Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-03-10
WOMEN IN LITERATURE.
THEIR REMARKABLE INSIGHT INTO
HUMAN NATURE.


The Change in Public Sentiment During
Recent Years-Some of the Great Women
writers-George Eiiot's High Rank-The
Present Immoral Tendency.
Many years ago lady's entrance into lit
erature was hailed either with fiorid COM
pliment or cold sneer. No such reception
Is given her nowadays. In past generations
Jane Austen and Miss Edgeworth, Fanny
Burney and Miss Martineau had shown tDt
in several kinds of fiction women could do at
least as well as men In the case of Miss
Austen's stories 1t is doubtful whether they
have ever been surpassed as faithful reflec-
tions of English middle class life.
Anthony Trollope, few years ago, also
esSayed to draw English society exactly as it
is, but, though he attained afair measure of
success, it is very doubtful whether pride
and Prejudice" and the rest will not live
after ''Barchester Towers and its like are
forgotten. Then, while no analyst of human
nature so keen as Thackeray, and no literary
caricaturist So full of genius as Dickens, has
ever emerged from the ranks of women writ
ers, it is certain that, with the exception of
those great novelists, George Eliot had a
truer insight into humanity and nobler
touch than any male writer of the last half
century. She would certainly stand third to
Thackeray and Dickens, while some would
place her second among the three.
WOMEN IN POETRY.
In poetry the last fifty years have shown
women standing on the very steps of the
throne where the laureate sits. No poetess
Of the preceding ages ever struck as deep and
true a note as Mrs. Browning in her aurora
Leigh and her shorter poems-works of
which any male writer of our day might be
proud. the success OF the sex in our time,
however, must not be measured by great
names alone. The characteristic of this age
Is the immense amount of excellent and hon
est literary work done not by scores or hun
dreds but by thousands of ladies IN England,
France. and, above all, America.
In preceding centuries half the human race
was Intentionally repreSSed Women were
told that to mind babies, cook dinners, or
mend stockings was their natural avocation,
and exceptions like Anna Seward or Hannah
More were hailed as prodiSies. Now nobody
denies to daughter the right to pen, paper
and ink, and if she can begin by earning a
few guineas for an essay or a story III mag
azne the fact is treated as matter of course.
The women Of England and America have
at present no novelist with the literary power
of George Eliot, but they have at least half a
dozen who may be clasSed in the second rank
Nor Is this blank in the first class peculiar to
women. There is now no male novelist in
this country or the United States who eniovs
the uncontested supremacy of Scott, Dickens
or Thackeray in his generation The fact is
that in this, as in other kinds of literature,
the general standard has risen, and there
seem no giants because there are so many
who are above the middle height.
Ii is sometimes said by those who regard
fiction frivolous that it is all very well for
the ladies of literature to write for US stories
which help TO while away passing hour, but
that sterner work must come from men. A
story which is not merely a story, which pro
vokes thought and keeps itself alive beyond
the season, which rouses controversy and ex.
cites contradiction, is Robert Elsmeren-a
work from woman's pen. When will male
rivals influence politics and religion as Mrs.
Beecher Stowe and Mrs. Humphrey Ward
have done by the sincerity and earnestness
of their tonei
MISTAKES MADE.
OF course there is seamy side to this new
development of our literature. A few WON.
on take advantage of their sex to write tales
that are not true, not healthy and not pure
They draw coarse pictures of mems smoking
rooms and clubs as if they knew all about
them. They revel in Latin and French quo
tatiOns, sometimes misspelled and always
dragged in by the head and shoulders They
delight in libertinism, and call it liberty
They revel in illusions to eating, drinking
and midnight dissipation. They are for the
most part unsexed creatures neither men nor
women; queer things in petticoats, with q
morbid taste for the society of dissolute bach
elors. We may happily ignore their books.
Other novels written by young women arr
objectionable because their sins against deli.
cacy are due to ignorance. When an un
married girl who has audacity and geniu.
attempts to describe love, she is sometime:
bolder III her coloring than any man or wo
man who has had experience of life She
writes things that shock, just as a babbling
child can bring confusion iii a drawing room
by its courage and simplicity.
In one case of a novel of this kind it is sale
that the authoress, an American, wrote il
anonymously when she was girl of Is, and
on confessing 1t years afterward to her mid
die aged husband, he left her at once, assert
ing confidently that it came from no maider
mind. A keener critical sense would hav,
detected IN its audacity the very note of alb
solute ignorance pretending to knowledge
These faults of feminine literature, however
are inevitable incidents of immaturity
Young poets are just as foolish, and so ar,
young male novelists. The main point stands
that, as a story processes to represent life a.
ii Is, all the young authoresses of the day arr
at disadvantage. Few women ever attain
TO what may be called u full knowledge o.
life. While unmarried, or if married earl,
and happily, they learn little of the grim anC
ugly realities of the world. Even when they
search for the facts a great deal is unknown
TO them because they see life as observer
rather than actors.
The wonder Is that they do so well, anC
the explanation is that intuition and inspira
ton comes to their aid. George Eliot coulC
never have mixed with peasants at the al,
house, yet in ''Silas Mariner she reports theil
talk to the life; and her auctioneer in mid
dlemarchn is depicted as if she had been buy
ing horses from him for years We see
therefore, the gain to the world of the new
movement which has called to the service O
man the literary faculties of sex that from
Il few facts can draw inferences boldly an,
penetrate at a glance mysteries which mel
have puzzled over for years = London Tele
graph.
Popular Names of Women.
| wonder II any woman ever liked her owl
name When was in the harness usad 4,