Sapho; Parisian Manners. E-book. Formato PDF - 9780243710041

And yet some myopic critics have said that Sapho was an injurious book. This is mere folly, mere ignorance of life. Books may rightly be deemed injurious which make vice attractive, painting it in pleasing colors, insidiously seduc tive. In these the seamy side of the tapestry is ignored. Everything is rose-colored, with a careful syncopation of the thorns. The quiet hours of thought are quite handily obliterated. Now self-contempt must be rather a hard thing to bear. But you will read nothing about that in noxious works of amatory fiction. The characters appear to dwell in some trans-conscience land, some world beyond remorse. The culprits seem to be moral ostriches with their heads in the sand, as if that could shut out the evil day of reckoning. And yet that sense of. Degradation, which war dens and chaplains remark in prisoners, must consume the soul. The mental glance turns inward upon the insulted manhood or womanhood. Surfeit, satiety, disgust, unrest, that is the to-morrow of these base relationships. These unions are blind alleys. They lead to nothing. There is no future for them. Each dav but adds a link to a lengthen ing chain. And they bring about such wantonly useless sacrifices. Jean Gaussin, left alone on the wharf as the steamer is about to sail, that is typical. Father, fiancée.