The Portland daily press., 1892-03-14
CONCERNING BOOKS.
BY E. cAvAzzA.

of Louis Couperus, by J. T. Grein. With
an introduction by Edmund Gosse. The
prime interest of this romance is in it's
literary relations and quality. 1t is the
first example brought before American
readers of a new school of Dutch writer's,
whose national temperament modifies
very fortunately the theories and practice
which they share with the French de-
eadents and impressionists. These young
Hollanders name themselves the Sensi-
twists; they are mostly between twenty
five and thirty-tive years of age; they
have studied the latter developments of
realism and of idealism in French liter
airy art, and are endeavoring to find the
formulas of a literature of their own.
Certain traits of conservatism and sobri-
ETY., characteristic of their nation, re-
strain them from violence toward the
vocabulary and from more serious moral
offences. A neighbor and colleague of
theirs, is the suddenly famous Mr.
Maurice Macterlinck, who appears to
have insuficiently resisted the title of
the Belgian Shakespeare given him by
his friends, and whose poetic tragedy.
the princess Maleine'' has awakened
the most vivid admiration among the
symbolsts of Paris, notably Mn. Mir
beau and Mallaime. These young men
whether French, Belgian or Dutch, seek
the truth of art by means of impressions
of the senses, which they opine to be in
Interchangeable. They see the colors OF
the prism in the notes of music or in the
vowels of the vocabulary, they hear
odors; with them symbols become al
most identities. Charles Bandepaire
may be credited with the discovery of
the new way of art; the exquisitely skill
full Theodore de Banville proclaimed it's
poetic credences. A passage in this
Eline We're repeats the formula of the
interchange of the reports of the senses;
and less officially, the entlre novel proves
M. Louis Couperus to be a typical writer,
as he is one of the youngest of the new
Dutch school. Their watehword, Sensi-
tivism, was invented.by one of themselves
M. Van Deyssel. AS to its intentions.
Mr.. Edmund Gosse's words may be cited
here:
1t is development of impressionism graft
ed upon naturalism, as a frail and exotic bud
may be set in the rough basis OF thorn IL
preserves the delicacy OF sensation OF the one
and strengthens it by the eXactitude and con-
scientiouSness of the other, yet without giving
way to vagaries of impressionism or to the
brutality of mere realism. 1t selects and re-
fines, it embraces Fancy, that maiden so rudely
turned out of house and home by the naturallstS
it aims, in fact at retaining the best, and moth
ing but the best, of the experiments of the
French during the last quarter of century.
1t is clear that these young Dutchmen
propose to themselves no easy task to
sift the fine wheat of the modern French
art of writing, and raise therefrom crop
on their own lands. Great ability, both
critical and constructive, will be needed.
One fancies without acquaintance with
the language of Holland, that it may have
a lack of Elasticity which could serve to
modify the tendencies of representative
talent which are nourished by the pc
culiarly flexible and copious French vo-
cabulary.
To pass from generalizations about
very interesting new school to an exam
pie of it's work. Eline We're is a brilliant,
delicate and powerful story. The hero
inc is of artistic temperament, instinct
lively devoted to all that is beautiful in
art or in Imagination; she is destroyed
by sentimentality, which leads her to ex-
change realities for fancies, to make mis-
take after mistake, powerlessly strug-
Cling against things as they are, until
bewildered, broken, singing a tragic
scenG amid the Authorizations of morphia,
Eline passes out of life. Meanwhile, the
author has known how to surround this
elegiac figure with the society of the
Hague, not very unlike that of other
European capitals. The story is told
with efficacy of imagination, by means
of light and sure touches, full of charm.
The style is distinguished and sufficient
ly easy. The translator, Mr.. Grein,. has
retained the beauties of the original in
his flexible English. Eline We're is the
first of series of romances which will
give to Holland place among the
countries toward which one looks for
valuable and brilliant expert ments in the
art of fiction. New York: D. Appleton
and Co.. Portland: Loring, Short & Har-
mon.
The Youth of the Duchess of Angou-
leme. By Imbert de Saint-Amaud.
Translated by Elizabeth Gilbert Martin.
This is one of the monographs written by
M. de Saint-Amaud in his series of works
upon French History as illustrated by
the prominent women of the times.
Cherchez la femme, according to him,
holds true of national as of individual
complications. Marie Therese Charlotte,
duchess of .Angouleme, was-as is well
known-the daughter of Louis XVI and
Marie Antoinette; her youth was mostly
passed in the prison or in exile; among
these distresses she preserved lofty and
tranquil temper and a character austere,