French Literature Reviews - 2026
C. Connolly, Enemies of Promise
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Cyril Connolly, Enemies of Promise
translated by Alain Delahaye
Paris: Les Belles Lettres, "Le goût des idées"
2011, 384 pages
- ISBN: 978-2-251-20015-6
- Price: 15 euros
Publisher's Presentation
Are you prone to daydreaming? Do you drink wine with dinner? Do you smoke? Are you involved in politics? Do you have a sex life and/or a family life? Do you enjoy conversation, high society, success? Are you poor? Do you have to work for a living, or, on the contrary, manage your fortune? Do you stoop to writing for newspapers? If you answer "yes" to any of these questions, then abandon all hope of ever becoming a writer—or of remaining one, should a series of fortunate coincidences (such as the commercial success of your previous works due to topical subjects, or flattering reviews from friends) have led you to believe you already are one.
Unrelenting, uncompromising, unyielding, and infernal, Cyril Connolly—the greatest English critic from the 1930s to the 1970s—here wages war against the "parasites of genius," the "plagues from which no writer is safe." Published in 1938 and revised in 1949, Enemies of Promise remains one of the very few truly great masterclasses on writing. Part One, "The Problem Concerning Literature," attempts a classification of genres and styles; Part Two, "The Charlock's Shadow"—the most fierce and hilarious section—precisely analyzes the "enemies of the writer"; and finally, Part Three, "A Georgian Boyhood" (autobiographical), offers a meticulous analysis of the public school educational system that produced so many great English writers.
Contents
Introduction
Part One: The Problem Concerning Literature
1) The Years of Judgment
2) The Mandarin Dialect
3) The Impairment of Mandarins
4) The Modern Movement
5) Anatomy of Dandyism
6) A Beast in View
7) The New Mandarins
8) The New vernacular
9) The Material of Prose
Part Two: The Charlock's Shadow
10) Tare and Tret
11) The Blue Bugloss
12) Thistles
13) Poppies
14) The Charlock's Shadow
15) The Clammy Marshmallow
16) An Unresolved Perspective
Part Three: A Georgian Boyhood
17) Letters Patent
18) The Ogham Branched
19) White Samite
20) The Dark Ages
21) Renaissance
22) The Background of Lilies
23) Glittering Prizes
24) Vale
* * *
An article on this work can be read on the nonfiction.fr website:
Published originally in 1938 and revised in 1949, Cyril Connolly's work stands within the tradition of English literary criticism. The volume is organized into three distinct sections addressing literary genres and styles, the specific hazards encountered by writers, and autobiographical reflections on the public school system in England. Readers interested in twentieth-century literary criticism and the conditions of authorship may find this French translation relevant for understanding the broader intellectual climate of the period.
The text investigates the various obstacles that authors encounter, categorized as parasites of genius and plagues affecting literary production. It includes discussions on prose style, the classification of genres, and the educational background shaping generations of English writers. Alain Delahaye's translation makes this reflection on literature accessible to French-speaking audiences within the publisher's collection dedicated to the history of ideas.