Journal de Genève
- Jules Renard's "Journal"
- Civil war and the disorganization of the railways in China
- "GENEVA A HUNDRED YEARS AGO"
This front page of the Journal de Genève carried André Maurois's essay on Jules Renard's Journal. Maurois contrasted it with literary confessions that either keep only the flattering truth or, as with Byron, Rousseau and Dostoevsky, slander their authors, and praised Renard for wanting to distort himself as little as possible. A news report described China's railways as nearly ruined by civil war and persistent anarchy, with Peking almost cut off from the south, the Peking–Shanghai line abandoned and trains running like caravans without timetables. A notice offered readers a limited-edition subscription premium, Genève il y a cent ans, at 16 francs on Holland paper or 50 francs on Japon Impérial.
Translation
Jules Renard's "Journal"
Literary confessions are many; it is rare for them to be accurate. Many who believe they are telling the whole truth have kept only the best of it. Others, like Byron, Rousseau and Dostoevsky, through a kind of hypocrisy in reverse, end up slandering themselves. But Jules Renard's Journal is an admirable document, of a very new kind, because what Jules Renard wished above all was to distort himself as little as possible.
Civil war and the disorganization of the railways in China
It is no exaggeration to speak of a lamentable state of the railways in China, a state that goes hand in hand with the political situation; and yet these railways were created with great difficulty, and building them was harder and more complicated than anywhere else. After all the endemic and intermittent disturbances, the revolutions that constantly break out anew in this immense country, and its persistent anarchy, one should not be surprised that the railways, under such a regime, are all but ruined. Peking has almost no connections left with the south; the Peking–Shanghai line has long been abandoned. Other lines, just as important, are served from time to time without a fixed timetable, with the most whimsical irregularity and a hopeless slowness. The railway runs exactly like a caravan, which sets off when it is ready and arrives when it can.
"GENEVA A HUNDRED YEARS AGO"
The new premium that the Journal de Genève has been keen to offer its readers cannot fail to achieve a success equal to or greater than that of the previous ones. Printed in a limited number, Geneva a Hundred Years Ago will shortly become a bibliographic rarity. Subscriptions are taken at the offices of the Journal de Genève, rue Général-Dufour 5–7. Subscription price: copy on Holland paper, 16 francs; de luxe copy on Japon Impérial, 50 francs.
Context
Jules Renard, the diarist Maurois was reviewing
Jules Renard, whose Journal André Maurois discusses on this page, was a French writer who died in 1910; his diary covers his life from the age of 23 until his death at 46. He is acclaimed for Poil de carotte (1894), a bitterly ironic account of his own childhood, and in 1907 he became a member of the Académie Goncourt thanks to Octave Mirbeau. This background helps explain Maurois's argument. Renard had already drawn on his own childhood without flattering it, and Maurois presents the diary as the record of a man who wanted to distort himself as little as possible.
A diary published in instalments, 1925–1927
Maurois was writing while the Journal was still coming out. The diary was published posthumously between 1925 and 1927 in five volumes, four of diary and one of correspondence, so a reader in October 1926 had only part of the work in hand. Later readers also valued it. Somerset Maugham praised the Journal and was influenced by Renard's example to publish his own journals, and Le Monde later ranked it 74th in its list of the 100 books of the century. Modern reference works describe it as a masterpiece of introspection, irony, humour and nostalgia that gives an important view of literary life.
The Chinese Eastern Railway under the 1924 Sino-Soviet agreements
The Chinese Eastern Railway across Manchuria ran under a different regime from the lines around Peking whose collapse this report describes. Built by the Russian Empire between 1897 and 1902, its ownership passed into Soviet hands after the overthrow of the tsarist government and the October Revolution. In 1924 the Soviet Union secured recognition of its title through treaties with both the Chinese government in Peking and the Mukden government of the warlord Chang Tso-lin (Zhang Zuolin). The Peking agreement declared the railway a purely commercial enterprise, placed it under a board with five Chinese and five Soviet directors, and required its manager to be a Soviet national. The article links the decay of China's railways to the political situation and persistent anarchy. The fact that Moscow also had to treat separately with Mukden suggests that the Peking government alone could not settle the fate of the north-east's main railway.
What became of the Chinese Eastern Railway after 1926
The 1924 arrangements did not end the struggle over the line. In 1929 a series of Chinese raids gave Chinese authorities total control of the railway and its subsidiary services by July; by the end of November the Red Army had routed the Chinese forces and effectively restored the previous situation. In 1935 the Soviet Union sold the railway to Manchukuo, the Japanese puppet state. These events came after the article was printed, but they show how closely control of China's railways remained tied to political and military conflict, as the article's author assumed.
Original
Le „Journal“ de Jules Renard
Les confessions littéraires sont nombreuses; il est rare qu'elles soient exactes. Beaucoup croient dire toute la vérité qui n'en ont retenu que le meilleur. D'autres, comme Byron, Rousseau, Dostoïevski, par une sorte d'hypocrisie à rebours, en arrivent à se calomnier. Mais le Journal de Jules Renard est un admirable document, d'une espèce très nouvelle, parce que Jules Renard souhaitait surtout se déformer aussi peu que possible.
La guerre civile et la désorganisation des chemins de fer en Chine
Il n'est pas exagéré de parler d'un état lamentable des chemins de fer en Chine, état qui va de pair avec la situation politique; ceux-ci ont pourtant été créés à grand'peine et leur établissement a été plus difficile et plus compliqué que n'importe où. Après tous les troubles endémiques et intermittents, les révolutions qui renaissent constamment dans cet immense pays et son anarchie persistante, il ne faut pas s'étonner que les chemins de fer, avec un régime pareil, soient quasi ruinés. Pékin n'a presque plus de relations avec le sud; la ligne Pékin-Shanghaï est depuis longtemps abandonnée. D'autres lignes, tout aussi importantes, sont desservies de temps à autre sans horaire fixe, avec l'irrégularité la plus fantaisiste et une lenteur désespérante. Le chemin de fer circule exactement comme une caravane qui part quand elle est prête et arrive quand elle peut.
« GENÈVE IL Y A CENT ANS »
La nouvelle prime dont le Journal de Genève a tenu à faire bénéficier ses lecteurs ne saurait manquer d'obtenir un succès égal ou supérieur à celui des précédentes. Tiré en nombre limité, Genève il y a cent ans deviendra à bref délai une rareté bibliographique. On souscrit à l'administration du Journal de Genève, rue Général-Dufour, 5-7. Prix de souscription: exemplaire sur papier Hollande fr. 16. -» luxe sur Japon Impérial» 50. -