. Both the people and their surroundings become our familiar friends in this modest home at Le Maupas, the peaceful setting of so many scenes of sorrow. M. Henry Bordeaux was already honorably known to us through some stories written with a delicate touch, and some judicious critical essays. “The Fear of Living” raises him from his former rank and classes him as a Novelist. RENE DOUMIC. (_Journal des Débats_, 30th Sept. 1902). PREFACE In the month of June, 1902, when I published “The Fear of Living,” I had no idea how favorably it would be received by the public. Family tragedies were not the fashion, and I had dared to take a sorely-tried old woman for my heroine.