Twentieth Century French Writers: Reviews and Reminiscences

book is conceived in a low tone, a minor key, by a deliberate purpose,

and we must accept the artist’s postulate.

His theme is the life of a day-labourer from the day he leaves the regiment till the time when, at forty-eight years of age, having buried wife and child, he owns that life has been too much for him. He has had his romance, has married the miller’s lovely daughter,...