The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1896-05-22
A Rather Severe Criticism Of Her Latest
BoOk-A Rather Discouraging View Of
the Literary Field.

A Rather severe Criticism OF Her Latest
B0Ok--A Rather Encouraging View oi
the Literary Field.
! From the Springfield Republican. J
In spite OF the fact that fiction com.
prises 80 large proportion OF the to-
tai output Of the printing press, the
really notable novels are few and far
between. IL IL u rare year when two
can be found standing up above the
rest ~ 1.-The Amazing Marriage" and
Jude the Obscure, "have done during
the last II months. The American
noyelists have produced nothing to
correspond. Mr.. llowels has stopped
dabbling IN socialism long enough To
write two pretty little love stories, but
he has given us no serious work. Miss
Mary +. wilkins whose Pembroke"
was hailed especially by English crit.
les, MS opening the most important
new vein of fiction discovered for years
past. has been working in Improbable
lines and has done nothing Of impor-
lance since. Henry B. Fuller, whose
slang Chicago stories The Cliff Dwell.
ers 'and"Wit the Procession, marked
the development of an interesting, If
not always agreeable line of realism,
has given the Kaleidoscope another
twirl and displays a puzzling exhibit
tion of puppets, which one hardly
knows how to take, and which show
no connection whatever with his prev
ious work. Ilamlin Garland's Rose
of Butchers Coolly" showed much
talent, but hardly the advance on his
previous work which had been expect
ed. Really, the most promising Of the
recent American novels seems to be
1.-THE Damnation of Theron Ware" by
Harold Frederic, which is rs genuine
" American as though its author were
still living in New York state, instead
of in the same city with Henry James.
Except for this, the latest American
fiction has nothing very brilliant to
show: yet there are Il number of en-
tertaining books, both from eype-
rienced noyelists and from compar,
atively new writer's. One of the most
extraordinary is Miss wilkins Mad
elon" (IIarper's. This author has u
gift for the improbable, compared, with
which Mr.. Stockton's romance is tim
is that Miss wilkins seems to have no
notion that she is overstcpping the
bounds of likelihood; her improbable,
tiles strike the reader as the plumbers
of half trained and not quite log
ical writer, rather than as the extrav
aganza cfa humorist This Vas true
of Pembroke" which was for this
very reason spoiled as a picture Of
New England life. 1t was true of THE
Long Arm in which, il anywhere, a
rigid observance Of the last of verisim-
iltude was required. 1t is true OF
Madelon'a story with abundant good
touches, mingled with grotesque alb
surdities. 1t is in the foundation of a
plot that Miss Wilkins is weakest and
this may prevent her from taking the
step from the character study to the
sustained narrative which she has been
essaying unssuccessfully for several
years.
Here is the story of " Madelon" in a
nutshell. A jealous French girl in
a Vermont village stabs a lover who
attempted TO kiss her on dark road
taking him for his cousin who had Just
Tilted her. The recreant admirer who
really loves her better than the girl 70
whom he is engaged comes upon the
scene moment later and lays his own
knife in the pool of blood so as to
throw suspicion upon himself Mad
elon who had committed the act in a |
with remorse and tries in vain to |
persuade people that she is the Grim
inal. Lot, the wounded man, com
plicates matters still further by pro
testing that he stabbed himself from
fear of dying of consumption and final,
y sa, es his cousin and rival from the
LANCER of hanging by committing su
eide thus forestalling the effects OF
the wound
Now there is nothing absolutely i'm
possible in such an outline badly stat
I'd.
1t is not SO gIaringv made up as
the plot of of THE Long ARM for
Instance. But the art Of the story
teller is not sufficient to make it move
Motives are not sufficiently
Exhibited ;the machinery creaks. Read
,ver the chapter in which Madeion's
brother lends her the knife TO carry
home and notice how crude and in.
sufficient is the preparation for the
1t is artificial it does not
ing true. Moreover in aiming at the
development Of criminal story the
writer has put less skill Of workman
hip is not the sketches of the village
ok. Neither Burr nor Lot nor the
minister's daughter have vitality or
life likeness. Much better is the pie.
ure of the wild half breed French
an.ily of musicians to which Madelon
though here too there are DC
asional suspicious touches which show
he limitations of the authors imag
n alton. In style the book shows de.
elopment in one way: there is more
ariety to the sentences. But Miss
wilkins has still "a long way to 90 be a;
ore she attains the mastery of
trong and artistic prose style though
t is some encouragement to see
Ter passing out of the kindergarten !
tage. ;
r.. KIPLING'S FIRST AMERICAN h