The herald., 1894-04-15
MRS. WARDS NEW BOOK,
[BY F. MARION CRAWFORD. ]

BY f. MhhlON ChANFOhOsI
The question whether the novel, in
the shape in which we know it, is to
survive the next change in the fashion
OF mems minds is before the world at
present. The public, on the whole,
seems inclined to answer in the affirm
alive, and to say that it prefers the novel
to any other form of literature. Authors,
on the other hand, have been found who
tell us that the next century must bring
forth something new in form, something
wholly different from our novel, some
thing, in short, deliciously fresh,
wildly interesting, but as yet wholly IN
defined. Zola has been heard to say
that II he were younger he would devote
himself to the search for that new thing.
Maeterlinck has produced two or three
very extraordinary results in his effort
to find it, and in the recent fiction OF our
own language instances are not lacking
Of attempts to get at new result. NO
one, however, has yet suooeedec, and
we are as much in the dark as ever in
regard to the literature of the future.
Obviously only two methods are possi-
BILE in writing novels nowadays II we set
aside and put out of the question the
average standard work OF fiction, which
is supposed to contain nothing but
more or less amusing and interesting
story, written with the avowed inten-
ton of pleasing, with no other object In
view.
These two methods consist either in
handling old subjects in modern way,
or dealing with distinctly modern mat
80 v,t.ra1- ala faohtnnah nrinQinlGH
Mrs. Humphry Ward has chosen the
latter plan, and the result has been
"Marcella." The author OF Robert
Elemere" and David Grieve" has taken
up the questions OF labor and socialism,
and many other minor questions belong
ing to them and proceeding from them.
She has found heroine to devote her
self to these questions, and the heroine
finds a man who loves her more than
one, indeed, though the one in perticu-
lar, go to epeak, outloves many obstacles
besides rival. Heie happy in the end,
| too, when Marcella has seen go much OF
| the world which she had promised her
self to reform, as has sufhced to convince
her that there can be no age OF proph-
ecy when there is no prophet, no reform
without reformer, no conquest OF one
portion OF humanity unless there be
couuuerer in the ranks OF the other.
! And this conclusion seems to contain
the lesson taught by Mrs. Wards new
book. 80 far as it can be said to teach a
leeeen at all.
That. however, is by no means all that
the book contains. The author possesses
many of the gifts which have earned her
family a place of high distinction In
English letters. She is sincere stu
dent, an honest worker, and luet
critic-and she has had what are com
mcnlv called Opportunities" OF an ex'
ceptiouel kind. The task undertaken in
producing Marcella was worthy in mag.
nitude and interest OF the hand that did
into English the Journal OF Amiel, that
gave us Robert Elemere and traced the
History OF David Grieve.
have no intention of tasting" this
novel, as the phrase goes, nor of telling
in bald short. baud notes, as it were, the
story of Marcella's life and suferings
and work from her school days to the
time of her marriage. The nature o.
fiction should forbid such so-called criti
Giap as aFFqpetbinS0 XaEsXs IKE cdaFssyy dPaiFFascy
to novels may often be &C
counted for by the fact that thos'
who talk about them have not reac
them, but have got by heart the taste
of them, dished up and served by thu
newspaper or periodical to which they
habitually intrust the task of reading
what they themselves might not under
stand and are even too lazy to appre-
ciate. S. N'1a;
The whole impression left after care
fully reading Marcella from beginning tc
end is remarkable for the number oi
! highly finished pictures fixed in the
mind of the reader-pictures OF which
he cannot but feel sure that they are al
once true life and typical of life. And
those two conditions are rarely satisfied
by any pictures whatsoever, whether
drawn or written. 1t is common enough
to hear an author say of true story he
has heard that he cannot make use of it,
that true stories look exaggerated and
untrue in novel and are hard to handle,
besides being generally faulty in the
ending OF them. from the so-called
artietic point OF view.
But Mrs. Ward has the very necessary
mastery of detail by which and in which
to make the truth seem true. There are
scenes OF cottage life in the book which
have probably never been outdone in
clean accuracy OF observation or in
brilliancy of literary finish. And there
is one of them at least in which an ele-
ment OF tragic grandeur suddenly digni-
fies the squalor OF great wretchedness,
as only death himself can. mean the
scene in which Marcella, at early morn
ing, is with the miserable wife of the
condemned murderer-a poor, half-de-
formed poacher-just when the far off
prison bell is heard tolling the hour for
his execution.
OF this same most unfortunate
poGcher, too, and OF his accomplice, and
Of their joint doings, there is wonder
full description earlier in the book. The
two are out on a winters night after
rabbits with nets and fsrrets in moon
| lit covert, and one is sure they are to be
caught then and there. when the heavy
| tread of the keepers echoes duly Glong
the path in the night air, passing and
repassing the poachera' hiding-place,
and one is delighted when the men get
away safely at last, though one is quite
sure that Jim Hurd must come to grief
before long, as he does. An American
Jury would certainly not have hanged
him, and even in England the most
hardened good man must feel some SYM
pathy for the poor fellow.
There are not lacking other pictures,
either-broader ones and of more i'm
port. At one time Marcella works at
nursing in the London slums, fights
with words for sick woman against a
tipsy doctor who Is killing her, and
fights with her hands for a miserable
wife. whose brute of q husband has