Henry Céard's Une Belle Journée

In Une belle journée (1881), Henry Céard, through the deliberate reduction of the traditional elements of the novel to total banality turns away from Zola's naturalism and uses techniques resembling those of modern novelists. Céard's goal of presenting the unchangeable banality of life depends, technically, on the limitation of two uninteresting characters to the outwardly trivial events of one day spent in a highly restricted milieu. This reductive technique, disruptive to the average reader, permits Céard to study in minute detail the psychology of a non-event. It is in this psychological presentation, so different from Zola's more dramatic naturalism, that one sees an early version of the monologue intérieur and other techniques common to modern literature, especially to the nouveau roman. Closer attention to Céard's techniques and their ultimate effect on the reader allows a fuller assessment of the novel's historical importance and a reversal of its negative reputation. (WT)