THE INFERNO

BY HENRI BARBUSSE
AUTHOR OF "UNDER FIRE"

TRANSLATED FROM THE 100TH FRENCH EDITION WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY EDWARD J. O'BRIEN
1918




INTRODUCTION


In introducing M. Barbusse's most important book to a public already
familiar with "Under Fire," it seems well to point out the relation of
the author's philosophy to his own time, and the kinship of his art to
that of certain other contemporary French and English novelists.

"L'Enfer" has been more widely read and discussed in France than any
other realistic study since the days of Zola. The French sales of the
volume, in 1917 alone, exceeded a hundred thousand copies, a popularity
all the more remarkable from the fact that its appeal is based as much
on its philosophical substance as on the story which it tells.

Although M. Barbusse is one of the most distinguished contemporary
French writers of short stories, he has found in the novel form the
most fitting literary medium for the expression of his philosophy, and
it is to realism rather than romanticism that he turns for the