Texte sans commentaires. Catalogue analytique sommaire
Text without Commentary. Brief Analytical Catalogue
Charles Péguy
A FEW WORDS
We send this brief analytical catalogue to our subscribers, we present it to the public in all confidence, in all simplicity.
Perusing this enormous brief analytical catalogue, our longtime subscribers will recognize not, I will not say, the plan of our first five series, but, what is better than a fixed plan, what is of another order, they will recapture at a glance the movement of our cahiers, they will recapture their very rhythm, the interior movement, free, spontaneous, full; they will recapture the inner harmony and truly the interior life.
Reading this brief analytical catalogue, our new subscribers, who often ask us for information about the beginnings of our cahiers, will find, will recapture in brief these beginnings, this departure, which was heavy, because it was necessary to lift, to push back against all the currents of all the demagogies.
Through the care of our friends, through the care of our subscribers, through our own care, this brief analytical catalogue will come into the hands of persons who do not know our cahiers, and of persons who know them poorly.
To those who know us poorly we earnestly ask that they place themselves in the situation of those who do not know us at all; we ask them in particular, at the moment when they open this catalogue, to forget for a time the good that may have been said of us; nothing is often as dangerous for those concerned, in the minds of third parties, as the too pressing recommendations of mutual friends.
To those who do not know our cahiers, we present this brief analytical catalogue; in a few words only, since we made it precisely to avoid long speeches, useless commentaries, vain explanations.
Of every honest man who does not know our cahiers we simply ask that he read this brief analytical catalogue; read it; quite plainly; nothing is worth, nothing will replace an honest and simple reading of an honest and simple text; no commentary, no explanation, let us say the word, no sales pitch is worth anything beside a text.
Not that this brief analytical catalogue suffices to give a total idea of our first five series; it is an image in miniature, and it is obviously not their reproduction; our first five series alone can give a total idea of our first five series; I myself have compiled from all texts this brief analytical catalogue; I put all my care into it; I spent in it all of what is pleasantly called the leisure of vacation, or at least all that the military administration was kind enough to leave me of it; I somewhat exhausted myself in it; I put all my application into it; more than anyone I also know its faults; draftsmen are accustomed to saying that nothing is as difficult to do as foreshortening; I became aware of it; how many times did I not stop before such an enormous accumulation of work, before cahiers so full that summarizing could no longer function, that I absolutely could not shorten them, that everything had to be cited, that gradually the whole cahier was passing into the catalogue; I was fighting against my text; I refused it; I did not want it; and despite myself everything entered.
I did what I could; for the cahiers that admitted a summary, I made a summary; for the cahiers that did not admit a summary, such as the cahiers of literature or philosophy, we gave the beginning, with a sudden, abrupt break; we gave the opening, which is not everything in a work, but which is important, often capital, because the author must set the tone there; for the cahiers that admitted both the summary and the beginning, I gave the summary and the beginning; for the cahiers articulated in several parts, like the cahiers of several dispatches, we gave as many beginnings.
I did my best; I shall be forgiven the inevitable imperfections.
Let every honest man into whose hands this catalogue comes read it, then, without ulterior motive, without prior thought, as an introduction to our acquaintance. Then let him subscribe to the cahiers for two years; no less is needed to know what they are; after these two years one may love them or not; one will always esteem them.
One will know what they are; one must have honestly received our cahiers for two years to know what they are; our cahiers are so new, in every way, that one would try in vain to form an idea of them by comparing, by seeking points of comparison, elements of knowledge and comparison in previous publications; one would never arrive thus, by an artificial and factitious synthesis, at anything but a representation of the old and new, and false; but our cahiers are new, fresh, and true; they have this singular novelty, that they are true; one must not say: they are like this and like that; they are better than Paul and worse than Pierre, they resemble Jacques; no, they are as they are; to read them, one must make or remake for oneself a simple and fresh soul; one must read them themselves, for themselves, as texts, which they are, without thinking ill; to read the cahiers, one must have learned to forget much; one must have forgotten much of school, learned a little of life.
Two years are necessary for one to have an idea of our cahiers, a just idea; we work at long range; there is no serious work, no work that yields, except work done at long range; it is more true than ever that time respects nothing done without it; let one then read our cahiers without anxiety and without astonishment; the texture does not appear, the rhythm does not take shape until after a fairly long time; the agitated, the frantic, the dailies, the ephemeral, the people who want to receive ready-made opinions so as not to have to work, the clever and the presumptuous, the people who want to talk about everything without ever having learned anything have nothing to gain with us.
