PREVOST, prfi'vel, MARCEL (1S62 —). A French novelist, born in Paris Slay 1, 1592. He was educated by the Jesuits and at the Polytechnic School, engaged in tohacco manufac turing. and entered the literary field in 1891. In 1557, however, he published Le Scorpion, an at tack on Jesuit education: and this story was fol lowed by Clionelictte (1888) and Mademoiselle Janice (1859), both of which were less crude and more sentimental and idyllic, though ivith some affeetation of moralizing. Cousin(' Laura satirized the distortions of love, and the author pursued the theme in La confession dint arrant (1891). His next work, Lettres de feat Ines (1892), was the first to win distinct notice. It was succeeded by Nouvelles lefties do fern inca ( 1894) and Dcr ni('rcs lefties de femmes (1597). The series are gracefully written, witty, ironical, ingenious, and thoroughly seasoned to the moral taste of the French. The dominant note is sensual perversity. L'aulomne (rune femme (1893) is nobler, but Les demi-rierges is distasteful. and Le moulin. de Na,:arctlt (1894) may be classed as revolting. Notre enmpagne (1895), a collection of stories, is, on the other hand, never vulgar, always clever, and often pure; and Le jardin secret (1597) is a strong and worthy narrative of con ventional marriage, with the moral of Goethe's Die M1fschuldigcn. In 1900 appeared Les rierges
fortes, which was composed of two volumes, Fre tWriqttc and Lea. in 1901 L'heureux menage was published. These last volumes deal with the woman question, both as concerns the educa tion and the free life of young girls, and the marriage relation. M. Prevost does not appear to find that the new or higher education for young women, as he understands its development in England and America. points to anything very satisfactory for the French. As a whole, his stories suggest Bourget and Maupassant. At his best he is less powerful, less searching, but in narration he is admirably deft, lucid, compact, swift, and unerring. His feminine psychology is masterly, and probably no Frencli author of his generation has so intimately understood the deli cate, intricate nature of women.