New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-07-01
JAMES AND HAGGARD.
TWO KINDS OF REALISM.


PIP 270 Harper Brothers
The Revcrbcrator, is another Of those studies
in American types and combinations which have
always so strong an attraction for Mr.. James. In
bringing the DOssOn family before us he EXHIBITS the
light-handed, delicate skill now well recognized.
In George Flacb. the Paris correspondent OF The
Reverberator,, there is less lightness of hand
and more evidence Of dislike to the subject.
Certainly less creditabe example of class could
not have been drawn, and there is likely to be
some dispute as to whether Mr.. James has not
fallen into caricature in this instance. The vll-
gar young commercial American who goes
about brazenly seeking and chronicling scandals
and telling everybody that the public demand all
the news, and that the days Of privacy are over,
may very well figure a symbol of all that Is
worst in modern journalism. but can hardly be
accepted seriously portrait, even Of the com
rosite variety. But if George FlaclS is specimen
cad what can be said of Francine Dosson, the
heroine Of the storyp The Dossons are decidedly
interesting; the elderly father. travelling in the
train of his two sef-willed girls: Della, the slow
minded but sef-centred elder sister, and Francie,
the beauty-each constitutes a clever study. But
while the reader admires the skill Of the artist
he is moved to question the existence OF any
class corresponding to these alleged types Mr..
Dosson is represented man who has glft OF
finance, and has made large fortune by it almost
unwittingly. That is picturesque conception,
but who has ever met an unconscious inancier IN
real life, or a fnancier who. having become rich,
would go and vegetate at Paris hotel, sitting
for hours in the courtyard alone, doing nothing
and apparently thinking nothing?
But however perplexing Mr.. Dosson is, his
daughter Francie FAR surpasses him in eccentrici-
ties of character and complicated contradictions
generally Imagine an almost faultlcsSly boauti-
full girl, girl in whose external appearance there
is every promise and suggestion Of refinement and
delicacy of soul Not OF all Daisy Miller kind
of young woman, not pert, forward, brazen, but
rather shy shrinking and reticcnt. Yet withal
so hopelessly, abysmally vulgar through and
through so utterly void Of womanly sensibility,
tact good taste, and all the finer qualities which
make lady, that by comparison a fishwoman of
the Halle appears her superior in sweetness
and light. Mr.. James perhaps believes
that modern journalism and especially the
society paper" is bringing his countrymen and
countrywomen to this complexion Even so, his
method is rather ovcrbod. This dream of beauty,
this Francine. being engaged 10 marry a young
Frenchman Of American extraction who possesses
large and sensitive family Of married sisters and
an aristocratc father, deliberately permits Fack,
Of :" The Reverberator" to interview" her and
tells him. knowing that he will print it, all the
family secrets, scandals disagreements, etc. which
her new relatives have impaired to her in the
strictest confidence Flack. of course, publishes
everything. and not without seasoning. The whole
Dosson family are then described quite unable
TO understand why the French victims should
feel aggrieved or be indignant, make any fuss
about commonplace an episode.
As to the fair Francie. it is really necessary to
assume that she is phenomenal fool 20 render
her action ineligible. And there Is what we
certainly do not expect from Mr.. James, distinct
infelicty, in fact, a clumsiness, in this portrait
of woman so incredibly deprived of that in
sight, that feminine tact. which so often compen-
safes, so far as the world is concerned, for the
absence of true refinement, and which is itself
almost as completely matter of sex as the for
nation Of the clavicle. Physical beauty is not
invariably correlated with spiritual development,
but il is nevertheless significant and for the most
part covers no paradoxes. Moreover, there is
kind of external loneliness which is compatible
with inward coarseneSs ard dulness, and
there is kind which is not so
compatible; and Mr. James seems to
have fallen into the error Of giving Francie
the latter style instead of the former If, indeed
II is his purpose to intimate that modern journal
ism-the doctrine and practice of The Rever-
berator" lis corrupting even our most promising
types Of womanhood and that we are bringing
I'D whole class Of ostensibly educated people, from
whose characters the democratic vulgarity OF per-
petual and comprehensive publicity has eXtirpated
the last relics Of refinement, decacy, modesty and
dfidencc the formidable nature of the indictment
must be admitted, and then naturally an eX-
animation of the accusative documents must fol-
low Possibly Mr.. James in prophetic
vein when he wrote The Reverberator," and
only meant to hint at the horrors the future might
have in store for us should we persist in our
present evil ways.
Even in that case, it is difficult to understand
why so extreme, so unnatural, view Of the poten-
tial turpitudc of our lovely Francie should have
been taken For though the girl in the story Is
shown as entertaining vague and sullcn rcgrets
because Of her monstrous behavior, IN the end
and though the curtain falls on marriage, no
hope can be felt for the unhappy bridegroom,
who, il is perfectly clear, would have done wisely
and well had he taken the vulgar young American
at her word, and gone back TO his sisters and
father who loved, understood and sympathized
with him. A girl who had reached Fancie's
age without realizing the need of privacy in
life would never learn better. She would,
She herself put it, always be doing something
and the something would frequently lie very bad
indeed But we think Mr. James does not quite
believe in his Blossoms efter all, for, cleverly ms
they are drawn, there is a mistiness about them
which puts them beyond intimacy and even close
acquaintance. We never get TO understand them
as we understand the people we meet in the flesh,
and that Is trustworthy test of the degree of
spiritual heat at which writer strikes out his
characters. There are scenes In some Of the in
tense modern dramas in which, by mechanical
of gauzy curtains, supposed dream-epi-
sodes are presented with strong effect. Something
of this dream-dinness hangs about the principal
persons in "The Reyerberator.' They do not
impress one having red blood in their veins,
but rather moonlight. Nor have they any vigor.
curious languor Expresses all OF them. Mr..
Dosson in his chair in the hotel court Della
sitting with empty hands and apparently, vacant
mind in the parlor above; Francie with her