The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-20

highest rank among living novelists | think IL
was in the very hrst number of the CornhiH
Magazine that Thackeray, in gossiping para
graph about novelists of the day, whom he men
toned alphabetically and by their initials spoke
of E' as "star of the first magnitude Just risen
on the horizon. Ihackeray, 1t will be remem-
bered, was one OF the first, if not, indeed the
very first to recognize the genius manifested in
"Jane Eyre" The publishers sent him some of
the proof sheets for his advice and Thackeray
saw in them the work of great novelist
The place which Mrs. Lewes thus so suddenly
won, she has, of course, always maintained. Her
position of absolute supremacy over all other
women writers in England is something peculiar
and curious, ohe Is hrst-and there is no
second. No living authoress in Britain is ever
now compared with her. / read not long since
in n New York paper, a sentence which spoke of
George Eliot and Miss Mulock as being the
greatest English authoresses i'm the field of fc-
tion. 1t seemed very odd and funny to me.
Certainly, an English critic would never have
thought of bracketing together such q pair.
Miss Mulock is a graceful true-hearted, good
writer; but Miss MulocS and George Eliot! Rob
ert Lytton and Robert Browningl "A. X. II. b."
q think these are the initials) and John Stuart
Mill! Mark Lemons novels and Charles
Dickens! Mrs Lewes has made people read
novels who, perhaps, never read fiction from
any other pen. She has made the novel the
companion and friend and study of scholars and
thinkers and statesmen. Her books are discussed
by the grayest critics as productions of the high
est school OF art. Men and journals which have
lNs
ray as mere cynic, and Dickens as little better
than professional buffoon, have discussed 'The
Mill on the Floss" and "Romoa" as if these
novels were already classic. OF course it would
be very doubtful kind of merit which COM
manded the admiration of literary prgs or
pedants; but that is not the merit of George
Eliot. Her books find their way to all hearts
and intelgences, but it is their popularity that
they compel, they eXtort the admiration of men
who would dispGrage all novels, if they could,
as frivolous and worthless, but who are forced,
even by their own canons and principles, to re-
cognize the deep clear thought, the noble cul-
ture, the penetrating, analytical power which
are evident in almost every chapter of
these stories. Most of our nOvelists
write in slipslop careless style. Die
kcns is worthless, if regarded merely as II prose
Charles Reade, with all his masculine force and
clearness, is terribly irregular and rugged. The
woman writers have seldom any style mt all
George Eliots prose might be the study of II
scholar anxious to acquire and appreciate
noble English style. 1t is as luminous as the
language OF Mill; far more truly picturesque than
that of Ruskin; capable of forcible, memorable
expression as the robust Saxon of Bright. | am
not going into criticism of George Eliot, who
has been, no doubt, fully criticized in America
already. | am merely engaged in pointing out
the special reasons why she has won in England
a certain kind of admiration which, il seems to
me, hardly any novelist ever has had before.
think she has infused into the novel some elG
ments it never had before, and SO
thoroughly infused them that they blend
with all the other materials, and do not form
anywhere solid lump or mass distinguishable
from the rest. There are philosophical novels
"Wilhelm Meister," for cxampe-which are
weighed down and loaded with the philosophy,
and which the world admires in spite of the phi
losophy. There are political novelS-Disraelis,
for mstanCe-whiCh are only Ineligible to those
who make politics and political personalities II
study. and which, viewed merely as stories
would not be worth speaking about. There are
novels with great direct purpose in them, such
us "Uncle TOMS Cabin" or "Beak House, or
Charles Reade's "lurd CASH but these, after
all, are only magnificent pamphlets, splendidly
illustrated diatribes. The deep philosophic
thought of George Eliots novels sutfuses and
illumines them everywhere. You can point to
no sermon here no lecture there, no solid mass
interposing between this incident and that, no
ponderous moral hung around the neck of this
or that parsonage. Only you feel that you are
under the control of one who is not merely
great story-teller but who is also Il deep thinker.
1t is not, perhaps, unnecessary to say to Amer
lean readers that George Eliot is the only novel
ist who can paint such English people as the
Poysers and the Tullvers Just as they really
are. She looks into the very souls of these peo-
pie. She tracks out their slow peculiar mental
processes: she reprOduccs them fresh and firm
from very life. Mere realism, mere photograph
ing, even from the life, is not in art very great
triumph. But George Eliot can make her dullest
people interesting and dramatically effective.
She can paint two dull people with quite different
ways OF QulncSS-say Il ullll man ana Il QuIl
woman, for eXample-and you are astonished to
find how utterly distinct the two kinds of stu
pidity are-and how intensely amusing both
can be made. Look at the two pedantc,
pompous. dull advocates in the latter part of
Robert Brownings The Ring and the Book
How distinct they are! how different, how
unlike, and how true, are the two por-
traits. But then it must be owned
that the poet is himself terribly tedious
just there. His pedants are quite rs tiresome
as they would be in real life, If each success
sively held you by the button. George Eliot
never is guilty of this great artistic fault You
never want to be rid of Mrs Poyser or Aunt
Glegg. or the prattlng Florentines in Romola
1t is almost superfuous to say that there never
was or c -uld be a Mark Tapley or Sam Weller
We put up with these impossibilities and delight
in them, because they are so amusing and so full
of fantastic humor But Mrs. Poyser lives, and
| have met Aunt Glegg often; and poor MIS-
| Tulliyers cares and hopes, and little fears and
! pitifu reasOnings, are animating scores OF Mrs.
! Tullivers all over England to-day. | would
propose Il safe and easy test to any
! American or other foreigner Il am sup
! posing myself now again in Eng
! land) who is curious to know how much
| he understands of the English character. Let
him read any OF George Ehots noyetSL,even
"FeliX Holt which is so decidedly inferior TO
the rest and if he fails to follow, with thorough
appreciation, the talk and the ways of the Poy-
! sers and such like personages, he may be assured
| he does not understand one great phase OF Eng
| lish life.
Are these novels popular in England? Edu-
Gated public opinion, repeat, ranks them higher
| than the novels of any other living author. But
| they are not pOpular-that Is, rs Willlie Collins
or Miss BraddOn is popular; and do not mean
to say anything sighting of either Wllkle Col
lns or Miss BraddOn, both of whom think pos
sess very great talents, and have been treated
with quite too much of the de hdut en- bdS mood
of the great critics. George Eliot's novels GER