Some time ago I wrote that, 99 henchmen out of a hundred had never heard of Joseph Conrad, says the Paris correspondent of the "Observer." This is no longer true. The "Lemps? is now publishing as a fewilleton a translation of "Victory." So far as I have read the instalments in the "Temps," the adaptation for French readerg is excellent. One would have thought that Conrad would have been particularly difficult to translate. But apparently the French are not afraid_ of these difficulties. Long ago Rudyard Kipling, who has an extensive vocabulary of his own, was made familiar to the French. I admire the dexterity of those who can turn the writings of Kipling and Conrad into a foreign tongue.
What is curious is that, of all English authors, Kipling has the surest, place in the appreciation of the French. His "Jhngle Book," "Plain Tales from the Hills,' "The Light that Failed," © and, more recently, "Kim," are accepted as English classics.
It would be hard to discover why certain English authors are popular in France and others are scarcely known. H. G.-. Wells is, of course, famous in France—his "Mr. Britling Sees It Through," amusingly rendered as "M. Brit-ling Commence & Voir Clair," has had a great success in recent years. But his earlier works, his ingenious fantasies, have long been known to French' readers.
The "Zemps" appears to be definitely adopting the policy of publishing the works of English authors. Its taste is exceedingly eclectic. The last English novel which I remember as -appearing in serial form in the leading French journal is Florence Barclay's "The Rosarv." Conrad and Barclay—extremes meet! '"Z'Cuvre'' recently published a story by Robert Hichens, and several jotirnals have discovered that English writers please French audiences "La Nouvelle Revue Francaise" has made known such men as G. K. Chesterton—whose flavour is rather lost in trafislation—and Samuel Butler, who is regarded by certain coteries as a characteristic British writer. One cannot be dogmatic, but I think that Arnold Bennett is far less known than_might be expected. Who knows Paris so well?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.