Henry Céard: Distressed by uniform decorum of scenes of carnage

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

French writers on war and peace

Henry Céard: He affected warlike sentiments

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Henry Céard
Une belle journée
Translated by Ernest Boyd

In the illustrated papers she saw the latest coronation, the dirty linen washed in the latest lawsuit, all the events of Paris and the world….Pictures which were successful at last year’s Salon were presented with particular care. She gazed at these. They were usually scenes from the war of 1870. The French troops, with fixed bayonets, charged forward and, as the patriotism of the artists did not permit them to show the Prussians as more than a hazy background, their valor seemed to consist in attacking the landscape. Underneath sonnets were printed, explaining the subjects, telling the story, combining lyricism with profound thought. Madame Duhamain was astonished at the names of the authors, so obscure was their evident fame. She mused over one of them, however. Where had she seen that name? She racked her brains. Ah, now she remembered! He was more celebrated, he had signed verses in the Bon Marché almanac, in the middle of the advertisements. Then, as though this feat of memory had relieved her, she turned the page. Whole pages on both sides were filled from top to bottom with generals, their plumed helmets and their horses. Recently married royalties displayed their stupid smiles and the stiffness of the omnipotent. A gentlemen with an intelligent face was the subject of special comment. He had won the prize for pigeon shooting in Monaco. Then she looked at battles: missionaries attacked by savages, savages massacred by the armies of Christendom. She was distressed by the uniform decorum of these scenes of carnage, always arranged in the same manner, with the same corpse crumpled up beside a drum in the foreground and the wounded man with a piteous prayer in his eyes.