CHAPTER 5 — Parnassus

In Chap­ter 5 titled “Par­nas­sus” of “The Ways of Men,” the nar­ra­tor recounts an enlight­en­ing encounter with Sainte-Beuve, a para­mount writer and crit­ic of the cen­tu­ry, in his Paris home on rue Mont­par­nasse. This mem­o­rable vis­it cap­tured through youth­ful eyes even­tu­al­ly matures into a cher­ished mem­o­ry, rein­forced by the narrator’s grow­ing admi­ra­tion for Sainte-Beuve’s work. The nar­ra­tive weaves through the years, trac­ing the nar­ra­tor’s return to Paris, the trans­for­ma­tions of the city, and his rev­er­ence for the lit­er­ary cir­cles once vibrant with dis­cus­sions and cri­tiques that shaped the lit­er­ary land­scape.

The chap­ter art­ful­ly con­veys Paris’s intel­lec­tu­al and his­tor­i­cal ambiance through detailed rec­ol­lec­tions of the Lux­em­bourg Gar­den and its sta­tus as a poet­ic sanc­tu­ary in the heart of Paris, host­ing busts of cel­e­brat­ed writ­ers like Hen­ri Murg­er and Vic­tor Hugo, now includ­ing Sainte-Beuve. This pic­turesque set­ting unfolds as a back­drop to deep­er reflec­tions on Sainte-Beuve’s influ­ence, his unique prac­tices of writ­ing away from pub­lic inter­rup­tions under an assumed name, and his pas­sion­ate yet tumul­tuous rela­tion­ship with his con­tem­po­raries and lit­er­ary cri­tique.

Sainte-Beu­ve’s com­plex­i­ties are explored fur­ther through anec­dotes depict­ing his fer­vent work eth­ic, his resilience against pub­lic crit­i­cism, and his uncom­pro­mis­ing stance on intel­lec­tu­al free­dom dur­ing an era of poet­ic restraint. Despite his crit­i­cal role in the lit­er­ary world, Sainte-Beuve remained dis­tanced from the polit­i­cal glo­ry of his day, exem­pli­fied by a mis­un­der­stood com­pli­ment from Napoleon III.

The nar­ra­tive also cap­tures Sainte-Beu­ve’s social per­sona, marked by his love for the the­atre and engag­ing con­ver­sa­tion, yet mis­un­der­stood by some, lead­ing to humor­ous yet poignant mis­un­der­stand­ings on the true nature of his influ­ence.

This chap­ter, rich with his­tor­i­cal and lit­er­ary ref­er­ences, paints a vivid por­trait of Sainte-Beu­ve’s endur­ing lega­cy, offer­ing insight into the intel­lec­tu­al rig­or and per­son­al con­vic­tions that under­pinned his con­tri­bu­tions to French lit­er­a­ture and cri­tique. It invokes a sense of time­less­ness, bridg­ing past and present, and cel­e­brat­ing the indeli­ble mark of an intel­lec­tu­al giant with­in the ever-evolv­ing land­scape of Parisian soci­ety and cul­ture.