The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-12-30
GOSSIP.

in the cities Of our land were "The
Days Work" Adventures Of Fran
co.'s" "Roden's Corner" "The Gad1y,"
"The Battle of the Strong" and Sec
ond Thoughts of an Idle Fellow" The
novels come and go with a brief popu-
larity and then with but few excep-
tions are forgotten. The current novels
are almost as transitory as the edito-
rails in a newspaper.
Zangwill thinks the Americans ex-
eel the English in the short story. He
greatly admires James Lane Aliens
books, and speaks of his splendid
STYLE" and says "Englishmen are
pleased with his admirable use of
words The Messenger years ago en-
phasized his elegant, refined, beautiful
style when writing of 1.-THE Kentucky
Cardinal" The New York Bookman
reports Zangwill, now in the north, as
taking great interest in our south.
1t says sit ppears to him to be so full
of romance, a place of ancient chivalry,
a land where large estates are to be
found and a region of wide hospitality.
"a vi tAOSN AAo an 1900
regarded the south as an ideal sort Of
place, rich in human ruins and ro-
nance"
When we learn that among the four
or five most successful novels in Great
Britain during the year was John
| Splendid" we are prepared to estimate
the 1000 or more novels produced and
their actual value.
The late Harold Frederic, the Ameri-
can novelist who died in England, cor
| rectly estimated in a critical paper he
published just before his death in an
English magazine, Dickens's "a Tale of
| Two Cities" as we hold. He said it
was carried along more by the fact
that it belongs in the set of Dickens
than by it's individual value" but add
] ed, asking: "Yet, who is writing such
vivid Drama, in any kin Of setting,
archaic or otherwise, for us today?"
Well asked. We believe, and have
written it so many times, that it is one
of Dickens's most original and greatest
productions. 1t is a most virile, in
tensely interesting, ever dramatic
book.
1t is noticeable that Mr.. Frederic,
himself a successful novelist, we'll
praises Reade's "Cloister and the
Hearth" as a superb microscopic
panorama of fifteenth century life"
and adds that it lis as surely alive as
any book in our language" He says
that Scott must have made tremen-
dous impression upon the lads Thack-
cray, Dickens and Reade,' and he
might include we'll nigh every very
eminent novelist who has written since.
He has really appreciative words for
"Hypatia" and westward Ho!'
Kingsley's two historical novels of
most successful aim; and John Ingle-
SAINT" and Lorna Doone," and 'Ro-
mOla." He is in love with Black
mOre's greatest achievement, one of the
great novels since 1870. 1t won a very
great success and it holds it. 1t is
unique and powerful. He truly esti-
mates Micah Clarke" as Doyle's best
historical novel, and yet it was written
in DOyle's "amateur days." Doyle has
studied carefully SCOTS methods, and
has wisely initiated his manner to some
degree, while being influenced, as Fred
eric seems to suggest, by Lorna
Doone." He does not like "a Lady of
Quality" by the divorced Mrs. Bur-
nett, n no wonder. He thinks Croc-
ketts' Raiders as the best historical
novel in ten years after Stevenson's
The Master of Balantrae." He has a
very decided appreciation of the mas
terful Sir Walter, the greatest of all
romancers, the completest of all story
~tellers. the richest endowed of all Gre
ators in the realm of fiction. Mr.. Fred
eric
Eighty years ago the fictional side
of English literature was in melan-
choly ruins, when Scott came with his
great talent to purify, r%enovate, expand
and build afresh. Now we are in a a
way again, and especially SO in The
very department which he made his
own. We may not hope for
another Scott, at least we may plead
with out young craftsmen to think
over the story of his achievement, to
and the means by which he did it, and
to search in the right spirit for the les
sons his work can teach them"
The man who wrote that had ability,
skill, cultivation. He is in his grave
dying at little more than forty years
of age. He has left something worthy
in these opinions, We must believe, and
in the last paragraph quoted about
Scott.