ABSTRACT
"Concerning a Book on Aesthetics" is a refutation of the thesis proposed by M. Maignan in Economie Esthetique, published by L'Art Decoratif in 1912. Maignan believed that art should be used to regenerate a people and that it could flourish perfectly only in a socialistic society. Rivière speaks out against utilitarianism in literature in this article and in the second article, "In Defense of Intelligence." "Gratitude to Dada" was published on August 1920 at the height of the zany Dada manifestations. Dada, born in Zurich, reached Paris just after the war and both amused and exasperated Parisians with its riotous exhibitionism and its negation of everything. The French had begun to know Russian literature in the eighties, when Dupuy and Vogue were writing books about it. Dostoevsky became popular once again about 1921, when Gide was preparing a book on Dostoevsky, which he was to publish in 1923.
