(1832-1895)
[Illustration: GUSTAVE DROZ]
Gustave Droz enjoyed for a time the distinction of being the most
popular writer of light literature in France, and his fame extended
throughout Europe and to America, several of his books having been
translated into English. Essentially a Parisian of the day,--gay,
droll, adroit,--he not only caught and reflected the humor of his
countrymen, but with a new, fresh touch, reached below the surface of
their volatile emotions. Occasionally striking the note of deeper
feeling, he avoided as a rule the more serious sides of life, as well
as the sensational tendencies of most of his contemporaries. His
friends claimed for him a distinctive _genre_, and on that account
presented him as a candidate for the Academy; but he failed of
election.
The son of a well-known sculptor, he was born in Paris, and followed
the traditions of his family in entering the Ecole des Beaux-Arts,
where he developed some aptitude with his brush; but a preference for
writing beguiled him from the studio, and an acquaintance with
Marcellin the illustrator, founder of La Vie Parisienne, led him to
follow literature. At first he was timid, dreading the test of
publication, but presently he gave himself up unreservedly to his pen.
Within a year he was established as a favorite of the people, and his
friend's journal was on the highway to success. For this he wrote a
series of sketches of every-day life that were subsequently collected
and published in book form, under the titles 'Monsieur, Madame, et
Bebe,' 'Entre Nous,' and 'La Cahier Bleu de Mlle. Cibot.' Within two
years these books had reached their twentieth edition, and of the
first, nearly one hundred and fifty editions have been demanded since
it was issued. He has written several novels, the best known of which
are 'Babolein,' 'Les Etangs' (The Ponds), and 'Autour d'une Source'
(Around a Spring), but they did not fully sustain the reputation
gained by his short sketches; a fact which induced him in 1884 to
return to his earlier form in 'Tristesses et Sourires' (Sorrows and
Smiles), a volume of light dissertations on things grave and gay that
at once revived his popularity.
The peculiarity of the work of Gustave Droz is its delicacy both in
humor and pathos. He surprised the French by making them all laugh
without making any of them wince; the sharp wits of his day were
forgotten in the unalloyed enjoyment of his simple quaintness, in
which there was neither affectation nor sarcasm. Yet as has been said,
he was a Parisian of the Parisians, quick to perceive the ludicrous,
ready to weep with the afflicted, and to laugh again with the happy.
His studies of children are among his best, on account of their
extreme naturalness, and are never uninteresting, despite the
simplicity of the incidents and observations on which they are
founded. In 'Le Cahier Bleu de Mlle. Cibot' he has used striking
colors to paint the petty afflictions that beset most lives; but lest
these pictures should leave an unpleasant impression, they are set off
by others of a happier sort, making a collection that constitutes a
most effective lesson in practical philosophy.