The Pensive Citadel

Retired Princeton University comparative literature professor Brombert (Musings on Mortality) reflects on his life in academia in this ruminative essay collection. Tracing his path from student to professor, Brombert recalls starting at Yale as an undergraduate in 1946 under the GI Bill after having escaped with his family from Germany to the U.S., enlisted in the Army, and landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He majored in English but felt increasingly unaligned with the department’s adherence to “New Criticism”—which held that “historical, social, and biographical considerations were” immaterial to literary analysis—and he decided to specialize in French literature while pursuing his PhD, enamored by the discipline’s prevalent belief that historical and biographical background were “essential to the understanding of an author’s works.” Brombert expounds at length on his French literary heroes, devoting selections to how Molière’s play Dom Juan ou le Festin de Pierre depicts “the disarray when moral codes and moral values are challenged,” and how Brombert’s appreciation for Stendhal’s work was deepened by classroom discussions with his students. Brombert’s enthusiastic takes on the French classics show what made him a beloved professor, but the reverent accounts of university life and detailed discussions of navigating trends in literary criticism will hold the most appeal for fellow academics. Literature scholars will want to check this out. (Oct.)