One must have truly received our cahiers, honestly, every fortnight, really, from the hands of the postman, like a piece of correspondence, at their date, as a means of communication; one must not pounce on them to corrode them like a bitter critic or to devour them like a gluttonous commentator; we address ourselves only to honest people, to serious, hardworking persons.
We present this brief analytical catalogue to the public in all confidence, in all simplicity, in all security.
The manager CHARLES PEGUY
EDITIONS OF THE CAHIERS prior to the founding of the cahiers
MARCEL AND PIERRE BAUDOUIN. — Jeanne d’Arc, drama in three plays; Domremy; the battles; Rouen; — finished writing in Paris in June 1897, finished printing in December 1897, a large octavo volume of 752 pages; ten francs
PIERRE DELOIRE. — De la Cite Socialiste, — August 1897, editions of the Revue Socialiste, a pamphlet of eight pages; ten centimes
PIERRE BAUDOUIN. — Marcel, premier dialogue de la cite harmonieuse, — a large octavo volume, 228 pages, finished writing in Paris in April 1898, finished printing in June 1898, editions of Georges Bellais; two francs
JEROME AND JEAN THARAUD. — Le Coltineur debile, — a fine 12mo volume, square, of 116 pages, with a lithograph by HENRY DE GROUX, dedicated to Lucile de Chateaubriand who died of having loved her brother, episodes l’Echafaudage, la Merveille, sur les routes, la Detresse; editions of Georges Bellais, Paris, winter 1898, finished printing in August 1898; two francs
JEROME AND JEAN THARAUD. — La Lumiere, — a cahier of 96 pages; epigraph: He who loses his eyes loses the beauty of the Universe and remains like a man who would be buried alive in a sepulchre where there is movement and life, Leonardo da Vinci; dedicated to our Master Villiers de l’Isle-Adam; le navire, le magicien, Timor, les tenebres; Rome — Paris, March 1898 — August 1899; finished printing in June 1900; one franc
ROMAIN ROLLAND. — Aert, three acts, — performed for the first time in Paris, at the Theatre de l’Oeuvre, May 3, 1898; the scene takes place in an imaginary Holland, in the seventeenth century; epigraph: I have no need to hope in order to undertake, nor to succeed in order to persevere, William of Orange; editions of the Revue d’Art dramatique, finished printing August 1, 1898, a volume of 124 pages, 16mo, square; marked three francs, this volume is being exhausted; each of the last copies seven francs
ROMAIN ROLLAND. — Le Triomphe de la Raison, drama in three acts, — performed for the first time in Paris, at the Theatre de l’Oeuvre, June 21, 1899; epigraph: Let us institute a more touching festival, the festival of misfortune. Slaves worship fortune and power. We, let us honor misfortune. Robespierre, May 7, 1794; the scene in Paris and in the provinces, in July-August 1793; editions of the Revue d’Art dramatique, finished printing October 20, 1899, a volume of 92 pages, 16mo, marked three francs, this volume is being exhausted; each of the last copies seven francs
ROMAIN ROLLAND. — Les Loups, three acts, — performed for the first time at the Theatre de l’Oeuvre, May 18, 1898, under the title of Morituri; epigraph homo homini lupus, the scene at Mainz in 1793, editions of Georges Bellais, a fine large octavo volume, square, 128 pages, with a lithograph by HENRY DE GROUX, finished writing in Paris late March 1898, finished printing in October 1898; three francs fifty
JEAN JAURES. — Action Socialiste, first series, — a stout 18mo volume, square, of 560 pages, editions of Georges Bellais, Socialism and Education, Socialism and the Peoples; three francs fifty
FOREWORD
Young friends asked me permission to collect, in one or several volumes, a selection of my articles and speeches. For a moment, I hesitated. I feared that people might see in it a sort of literary preoccupation ill-befitting a militant. And then, we have before us so much work, we have done so little, that it seemed dangerous to me to turn back toward the past. What is the use of binding these poor sheaves when the harvest has barely begun? But these young people told me that publishing a volume of propaganda, as one would publish a pamphlet of propaganda, was still acting, and I surrendered willingly to their wish. It was they who did all the work, the selection and the arrangement. I do not even know, as I write this foreword, which pieces are contained in this volume. But what I know well is that, whatever the date, one will find in them the same socialist inspiration. From the moment I began to write in the newspapers and to speak in the Chamber, from 1886, socialism possessed me entirely, and I professed it. I do not say this to combat the legend that makes of me a converted center-leftist, but simply because it is the truth.
