Great Regulars: To the Dreyfusards, the case was a test

of secular and liberal principles--whether France owed justice to a Jew as much as to any other citizen. In the end, the Dreyfusards won, but the whole Affair exposed the deep divisions in French society and helped to politicize a generation of intellectuals--including Leon Blum, who launched himself on a career as a Socialist politician.

René Blum, it seems, stepped neatly into his brother's vacated role as an aesthete and connoisseur. Never venturing into the world of politics, he became an editor for a literary magazine called Gil Blas, where he worked from 1903 to 1913. Chazin-Bennahum tries to mine his contributions for some sense of Blum's personality and taste, but it's a losing battle; she makes heavy weather of what were plainly light, dispensable theater reviews and questionnaires.

from Adam Kirsch: Tablet: Ballet Master

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