s
Voeux Steyiles, Octave, Les Secretes Pensees de Rafael, Namouna, and
Rolla', the last two being very eloquent at times, though immature.
Rolla (1833) is one of the strongest and most depressing of his works;
the sceptic regrets the faith he has lost the power to regain, and
realizes in lurid flashes the desolate emptiness of his own heart. At
this period the crisis of his life was reached. He accompanied George
Sand to Italy, a rupture between them occurred, and De Musset returned
to Paris alone in 1834.

More subdued sadness is found in 'Les Nuits' (1832-1837), and in 'Espoir
en Dieu' (1838), etc., and his 'Lettre a Lamartine' belongs to the most
beautiful pages of French literature. But henceforth his production
grows more sparing and in form less romantic, although 'Le Rhin
Allemand', for example, shows that at times he can still gather up all
his powers. The poet becomes lazy and morose, his will is sapped by a
wild and reckless life, and one is more than once tempted to wish that
his lyre had ceased to sing.

De Musset's prose is more abundant than his lyrics or his dramas. It is
of immense value, and owes its chief significance to the clearness
with which it exhibits the progress of his ethical disintegration. In
'Emmeline (1837) we have a rather dangerous juggling with the
psychology of love. Then follows a study of simultaneous love, 'Les
Deux Mattresses' (1838), quite in the spirit of Jean Paul. He then
wrote three sympathetic depictions of Parisian Bohemia: 'Frederic et
Bernadette, Mimi Pinson, and Le Secret de Javotte', all in 1838. 'Le
Fils de Titien (1838) and Croiselles' (1839) are carefully elaborated
historical novelettes; the latter is considered one of his best works,
overflowing with romantic spirit, and contrasting in this respect
strangely with 'La Mouche' (1853), one of the last flickerings of his
imagination. 'Maggot' (1838) bears marks of the influence of George
Sand; 'Le Merle Blanc' (1842) is a sort of allegory dealing with
their quarrel. 'Pierre et Camille' is a pretty but slight tale of a
deaf-mute's love. His greatest work, 'Confession d'un Enfant du Siecle',
crowned with acclaim by the French Academy, and classic for all time,
was written in 1836, when the poet, somewhat recovered from the shock,
relates his unhappy Italian experience. It is an ambitious and deeply
interesting work, and shows whither his dread of all moral compulsion
and self-control was leading him.

De Musset also w