A Perilous Advantage: The Best of Natalie Clifford Barney
Page 20
Barney's change of perspective on the war is brought about suddenly, can in fact be pinpointed to one hour and the spectacular events of that hour. The villa in which she and Romaine Brooks lived was requisitioned by German officers during a period of heavy bombardment. The two women, before retreating to a neighbor's cellar for the night, "soothe their high-strung nerves" listening to Peri, the neighbors' daughter, play the piano. They find the Germans "pitifully exemplary" and the following night the officers are also invited to listen to Peri play. Later two of the officers shut themselves up in one of the rooms of the house to discuss tactics. They are overheard to say that they will not allow the same thing to happen in Florence as had just happened in Rome. The people of the house make note of this, realizing only in the light of subsequent events that it was a reference to the British promise to allow the Germans to retreat peacefully, and their breaking of this promise by firing on the retreating troops. (This, at least, is Barney's version of events). In the morning the Germans leave and the British take over the house ("these Anglo-Saxons with their well-shaped heads and small gentlemanly ears." [p, 245]) Once again the women go and soothe their high-strung nerves with Peri's delightful Bach recital. This time the British officers are invited. It could have been written by Guy de Maupassant. The bombing is fearful, and as Peri and her father gaze out of the windows toward Florence, they fly suddenly into tears of rage: the Germans are blowing up the famous Florentine bridges, one after the other (save the Ponte Vecchio).
Barney stood and watched the bombs, the flames, the smoke and that's How It Changed. It is impossible for her to deny the sight before her eyes: the champions of Art, History and Tradition are systematically destroying irreplaceable objects of beauty. It might be nice to think her mind was changed when she realized the fascists were systematically destroying irreplaceable human lives, but that's not what happened. Her reaction suggests she could not quite believe the Germans knew what they were doing:
Could they not realize that the blowing-up of Florence's bridges would have a world-wide repercussion and make even the most cool-headed doubt the sanity of the whole totalitarian system? [p. 235]
A serious, fearful note surfaces here and there in the Memoirs despite the facade of "the jokes must go on." The Barney of the early 20th century who complained fretfully when everyone abandoned their tennis tournament to go and listen to the Dreyfus trial in Rennes [p. 169] has become more complex. The 1940s Barney confesses to undergoing what she terms a "sentimental crisis" (for which her friends recommend she read Candide) [p. 101]. She wonders,
Most certainly Romaine had the right to remain in Italy, but
had I? I had the uncomfortable impression of being towed in
her wake. [p. 50]
She describes herself,
I who may have no life ahead but only behind me... [p, 169]
This uneasiness builds up throughout the manuscript and one begins to wonder whether her anti-semitism was the confused product of more personal feelings. There is evident sexual jealousy in some of her slights and insults. She demands, for example, by what quirk of fate or intrigue Renée Vivien had come to leave her for the arms of the "richest woman in the Israelite world?" [Barney 1960: 76]. She is outraged by the "Israelites" who, like Maurice de Rothschild, handle society women as though they were mere bibelots for their private collection. Maurice de Rothschild just happened to be the protector of Liane de Pougy, another of Barney's lovers.
During the war, jealousy is a minor issue compared with that of personal safety. Berthe Cleyrergue, Barney's housekeeper, remained in Paris to look after Barney's house in the Rue Jacob. She relates how in 1942 everything belonging to the Bertheims, the Jewish owners of Barney's home, was sold by the Germans to the Gauthier-Languereau publishing house. One day Cleyrergue herself was summoned before the Germans who insisted that Barney was Jewish, intending to seize and sell her property as well. Cleyrergue thought fast and replied that Barney was not Jewish, certainly not, otherwise she never would have sought refuge with Mussolini, now would she? And to respond to the vague rumours the German officers had evidently heard about Barney's family, Cleyrergue continued that they must be thinking of Barney's sister, Laura, who had indeed married a Jew, a Mr. Dreyfus, now deceased. If they wished to interview Mrs. Dreyfus Barney, they would find her in America. [Cleyrergue 1980: 148-151 and personal conversation of 26 July, 1991]. Had the Germans found Natalie Barney at the house in 20 Rue Jacob, what would they have done? By 1943 they were deporting people who had any Jewish relatives—Barney's own situation.
