New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-06-16
THROUGH FOREIGN EYES.
AMERICAN LITERATURE EXAMINED BY
AN AUSTRIAN PROFESSOR.

GESS4A Sam AuFsAETZE ZUR NGET5E ERE
REICH, AMERIKA. Won Anton F. Sch6nbach,
8vo, PIP. 443. Graz. 1900, Leuschner & Lubensky.
One Of the most significant manifestations-at
least for English speaking people-of the higher
culture of the Germans is their interest in
English literature and their widespread knowl-
edge Of it. It has often been noted, for instance,
in the deep hold that Shakespeare has on the
educated classes Of Germany; in the frequent
performances Of his plays including most Of
those that quite unknown to the English
stage Cycles of the historical plays are
among the finest achievements of the great state
and city subventioned theatres Many of the
modern English poets, essayists and novelists
are we'll known to great German constituencies
in cheap and popular transations. The long
list Of English books issued in the original
tongue by a famous Leipsic publisher is known
TO everybody who has travelled on the Continent.
This German enthusiasm for English master
pieces is something that find match in
a corresponding knowledge and appreciation on
the other side for German literature
A new testimony OF this German interest is
given in the large. solid and Enthusiastically
German looking volume of 443 pages now before
us; and IT is particularly grateful TO Americans
because much of 1t is given to a dis
cusson Of that important portion Of modern
English literature that has been produced IN the
United States The little Austrian university
town of Graz, where II IS published Is not place
Familiarity associated with cosmopolitan culture;
nor is Anton E. Sch8nbach's name known to
many American readers 1t appears that he IS
professor Of German philoogy in the University
Of Graz. The essays reprinted from various
German and Austrian literary periodicals and
newspapers. They divided into three sections,
dealing with the modern literature respectively
of Germany. Austria and America. and dated
for the most part between 1883 and 1856 The
American essays will doubtless be a surprise to
IL ose who not familiar with the ways of
German criticism, and in some respects to those
who They only thoughtful and
judcious, but clear and agreeable in style Fur
thermo-e, they show the authors wide reading
in American literature his clear understanding
of II and Of the matters of which it treats. He
sympathizes with its aims and realizes the cir
oumstances and surroundings that have made
IT what 1t is.
Professor Sch6nbach has written Of James
Fenimore Cooper, Longfellow's dramatic poems
Nathaniel Hawthorne and the American novel
of the present-that is, OF the year 1886 In all
these essays he shows not only thorough knowl-
edge OF the men and their works, but a singu-
larry clear comprehension Of their bearing He
is If not exactly at home in the atmosphere
and surroundings, at least in sympathy with
them and to an extent that few critics alien IN
speech and blood have been. His essays are
real interpretations Of the subjects he has
chosen.
Hawthorne appears to critic to be the
greatest poetic writer-"Dichter" he calls him
that the United States has yet produced, and the
study OF his work is the most elaborate task he
has set Before himself in these American criti-
cisms; IT is performed with the utmost enthusi-
Perhaps reason for this is the oppor-
tunity for the application OF a Enthusiastically
German pathological method. Contributions
Toward a Characterization of Nathaniel Haw-
thorne'' is the modest title; but the matter goes
somewhat beyond the limits thus indicated 1t
is largely devoted to an investigation of literary
methods as they are revealed through that mass
of unfinished material comprised in Our Old
Home" and the fragments THE Dolliver Ro-
nance" "Septimius Felton," Doctor Grim
shawe's Secret" and The Ancestral Footstep"
AS is known. there are attempts at work Of
fiction 0he sketches in Our Old Home" being
originally intended for the side scenes and back
grounds and exterior adornments) of which the
plan was imperfectly developed in Hawthorne's
mind. and fully carried out. They are
supplemented by Hawthorne's notes and memo
randa published some years ago and discussed
by George Parsons Lathrop. Il know no other
case IN the history Of literature" says Professor
authors intellectual processes in such a creative
effort; to observe the access Of his ideas the
bold sketching in and the charming elaboration
Of them" He has pursued the subject with a
minuteness and logical strictness Of method
familiarity with Hswthorne's writings and at
the same time a sympathetic insight into his
nature and ideals that make the study pro-
foundry interesting. The remainder of the arti-
Gle. dealing with his work IN general only deep
ono kFu sY,,vN aN1r 49,
Cooper has. relatively, a higher esteem in Ger
many than at the present time in America
where his romantic Indians carry more convic-
ton than they do with any except the younger
stratum of readers in this country. Sch6nbach
is not unaware OF this. and adduces it in
Coopers favor thus
Popularity with the young is a sign that the
narrator understands how to arouse and engage
the interest. to stimulate fresh and unsophlsti-
Gated fancy; furthermore 1t shows his nature
and the content Of his works to be sound.
OF Cooper's equipment and method he says:
Cooper is possessed OF the broad truth and
reality Of things; he knows from his own OBJ
serVation what he describes; he reproduces with
ineXhaustible freshness the impression Of the
virgin forest and the stormy sea- the reader feels
it with him. The mass of technical details Of
life which bewilders the lay reader but
makes the scene plastic and lifelil<e is one side
Of this truth that comes from always fruitful
experience.
The essay THE American Novel of the
Present" touches almost all the important work
within its scope down to the year Of its publica-
ton, 1885, and in general with the same clear
vision that is shown in the other articles Bret
Harte and Mark Twain both seem to exercise
a special fascination the critic, as they have
many other Germans. who have made a sale
for large editions Of their works in German
TRANSACTIONS, notwithstanding the difficulties Of
giving adequate German rendering of their
style and flavor He analyses Bret Harte's