Diário de Lisboa
- Epilogues
The opening of “Epilogos” uses a collected volume of Mirbeau’s writings to introduce a criticism of journalism. It singles out cronyism as a threat to the press’s mission and asserts that the older article has increasing relevance. This excerpt contains the literary introduction and its stated concern, not the column’s full development of the argument.
Central column title and first three sentences only, ending “o compadrio”; later arguments, separate notes and the cartoon are outside the reading.
Translation
Epilogues
Octave Mirbeau’s unpublished and scattered writings are beginning to be collected in volumes by the publisher Flammarion. The first in the series, Les Ecrivains, opens with an article on journalism whose relevance increases rather than diminishes. Among other poisons that corrupt the mission of the press, it singles out this one: cronyism.
Context
A journalist’s criticism outlives him
Mirbeau, who died in 1917, worked as a novelist, playwright, art critic and journalist. His attacks on conventional respectability made polemic an important part of his public voice. A 1926 collection could therefore reintroduce an older criticism of the press as an intervention in current debates.
What cronyism does to criticism
Cronyism makes personal connections a basis for praise, access or protection. In a discussion of the press’s mission, the issue is whether readers receive independent judgments or favors exchanged among acquaintances. The passage treats that distortion as a continuing problem, rather than a fault confined to one writer’s time.
Collected articles find another readership
Putting unpublished and scattered pieces into volumes changes their life as texts. Readers no longer need to locate individual earlier appearances, and a publisher gives them a new sequence and setting. The Lisbon notice shows this circulation crossing languages: French writing on journalism becomes material for a Portuguese newspaper’s own reflection.
Original
Epilogos
Os ineditos e dispersos de Octave Mirbeau começam a ser reunidos em volumes pelo editor Flammarion. O primeiro da série — Les Ecrivains abre com um artigo sobre o jornalismo cuja actualidade, em vez de decrescer, aumenta. Além de outros venenos que corrompem a missão da imprensa, aponta especialmente este — o compadrio.