L. L. G. 1823. “Lettre adressée à la Société Asiatique de Paris, par M. Louis de l’Or, ancien officier de cavalerie. Paris, 1823, brochure in-8º.” Journal asiatique. February 1823. pp. 109–113.
This article, signed only by “M. L. L. G.,” summarizes a letter sent to the Société Asiatique by a certain Louis de l’Or. It is a fabulous specimen of early nineteenth-century scholarly invective, pulled off with subterfuge and humor.
Friedrich von Adelung, the German director of the Oriental Institute at St. Petersburg, had published in 1820 his Übersicht aller bekannten Sprachen und ihrer Dialekte. This amusing little work is an odd list of all languages in the world, organized into their respective families.
Julius von Klaproth, writing under the hilarious pen name “Louis de l’Or, veteran officer of the cavalry,” savages the work of Adelung in his letter to the Société Asiatique, and his letter is summarized here by L. L. G. Klaproth is angry that Adelung’s work has been lavished with praise in the French newspapers. L. L. G. slyly retorts that of course the French review their own works poorly, but praise any and all foreign publications.
| On critiquerait bien ai on l’osait un ouvrage fait à Paris; mais quand un livre vient d’au-delà du Rhin, il est par cela seul un fort bon livre. Si par hasard il vient de Pétersbourg, oh! alors il est excellent. Il est si doux d’ailleurs de vanter ceux qui ne seront jamais nos rivaux! | For the works of foreigners, it is different; one gives to them readily enough the praises which one would refuse to one’s compatriates. One would well criticize it if it were a work done in Paris; but when a book comes from beyond the Rhine, it is for that reason alone a very good book. If, by chance, it comes from St. Petersburg, then oh! of course it is excellent. It is so easy to praise others who will never be our rivals! |
L. L. G., with completely feigned politeness and good will, somehow finds a way to repeat Klaproth’s words without necessarily giving them the full endorsement of the Société Asiatique:
| Sans approuver la manière dont M. de l’Or traite le savant de Pétersbourg, quoiqu’il ne soit pas très-étonnant qu’un officier de cavalerie traite un peu cavalièrement ses adversaires, nous ne pouvons que reconnaître toute la justesse de ses observations et du ses critiques. | Without approving of the manner in which Mr. de l’Or treats the scholar from St. Petersburg—although we should not be too surprised that an officer of the cavalry treats his adversaries a bit cavalierly—we cannot help but recognize the complete justice of his observations and of his critiques. |
Why, for example, does Adelung count Basque as a French dialect? He adds dialects to languages willy-nilly, and artificially inflates the number of known languages.
| …on ne doit pas être étonné que le nombre des langues actuellement connues s’élève, selon M. Adelung, à 3,064, dont 587 pour notre Europe. Si on parcourt par hasard le catalogue du savant Allemand, on pourra facilement reconnaître qu’il lui serait facile d’ajouter encore à ce nombre, s’il avait parcouru chacun des pays de l’Europe. Il suffirait presque de voir ce catalogue pour reconnaître que l’auteur en est Allemand; car c’est pour l’Allemagne surtout qu’il montre toute sa libéralité. Il y compte au moins 163 dialectes. | …one should not be surprised that the number of currently known languages is heightened, according to Mr. Adelung, to 3,064, of which 587 are European. If one by chance comes across the catalog of the German scholar, one would easily recognize that it would have been easy to add even more to this number, if he had gone through each of the countries of Europe. It should suffice to view this catalog by remembering that the author is himself a German; because it is for Germany above all that he shows all his liberality. He counts there at least 163 dialects. |
It is at this point that Klaproth really lays on the sarcasm:
| Si l’auteur connaissait la France aussi bien que l’Allemagne, il est permis de croire que, quoiqu’il nous ait déjà faits très-riches, il nous aurait encore gratifié de quelques dialects qu’il a oubliés. A Paris même, le dialecte du faubourg St.-Marceau pourrait différer assez de celui qui est en usage a la chaussée d’Antin, pour que M. Adelung les ait ajoutés a sa liste. | If the author knew France as well as Germany, one could imagine that, though he already treated us very generously, he would have granted us even more dialects which he has left out. In Paris alone, the dialect of the suburb of St. Marceau could differ enough from that used on the Chaussée-d’Antin, that Mr. Adelung would have added them to his list. |
A splendid savaging of a horrible book, made even more brutal by the good humor, the feigned politeness, and the fake anonymity of our “veteran officer of the cavalry.” This review not only makes me nostalgic for the good old days of Orientalist scholarship, it also brings to mind how isolated and provincial the current American scene is. Klaproth is furious that the Parisian press is giving great reviews to a German work on linguistics published in St. Petersburg. Imagine the impossibility of this in the American scene today. When is the last time you have seen a French or Russian book reviewed in the New York Review of Books? When is the last time you saw a Japanese or German book reviewed even in scholarly journals like the Journal of the American Academy of Religion?
