In the spring there will appear a review in French which will fill a place at present empty: the Revue de Genève, whose editor will be M. Robert de Traz. This will be a review essentially European, which will aim at giving an exact picture of intellectual Europe to-day, and will examine objectively æsthetic, political, religious and moral, national and international tendencies. Its founders believe that an authoritative position is assured.
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Most of these reviews are or will be reviews of ideas. In contrast to what was the case twenty years ago the reviews which are devoted to new and bold artistic manifestations remain on a lower level. Before the war the Phalange was a very live and picturesque review around which were grouped a number of the old-time Symbolists and newer writers, from Francis Viélé-Griffin to Guillaume Apollinaire. Almost all the young made their débuts in the Phalange. It is regrettable that its director, M. Jean Royère, has decided not to revive it after the war.
The literature which is attached to Futurist and Cubist art has for organ the review Littérature, rather slender but curious. During the war there began to appear a very sumptuous Cubist review of literature and art, L'Elan, which was very interesting but did not survive its fourth number.
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It does not come within my present scope to refer to the old reviews, which are well enough known to English readers. But I must mention that in the last year a new one has been added to these, the Minerve Française, classical and traditional in tenets and of an excellent literary standard. Finally, as for the weekly papers, half way between the dailies and the reviews properly so called, they are not so important in France as in England. L'Opinion and L'Europe Nouvelle are at present the most alive; those and the Revue Hebdomadaire, which is in another category.
In fine, the young French reviews to-day are preoccupied with ideas first and art second. It is difficult for them, even when they are willing, to avoid a definite orientation towards politics and the problems of politics. They are the natural voices of a generation which is prevented by actual events from indulging in detached speculations. But that period of transition will pass and will no doubt soon help forward a movement in France for the recovery of the precious privileges of spiritual liberty.
ALBERT THIBAUDET