New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-11-15
MIR. HOWELLS.
HIS VIEWS ON NATIONALITY; HIS SoClAA-
ISM; HIS ATTITUDE IN THE CON-
TROvERSY ABOUT AMERt-
CAN LITERATURE.

London, November a.
IT, il difficult to make out how much OK MI
Howell's latest discourse In Harper's' Is 10 II"
taken seriously. or whether any Of 1t Is. Inc
iropical method is never quite free from r'a'
The risk, the danger of being misunders'oou' -
the greater when the writer takes IL up anu i'y'
IL down at intervals during the same dsquiSi'io"
Mr. Howells seems 20 do that. III "ouio NV
bcen convenient had he appended footnotes say
ing: This is ironical"; This is not iroh'cai
and so on. Under this mask he is, however,
clearly very much in earnest about someciihs
could one but find out what it IS Perhaps ior
the benefit of the supplemented, no VIII write
another essay 10 explain what this last means
ar republish the present one, with elucidaoory
comments by the author There were readers VI
his Criticism and Fiction" who found themselves
at times, equally embarrassed, equally az loss
to know when Mr.. Howells was In earDes. MI"
when he was in Jest let him make allowance
for the dulness of human nature, ana NC vi.
thing at a time if that be not too much 10 aeS
Of writer so versatile as he, who Is DOM WIZ
of fiction and critic of fiction. he can NC au-
mrable when he chooses; sometimes ne oee"'S
admirable in spite of himself and in spite OF
universities which would not Ike kindly receive"
at tho hands of q writer of less genius, or less
genial.
Will he let us know, for example, what he really
neans when he speaks of the dark ages when
nationality seemed valuable and admiraoc
thing in itself" {? Mr.. Howells seems to imply
that nationality is no longer valuable OF au'
mirable thing in itself; or not valuable OF ao-
mirable to him. II that be so, why snouio he
write and publish treatise in defence OF VIVA.
is national in American literature? lie may oojec'
TO the word defence, and allcge that he is neither
hnhtr
that his object is scientific, and that he is but
endea yornp to ascertain the facts and the causes
of things. That may he so, yet it remains true
that during some part of this paper Mr.. Howells
writes like an American sets value upon some
things in American literature because they are
American, and puts his lance in rest against
those who do not perceive how American they are,
and how good thing Americanism in literature
really is Why then does he deride or decry In
one breath what he extols in another? The
sentence | have quoted is not the strongest.
will quote this other
There may once have been time in the
history Of literature when nationality was su-
premely desirable: the nationality which eX-
pressed itself in the appropriation Of forms; but
in our time this is not possible, and if it were
we think it would be a vice, and We are, above
all, virtuous."
That is pretty explicit, or is till you come to
the last clause, when Mr.. Howels snaps his
whip as usual and is off round the corner. He
adds:
THE great and good things in literature nova
days are not the national features, but the uni
ycrsal features"
There if anywhere is Mr. Howells's confession
Of faith. the cry Of his inmost soul; and he IL
Illustrates it in way which, for once, leaves lit
tie doubt of his meaning. The most national
fiction at present, according to him, is the Eng
lish, which ne thinks the poorest; while the
Russian and the Spanish, the Norwegian and the
Italian, the French and the American, which are
all so much better, are distinguished by what
they have in common rather than by what they
have in severalty" What is it which they have
in common? Apparently, the great world move
ment toward life and truth; that is what the
English have not felt and are poor because they
have not; those others who have felt it are
universal" and have therefore Mr. Howells's
approval. .....'
He might have expressed himself more simply,
and said that the fiction he appauds is socialistic
and that he condemns certain other fiction be-
cause it is not socialistc. But then he would have
seen that he was departing from the domain Of
literature altogether, and entering that of poll
he refuses to see any good in any writer who
does not share his socialistic opinions. Fiction,
and suppose other branches of literature as well,
are to be Judged not with reference to their
literary merits, but upon the ground Of their
conformity to certain opinions held by Mr. How
ellis which have no more to do with literature
than they have with astronomy. Might one ask
him, with that respect due to an eminent writer
even in his alterations whether he really thinks
this q critical view?
We all knew before. that Mr. Howells was
Socialist. His best friends cannot have forgotten
his attitude toward Communism; his sympathy
with the Communists who would have ushered in
the new reign Of goodwill earth by giving Paris
to the torch and the sword; his pleas
in behalf of his assassins in Chicago; and the
rest Whether his charity was wide enough to
embrace those high dynamiters who tried to blow
I'D London and massacre the House of Commons
| never heard. He is full of sympathies. His
impulses are kindly; he has clear vision of the
miseres and poverty and inequalities in the world.
and a strong desire to improve the general con-
dition of things. lie feels himself called upon to
do something to improve it, perhaps he has never
very clearly seen what. but something.
The influence of Count Tolstoi is strong upon
him; he too, has confused literature and politics,
and has preached in form attractive to many
minds new gospel Of the nineteenth century; q
fin de steele gospel There certain aspects of the
social question which Tolstoi, living in semi.
barbarous and wholly despotic country, has
seen and studied. lie has stated his conclusions
with power and extreme violence. Both his facts
and his opinions are for the most part local.
They seem to Mr. lIOwells universal; part of
." the great world moyement toward life and truth
and as u faithful disciple of Tolstoi, he imagnes
or seems to imagine that the conditions of life in
America are not very different from what they
are in Russia. "Our well-to-do classes says Mr.
Howells. "are at present engaged in keeping their
eyes fast shut to the facts of the life Of toll
and in making believe that the same causes will
not produce the same effects here as in Europe "