The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-09-17

er or highest rank in letters-a clever.
gifted writer, who wrote a few really
admirable novels, but none deserving
to rank With the best even Of the Sec
n grade. Ever sine we read Val
entine and His Brother we have held
her as among h best of female au-
thors. She was biographer and critic
and poet as well az novelist and was
really a woman Of very remarkable en-
dowments. In the Atlantic Monthly
we find a far too brief paper from the
graceful and gifted pen Of Harriet Wat
ers Preston, which is a very hearty ap-
probation OF the lamented and delight
full story-teller OF Scotland. She holds
Mrs. OIiphant IVA in many re-
spects the most remarkable woman of
III time. No other woman OF any
time, indeed, has ever written both so
much and SO WELL" We hold that to be
positively true. She produced three or
four times more than Mary Ann Evans
wrote better novels than any other of
her female contemporaries in all prob
ability. We must max an edifying in
terpretative extract from the gifted
New England critic. She says:
For nearly half a century,, from her
twenty-first year to her SEVENTEEN, her
invention never tagged nor her in
dustry, nor her ready command of pure
and fitting English; while that which
xyn ,rID,,hto61Uy thn htnhnct ,,n1i$x
of her mind, and hardly less a moral
than an intellectual one, her deep in
sight into human nature. and sympa-
thetic ~divinatiOn of human motive,
seemed to grow in strength and gentle
assurance as the long, laborious years
went by. 1t was to this quality that
her success as a stOry-teller and her
yet more striking success, in some in
stances, as a biOgrapher was mainly
due. She was naturally more analytic
than dramatic, but knew where her
own weakness lay, and her fine literary
conscience led her to fortify herself
exactly there; so that the best of her
tales are scarcely more remarkable as
character studies than for ingenuity
Of plot and liveliness of action. She
had that which is so rare among wO-
men, even clever Ones, that it is often
summarily denied them au,-sponta-
neouS and humOr."
We think every line of that extract
correct. Think Of a woman earning her
own bread and providing for her chill
dren after being made a widow after
some seven years Of welded life, and
producing nearly or quite one hum
dred volumes, made up of fiction, biog-
rarhy biStorv ond criticism on1 No
little of it capital criticism and excel
lent biography and most enjoyable and
clever fiction. If you would enjoy her
at her best read CHRONICLES of Car
lingford," THE Story of Valentine
and His Brother" I'm Trust "The
Greatest Heiress in England He
That Will Not When he May" "a
House Divided Against ITSELF kris
teen,'' 1.-The Cuckoo in her Nest'' and
some others hat could be mentioned.
The lover Of good books, of good litera-
ture will not fail to enjoy those nam
ed. Miss Preston says that Mrs. Oil
plant had power of sustained effort
and production, exceptional clever
ness and sanity Of spirit, and elastic
vigOr," and that these lever tagged to
the end of her toilsOme life. We like
this because true and sympathetic. The
closing sentence of the critics work is
too good, too touching to be passed
over:
"NOw, at the very moment of the
aged sovereign's jubilee, amid the bells
and salvOS and loyal acclamatiOns
which hailed the longest and most
blameless reign in English history, the
uncrowned queen received her quiet
summons into that far country which
she had so often visited in thought,
and heard, we may hope, over all the
exultant noise abroad, that voice of a
yet more satisfying welcome and sur
passing commentator, Well done,
good and faithful servant!'"
Mrs. Oliphant died on the 25th of
June last.
The Hungarian novelist, Maurus
JOkai, has written more than 300 nov
els. 1t is gratifying that they were not
in English. In England the critics
generally are very favorable to the last
novel Of that sDasmodic writer, Ste
phen Crane, while American critics
have given an adverse judgment. HI
calls it The Third Violet" How can
critical minds of two countries SO
thoroughly and generally disagree as
to the merits of a story?
There is a new historic Irish novel
out called John Marmaduke," by S
H. Church, that is praised by one gen.
orally judicious critic. A good sign IN