The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-07-27
NOVELS WR1rrEH BIZ WOMEN.
Their, Effect upon Modern LIteratur

From Backlog Studies In scribner's Montnly.I
Herbert said ne had been dipping into the
recent novels written by women, here and
there, with view to nothing the effect upon
literature Of this sudden and rather over
whelming accession to 1t. There was 9 good
deal of talk about 1t, evening after evening,
and I can only undertake TO set down trag
ments of 1t.
Herbert. should say that the distinguish.
ing feature OF the literature Of this day is the
prominence women have in It's production.
They figure In most Of the magazines, though
very rarely In the scholarly and critical re-
views, and In thousands Of newspapers; 10
them we are indebted for the oceans OF Sunday
school books, and they write The majority OF
the novels, the serial stories, and they mainly
pour out the watery food Of tales In The week.
ly papers. Whether this Ia to result In more
good than evil 1t is yet Impossible to say, and
pehaps 1t would be unjust to Say until this
generation has worked of tts 'froth,. and wo-
men settle dowE to artistic, conscientious
labor In literature. -.
"The Mistress. You don't-n1ean to say that
George Eliot and Mrs. Gaskell and George
sand and Mrs. Browning before her marriage
and severe attack Of spiritism, are less true 10
art than contemporary men noVelists and
poets?
"Herbert. You name some exceptions that
show the bright side OF the picture, not only
lor the present but for the future. Perhaps
genius has no sex; but ordinary talent has. l
refer 10 the great body OF novels, which you
would know by internal evidence were writ
ten by women. They are of two sorts: the
domestic story, entirely unidealized, and as
flavorless as water cruel; and the spiced novel,
generally Immoral 10 tendency, In which the
social problems are handled, unhappy marrl-
ages. affinity and passlonal attraction, bigamy,
and The violation OF the seventh command
ment. These subjects are treated IN the raw
est manner, without any settled ethics, with
lillle Discrimination of eternal right aud wrong,
and with very little sense Of responsibility tor
what Is eet forth. Many Of these novels are
merely the blind outburets Of q nature i'm
patient of restraint and the conventionallttes
of society, and are as chaotic as the unframed
minds that produces them.
"Mandeville. Don't you think these novels
fairly represent social condluon OF unrest
and upheaval?
''Hsrbert. Very likely; and they help to
creale and spread abroad the discontent they
describe. Stories OF bIgamy (sometimes dis
gulsed by divorce,) Of unhappy marriages,
where the Injured wife, through an enire
volume, Is on the brink Of falling into The
arms of sneaking lover, until death kindly
removes the obstacle, and the two souls, who
were born for each other but got separated In
the cradle, melt and mingle into one in the
last chapter, are not healthful reading for
maids or mothers.
"The Mistress. Or men.
"The Mistress. Herbert, what do you think
women ere good for?
"Our Next Door. That's poser.
"Herbert. Well, think they are In ten.
1TrA md ryoA r.
tell what they will do. some OF our most
brilliant books OF travel, correspondence and
writing on topics In which their sympathies
have warmly Interested them, are by women.
Some Of them are also strong writers In the
daily journals.
s:The Parson. I've another indictment
against the women writer's. we get no g9oo
Old fashioned love stories from them. It's
either quarrel Of discordant nature -one
panther and the other polar bear-1or court.
ship until one of them is crippled by o rail-
way accident; or long wrangle OF married life
between two unpleasant people, who can
neither live comfortably together nor apart.
7 suppose, by what see, that sweet Woo11g,
with all Its torturing and delightful uncertain
", still goes on In the world; and I have no
doubt that the majority of married people live
more happily than the unmarried. But irs
easier 10 lind dodo than new and good love
story.
Is exhausted. Everything In man and outside
of him has been turned over so often, that
should think the novelists would cease simply
from the want ofmaterial.
"Tbe Parson. Plots are no more exhaust
ed than men are. Every man is new crea.
ton, and combinations are simply endless.
Even il we did not have new material In the
daily change of society, and there were only a
fixed number Of incidents and characters Ia
life, invention could not be exhausted on
them. I amuse myself sometimes with my
Kaleidoscope, but can never reproduce
figure. No, no. cannot say that you may
not exhaust everything elsei we may get al
the secrets of nature. into book by and BY
but the novel is immortal, for 1t deals with
men,