New-York tribune., 1903-02-01

fJocl, Iondon's latest book of stories, as '1ull
of strange and graceless locutions crude anec-
tation and astonishing misuse OF ulctloiliIF
words" The simple directHess o. the author
previous book is praised by the cfltlc' WHO
laments that the young man mas come 10 t'Ne
bincalf seriously as a literary person, ana 10
have beaten out for himself "a style OF Sorts
THAT he should write nothing more Tor at leis'
n wear or two, and should in the mean tline
set himself to read good deal OF the Sehuine
masters Of prose, are bits OF good ADVICE "niCn
Mr. London will probably not dream OF lahlhs'
What Young author would? Humility ID liter
arv matters is scarcely the mark OF the present
age.
The daily newspapers, the weeklles and the
monthlfes having had their say about Aola, II
lis now the turn of the quarterlles writer III
1.-The Quarterly Review" is at pains TO sho"
that Zoia was poet in prose, that IL ne WAS Il
champion of 'naturaliSm as against rondhti-
tcism" he was nevertheless more realistic IN
the strict sense than the romancerS he scorheu-
The point has been made over and over again.
but il has never seemed to us that by making
it one was likely to get any forrader. Ine
ouestion at issue has never been whether Zola
was faithful to his subject, as reallst or hoL
He might have been twice poetic as some
from the blight of an incurabe dirtiness. lie
might have been, on the other hand, hdelty
itself where the photographing OF nature was
concerned and he would only have been the more
offensive In The Edinburgh Review another
critic has been freeing his mind IN regard 10
the French novelist and this individual frankly
saws: His instinct for the nauseouS b0rdered
on Genius. and it was equalled by his skill in
presenting it" He was so far skilful, so far
accurate whether poetic or not, that there is no
mistakng the things that are nauseous IN his
work The partisanS OF lola are never more
amusing than when they divigate at large about
all manner of reasons for reading their nero
and yaluing him. They miss, with beautiful
amiability the critical point, well touched
upon in the sentence just quoted They fail to
see or they wilfully ignore, the fact to which
the whole history OF literature is one crushing
testimony. that the writer with an instinct for
the nauseous and Il devotion to its cultivation,
is not the writer that the world wants.
"We admire Mr. James" Thus 'The Satur-
dav Review" But it is interesting to observe
that here we have one more admirer Of the
novelist who is capable Of seeing the pit into
which his Later manner is leading him, and is |
quite willing to declare, in spite of all the Wor-
shippers twaddling around their shrine, that
The Wings of the Dove" for example will !
never do The "Saturday,' pointing out the !
temptation to become grabbed in manner be-
cause of taking too much thought of matter, or
to become precious by reversing the stua-
ton finds the source of Mr.. JameS'S failure in |
his attempt to employ the two methods. First |
he has evolved a style which follows the
thought with a precision which is commend |
able but makes terribly hard reading; second |
when his thought might be expressed quite
simply he continues in the old style for the old
styles sake, and thus produces pages that no
one wants to read" The critic aptly quotes
Dryden against him:
/ double moose thou thy neck dost pull
For writing treason, and for writing dull
+ To die for faction is a common evil
/ But to be hanged for nonsense is the devil.
The saturday" is far from saying that $50
serious an artist" Mr.. James should die for
belonging to the faction of the over-precision-
lists, but it adds that "he has come perilously
near hanging himself for the nonsense of writ
ing in profound manner when there is nothing
profound to be said" For purpose we
should be glad to have "The Wings of the
Dove put in the hands of the beginner, with a
page or two Of warning. 1t would SER, bet
ter than almost any book of the time, to show
linn Lc1r laf 11rita q nAl,nl :.