Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-10-29

mons" writes a reviewer of Letters
Home" in the Syracuse Post Standard.
whether they read him or not people
know about him and like him, or. as
the expressive phrase goes, stand for
him, l guess the secret of it is, for one
thing. that every one has a strong faith
in Mr. Howells's genuineness and
Americanism. He does not go to Italy
for his scenes and characters as Marion
| Crawford does; he does not retreat in
to the past as Mr.. Churchill and most of
the other romance writer's do. He deals
with the here and now, with Broadway
and Beacon street, with Iowa and Cen
| trail New York, with the election of
Mayor Low and the trust movement.
He handles all these familiar common
place and homely things and makes
good stories of them-no easy task
And with all his humor and clear in
sight he preserves a noble faith in
everything that is American
| Book criticism has become a very
i prevalent vice. Everyone does it
even the footballgame reporter. Nat
urally enough, as for all things uni
| versally manufactured, easy methods
| have been invented. The very easiest
is to write the review without reading
the book. Doubtless this method has
| been in vogue longer than we realize,
but certainly some ten years ago so es
tablished Il critic as Mr.. Andrew Lang
dealt with his book by saying: Il have
not read. Being repealed by the eX-
ceedingly ugly design on the covers, 1
| did not open them" The covers in
| this instance CHANGED to have been de-
signed by Mr.. Aubrey Beardsey, and
one can fancy the amazed disgust
which these drawings at first excited.
| 1t must have equalled the popular feel
| ing about Blake. In England, where
| the fault of the average man is that of
| taking himself and business too Sc
riously, Mr.. Lang's airy reputation of
anything verging upon a sense of re-
| Sponsbility must have amounted al
/ most to a Witticism. In this country
| it would be found to have a less potent
| charm, because so entirely in the man
ner of the young girl just out of school,
who feels that nothing matters now, so
| long as she has amusement enough.
Here this method lacks novelty.
| An equally interesting way of dealing
| with an author is that recently adopted
| by reviewer in one of our own best
| reviews, in dealing with a book of Sc
| rous art criticism. The reviewer says
simply: We are obliged to confess,
/ that lacking the required knowledge
| and sympathy, it may be much of.
book is incomprehensibe to u.s. This
| way is candid and straightforward and
I mil q n self
| revelation if only the authors name
| We're signed. but, alas! it is not. 9th
| erwise we might set down on the tab.
| lets of memory, Mi, of the staff
| Of. knows nothing of art and adj
| nlits it; skip his art criticisms hence
| forth" But only to know that an I'M
| known reviewer knows nothing of art
and says so is to waste knowledge.
| A third method of book criticism is
| to rely entirely upon the interest of
| ones personality. This is a method
readily learned and much in vogue. A
| we'll known contributor who makes it
his business to know of English books
deals thus with Miss Keats last vol
| ume: 1T must be my fault, but I
can't read the book with any pleasure.
| Her stories are to me tiresome and I'M
| attractive. l mention this not because
| it is of the slightest consequence
whether I like Miss Keats stories or
whether l do not, but simply because
| of the fact that while to many they
| seem exceptionally good, l cannot read
them" The value of this sort of book
reviewing must rest entirely upon our
reverence for the reviewer. Robert
Louis Stevenson, by a chance sentence
has taught many a mortal to delight
| in the choruses of Samson Agonistes
How many of US would have really
| loved Colerdge, outside The Ancient
Mariner and Kubla Khan, but for Pater
or known our Gray without Arnold's
help? Symonds, Pater, Arnold. Swim
burne, Saintsbury. have. by criticisms
opened many fields for exploration;
| their book criticisms are still books of
| Observation-Disclosures Weekly.