But it is also true that I adhered to the socialist and collectivist idea before adhering to the socialist party. I imagined that all republicans, by pushing the idea of the Republic to its extreme, ought to come to socialism. And it seemed wiser to me not to create a distinct socialist grouping. It was a childish illusion, and what life revealed to me was not the socialist idea, but the necessity of combat. If the pages that follow could help men of thought become men of combat, and understand that truth, to be the whole truth, must arm itself for battle, the disinterested and devoted young people who took the initiative for this publication would be well repaid for their trouble.
JEAN JAURES
CAHIERS DE LA QUINZAINE
FIRST SERIES — 1900
First cahier, January 5, 1900, a yellow cahier of 144 pages:
Letter from the Provincial; from the Province, Thursday December 21, 1899:
Reply to the Provincial; Paris, Monday December 25, The Triumph of the Republic;
The Liebknecht Affair: an incident at the first national socialist congress, Tuesday December 5, 1899, down with Liebknecht; official account of this incident; documents: a letter addressed by Liebknecht to the editor of the review die Fackel, supplement to the “Affair” dated from Charlottenburg near Berlin, September 25, 1899, October 4, 1899, October 26, 1899; translation of these three articles; the translation of these articles in the Action francaise, number 10, of December 1, 1899: W. Liebknecht and the Dreyfus affair; an article from the Libre Parole, Tuesday December 5, 1899, W. Liebknecht and the Dreyfus affair; an article from La Petite Republique, Monday December 11, the Liebknecht article; an incident at the Saint-Mande punch, according to La Petite Republique of Tuesday December 12; explanations, two letters from Liebknecht, presented by Gerault-Richard in La Petite Republique of Wednesday December 20; at Liebknecht’s house, interview of Liebknecht by M. Marcel Hutin, published in l’Echo de Paris of Friday December 22, the Dreyfus affair and German opinion — if Liebknecht had been in M. Meline’s place — the Affair is over — alone against all; at Liebknecht’s house, second interview, published in l’Echo de Paris of Saturday December 23, the French socialist party and the Affair, the Millerand case — Liebknecht and Jules Guesde; a letter from M. Henri Vaugeois, director of the Action francaise, to the Echo de Paris; a reply from Gerault-Richard to M. Henri Vaugeois, in La Petite Republique of Sunday December 24; at Liebknecht’s house, third interview, in l’Echo de Paris of Sunday December 24, General Mercier as senator — in France and in Germany — the situation in Germany — Liebknecht in Paris; commentaries;
Before the first fortnight: financial chronicle of the Aurore; departure of M. Clemenceau; the Zola affair, letters from Zola to General de Galliffet and to M. Waldeck-Rousseau, the reply of M. Waldeck-Rousseau; the League for the Rights of Man; the pardon of Liard-Courtois, the League for the Rights of Man and the Armenian massacres; of the Dreyfus affair, a summons from Colonel Picquart, a letter from Philippe, Duke of Orleans, to the Duke of Luynes, Dampierre, de Kis-Jenoe, December 6, 9 o’clock in the morning; against the barbarians, popular union against bullfighting;
marked one franc fifty, this cahier is being exhausted; each of the last copies ten francs
Second cahier, January 20, 1900, a yellow cahier of 144 pages:
From the second Provincial; Nyons, January 13, 1900; Provisional reply;
The preparation of the national socialist congress: an article by Jaures in La Petite Republique of Saturday July 1, 1899, Complete Action, the conclusion; the socialist federations of the Doubs, the Haut-Rhin, the Jura, the Ain and the Cote-d’Or establish propositions; text of these propositions, reproduced and commented upon by Jaures in La Petite Republique of Wednesday July 12; a declaration by Jaures in La Petite Republique of the following Thursday the 13th, the true question; the manifesto to working and socialist France communicated to the press the same Thursday by the French Workers’ Party, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Revolutionary Communist Alliance, text borrowed from La Petite Republique of Saturday the 15th; an article by Jaures in reply, the class struggle, in the same Petite Republique; commentaries;
Third cahier, February 5, 1900, a yellow cahier of 144 pages:
For and against socialism: freedom through study, speech delivered by Anatole France at the inauguration of l’Emancipation, people’s university of the fifteenth arrondissement; from the same, contemporary history, Clopinel; from the same, contemporary history, after Clopinel; in response, from M. Jules Roche, Against Socialism; from Anatole France, contemporary history, consoling spectacle;
The preparation of the national socialist congress, continued;
Fourth cahier, February 20, 1900, a yellow cahier of 72 pages:
On the flu;
The preparation of the national socialist congress, continued;