The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-05-29
LOVE SCENE IN FICTION.
In Early works and In the
Modern Oft-Read Books.

d Oft-k6eaI bOChss
The love scene occupies a prominent
place in fiction, and there are many which
are cited as proof of their authors deli
cate skill. Literary fashions may wax
and wane. but the love story remains
the prime ~favorite with "the general"
S~oenslaved are we by the nursery trad
ton that we feel we have been cheated
out of something if the novel does not end
with some version of the old fairy tale
formula, $50 they were married and
lived happy ever after" although we
have learned by our own experience or
thai of others that matrimony is not al
ways the gateway to Elysium.
Love scenes in fiction are CT MANY
kinds. Howells once described soEa spar
rows in a garden as ~"squabbbling like the
loversin a lady's novel," and it is a fact
that the average feminine novelist makes
her turtle doves peck each other with
great frequency and v.gor. They bicker
and pout, squabble and part forever
several times a week, and finally they
kiss and make friends as a prelude to
matrimony. Often there are a pair of
light comedy lovers to balance those
whose passion assumes a tragic cast.
1t is our tradition to believe that the
greater ardor is felt. by the man., but even
as Samantha, in these long gone days,
invoked the moon and twirled her brazen
wheel, chanting the while, my Magic
wheel, draw home to me the man l love"
there have always been women who WOW
spells to lure toward them the tickle or
timid love. 1t has been said, when he
who loves is dumb, she who is loved is
deaf" yet there are h~eroines of fiction
who go considerably more than half way
to win the hero from his naughty silence.
So we find it IN the case of Charlotte
Bronte's Shirley, who, IN her proud, i'm
perious way, lets the poor tutor see a
glimpse of her heart, as if feeling that
her beauty and fortune permit her to
exercise the right of a queen. The wild
love scenes between Emily Bronte's
Heathchf and Catherine are like the
fierce gambolings of a pair of tigers
whose claws are seldom sheathed even
in play. In feminine fiction the gentle
man often pays his addresses in a man
ner that savors of intimidation. He
seems to fancy that he can hector the
lady into an ardent affection for him
self and IS usually successful in so doing.
But this is not the ideal love making.
We imagine that there hould be tender
reverence on the mans part, for, as
Thackeray Men serve women
feet, they walk away" The lover
| who does not believe his sweetheart an
angel has a want of idealism that Will
make marriage appear to him a very
dull, sordid thing, lacking that rosy
glow with which Illusion irradiates the
commonplace.
Westlock in the Temple garden is usu-
ally ranked among the famous love
scenes Of fiction and there is another
Ethel Newcome-which is as sincere in
sentiment and touched by a far finer
literary art. 1t is not always easy, for a
charming childishness Of lovers without
/ making them seem silly and mawkish,
but this Charles Reade in Peg Voting
ceeded in doing. There are passage in
| the courtship of Victor Hugo's Marius
and Cosette which have a wonderful
grace and prettiness and likewise, an
| artlessness that does not always belong
to ~lovemaking in French fiction.
The figures of Tito and Romoia, when
| their first embrace, stand out with a col
| orfnl picturesqueness against the rich
| BACKGROUND of old romance which is
| wanting in modern tales, but though
| these old world lovers are not more act
| ual than Clym Yeobright and Eustacia
| the furze and fern of Egdon heath. Still
| more vivid is the aurora militaris which
| the sword play of Sergeant Troy creafed
about Rathsheba Everdene, ending witt
| that sudden kiss which started her rebel
| heart awake.
Of late years the river scene in Rich;
ard Feverer' has often been mentioned
| as an example of all that is idyllic, but
any writer, who is stirred to emulation
will find it 4 difficult model. 1t is so
easy to work ones self up into the
eiaaulatory mood. Given plenty of ink
| and paper, there is no reason why onF
| should not continue indefinitely to reel
| off such sentences as;-"P1pe, happy
| ~heep boy, Love Irradiated angels. I'M
| fold your wings and lift your voices.
Pine. happy love, pipe on to these dear
| innoeents."
"A real idyl. not less simapleothan ~noetir,
,s to be found in Cables John March,
southerner." The time is ~spring-the
| tardy snring of the North-and the man
| and maid are straying through ths
greening meadows and eopses apart and
| zach one drea ming of the others rear
ness. The girl hears affair the snrinPitime
cry of tho quail. two clear glad rctes
of natures voice. ard mirnies it in
memory of her DAVIS, of childhood. The
youth. who bed idly uttered the note;
fannies himself answered by a bird, ara
so they 90 on calling and RECALLING, fol
lowing the sound until thew come fare
to face startled and wondering, all their
! nnconfessed love shining in their eyes
| 49, O,1oopc ri IN c-D pr1c NJ m