Books: Goncourt Brothers

THE GONCOURT JOURNALS—Edmond & Jules de Goncourt; edited and translated by Lewis Galantiere—Doubleday, Doran ($3.50).

In the winter of 1849 two young brothers arrived in Paris to make their literary fortune. Polished, aristocratic, neurasthenic, comfortably off, Edmond (27) and Jules (19) were an extraordinarily close corporation. They not only lived together in nearly continuous amity until death dissolved their partnership, they collaborated in all their writing, thought alike on nearly every subject and kept a joint diary. Little of their 30-odd collaborations—plays, novels, history, criticism—has survived into the 20th Century, but their...