Louise Lyle
224
The Struggle for Life
The extent to which Rosny drew inspiration from the evolutionary
theories of Charles Darwin is apparent in numerous of his works. Social Darwinist attitudes are consistently condemned, whether, as Linda
Clark suggests, in respect of race relations between the beleaguered
Native Americans and European settlers in Le Serment of 1896,
10 or in
relation to the unscrupulous suppression of rivals in politics and commerce in La Charpente of 1900.
11 Mélanie Bulliard, meanwhile, discerns a more ambitious purpose in Rosny’s evolutionary enthusiasms.
In L’Enjeu des origines, she proposes that the author’s extensive scientific knowledge and naturalist literary leanings
12 underpin his project to use his prehistoric novels as a kind of experimental
“demonstration” of early mankind’s development of morality and social behaviour, as suggested by Darwin in his second most important
work, The Descent of Man (1871).
13
Darwinian ideas are also, of course, apparent in Rosny’s use
of the recurring motif of on-going inter-species struggle throughout
the course of history. This is clearly apparent in Les Xipéhuz, in respect of the overt struggle that takes place between the human tribes
and their stone adversaries. The conflict, caused by the tribes’ need to
defend their territory against the encroachment of the expanding
Xipéhuz population, culminates in a pitched battle from which the
humans emerge victorious, leading Bakhoûn to conclude that: “La
terre appartient aux Hommes” (p. 652). Pride does not, however,
obscure his obvious humanity, as he mourns the passing of the
Xipéhuz, wondering “quelle Fatalité a voulu que la splendeur de la
___________________________
10 Linda L. Clark, Social Darwinism in France (Alabama: University of Alabama
Press, 1984), p. 112.
11 Rosny, La Charpente, pp. 21-22.
12 J.-H. Rosny was a signatory of the infamous “Manifeste des Cinq”, an open letter
published in Le Figaro of 18 August 1887, which highlighted the perceived failures of
literary naturalism in Émile Zola’s La Terre. Regretting his participation in this venture, Rosny was later reconciled with Zola, though his ambivalent relationship with
literary naturalism would be explored in greater depth in the satirical novel Le Termite
of 1890. See Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze, “L’Angoisse de l’influence naturaliste:
Tous Quatre de Paul Margueritte et Le Termite de J.-H. Rosny”, Nineteenth-Century
French Studies, 31 (2003), 123-37.
13 Mélanie Bulliard, L’Enjeu des origines (Lausanne: Archipel, 2001).
224
The Struggle for Life
The extent to which Rosny drew inspiration from the evolutionary
theories of Charles Darwin is apparent in numerous of his works. Social Darwinist attitudes are consistently condemned, whether, as Linda
Clark suggests, in respect of race relations between the beleaguered
Native Americans and European settlers in Le Serment of 1896,
10 or in
relation to the unscrupulous suppression of rivals in politics and commerce in La Charpente of 1900.
11 Mélanie Bulliard, meanwhile, discerns a more ambitious purpose in Rosny’s evolutionary enthusiasms.
In L’Enjeu des origines, she proposes that the author’s extensive scientific knowledge and naturalist literary leanings
12 underpin his project to use his prehistoric novels as a kind of experimental
“demonstration” of early mankind’s development of morality and social behaviour, as suggested by Darwin in his second most important
work, The Descent of Man (1871).
13
Darwinian ideas are also, of course, apparent in Rosny’s use
of the recurring motif of on-going inter-species struggle throughout
the course of history. This is clearly apparent in Les Xipéhuz, in respect of the overt struggle that takes place between the human tribes
and their stone adversaries. The conflict, caused by the tribes’ need to
defend their territory against the encroachment of the expanding
Xipéhuz population, culminates in a pitched battle from which the
humans emerge victorious, leading Bakhoûn to conclude that: “La
terre appartient aux Hommes” (p. 652). Pride does not, however,
obscure his obvious humanity, as he mourns the passing of the
Xipéhuz, wondering “quelle Fatalité a voulu que la splendeur de la
___________________________
10 Linda L. Clark, Social Darwinism in France (Alabama: University of Alabama
Press, 1984), p. 112.
11 Rosny, La Charpente, pp. 21-22.
12 J.-H. Rosny was a signatory of the infamous “Manifeste des Cinq”, an open letter
published in Le Figaro of 18 August 1887, which highlighted the perceived failures of
literary naturalism in Émile Zola’s La Terre. Regretting his participation in this venture, Rosny was later reconciled with Zola, though his ambivalent relationship with
literary naturalism would be explored in greater depth in the satirical novel Le Termite
of 1890. See Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze, “L’Angoisse de l’influence naturaliste:
Tous Quatre de Paul Margueritte et Le Termite de J.-H. Rosny”, Nineteenth-Century
French Studies, 31 (2003), 123-37.
13 Mélanie Bulliard, L’Enjeu des origines (Lausanne: Archipel, 2001).