Jules Romains's principal fictional works appeared on the French literary scene shortly after the major works of Marcel Proust; some of the important works of Roger Martin du Gard, author of Les Thibault (1922-1940), preceded Romains's works, and the novels of Georges Duhamel were appearing at about the same time as those of Romains. In spite of the stature of the first two and keen competition from the third, Romains's novels found an important place on the literary scene in France. Animated by a new broad conception of society, although perhaps not as penetrating in this respect as the nineteenth-century novels of Honoré de Balzac, and infused with an optimism as great as the pessimism of Emile Zola and the naturalist school, the novels made their way very quickly among a broad reading public. They represent a continuation of the older humanistic tradition, but infused with a...