The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-09-09
Realism in American Fiction.


novels dealing with elevators, pai1t-pots,
afternoon teas, and the most ordinary
problems of commonplace life, as dis
tinguished from tragic or romantic Incl
dents. It has developed somewhat diff
ferently in American and in English fie-
ton. and its variations are naturally
legion.
Hawthorne and Irving were realists; SO
was Thackeray; so, emphatically, was
George Eliot; but their realism was diff
ferent from the modern variety, and they
differed widely from one another. The
modern American school Of realism is dis
tinguished by a certain similarity of
method.
There is not much doubt that the most
perfect exponent of this school is Howells.
He has had, perhaps more influence over
one generation of writer's than any other
man of his time. Those whom he did
not influence TO imitation he drove in the
other direction and made romanticists OF
them. He pervaded the magazines at a
time when a great many young writers
were studying style. and they naturally
guided his. He has had a controlling in
fuence over three or four of the more
prominent magazines in turn, and while
he sat In the EDITORS chair. and for some
time afterward. those magazines recognized
the merits of authors who gave graphic
and accurate pictures OF everyday life,
without. perhaps, going very deeply into
the motives which actuated their charac-
ters In a few of Howells' novels he
touches the deeper springs of character.
notably The Quality of Mercy and The
World of Chance" but mainly it seems TO
be his aim TO make his readers see how
very superficial they are likely to be even
when they are trying to be deep; and how,
when they really are deep, they do not
know It and cannot help themselves. This
is q good lesson for most of US to learn, for
II tends TO take the nonsense out OF nov
el-educated people; but at the same time
there is not quite as much superfciality in
life as the author of Their Silver We'd
ding Journey" seems to want us TO believe;
and there are occasionally TO be found in
the world women who know their own
minds and men who are well enough ac-
quainted with the world TO know what
they are doing in it.
Howells. however is not wholly account
able for the cropping out Of so much OF
the realistic spirit. 1t Is largely due TO
tendency Of the age, of which he is merely
the most pronounced exponent. For about
the space of one generation American lit
terati had a sort of apologize air. They
seemed to think that America offered no
literary material as compared with Older
countries; and if they touched American
life at all they chose the life of the past
for their field. Hawthorne delved in old
Salem and old Boston for his material;
Irving went back into Dutch colonial days;
they were realists in the accurate and Wv
i'd descriptions which they gave Of their
people and scenes; but it was ripe and
mellow realism, with nothing up to date
about it. Nothing in all American fiction
of the first half Of the century comes so
near modern realism as THE Mill on the
Floss" When George Eliot wrote that
book she did not construct her plot; 1t
constructed itself; and she disdained no
material. however homely or minute in de-
tail, which might add yividness TO her mar
rative She was to a certain extent in ad-
vance of her age. That story is as much
alive and as modern as if it had been writ
ten yesterday.
America, however, did not quite gain
courage to treat her own country viii
lagos with the uncompromising yet loving
fidelity which George Eliot gave to st.
Ogg's for some time after the story OF
Maggie Tulliver was written. Mrs. Stowe,
in her stories of New England life, did
something Of the sort, but not imper-
sonally. The Puritan Beecher traditions
obtrude themselves too much to permit
very fine artistic effect She is always
covertly or openly defending her native
coil from the insinuations of the enemy
Finally, all of a sudden, realism ar
rived, and throughout the country people
began writing of the scenes and charac-
tiers they knew best. Each took his lit
tie section of land and worked on II with
the painstaking and conscientious fidelity
of q Venetian workman on a bit of mo-
sale. The country is so large and the
mixture of elements so infinitely varied
that there was room for everybody to do
original work in some direction. Some OF
the fiction was good, some of it was not
so good, and some was bad, because
initiative; but it all seemed to get into
print, and the result is a much more
complete history of contemporaneous So
ciety than any former generation has had
20 bequeath TO US. Future historians will
have fairly good idea of the way in
which the average American lived, loved,
worked, and died in the last quarter of
the nineteenth century.
New England was naturally the first
field thoroughly exploited, since Boston
was for the first half of the century the
great publishing centre. There is hardly
corner OF the six States comprising this
section which has not received attention.
Without counting the older romance
writer's, Howells, Henry James, and Arlo
Bates have exploited Boston. Maria
Louise Pool pictured phases of its life
which have escaped other writer's, and
there are dozen minor story-tellers who
have chosen that city for their scene of
action. Noah Brooks has paid more or
less attention to the Maine coast, but
this, as well as that Of eastern Nassa-
chusetts. must be considered as mainly
the property of Sarah orne Jewett, than
whom there is no more skillful and de-
lightful character artist. Oldtown Ne,
belongs, of course, to Mrs Stowe, though
a newer author might revisit the place
TO advantage. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
has handled effectively one feature of
Maine life-the lumbermans. In the
Gray Goth" and Doctor Zay," as well
as one or two other things which she has
written, deal with Maine country life
Mary E. wilkins took possession Of the
small New England village and its old
maids and ancient widows; its shoeshops
and its poorhouses. Rose Terry Cooke
has touched on Vermont. j. G. Holland
had something to say of western Massa-
chusetts. Holmes, in Elsie Venner" pro-
duced characteristic delightful, and in
eXhausuYely interesting study OF Massa-
chusetts village life in the Connecticut
Valley as it was in his day. Curiously
enough, the White Mountain region Of
New Hampshire has never been adequately
handled in fiction. unless Mr. Howells'
peculiar view Of q in Ragged Lady" is
to count. Sally Pratt Mclean made Cape
Cod known TO the reading world. Newport
has had attention from the society novel;
lists, but otherwise Rhode Island remains
untouched, which Is not strange. since