New-York tribune., 1903-04-04
GENTLE MELANCHOLY.
Some Illustrations Of 1t IN Recent
Fiction.

THE LIGHT BEHIND. BY Mrs. Wilfrid Ward
12rno. Qp. 800. John Lane.
THE PRIVATE PAPERS OF HENRY RYE
CROFT BY George Gissing. 12mo. PIP. xiv 2Ss'
f z Dutton & Co.
Writers Of fiction cannot complain that they
do not receive enough attention. They are al
ways being talked about, in and out Of print,
and when their individual productions are not
under discussion some one is talking somewhere
about the broad problems raised by their labors
Now & is the threadbare argument between ro-
nance and realism that is being thrashed out
all over again; now il is the question as 10
whether contemporary fiction is more often
gloomy than cheerful. or vice versa Probably
as regards this latter question a careful tabuia-
ton Of current novels would show that honors
are about evenly divided between Joyous and
so-rowful themes. But Il one is to rely not on
the test Of figures but on mere experience, II
would seem as though Melancholy had marked
for her own q larger number Of novelists than
seems altogether reasonable. BY one book after
another the reader is asked, II not 10 olush at
speeches rank''-though such an invitation Is
not at all uncommon-'to weep at woes, Or
TO turn white and sWoon at tragic shows" We
Ike 10 believe that the reader bushes when oc
casion requires. II he were hardened to the
rank speeches which writers mistake for
strength" we should despair Of the public
taste TO say nothing OF the public morals But
does he really weep, or turn white, or swoon?
We doubt it. We doubt even If she does. AT
the most, we fancy. The grand, gloomy ana
peculiar stories Of the day incite TO a pensiVe
ouietude-from which the reader emerges, IN all
likelihood, with impatient start wondering
what IN the world has come over the imagina-
tions OF these people who assume to be puohc
entertainers We have ourselves risen in some
such mood as this from the perusal Of the three
excellent volumes which are enumerated at the
ton Of this column
There can be no doubt OF their excellence
There are certain Of our novelists who may De
unnecessarily doleful. but at least they know
their craft. Witness Miss Alice Brown, in her
latest book The Nannerings.' II is dellgh'-
ru,Iv written. II is impossible TO regret having
read It from the first page TO the last But II
this book does not give US the double distilled
essence OF New-Engiand gloom, or. rather, the
gloom which a goodly number Of writers have
convfaced themselves is characteristic Of New
England then we do rot know the acrid bre"
when we taste It The opening scene Is fulI OF
charm Therein Katharine Nannering waits al
the railway station in her sleigh 10 welcome her
dearest friend among women AS they orlFe
home to Mrs. Nannering's house on EogcoHlDe
Hill one breathes the wintry air they breaIne'
one rfn5Ies with a sense of the beauty Of the
snowy landscape for all that it is suggested
rather than described. Katharine. too, is an en-
gazing figure. and so is her friend Elinor. But
the +~ro regin to talk even before they reach the
house on the hill about the bitterness 1t holds
for one of them. and in the fourth chapter we
get ample details OF the trouble Srice Man
rerins the husband IN the case, is admitted pg
his wife to have been fond Of her, once, but she
protests that Il was "a short spring Madness
ike her own. and he soon settled into a ouii
log trot" the sort OF routine that orlves an
Imaginative woman frantic I'VE were DARBY
= Z
o,,- dinner at the same time every day, ana
F2rica was TO go pottering off TO that inferaa
ebo, Of his a. the same minute every morn
ing" Her listener. sympathetic but wishing 10
he list. points out that Brice had to eaten MS
train. whereupon Mrs Mannering continues
ca he did. But don't You see? Don't you
-eaIize2 All his life is like that II lSn nc 11
he's rnethodical- Hes nothlns e.se; 3s - W. ~
small beer. It's the magnlfylng OF tIlIleS e.: 80,
N-eJ the very care with which he has MS uou-
Ee7s pressed, It puts kind OF unadness Ihlo ne,
look at that smooth. sharp IoId anu Ho11I 5
4,- II with my scissors. look at his bools anu
Tan+ TO burn them, because know ne mas =
Tatr for Wednesday, and q pair Tor saLuroaS, @
and know that they are IN ms Closet Ihe 'oe0
all pointing west
va see We realize. As IN a glass, darlly.
those trousers loom. and beneath them, those
.nfuriating boots, "the toes all pointing west
Put for the life OF US we cannot weep, or turn
white OF svvoon. or do any Of the things that we
ought TO DO in the circumstances We are sorry
Cor Mrs AFsnnering To live with those boots
ane trousers and ell that they imply is enough
- enDaT the stoutest- Yet the stoutest might
shrink from life Of daily pin pricks without
-.perding such q life as q food for tragedy
'. &c ro- that Miss Brown IS untrue 10 nature
q, her book On the contrary. she gives US
throughout a sense OF moving among real
,eople vith entirely natural emotions The
trouble is that these people make. when all is
said. such unsatisfactory company. The author
,,,g,,+ -e+ort that there is something TO be
learned even from very obscure domestic IN
sa,,-,.,aa No doubt But in this weary world
ono zro,,Id like 10 give ones time to more i'm
-,or+art lessons especially as those Of the sort
offered In THE Mannerings" are We dare say,
M, very difficult for most people to come at IN
the ordinary walk Of everyday life We all
lxnov the man whose care for his trousers and
his boots is the index OF his character. Most OF
We can surrnise the epic woes of his wife. Why,
therefore should the novelist be al pains 20 pour
on this small beer into fiction? Poor Mrs.
Nranne-fng sinks deeper and deeper into misery.
She unbosons herself in novel. her wretched
husband publishes It when her back is turned.
and further affronts her by gloating over the
-,onuiarity II achieves when II is characterized
as Immoral In order that her cup may be
filled 70 the brim, he swindles a young woman
who IS living under their roof, and the climax
IS capped by the disposition Of that individual
70 get at cross purposes with her lover. There
are more pangs in the book, but We let them
uass None of them, we repeat, tear at our
beartstrings They superinduce only q gentle
melancholy. Miss Brown is so nice about it ALL
she Is SO sympathetic and so clever that We feel
that We ought TO like The Mannerings" We
80 s,a s,a little T3lIt we would like TO like IL