The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-11-08
HOWELLS ON DU MAURIER.
His Success at Sixty One of the Mar
vicious Things Of Literature.

Harper's Weekly.
1t was my good fortune to have the cour-
age to write Du Maurier when "Trilby"
was only half printed, and TO tell him how
much L liked the gay, sad story. In every
way it was well that l did not wait for
the end. for the last third of it seemed to
me so altogether forced in it's conclusions
that | could not have offered my praises
with n whole heart, nor he accepted them
with any. If the disgust with its preposter-
Gus popularity. which he so frankly. so hui
morously expressed, had then begun in
him. But the liking which it's readers felt
had not yet become loathsome to the au-
thor, and he wrote me back a charming
note, promising me the mystery, and
enough of il, which / had hoped for. be-
cause of my pleasure in the true-dreaming
in Peter Ibbetson," and speaking briefly.
most modestly and fifty. of his commenc-
ing novelist at sixty, and his relative mis-
givings and surprises.
1T was. indeed. one of the most extraor-
binary things i'm the history of literature,
and without a parallel. at least to my ig-
norance. He might nave commenced and
failed: that would have been indefinitely
less amazing than his most amazing sue
cess: but it was very amazing that he
should have commenced at all. 1t is use
less to say that he had commenced long
before. and in the literary property of his
work he had always been an author. This
theory will not justify itself to any critical
judgment: one might as well say. if some
great novelist, distinguished for his sense
of color. took to painting. that he had al
ways been an artist. The wonder of Du
Maurier's essay. the astounding spectacle
OF his success; cannot be diminished by any
such explanation of it. He commenced now
elist in Peter Ibbetson." and. so far as
literature was concerned. he succeeded in
even greater fullness than he has succeeded
since. he had perfect reason to be sur
prised; he had attempted an experiment.
and he had performed a miracle
AS for the nature, or the quality, of his
miracle. that is another question. L myself
think that in all essentials it was fine. The
result was not less gold because there was
some dross of the transmitted metals hang
Ing about the nrQCi0uS inOnf and the o.;
denceS OF the process were present. though
me secret was as occult as ever. He won
the heart. he kindled the fancy. he be-
witched the reason: and no one can say
just now he did it. His literary attitude
was not altogether new; he perfected an
a,tisHae ~ecosnizabl first in Fielding. mex
~Thackeray; the attitude which i once
called confidential, and shook three realms
beyond seas. and their colonial d~ependen-
cies here. with the word. 1t is an attitude
which l find staggering I'm Fielding. insin-
cere in Sterne, hooking in Heine and in
artlstic In Thackeray but Du Maurier
confidence: whatever illusion there was re-
sided in that fact: you had to grant IT in
the beginning. and he made you grant ii
gladly. A trick? Yes: but none of your
vulgar ones; a species of legerdemain. ex-
quisite as that OF the Eastern juggler who
plants his ladder on the ground. climbs
IL. and pulls II up after him into the empty
air. Ii wants seriousness. it wants the last
respect for the readers Intelligence. II
wants critical justification: 1T wants what.
ever Is the very greatest thing in the very
greatest novelists; the thing that con-
vinces in Hawthorne. George Eliot
T~eurguenief. Tolstoi. But short of this su.
preme truth. it has every grace. every
beauty. every charm. 1t touches. il an
peais. IL consoles: and If it fatters. too
IL Ii turns the head. il 1t intoxicates-well
it is better to own the fact that il leaves
one i'm not quite the condition for judcinc
IL. l made my tacit protest against il after
following Trilby: poor soul. to her apotheo.
sis at the hands of the world apd the
first chapters of The Marian" and / ex.
pect to continue In that sweet bondage te
the end ~