Birmingham state herald., 1896-02-16
GOSSIP FROM BOOKLAND.

powers, and the amount, versa tility and quality of his genius. In this work he launched forth into the full enunciation of what was in him, and placed before an appreciatiVe audience the doctrines of his preaching, and with the simple, forceful narrative of the life of Tess" and the large. bold figures of the other women and men, he enVeloped around them an atmosphere of woodland scents and beau- ties, mingliug inseparably with their lives the deWy freshness and purity of rural England, with it's rapturous mists and dews. In Jude, the Obscure. MT. Hardy accentuates what used 10 be called the "conf1ict between vice and virtue" and the grossness and indecency of the later work is attributable to the fact that this conflict is here emphasized, while the ac- companying purity and freshness, which are so characteristic of Hardy's best work, are neglected. Mrs NJ. e. w. Oli- phant in BlackwOod's Magazine gives lengthy criticism of Jude" in which she says: We rather think the authors ob- ject must be, having gloriied women by the creation Of Tess, to show after all what destructive and ruinouS creatures they are in general circumstances and in every development, whether brutal or refined. But on consideration it becomes more clear that it is intended as an as sault on the strong hold of marriage. which is now beleaguered on every side. The motto Is, "rhe letter kileth;' and presume this must refer to the fact or Jude's early and unwilling union to Ara bella, and that the lesson the novelist would have us learn is that if marriage were not exacted and people were free to form connections as the spirit moves them none of these complications would have occurred, and all would have been we'll"
 Mrs Oliphant enjoys prominent posi- tion in literature, not only as a writer, but also as a moralst: and the stern de- nunciation with which she characterzes Jude as infamous should demand. the appreciation of all right-minded people. And yet, with the scathing cry of "infa- my heard from this author, no less a person than w. D. HowellS. whose judg- ment upon books and book men fills so honorable place in contemporary Amer ican litera ture, has a word to say about Jude" After admitting that the story has to do with some things not hitherto touched in Anglo-Saxon fiction, and that it is the duty of criticism to warn the reader that it is not for all readers. he declares that it is equally duty to af- firm the entire purity of the book in these matters, and further concludes "lt Is surely not the lesson of the story that any other relation than marriage is tol- erable for the man and woman who live together. Rather it enforces the conVic- ton that marriage is the sole solution of the question of sex, while 1t shows how atrocious and hcinous marriage may sometimes be-" The substance of the criticism of these two prominent people may be calculated to confuse the ordina- ny reader; but this thought may be borne in mind--that there is one subject Which does not allow of thought or imaEina- tion and in the contemplation and dis- cussion of which produces most disas- trous and damaging effect upon the hearts and minds of readers.
 Max Gate is the home of Thomas Hardy. and is near Dorchester, England "a home of his own designing. recent reviewer has it that the novelist first began life as an architect, his first pub lished work being an essay on Ihe Use of Colored rick and Terra Cotto in Dwell ing Houses At Max Gate Hardy has his study. and his wife as an amanuensis when she can spare time from her paint ing, sketching and the varied duties that come to her as the hostess of so many guests.
 Harper X Bros. have just published a collection of miscellaneous essays by the late George William Literary and Social Essays" The first two in this valuable work are called Homes or American Authors" and tells with es- pecial charm of Concord, the home of the prince among American writers. Emer- son. of whom the author says: If there be something oriental in his philosophy and tropical in his imagination. they have yet the strong flavor of his mother earth-the underived sweetness of the open Concord sky and the spacious breadth of the Concord horizon" And that other son. Hawthorne, who, with his young bride of few hours. entered the old manse in Concord and took up his abode and here the sad and silver mosses accumulated upon his fancy. from which he heaped so soft bed for our dreaming, The character Of flaw thorne's imagination and the golden gloom of it's blossoming completely har- monize with the rusty gable-roofed old house upon the river side. and admirers of his works will here realize IS never before the friends of nis youth-the dreaming river, the melancholy meadows and the dropping foliage or its vicinity
 These essays were first written in 1854. as also an essay on "Rachel.' the great French actress. The next treats of "Thackeray in America" and appeared in 1858.
 George William Curtis has achieved a splendid reputation as an orator and lee" turer As theauthor of "Prue and l." ''The Potiphar Papers" and Lotus Eat ing" he has left valuable record as managing editor of Harper's Weekly for so many years, and yet this newly pub lished volume will but lend lustre to his fame. Much as you may have read of Thackeray, and thoroughly as you may feel you Know the man s cnarHcteflStlcS. yet take this little extract from the es- say: Those who knew his books found the author in the lecturer. Those who did not know his books were charmed in the lecturer by what Is charming in the author--the unaffected humanity, the tenderness, the sweetness. the genial play of fancy and the sad touch of truth, with that glancing stroke of sa tire, which, IightninglilSe illnmines while 1t with CTS"
 Read this paragraph again and see if we do not need to study Tha ckeray from new '.pont of view"
 Then follows essays upon sir Philip Sidney" "Longfellow," "Oliver Wendell Holmes" and Washington Irvine" Some one has said, "Testimony Is like an arrow shot from long bow. the force of St depends on the strength of the hand that draws it," and In this valuable and Instructive work, from the pen of a loved author, the attestation is vivid. ardent and forceful and written with the au- thorlty of master.
 It is unusual to see writer achieve distinctness along three different chan nels, and yet this Is what Isabel A. Nal Dol t s, l.. .l III