Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-02-11
A Peculiar Literary Development,

their best work. This is true OF both
England and the United States; and it is
also true, though not in so large a
measure, of France and Germany.
In place of the noble and pure schools
of the French drama and romance, we
have writer's of the Daudet stamp. In
England, Swinburne is type of the
decadence of the old, clean poetry. In
the United States, our Coopers, Wash
ington Irvings and Longfellows have
been succeeded by such colorless writers
as Howells and James, authors who are
at least innoouous, but who have not a
tithe of the warmth, imagination and
masculinity of our earlier and wholesome
school.
But Howells, comparatively respectable
by any standard, is demi-god of litera-
ture when placed beside later class of
writer's who have sprung up in this coun-
try, and it is a melancholy circumstance
that they are mostly women. To Illus
trate our ideas, we shall take as speci-
mems Mrs. Amelie Chanler (nee Rives)
and Mrs. Gertrude Franklin Atherton
aud OF the works of these authoresses we
shall confine ourselves to 1.-THE Quick or
the Dead" of the former, and the "Her-
mia Suydam" of the latter.
Mrs. Chanler has certainly succeeded
in achieving a striking originality of
manner, if not of matter. although it
may be very much questioned whether
she has dug up her style from the well
of English undefiled. Her strained play
upon the English language is amusing
if not instructive. In her choice of words
she has a nearly equally divided fond.
ness for the obsolete and for the new
tangled and unauthorized. She exhibits
good deal of callow imagination and,
at times, a certain eloquence. Mrs.
Atherton, who, by the way. has better
literary method than Mrs. Chanler,
is a writer of great clearness and even
eloquence. Both ladies frequently attain
to marked emotional power. Pc rhaps
their more fervent flights might more
properly be designated as sensational
hysteria.
But, with this qualified praise OF their
styles, indulgent criticism must cease. II
was curious circum stance of the viva
cious writers OF the Second Charles and
Queen Anne eras that, however licentious
such men as Congreve and Wycherley
could be, such women as Mrs Aphra
Behn could far exceed them. 1t is not
too much to say that such French writers
as Zola and Alphonse Daudet- although
an immense difference separates the
methods of these two Frenchmen, we
couple them together-are infinitely ex
ceeded in pruriency and libidinousness
by such writers as Mrs. Chanler anc
Mrs. Atherton.
In Mrs. Chanler's ''The Quick or the
Dead" the heroine is always plunged
into some fantastical rhapsodies in which
the tomboy alternates with the sensual
list. We presume that since the world
began there has been good
deal of kissing, and much of it honest
and loving. But Mrs. Chanler, in addi
ton to making her two lovers slide down
a haystack, and snuggle together, warm
and glowing, in the fragrant food loved
of kline, gives an eccentric direction to
their smatory interchanges. They Kiss
like a house-a-fre, which is all
we'll enough if they loved each
other and were married, and they
are very fond Of slobbering all
over each other, the neck and
presumably the nose being favorite
osculatory coignes OF vantage. We hope
that all this was innocent, but it is really
not nice reading. the so-called love
permeating her book has very suspi-
cious resemblance to lust. Throughout
the whole work there is a decidedly
Pagan sentiment. After going through
all forms Of Quixotic performances, and
sounding the very depths of bathos on a
rarely fantastical point, the book is made
to end unhappily, probably on the prin-
ciple that if it we're allowed to terminate
in the good old-fsshioned way it's exces-
sive insipidity and imbecility would be
too apparent.
If Mrs. Chanler is Pagan in "The
Quick or The Dead" Mrs. Atherton is
downright heather in Hernia Suydam.
In addition, she is phenomenally indie
cent. A man would have some reserve
in making such prurient display Of lust
and nonsense as characterizes this book !;
but women have frequently shown that,
when they lay aside their native delicacy
and modesty, they can be far more hardy
than men. When Madame De Stael tried
to interview Napoleon the First in his
bath, that trenchant warrior sent word
that while the lady might have no
modesty he had. On the other hand
Napoleon's beautiful sister, the Princess
Pauline, when asked by the Duchess OF
Cambridge, how she could ever sit naked
to Canova for her statue, replied with
great sang froid that there was stove
in the room. Mrs. Atherton in Hernia
Suydam has shown that she possesses
nerve of the heroic order. Lust never
had reader hand-maiden than the
heroine of this book. A young girl, she
is started out with the purpose, avowed
on her part, of having vulgar intrigue
with male, and the lustful consumma-
tion, sanctioned by no right OF God or
Nature, for she admits she does not love
the niucompoop to whose embraces she