MAN ***




Produced by Al Haines.





[Illustration: Octave Feuillet]




                            ENGLISH EDITION
                    A Library of French Masterpieces
                         EDITED BY EDMUND GOSSE



                            THE ROMANCE OF A
                             POOR YOUNG MAN


                          TRANSLATED FROM THE
                               FRENCH OF

                            OCTAVE FEUILLET


                    WITH A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION BY
                             HENRY HARLAND


                             ILLUSTRATED BY
                             SIMONT GUILHEM



                  London: The London Book Co. MCMVII.




                       *OCTAVE FEUILLET'S NOVELS*


To be serious seriously is the way of mediocrity. To be serious gaily is
not such an easy matter. To look on at the pantomime of things, and to
see, neatly separated, tragedy here, comedy opposite--to miss the
perpetual dissolution and resolution of the one into and out of the
other--is inevitable when eyes are purblind.  _Diis aliter visum_.
Olympus laughs because it perceives so many capital reasons for pulling
a long face; and half the time pulls a long face simply to keep from
laughing.  I imagine it is in some measure the Olympian manner of seeing
which explains the gay seriousness of the work of Octave Feuillet.

Octave Feuillet possesses to an altogether remarkable degree the art of
being serious not only gaily, but charmingly.  This, to begin with,
places him and his stories in a particular atmosphere; and, if we
consider it, I think we shall recognise that atmosphere as something
very like the old familiar atmosphere of the fairy-tale.  At any rate,
there is a delicate, a fanciful symbolism in Feuillet's work, which
breathes a fragrance unmistakably reminiscent of the enchanted forest.
For an instance