The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-06-04

NJ. Harper. OF Princeton university,
entitled Masters OF French Litera-
ture." 1t is indorsed highly by schol-
Of the Atlantic. That able critic Pro-
fessor Edward Dowden, professor Of
English in Trinity college, Dublin,
thinks it excellent. and thinks the
study OF the greatest French critic,
Sainte-Beuve is the best to be found
in English and cannot find within the
the same space in French so instructive
a discussion given with so much in
tellectual pleasure" Miss Gwendolin
Keats, a niece of the great poet John
Keats, who died when but twenty-six
years of age, is making a decided i'm
preston in England among the best
cultivated and Intellectually equipped
THE White Cottage" is thought to be
"a positive revelation OF genius" In
England she is appreciated and praised
highly. Mr.. r. II. Stoddard, the poet,
who is literary editor of the New York
Mail and Express, writes of this book
in a strain of exalted laudation. He
says this novel places her Sin h fore
front of all living English women who
are known to write fiction of any kind,
If not before all her sisterhood in in
instructive knowledge of and profound
sympathy with h primitive elements
of consciousness and conduct which
constitute manhood and womanhood in
+Lo;r e+ofa 4f potrrra- inoto Individual
simple, direct. vigorous, determined,
Interchangeable. the be all and the end
all of their mortal human lives. =. .
Do not take our word for it or any
body's word, but give your most care
full reading and your most loving I'M
derstanding to the power, the pathos,
and the art of this remarkable. this in
comparable book"
When she first appeared with the
title of "Zac," and we learned of her
close kinship with that exquisite poet
John Keats, one Of the seven or eight
greatest masters in the poetic art in
his land, we felt an interest in her,
and We are gratified to see the most
kind words said of her by men of con
science and force.
Another promising writer of fiction
among the women is Edith Wharton.
She promises we'll and her gifts are
amply recognized. The New York Sun,
which a a very competent critic,
says: 'She is today the most promising
figure we have. Tomorrow is hers.
How far she will go it is hard to tell.
But with her stern devotion to style,
her worldly wisdom, her keen insight,
her wit and her fancy, and, above all,
her invariable taste there is no know
ing what the future has in store" Her
novel is called Crucial Instances"
When 200 novels appear in a month it
is useless to read new books. So we
test no novel until it has lived a full
year or longer. We know nothing Of
the novels mentioned above or be-
yond what criticism has given us, so
we quote the opinion of men Of char
aster and ability. We were looking
recently at the list of novels now
selling most. We found hardly one
that was to the front even two months
ago, they come and have their brief
day and then depart and are forgotten.
There is no doubt that today there
are many poets Of genuine gifts and
fine art, but there are no great original
voices heard in the vast choir. There
are culture, mastery of form n mel
ody and a decided creative impulse,
but there is nothing great. even though
stephen Phillips is~zsnlQgized with i'm
pressive excess:Tne best critical
analysis of a poem or drama we have
read in a long time we saw some weeks
ago in the literary department of the
New: York Evening Post. You can
learn from it precisely how strong and
how weak, how fine n how defective
is this young English dramatist. There
is a great deal of essay writing and
critical study now, and the volumes in
this line are numerous and some of
marked c~leyerness. One of the surest
and best surveys of the intellectual out
put and h real merit Of the writer's
we have seen is in the last number of
The Dial" the sanest and safest OF
d S11li(d4 JS6Ah ~Ofs
a few sentences from a paper on the
Tendencies of Literature:
1.-The seaso of analysis and intro
spection is clearly upon us. In such a
period as ours, versatility, good taste,
and excellence of workmanship, and
the number Of good writers, as distin-
guished from the great masters is as
tonishingly large. Sometimes they
spring up in the most unexpected quar-
tiers. and anticipation futters at the
thought of a possible resurgence of the
creative impulse. But we must not de-
ceive ourselves into thinking that our
bustling literary activity is swelling
to any appreciate or noticeable extent
the stock of the worlds masterpieces.
Our literature of today is various and
entertaining, it has taste and even dis
tinction, but it is not a literature
adorned by the opulent poisoning of
genius"
Professor R. C .Jebb of Cambridge
university. England, delivered some