Was Barney aware of this situation? A paragraph in one of her letters to her sister is very revealing:
Your post card on a photograph of St John's Church also reassured me that you are doubly safe under the care of both Church and State. Your sending this token was either a coincidence or a discreet response to my request for some documents avowing me “Arian”—and even a Christian (as my attitude suggests) and an Episcopalian as well, though whatever that may be I am no longer aware. [Barney MS: 31]
Barney needed proof that she was a Christian Aryan. Can this be that same woman who had to ask Renée Vivien, a few days before Christmas in the early 1900s, "What is this Christmas celebration? Does it commemorate the birth or death of Christ?" [Barney 1960: 55]. No wonder she has forgotten what Episcopalian means. Is the anti-semitism which fills the pages of the Memoir intended to express the Christian attitude to which she alludes in her letter to Laura?
Whereas in her earlier works she is quite open about her Jewish ancestry and proud of her family's achievements, by the time of "Memoirs" Barney has become extremely reticent. She writes of her father of "exclusively Anglo-Celtic stock," adding that her mother's ancestry is more varied: Her grandfather coming from Holland and her grandmother from France... [Barney MS: 126] There is a marginal note and a large question mark to the word "grandfather" saying "partly Jewish descent?" As though at the time of writing she cannot decide whether it is safe enough to admit to any degree of Jewishness but still does not like to deny it altogether. She explains her brother-in-law, with the obviously Jewish name "Dreyfus" as follows:
My sister married a Frenchman interested like her in Eastern
religions. [Barney MS: 96]
She writes of the Jews who subsidized the Grand Operas and Philharmonic Orchestras—like Samuel Pike in Cincinnati and later New York—in terms that sound like praise, then ends her sentence with an aside about their hidden ambition to infiltrate high society. Her ambivalence becomes extremely apparent. She suggests that given the number of Jews who have been permitted to flood the USA, the name "Uncle Sam" should be changed to "Uncle Samuel." "Uncle Samuel?" "Granpa Samuel?"
What conclusion to draw? Is Barney allowed to remain a heroine? She laments that, unlike her ancestors who fled the French Revolution, she did not get the chance to be tested in some great feat of bravery:
I wish I had been born in those troubled times, which
demanded absolute heroism or total cowardice...
[Barney 1910: 68]
It would seem that one must sigh and shake one's head, and say that she had indeed been so tested and that she failed.
But, leaving aside for a moment her written words, was there not during her four year stay in Fiesole, a moment when people turned to her for help, appealed to her to use her privileged position to keep them alive? There was. She and Romaine were at the Berenson's one day, watching Nijinsky's daughter dance, accompanied on the piano by a handsome young couple. Barney was attracted by handsome faces. At the end of the performance Mary Berenson drew Barney aside and asked,
Where would this Jewish couple of musicians be able to take
refuge that their child might be born in peace?... I answered
that they could have the cabin I had reserved on the "Rex" soon
sailing for New York. [Barney MS: 26]
So, when it came to it, Barney replied without hesitation, without pomp and theory, a resounding "yes." I w
as so moved when I read this in the Bibliothèque Doucet that I wanted to cheer. I had so much wanted Barney to come out right in the end. Barney then wrote her sister, who was to have sailed with her, letting her know of the change she had made, so that Laura would not be startled and give the game away. Next, knowing that it was likely only Americans would be allowed to board this last boat from Genoa, she changed the names herself at Cooks Travel Agency, where the tickets had been purchased.
Well, so what? Why not give the tickets away, since she wasn't going to use them? And anyway, sounds like she gave that couple the tickets because they were good looking and played the piano so nicely. Did she? I don't know. I am more moved by acts of goodness than by vileness, probably because at that time they were so much more rare.
