The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-04-12
WHATSHALLBEREAD
The French Novel and the Rus
sian Story Discussed.
MRS. SHERMAN ON LIGHT READING
Ouida's Novels Should be Kept From the
Young-Mrs. Fields Respects to Rud-
yard kipling-American Stories.

society was reading Tolstoi. Young girls
went wild over Gamma Karenina,'' and a
Senator's wife told me that she had taken
all of the great Russian novelist's works
with her to the sea shore for her summer
reading. Then we had craze of Ibsen, and
what we will go wild over now is yet to be
seen. The ''kreutzer Sonata" made such
howl among the good-goody girls that Tol-
stoi lost caste for the time, but the average
French novel in the original is still read,
and we have more wicked books than good
ones.
What should young girl read?
Is our present habit good one!
What effect is the avalanche of cheap
foreign novels having on our daughters?
These and other questions are those which
/ have asked Of Mrs. General Sheridan.
Mrs. Senator Vance, Mrs. Supreme Justice
Field, and others of our we'll read Wash
lngton women.
MRS. GENERAL PHILIP SHERIDAN.
Mrs. Sheridan has, since her widowhood,
led quiet life here in her home on Massa-
chusetts avenue, surrounded by her three
little daughters and her son, Phil. She is
devotiug her time to the education of her
children, and this matter will soon be one
of considerable interest to her. Said she:
my own daughters are still too young
to be allowed to read novels, so the ques-
ton has not as yet been forced upon me. I
do not, however, approve of indiscrminate
Indulgence IN modern novel reading. In
the hrst place IL drains and enervates the
mind. 1t renders it unfit for more solid
food and in no way adds to the cultivation
of the heart In my opinion, no young girl
should be permitted to indulge in light lit
erature until after she has attained the age
of eighteen. Earlier than this her charac-
ter is not sufficiently formed to discrimin-
ate between the chaff and the wheat and as
the development of character depends
largely upon the style of literature with
which the mind is stored, the responsibility
of parents is far greater than they realize
Only when it is too late and the seeds of
character have developed into the perfect
blossom or more prickly thistle springing
from the rank weeds of an uncultiyated
ground are the evil effects seen. Mothers
especially should jealousy guard their sons
and daughters from the demoralizing effects
OF careless reading. If l were asked to ad-
wise IN TINS | would say: Interest yourself
IN the amusements Of your girls and boys
and endeaVor by wise counsel and careful
supervision of the contents of their book
shelves to lead their tastes into pure chan
nels Of thought and feeling. Neglecting
this, you will later reap the whirlwind of
remorse in the moral downfall of your child,
even though to all outward appearance he
or she may present character of purity
and beauty. Personally, l was convent
bred, and my daily intellectual diet outside
of class books was the indulgence of Scott's
novels and other standard works, such as
Dickens and Thackery. Formerly no young
uniformed mind was permitted the wide
license in reading that in the present day
CROWDS the shelves Of every girl in her
teens, and the world was all the better for
the restriction. George Elliot and Ouida
fascinate by the beauty of their STYLE and
yelling the evil with a mantle of choice
language and bewildering imagination, de-
ceIve the unsuspecting reader until he
knows not the true from the false, and
therein rests the danger. The great liter
airy merit of George Elliot and her manly
force OF style tempt many to place her
works upon footing with the standard
authors, yet their moral influence is of a
FAR different character and less elevating.
while their tendency is to corrupt or at
least TO insert the wedge OF doubt. The
writings Of Tolstoi are simply not to be con-
sldered in the category, and should never be
allowed entrance into our homes AS for
the ''hreutzer Sonata, it was written with
no higher aim than to depict vice in its most
vivid colors. 1t is seemingly the outcome
OF a diseased mind, and it should have long
ago peen suppressed as devoid of all liter
airy merit and as calculated to work harm.n
MRS. SENATOR VANCE.
Mrs. Senator Vance, wife of the Senator
from North Carolina, is a woman of sound
Judgment and of wide reading. As to the
present taste for French literature and
light novel reaiing she says:
I'VE are far too prone to condemn whole
sale the works Of French authors and to
class under the head of trash the entire
catalogue. Many of our ideas upon the
subject are obtained through the medium of
a prejudiced source and translation into
English destroys much of the beauty and
expression OF the original, by the too bold
translation that thus lacks the beauty of
the mother tongue. Many of the most
powerfully written works of the age owe
their birth to Frenchmen, and because we
chance to get hold of few of the lightest
yet most popular pamphlets read, enioved
and condemned, we should not class them
sll under the same head l think that
'Counterparts,' by Elizabeth Shepard. the
author OF that exquisite work Charles
Orchester, Is by far the most demoralizing
DOCK OF its kind ever published. Anna
karenina," by Tolstoi, and George Elliot,s
.Sllas Mariner are two of the most power
fully written novels in the English tongue. |
Iolstols works are remarkably fine as a |
general thing, and his characters are forci- |
bly, drawn, but he seems to take morbid
view of many things that naturally infiu- |
ence his creations. AS to his sKreutzer
Sonata that has attained such widespread
notice condemned it to the flames unread |
so am not capable of forming any Judgment
In regard TO its merit Judging from all /
hear OF the book, l should say that il was
the outgrowth of a most diseased imagina
ton. There is a morbidness that should
not be encouraged among the young Of our
generation"
oUIDA's NOVELS DANGEROUS.
'All such works as pander to the taste
even if harmless in other respects, should
be avoided" continued Mrs Vance.
young people cannot easily distinguish
between the true and the false in literature.
They are apt 10 look no deeper than the sur. |
face. yet at the same time their minds are
unconsciously influenced by the lax tone of |
an authors conceptions. Herein lies the
danger of lOuida and other such writers of |
the age who clothe their heroes and heroines |
in the garb of purity, while their lives are |
living contradiction of the fact Though |
faulty, Ouida's characters are never repel !
liant and the imperceptible tone of her works |
is to lower the standard of morality rather
than 10 elevate. Many Of the old standard |
noyeIists are far from moral in some of their
works, yet they are constantly placed with
out discrimination in the hands of every
growing youth. A careful selection Is
necessary from the very purest of our nov
elists, and no one class should be condemned
wholesale. Such an assertion may appear
strange" she added, yet all the same the
fact remains true that the present day
writers as class are far more careful in
their choice of expression than the authors
of earlier date, though the style has GER
tainly not decreased in realism or vividness
of touch"
KIPLING.