The San Francisco call., 1896-09-13
g DMUND GOSSE'S NEW
0RISR BOOK OF DELIGHTFUL
e~S@ KT-KATS ABOUT MANY
LITERARY CELEBRITIES

among the most sane and unprejudiced OF any
that have been given US on this subject 81
am inclined to admit that in Walt Whitman
we have just missed receiving from the n ew
World one of the greatest of modern poets, but
that We have missed it must at the same time
be acknowledged But there is one condition
which distinguishes art from mere amorphous
expression; that condition is the result of
process through which the vague and engag-
ing observations of Whitman never passed.
He felt acutely and accurately, his imagina-
ton was purged of external impurities, he lay
spread abroad in a condition of literary solu-
ton. But there he remained, an expanse OF
crystallizable substances, waiting for the
structural change that never came; rich above
almost all his coevals in the properties OF
poetry, and yet, for want OF definite shape
and ixity. doomed to sit forever apart from
the company OF the poets"
The essay on Tolsto is interesting and sugges-
tive, though one might fancy the subject al
most written out.
Christina Rosseti possesses great in terest
for all lovers of that melancholy and fascinat-
ing Pre-Raphaelite. Mr.. Gosse places her
sonnets above those of her brother. He makes
trifing error in the statement that "Gabriele
Rossetti married the daughter of another
Italian exile, G. Polidori, Lord Byron's ply
sician," thus making that wayward ana un-
happy gentleman, who, in despair over gaming
losses, ended his life by poison, the poets
grandfather. John William Polidori, who
travelled with Lord Byron, was in reality
Christina Rossetti's uncle, being her mothers
brother, as we learn from the recent Letters
of D. G. Rossetti." The mistake is of small
Importance, yet friends of the gifted brother
and sister are glad to feel that the shame and
sorrow of tnat wasted life was not their direct
inheritance. After some delightful mem ories
OF the days OF the germ and the first Pre-
Raphaelite fervor, which fowered out in the
poems OF William Morris, Thomas Woolner,
Sw1nburne and the Rossettis, the author saws !:
'In the extremely rare gift of song-writing
Miss Rossetti has been singularly successful
OF the poets of our time she stands next to
Lord Tennyson in this branch of the art in
the spontaneous and complete quality of her
lieder, and in their propriety for the purpose
of being sung"
GoSse holds that Christina Rossetti and Fitz-
gerald were the two poets who most influenced
Swinburne's style The authors personal re-
collections of Christina Rossetti are interesting
He speaks of the extreme tenderness OF her
conscience and tells of his difficulty in getting
her to sign petition against the destruction
OF a part of the New crest, which Mr.. Swim
burne had promised to put his name to if
Christina Rossetti would do the same.
AT last she was so far persuaded OF the in
nocence of the protest that she wrote Chr;
she then stopped, dropped the pen and said,
very earnestly: care you sure that they do
not propose to build churches on the land ?'
After long time 1 succeeded in convincing
her that such scheme was not thought OF,
and she proceeded to write istina G. Ros-
and stopped again. "Nor schoolhouses ?'-
ductuating with tremulous seruple. Atlength
she finished the signature and 1 carried the
parchment off to claim the fulfllment of Mr.
Swinburne's promise. Gosse speaks of her
secluded life and of her death in December
1894, when, latter prolonged suffering, borne
with infinite patience, this great writer, who
was also great saint, passed into the region
of her vision.'
The next essay is a portrait of LORD de
Tabley, who died less than year ago and who
is too little known to American readers. He
was OF shy and sensitive temperament and
was discouraged at the lack of the recognition
he so nearly achieved in his youth. few
years before his death, at so years of age, he
blossomed forth with a new volume, Poems,
Dramatic and Lyrical" by which he is mainly
known to readars to-day.
The sketch of Toru Dutt the remarkable
young Hindu girl who died so young but left
work of such perfection in both French and
English, is full of most romantic and touching
interest.
NJ. Jose-Maria de Heredia next invites our
attention. "In 1866 he was one of that happy
band of lyric boys who started the Parnasse
Contemporary, that germ of France" He was
one of the founders of the "Parnassian" school
of poetry, and is to-day member of the
academy.
Perhaps the most valuable essay in point of
information, in the volume is the one on
Walter Pater. Little has hitherto been known
of the private life and character of this writer
of great prose.
By far the most delightful sketch in the
book is the one on Stevenson. The charm of
that mans personality seems to pervade every
thing that has been written about him. 1t is
hard to even think about Stevenson quite
calmly. A sort of intoxication seems to
radiate from the pages Of his books-the in
toxication of pure beauty One is conscious
of being hardly sane enough to be un-
prejudiced. have noticed that all readers are
either Stevenson lovers or haters. On those
that "can't bear Stevenson" heaven have com
passion ana let them never know their loss!
Mr. Gosse touches mostly upon his youth
those days before he was famous, or Mr.. Gosse
either. The lad used to visit the struggling
young reviewer, who had married on a small
income and large hopes. The exigencies of
the situation prevented the Gosses from
entirely furnishing their house.
1.-THE one person who thoroughly approved
of our great, bare, absurd drawing-room was
Louis, who very earnestly dealt with us on the
immortality of chairs and tables and desired
us TO sit, as ne delighted to sit, upon hassocks
on the floor. Nevertheless armehairs and
settees struggled into existence he handsomely
consented to use them. although never in the
usual way" "a very few of us were
convinced of his genius; but with the excep-
ton of Leslie Stephen, nobody of editorl al
status was sure of it.'' What an attractive
picture of Stevenson it is. With his high spirit
of courage and gayety against that background
of i'll health. No writer is closer to the heart
of his generation than Stevenson. We feel
that Mr. Gosse's essay ends with fitting words.
"He became the mos: exquisite English writer
of his generation; yet those who lived close TO
him are apt to think less of this than the fact
that he was the most unselish and the most
lovable of human beings"
GRACE s. MUssER
"The EpistO,ary Flirt," by Esmerie Amory. is