References
Barney, N., 1910, Eparpillements, Paris Sansot
1918, Pensées d'une amazone, Paris Emile-Paul
1960, Souvenirs indiscrets, Paris Flammarion
1963, Traits et portraits, Paris, Flammarion
1963, Traits et portraits, Paris, Mercure de France
MS, Memoirs of a European American 1940-44
Benstock S., 1986, Women of the Left Bank, Austin, University of Texas Press
Cleyrergue B., 1980, Berthe ou un demi-siècle auprè de l'amazone, Editions Tierce, Paris
Jay K., 1988, The Amazon and the Page, Indianapolis, Indiana University Press
Vida, V., 1978, Our Right to Love, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall
Where These Texts Came From
Apology……………………………………extract from Pensées d'une amazone
Dedication…………………………………extract from Pensées d'une amazone
Renée Vivien…………………………………………. from Souvenirs indiscrets
The Woman Who Lives With Me………Privately printed, English in the original
Confidences……………………………. extract from Cinq petits dialogues gracs
Brute!……………………………………extract from Cinq petits dialogues gracs
Courtesan………………………………. extract from Cinq petits dialogues gracs
The Unknown Woman…………………..extract from Cinq petits dialogues gracs
Breasts……………………………………………..extract from Traits et portraits
The Climbing Rose………………………………………….extract from Accident
The Sitting Room……………………………………………extract from Accident
Misunderstanding…………………….extract from extract from Traits et portraits
Gide and the Others………………………………..extract from Traits et portraits
Illicit Love Defended………………………………extract from Traits et portraits
Predestined for Free Choice………………………….extract from Eparpillements
Scatterings……………………………………………extract from Eparpillements
Little Mistresses..……………………………………extract from Eparpillements
Their Lovers…………………………………………extract from Eparpillements
Epigrams…………………………………………….extract from Eparpillements
Indiscretions……………………………………extract from Souvenirs indiscrets
Alcohol……………………………………..extract from Pensées d'une amazone
The Gods……………………………………extract from Pensées d'une amazone
Old Age…………………………………….extract from Pensées d'une amazone
Theatre……………………………………..extract from Pensées d'une amazone
Literature…………………………………..extract from Pensées d'une amazone
Critical Sallies……………………………..extract from Pensées d'une amazone
Rémy de Gourmont……………………………………from Souvenirs indiscrets
The Colette I Knew…………………………………….from Souvenirs indiscrets
Gertrude Stein……….Preface to As Fine As Melanchtha; English in the original.
Reprinted from Adam: International Review 29 No 299 (1962)
When Poets Meet………….from Adam: International Review 29 No 299 (1962)
Selected Bibliography
Primary Sources
Barney, Natalie Clifford. [Quelques portraits-sonnets de femmes,] Paris: Société d'éditions
littéraires, 1900.
⎯⎯.[Tryphé].[Cinqs petits dialogue gracs (antithèses et parallèles)]. Paris: Plume, 1902.
⎯⎯. Actes et entr'actes. Paris: Sansot, 1910.
⎯⎯. Eparpillements. Paris: Sansot, 1910.
⎯⎯. Pensées d'une amazone. Paris: Emile-Paul, 1920.
⎯⎯. Poems et poèmes: autres alliances. Paris: Emile-Paul; New York: Doran 1920.
⎯⎯. Aventures de l'esprit. Paris, 1929; rpt. New York: Arno, 1975.
⎯⎯. The One Who Is Legion, Or A.D.’s After-Life. London: Partridge, 1930.
⎯⎯. Nouvelles pensées de l'amazone. Paris: Mercure de France, 1939.
⎯⎯. Souvenirs indiscrets. Paris: Flammarion, 1960.
⎯⎯."Idleness." Adam: International Review 29, No 299 (1962) 49-53.
⎯⎯."My Country 'tis of Thee.", Adam: International Review 29, No. 299 (1962) 67-71.
⎯⎯. Traits et portraits. Paris, 1963; rpt. New York: Arno 1975.
