Book review: The Hall of Uselessness, by Simon Leys

by Simon Leys
New York Review Books
4 stars
Alex Lo

The fox knows many things, according to Isaiah Berlin, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. If so, Pierre Ryckmans, better known to the reading public as Simon Leys, is a rare hybrid. He knows one really big thing, China, but judging by this eclectic collection of essays spanning three decades, his interests and erudition range across the humanities.

Born in Belgium, his mother tongue is French but his mastery of English gives him a wide readership as one of the world's foremost sinologists. More importantly, his mastery of the Chinese language enables him to understand what Hegel calls the spirit of a people. It's been said he that who knows only one country knows no country. If so, Leys is the opposite. That may be why many essays here offer deep and intriguing insights not only into China, but also modern European civilisation through its literature. The collection includes illuminating takes on Balzac, Victor Hugo, Malraux, Gide, Orwell and Evelyn Waugh.

To me, the most inspiring essay here is not anything on China, but the one on Cervantes' Don Quixote, and its interpretations by four 20th-century literary greats: Nabokov, Miguel de Unamuno, Henry de Montherlant and Mark Van Doren.

Regarding China, one of Leys' recurrent complaints is about how many so-called China experts can barely speak the language. There is a rich literature on China in English (and French and German), so you can, presumably, master that and claim to be an expert. If you can't work with primary sources, your work will always be derivative.

Today, it is virtually impossible to be an academic sinologist without knowing the language, although there are still many hacks posing as experts.