Cocteau Children

ENFANTS TERRIBLES--Jean Cocteau-- Brewer & Warren ($2.50).

Four strange French children--Paul, his sister Elizabeth, their friends Agatha and Gerard--and a wealthy American Jew are placed by Author Cocteau in a scene bathed in a curious, unreal melancholy. Of Paul and Elizabeth, two orphans whose fate is to live thoroughly naive and irresponsible lives, the story chiefly concerns itself.

"Let us make it plain: . . . neither of the principals of this theatre was conscious of acting a part. It was to this primitive lack of self-consciousness that the play owed its enduring charm. Without their suspecting it, the play . . . was hovering on the brink of a myth. . . ."

"Three years, then, went by in the Rue Montmartre, to the monotonous rhythm of a never-flagging intensity. Elizabeth and Paul, made for childhood, continued to live on like the occupants of twin cradles. Gerard was in love with Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Paul adored and tortured each other. . . . The same violent nights, the same clammy mornings, the same long afternoons when the children became estrays, moles in the light of day. It ended up with Elizabeth and Gerard's going out together. Paul went out in quest of his own pleasures. . . ."

"Nevertheless they ended by falling prey to a species of delirium; a fever clothed the room in deforming mirrors. Then it was that Agatha grew gloomy, and was led to ask herself if this mysterious drug, however natural it was, might not prove to be quite as exacting as any other, and if all drugs did not end with turning on the gas. . . ."

As the reader might suppose, the book does end by the equivalent of turning on the gas, after Elizabeth had perfunctorily married the Jew who thoughtfully died without consummating the marriage and who left a great deal of money, and after she had cozened Gerard (who loved her) into marrying Agatha (who loved Paul). The treachery disclosed, Paul takes poison, Elizabeth prepares to shoot herself. "A few more seconds of courage, and they would come out where flesh is dissolved, where souls are wed, where incest no longer roams."

The Author. Jean Cocteau lives in Paris where he likes to play at being an habitual invalid, draw a little, used to mix drinks for himself and friends in his own saloon. Le Boeuf sur le Toit. Not long ago, his fancy led him to embrace Catholicism. He is also fond of having his ascetic hands photographed as he lies in bed. Other works: Grand Ecart, Thomas the Impostor, A Call to Order.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.