New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-08-25
THE "NEW LITERATURE"
SCIENTIFIC NOvELSTs AND PSYCHIC
EPISODES

Professor Boyesen has read 'Tvanhoe' and found
II sorry stun. The "jaunty juvenility' Of Robert
Louis Stevenson and his whimsicality and certain
lack Of robustness In his intellectual equipment MI
him with vain regret. Browning he evidently does
not regard worth quoting correctly George
Eliot Is proxy sermonizer English literature In
general Is too much on Its good behavior too con-
scIous that the ladies have not yet left the dining
room to concern Itself with the deeper affairs OF
,fe and all that is left for people OF rich blood to
do II they would have conversation at once interest
ing and profitable IL TO go out among the simple
folk who are not restrained by politeness from
calling things what they are. and who will not
fail to give an insight into all the squalor want.
envy and hate which are to be found in the neigh
borhood. Human life IL too happy. Men travel
through the world. coming so seldom In contact with
wckedness that they likely to go into the next
in lnnocency. and with undeveoped souls. unless
books bring them the knowledge of good and
evil particularly evil. Literature should keep US
in the realization Of evil. not allow to waste our
time dreaming that we can in character initiate
the unreal heroes of romantic fiction.
AS an antidote to the novel which clings to the
remnants of chva,ry. Professor Boyesen introduces
some OF the writers Of Scandinavia Ibsen is not
one Of them He IL too great and requires treat
ment in a separate volume. But goodly number
of others remain for elucidatlon and eulogy. With
Bi8rnstjerne Bj0rnson as a statesman leader OF
his radical countrymen in their contentious with
Sweden, there Is need for concern Bjornson
himself cares most for his mission, and the mission
OF his later years has been 1.-THE study OF the deeper
soul life Of his own age" Accordingly in dramas
and novels he attacks and dissects nearly every
thing in sight In the interest OF better social sys-
tenn which, II Is hoped. may spring from disgust at
everything which now Is. In this crusade he has be-
come progressively more vehement and harsh until
in 1894 he published "Absaloms HAIR" mastery
story than which he has never written anything
more boldly original according to the critic. In 1t
he makes one Of his principal characters literally
whip his young wife in the OF his servants
and describes the with delight In the ex-
hibitlon Of healthy, primitive wrath PROFESSOR
Boyesen does not approve OF this, thinks II need
lessy revolving and doubts the possibility OF
Norwegian gentleman having done such thing; but
Of the book as a whole he says: II verify believe
II 10 be type Of what the fiction OF the future
will be- when scientific education shall have been
largely substituted for the classical; and even the
novelists will be expected to know something about
the world in which they live and the sublime an
Inexorable laws which govern It,"
The next Scandinavian prophet introduced Is
Alexander Kelland. who is represented to be par
ticuarly at variance with conventional romantcism
who exhibits A persistent tendency to present the
wrong side ms we'll as the right side. and who has
made some appalling soul-searchng studies In the
pathology as well as the psychology OF Vice Jonas
Lie (. another rare. complex and exceedingly
modern spirit. relentless reallst VINO Is Stiu u
have discarded or ignored the pleasing and wel-bred
truths or lies TO the expoundng OF which bellies
lettres has hitherto been confined. The Swedish
poet Esaias Tegner receives elaborate treatment
He was singer. teacher ana pishop
and the last-named vocation did not prevent MIN
from thanking God that in his middle age ne couid
be merry and make a good joke. even If 1t was of
doubtful proprety. This tendency the essayist ac-
counts for as a manifestation OF healthy pagan
ism which poets have.
Schandorph. Drachmann and Jacobsen are Dan
lsh writer's who hold high place In Mr. Boye-
sens opinion Jacobsen, though dead for some
years belongs to the younger group. He was
verbal coloris; "A dealer In picturesqueness man
whose fictitious people were forced and morbid, who
painted externa.s and cared little for character
unless 1t exhibited some abnormal mood or trait
Drachmann is wavering poet. who started out as
radical to deliver thrusts in behalf Of Socialists
and COMMUNISTS settled down in the company OF
a most sedate and conservative muse, and ony
lately has returned his early enthusiasms. Schan-
dornh appears TO be an exception among the mod
ern Scandinavian worthless. He is characterized
as a novelist whose "naurasm Is not pathological;
not in the nature OF an autopsy or diagnosis OF
disease 1t ful-blooded and vigorous-not par
ticularly saueamish-but always fresh and whole
some" All these grew up under the influence
OF Georg Brandes. whom Professor Boyesen. under
the constraint OF his limitations thinks one OF
the great critics OF the world one to be compared
with Leasing Tame and Matthew Arnold Brandes
is in literature a prophet OF the future' IL peihs
understood that that future is Slavic conquest Of
the WORKOUT traditions OF older society. He ac-
counts for romanticism,' writes Professor Boyesen'
"as the chairman OF a committee de lunatico in
ouirendo might account for case OF religious
mania" In an essay on Martin Luther on Cell
bacy and Marriage" he derides all traditional IDEAS
of conjugal fidelity and honor. He has been the
champion OF Byron against the British public, ana
in recent years he has become to great degree an
exponent OF Anarchy. These things Professor Boye-
sen does not approve He cannot concede that ODE
dience to law is degrading that conformity to
traditional morals Is soul-crippling. and he some
times wonders II the man was ever SOUND thinker
but when ne considers what he believes TO ne
Brandes's lusty realism he cannot but think him
great So the shallow Dane has place in the Pro-
lessons estimation with Matthew Arnold.
II the keynote OF the literature OF the future has
been struck by the author, mentioned In this vol
ume so much the worse for that literature We may
nerhaps be permitted TO say that We have not found
all Mr. Boyesens idols particularly original or
philosophically profound; nor do We greatly enjoy
the ovcr-en thusisstc and cocksure manner IN whch
their worshlpper discusses them.
Mr. william Sharp author OF ''Vistas." appears to
be an imi,ator Of Mr.. Maurice Maeternck and to
have copied his model with assduous care. He de-
clares however. that he had composed two OF THESE
"Vistas"-of which there are eleven-before the
happy hour came that acquainted him with the iu-
eubrious Belgian. and he remarks that there Is
nothing radically new In the method OF Mr.. Maet-
erlinck that 1t OF the dramatsts OF antiquity.
and that one genius has much right TO use 1t as
another Mr. Sharp Furthermore. is gifted with
prophetic SOUL and he subssts in the immediate ex-
pectancy OF IAN already near and profoundly
important development of literary expression
pending the arrival OF which he Is COM
fortably convinced that Mr.. Maeterlinck and
oil qtiC M hOd
,han any exercised In our day" 1t is sig
n.hcant that every writer. from the late Walt Whit
man onward who has come forward making preten-
sions TO an amper medium or form OF expression
has simultaneously revealed striking propensity
for nastiness OF subject. Mr.. Shaps Vistas reek