⎯⎯. Accident. MS. Bibliothèque Doucet, Paris.
⎯⎯. Aphorisms of an Amazon. MS. Bibliothèque Doucet, Paris.
⎯⎯. Autour d'une victoire. MS. Bibliothèque Doucet, Paris.
⎯⎯. Jews, Poets and Poets. MS. Bibliothèque Doucet, Paris.
⎯⎯. Memoirs of a European American. MS. Bibliothèque Doucet, Paris.
⎯⎯. My Country tis of Thee. MS. Bibliothèque Doucet, Paris.
⎯⎯. La question juive et la terre promise. MS. Bibliothèque Doucet, Paris.
[Barney, Natalie Clifford]. Je me souviens. Paris. Sansot, 1910.
[Barney, Natalie Clifford]. The Woman Who Lives With Me. n.p.: privately printed, n.d.
Selected Bibliography
Secondary Sources
Adam: International Review 29, No 299 The Amazon of Letters, A World Tribute to Natalie Clifford Barney, 1962 Ed Miron Grindea, London.
Benstock, Shari. Women of the Left Bank. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986.
Causse, Michéle and Cleyrergue, Berthe. Berthe ou un demisiècle auprès de l'amazone. Paris: Editions Tierce, 1980
Chalon, Jean. Portrait d'une séductrice. Paris: Stock, 1976.
Chapon, François, et al. Autour de Natalie Clifford Barney. Paris: Universités de Paris, 1976.
Cleyrergue, Berthe. Personal Interview. 26 June 1991.
Colette. The Vagabond. New York: Farrar Straus and Young, 1955.
⎯⎯. The Pure and the Impure. New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1967
⎯⎯. The Evening Star: Recollections. London: Peter Owen, 1973.
⎯⎯. Duo and Le Toutounier. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1974.
⎯⎯. Looking Backwards. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975.
Gide, André . The Immoralist. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1954.
⎯⎯. Corydon. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983.
Gourmont, Rémy de. Letters to the Amazon. London: Chatto and Windus, 1931.
⎯⎯. Lettres intimes à l'amazone. Paris: La Centaine, 1927.
Gramont, Elisabeth de. Ex-duchesse de Clermont-Tonnerre. Mémoires... Paris: Grasset, 1928.
⎯⎯. Pomp and Circumstance. New York: J. Cape and H. Smith, 1929.
⎯⎯. Years of Plenty. New York: J. Cape and H. Smith, 1931.
⎯⎯. Mémoires de la Tour Eiffel. Paris: Grasset, 1937.
⎯⎯. Barbey d'Aurévilly. Paris: Grasset, 1946.
⎯⎯. Marcel Proust. Paris: Flammarion, 1948.
Harris, Bertha. “The More Profound Nationality of Their Lesbianism: Lesbian Society in Pairs in the 1920's" In Amazon Expedition: A Lesbian-feminist Anthology. Ed. Phyllis Birkby et al. New York: Times Change Press, 1973, pp 77-88.
⎯⎯. "Lesbian Literature: An Introduction." In Our Right to Love. Ed. Vida, Virginia. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1978, pp 257-259.
⎯⎯ Jay, Karla. The Amazon and the Page. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988.
⎯⎯. The Amazon was a Pacifist.. Reweaving the Web of Life: Feminism and Nonviolence. Ed. Pam McAllister. Philadelphia: New Society, 1982.
Loüys, Pierre. Aphrodite. Paris: A. Michel, 1946.
⎯⎯. Les Chansons de Bilitis. Paris: Jobert, 1971.
Pougy, Liane de. Idylle Saphique. Paris: Plume, 1901.
Vivien, Renée. Brumes des fjords. Paris: Lemerre, 1902.
⎯⎯. Une femme m'apparut... 1904; rpt. Paris: Desforges, 1977.
⎯⎯. Poèmes en prose. Paris: Sansot, 1909.
⎯⎯. Poèmes de Renée Vivien. 2 vols. Paris, 1923; rpt. New York: Arno, 1975.