Produced by Clarity, Chuck Greif 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.) Every attempt has been made to replicate the original as printed. The usage of "nephew" to mean nephew or neice and "man" to mean man or woman has not been altered. Some typographical errors have been corrected; a list follows the text. (note of etext transcriber.) _The Library of French Fiction_ EDITED BY BARNET J. BEYER TWO BANKS OF THE SEINE (Les Deux Rives) BY FERNAND VANDÉREM _Translated by_ GEORGE RAFFALOVICH [Illustration: colophon] NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 681 FIFTH AVENUE Copyright 1919 By E.P. DUTTON & COMPANY _All Rights Reserved_ _Printed in the United States of America_ PREFATORY NOTE _Two Banks of the Seine_, by Fernand Vandérem, belongs to the class of literature immortalized by Alphonse Daudet. In it we catch the slightly ironic but good-natured tone familiar to those who have read _Sapho_; and we perceive the author applying objective psychology to life--Parisian life. For M. Vandérem is not only Gallic, but vitally Parisian. His attitude towards men and women is sophisticated; but his art is always fresh and true. He is a realist who does not disdain to make use of romance when it suits his purpose. _Two Banks of the Seine_ is an interesting story wherein the life of the Latin Quarter and that of the upper classes are brought into sharp contrast. This supplies the author with ample material suitable to his peculiar bent. He handles his material with clear vision, often with delicate sympathy, and never without humor. The men and women in the book are sketched with a sure pen, and are put and kept in motion by a firm hand. They are made to move about briskly before us and to speak with the accents of life. Like all great novelists, M. Vandérem is more interested in character and human relationships than in plot. His book is not so much a novel in the ordinary sense as a comedy of manners. Our author knows his Parisian well. He has studied him in the home and in the street; at work and at play. Few contemporary novelists afford us a clearer insight into the workings of the mind of the elusive Parisian, or a more intimate knowledge of his temperament.