The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-01-13
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
Fashionable Literature.

n IT Ah0
One of the most hopeful signs of the times
in literature is the genuine enthusiasm
which ladies in fashionable society in New
York, as well as i'll Boston and Philadel-
phia, take in the study and encouragement
of literature. The latest remarkable evil
dence i'll this direction is the publication last
winter of a little volume OF poems entitled
"Under King Constantine" which appeared
anonymously. 10 the establishment of
everybody. the volume was well received,
though the literary workmanship was that
Of an amateur, and now a third edition has
been called for. The second edition bore
the name of Katrina Trask, known in So
ciety as Mrs. Spencer +. Trask.
l lately had the pleasure of meeting this
most charming woman, and learned the
genesis of her really remarkable book. 1t
was written three years ago-now nearly
four-and since that time has lain in her
drawer under lock and key, because the
author did not believe in her own powers
sufficiently to trust it to the public. 1t was
written at white heat in three days-which
is a marvel in itself-and because the woman
heart in this beautiful lady demanded ex-
preston in protest against the superficial
and conventional conception of woman's
love which we find in current literature. She
claims only to be a woman writing as a
woman: but that is exactly why she has sue
ceeded in touching the hearts of her readers.
She has set truth above art, and, after all,
art exists for truth, not truth for art.
1t is perhaps too much to say that fashion
able society in New York has given Amer
lean literature a new and great p~oetess; Mrs.
Trask has chosen to live the life of a woman
rather than that of an artist. But American
literature to my mind has little hope until
women who nave the heart of genius turn
their attention to fostering and cultivating
the literary side of our social life. Many
brilliant people come to the house of Mrs.
Trask, and no doubt her influence on them,
as well as on the public through her own
work, will be of the highest value.
DETECTING A woMAN's o DE PLUME.
When Mrs. Trask's poems appeared the
writer of this alone of several scores OF re-
viewers said, written evidently by a wom-
an Others said it must be by a man be-
cause it was SO bold and vigorous. 1t is a
general rule among reviewers to say that
whatever is strong and vigorous sounds as
if it were written by a man, whatever isweak
and wish-washy sounds as if it were written
by a woman. One would think that that
libel ought long ago to have gone the way of
passing superstitions: but the women at
least imagine that it still fingers. 1t was on
quite other grounds that / ventured to sug-
gest tn at the author of Under King o
stantine" was a woman. My first reason
was that the book was a study of woman's
love SO intimate, so daring, and withal so
exceedingly true, that | knew no man could
have written it. Only a woman could have
made the reference to motherhood at its APP
proach that Mrs. Trask did. Then, too, a
woman's style abounds in suggestions and
subtleties, representing the thousand devious
trlrnings of a sensitive nature, while a mans
is more simple and direct. A woman rarely
has the steady progress lin expression of a =
conception which a man has. h falls into
gross inaccuracies of language-that is,
fails oftener to express herself-while at
times she has far more penetrating and lofty
-.1 Io1,,{,f-1 Oraop Il houa ox1ra4 that
one familiar with the habits of women
seldom if ever fail to detect the marks of a
woman's style; and this is especially true of
women themselves. when they speak their
natural feeling.
5 HOW TO WRITE AN NOVEL.
The first instalment of Cables new novel
appears in Scribner for this month, and in
another periodical an article by the author
telling something of how he wrote it.
Among other things he says a short story is
infinitely easier to write than a long story,
and the young writer who springs to the
novel at once makes a sad error. He uses
real models to a large extent, but often UNI
consciously. His present novel is more of a
sustained whole. than any of his Others
that is, there are no episodes in it, it is one
single story. He says, s'We have spoken of
a novel whose end is in sight, scarcely fifty
pages away, as though the rest of the jour
ney were easy. 1t is, and it isn't. For as
Utc lOOho LII WdAo W oIO fiill NOh1tlN
of passions, endeavors and destinies to which
his complicated correlation of imagined lives
and loves has brought him, he knows that he
has got to suffer and enjoy it all-an! be-
fore he can produce it on the page, that
what he writes shall stay written.
The element of euphony or music in style
is really a very important one, though in
prose one is likely to think differently. An
interesting remark of De Maupassant ON this
point has just been published. He says
5sPeople say that my style is as melodious as
music. That may be so, but | had to eulti-
vate the art. / believe with my friend
Emile lola that when l am writing a phrase
always forms itself by euphony; it has the
sound of music which haunts and holds me.
/ hear and appreciate the rhythm of a
phrase, and l revel at times in its enchanting
sorcery." Stevenson believes much the
same thing.
A decree has just been promulgated in
Turkey which sends CONSERVATION to the
hearts of authors and publishers. Three
copies of every work published in the Sui