The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ink-Stain, Complete, by Rene Bazin

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Title: The Ink-Stain, Complete

Author: Rene Bazin

Last Updated: March 3, 2009
Release Date: October 5, 2006 [EBook #3975]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INK-STAIN, COMPLETE ***

Produced by David Widger

THE INK STAIN

(Tache d'Encre)

By RENE BAZIN

Preface by E. LAVISSE

RENE BAZIN

RENE-NICHOLAS-MARIE BAZIN was born at Angers, December 26, 1853. He
studied for the bar, became a lawyer and professor of jurisprudence at
the Catholic University in his native city, and early contributed to
'Le Correspondant, L'Illustration, Journal des Debats, Revue du Deux
Mondes,' etc. Although quietly writing fiction for the last fifteen
years or so, he was not well known until the dawn of the twentieth
century, when his moral studies of provincial life under the form of
novels and romances became appreciated. He is a profound psychologist,
a force in literature, and his style is very pure and attractive.
He advocates resignation and the domestic virtues, yet his books are
neither dull, nor tiresome, nor priggish; and as he has advanced in
years and experience M. Bazin has shown an increasing ambition to deal
with larger problems than are involved for instance, in the innocent
love-affairs of 'Ma Tante Giron' (1886), a book which enraptured Ludovic
Halevy. His novel, 'Une Tache d'Encre' (1888), a romance of scholarly
life, was crowned by the French Academy, to which he was elected in
1903.

It is safe to say that Bazin will never develop into an author dangerous
to morals. His works may be put into the hands of cloistered virgins,
and there are not, to my knowledge, many other contemporary French
imaginative writers who could endure this stringent test. Some critics,
indeed, while praising him, scoff at his chaste and surprising optimism;
but it is refreshing to recommend to English readers, in these days of
Realism and Naturalism, the works of a recent French writer which do not
require maturity of years in the reader. 'Une Tache d'Encre', as I have
said, was crowned by the French Academy; and Bazin received f