The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-09-30
MRS. WARDS MARCELLA.
Another Novelist Reads h Book and
Finds It-PrOdiSious.
j, Zangwill, in the Critic

j, Zangwiil, in the Critic.
I have not been able to avoid Marcel
Is" though l have put off reading IL as
frequently as 1 could. David Grieve'n J.
have hitherto escaped, though my inten-
Sensrab ! vow Eat haze sfter always va! M been w strictly y
SO voluminous, her petticoats have such g.
sweep. She ~terrifies me-she and her big
checks and her big country house and hel.
big book. / shrink. / dwindle. One rises
from a novel of hers distinctly older. In
the middle of the second volume one Won
reading the first and what infinities are TO
traverse before ore will emerge from the
third. One sees the end as Dante saw
the stars, and then, looking in the glass,
one is astounded, unlike Rip Van Wrinkle,
to find ones hair still black. Heavens.
what a cosmic p-anorama-the town. the
country, the mansion. the cottage, Bel
gravia, country-house balls. village poll
tics. afternoon teas. artisans dwellings,,
ment, hospitals, the church. the game laws,
the slums-all the national Institutions.
Prodigious: The England of to-day set
say? Alasi Tomorrow is VIGOROUSLY un-
grateful. But it is monstrous clever, TINS
boob tSa5er or E m0ae q tt the feeqsf things as IN WITH Il
are not those the writer intended for slch,
nor those that thrill the w~ell-know great
owed it's success to Mrs. Humphry Wards
tardy acquaintance with German. criticism.
You must have sometimes logged along IN
a slow train with a faster train on the
next line of rails. You look at the rival
train and you see yourself going back
wards: you look out of the other window
That was Mrs. Humphrey Wards position:
COMPARED with the real train of thought
she was going out she looked
out of the wrong window and fancied her
self going forwards. But she played her
part. There were many who did not know
that there was a train at all or that
il had started, till they saw her gesticulat-
ing and speechifying from the wrong Win
low. And those Of us who We're already
Fsayed" before Robert Elsmere' appeared,
were grateful for the dramatic scenes be-
tween husband and wife and for the figure
Of Rose; and, for my part, L thought TO
read genius in the hand that created Lang
ham. Even now J. seem to see sparkles of
the feu sacre in the drawing of Marcella.s
parents and the scenes with the poacher's
wife. For the rest "Marcella' Is a monu-
have been written by a syndicate. l should
like TO haye written ii myself If only for
the pleasure OF finishing the last page and
feeling what a good boy was L. But 1t is
a painful truth that not with labor nor
beating of the breast is the heaven Of lit
best things-the things that touch-are CIV
en- u.s." as Mr.. Kipling told his fellow
authors. And in che marvellous elaboration
Of Mrs. Wards method, in her trying TO
see all round her subjecr with that compre-
hensive vision, that impartial insight. which
is SO high a gift and so rare a feminine
one, ] fear she leaves too little room FER
the play of inspiration. That is genius"
cried Thackeray, when Rawdon Crawley
struck Becky's paramount. Thackeray did
not know that this would h~appen-till he
came to write it. I am inclined to fancy
that this is the test of genius-that the
writer finishes a chapter wiser than he be-
gan it. Mrs. Ward gives me the impression
of never astonishing herself, of always
knowing all about 1t. Ellie raisonne trop.
The result is that she never astonishes US;
She is always at the same high level. If
she is dull, it is conscientiously. Like the
late Mr.. Pater, she is another example of
the danger of living among university sets.
She has breathed the atmosphere of culture
too long and sadly needs a change of air.
If she would &c out bank holidaying it
would do her good. George Eliot, who be-
gan so well, grew dull and heavy through
posing as a drawing room deity. AS for
Marcella / like her best when she Is most
like Maggie Tulliver and i do not like her at
all when her Vanderbilt is over. / have
no interest in these soulful, virtuous people,
superlatively beautiful and colossally rich.
They are monstrosities-too rare to bother
about. Like Mr.. Hall Caine, Mrs. Ward
is unable TO dispense with melodrama, and
the rescue of Marcella in the slums by her
lover. the Cabinet minister, would crafty
the amateurs of the penny novelette,. Aber
doch-it is a wonderful book. When all is
caid ond dapo-prn1i0i0uSf