New-York tribune., 1901-12-07
A PORTRAIT GALLERY.
aTR. HowELLs ON SOME FAMOUS WOMEN
IN FICTION.

yolumss MlnsFr5ss Slh 80 octa1o ea pp
22s, "a Harper & Bros
With libraries filled with selections from the
best literature. and with such studies OF poetry
and fiction rs daily come from the press, 1here
would seem TO be no reason why q clever reaoef
should no. keep up with the productions oI our
own day and have at least veneer OF hho"t-
edge of what is past. Mr.. Howeilss TWO stou'
volumes are good as course IN EhsiiSii
literature Witness how keenly he analyzes
George Eliot's faults:
She had many and lamentahle defects; tiie
very sincerity OF her motive Implied them' hef
1sa-n,ne overweiehted her knowledge; her con.
science clogged her art; her strong siasp %
human nature was weakened ey 1olpies oi me- i.
ner: the warmth Of her woInaniy ssIhia..lI
and the subtlety Of her wonanly lntultloHs
failed of their due effect because the syInpaties
were sometimes hysterical ana me LUZ ,,s
were sometimes OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. f1ef IL
r1oenee reading, which freed her from the "olsl
Influences of the English example IN ncIi9a 9 9a.
numbered her with pedantic ecQuisl1lons utioei
which her style labored conscious and olEuss,
her tust sense of her own power fostered a killo
of intellectual vanity, fatal TO art IN winch - S
first personally intruded hersef INTO the SUI
and Thackerayesquely commented upon the
facts and persons without the Thackerayesque
liehtness or the Thackerayesque coiHehlioii
that IL Is all make-belieVe anyway
He atones for this rapier thrust Of criticism
Inv his generous acknowledgment of her great
mess and general supremacy. but who can deny
that it does not bring almost instantly real
1zing sense of her real position in the world OF
fction2
OF Richardson's novels he says that they
--sometimes deal with experiences far from
edifyins in order to edify- Clarissa Harlow
-Js like girls Of our widely different clrcum-
stances in the measure that many great-srailo-
1notherly miniatures are like the pho1osraplo
of their great-granddaughters Goldsrnlth' ne
.avs had the instinct of reticence, which Rich
srdson had not" How instantly that one prlei
sentence indicates the difference between the
,vo authors with whom he practically begins
his gallery of PORTRAITS. To Goldsmith ne at
tributes the high honor OF having invented the
.-nineteenth century novel, as We understand II
new. with its admirable limitations of Sopnla
he saws that she is dear to the heart, ike SO
many other nice girls who are cften SO iluci
wiser than anything they do or even say Inc
heroines of Fanny Burney. Maria hoge"oIIh
and Jane Austen follow next in ORDER ana Ior
these three novelists whom he treats with
charming delightful understanding, ne says
Richardson served a model and Goiosn1l'h
nc o., ,nsnira7ioa" In line with that dictum Is
tbis nresnart sentence: Before The Vicar OF
watefeld' there had been no English nctlon N
which the loveliness of family life had mace II
self felt: before Evelina the heart Of girlhood
he'd never been so fully opened IN literature
And he goes on:
There had been girls and girls, but none IN
whom the traits or actions OF the slfls 1aIlliioi
70 their fathers brothers and lovers were SO
fully recognized, and the contemporane!ty IN
stantly felt in Evelina has lasted 10 thls oas;
The changes since her entrance INTO the Morla .
have been so tremendous that we might almost
q. well be living in another planet, for all that
js left of the world she SO trembled at and re
io,ce6 in Bur whoever opens the book OF her
adventures finds himself in that vanished So
ciety with her, because she is herself SO loving
that she makes everything about her alive
Ore might fill pages with these guiding re-
marks, which, if & person has reao the noVels Oh
which Mr. Howens treats, will come nome 10
him with keen delight, even if one may not al
ways agree with him; and if he has not read
then, they will certainly lead him to take up
course in this bygone literature. 1t is a very