The Press., 1894-09-06

kindly give her his opinion of the book and tell her if he thought it worth pub
 fishing at all. He replied that he not only thought it worth publishing, but was ready to publish it himself, if Mir. Ruskin approved. l can well remember Sarah Grand's delight on receipt of that appreci- ative letter, but it was not destined to live long. Ruskin did not approve, and shortly afterward the manuscript was rec turned, with expressions of regret from MT. Allen. MT. Ruskin, it Is to be pre- sumed, in practicing that chivalry toward women which he, together with the old school of believers in the subordination of women, held to be the proper practice of man to woman, used his giant strength after reading only few pages of the man. uscript, which has since borne its writer to fame, and pettishly scribbling on it that he didn't like the title,' and couldn't bear queer people, however nice, he re- turned it to the publisher. But Sarah Grand was unconvinced. She locked the book up for five years, however. But in the summer of 1888 she took it out again, read it carefully through, and finding her confidence in 1t unshaken, she determined to publish it at her own risk. It appear ed in yellow paper back, was an instant success, was taken up by Bentley at his own request after it became famous-he having before refused it-and Was pub | lished by him in a more ambitious form. The original yellow-back edition is now sought after keenly by the collectors. A pretty strange and rare career for a first novel,
 In Ideala,' as one of her critics has truly said, Sarah Grand struck the key note of her genius.' It is the life story of | a deeply sensitive, highly bred, delicatcly nurtured woman, married to a man of | loose morals. Born with light-hcartcd nature, she, Q pure-souled woman, gov | erned by mistaken sense of duty, tries to live cheerfully beside the noisome be- ing to whom she is tied, and from whom our man-made social laws give her no means of escape except in disgrace. Tho anguish and degradation of the position are poignantly and powerfully suggested, yet suggested with rare delicacy of touch. It requires @ highly disciplined nature to live through such partnership unsullicd. 'Ideala' is much more than novel, it is the voice of great-hearted woman speak ing to her fellow-women out of the inner most depths of her soul. The author herself calls 1t a study from life; it might well have been called 'The Tragedy of Womanhood.'
 This book should be given to every girl out of her teens, as a textbook for her enlightenment. Sarah Grand is ambitious for her sex. She cries to women to arise from the apathy which the slothful att- tude of surrender has bred in them. But she is intensely feminine in her point of view, and in the methods which she advo- cates. She wishes to see every woman making herself power in the land; but always, when possible, quiet power and never a blatant one. Women should work together to create new spiritual atmosphere, the vitalizing force of which nothing could resist. Once women arc agreed amongst themselves what evil they wish to put down, whether in their homes, in society, in their intimate friendship, and they will use their influence unvary- ingly in that direction, the thing will be done'
 After the publication of 'Ideala,' Sarah Grand set to work on The Heavenly Twins During the two years that she was engaged in writing this book, and the subsequent three years that she spent in finding a publisher for it, she produced some short stories in the same series of Studies from Life,' which are perfect lit tie works of art. 'Kane,' the disreputa- ble, lovable old soldier-servant Nancy the Lancashire cripple girl 'Boomellen,' the intellectual; 'Ah Man. the Chnaman; The Fellow Leaf,' and 'Eugenia.' These short studies are chiseled with cameo-lkc sharpness. Besides these she also pub lished one of her early efforts in ordinary fiction, called 'Singularly Deluded,' writ ten when scarcely out of her teens. In each of the shorter studies we find hero ism shown in the outwardly sordid or weak-it is never the cheap heroism of the sentimental young man or the yearn- ing female, but the real heroism of human endurance.
 The spring of 1893 saw the publication of her largest work The Heavenly Twins,' which has carried Sarah Grand into the foremost rank amongst the writers of her time. It took her two years to write it, as we have seen, and an- other three years to find publisher. Again she had to print at her own risk; but, fortunately for the reputation of the publishers calling, there was one among them, MT. Heinemann, who, when it was shown to him, had the literary acumen to take the whole risk upon himself and publish it at the eleventh hour.
 In 'The Heavenly Twins the vital ques- tion of the license allowed to men before marriage is treated boldly and fearlessly, and yet with suppressed strength that makes it all the more powerful. Sarah Grand shows that men must and can be made to bring to the marriage altar as unspotted a record as they demand from the bride. She has struck a crushing blow at the hypocrisy that had woven it. self about the mans view of the subject, and will probably be found to have killed it as effectually as Don Quixote' killed the follies of feudalism, of knight-errantry and of so-ealled chivalry; as brilliantly as Mark Twain's Yankee at the Court of King Arthur,' exposed the cant and hum- bug of the good old times
 l cannot do better than conclude with the words of one of her most capable crit SS5@gs5@l@Sgy@@g@Sg
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