Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-04-09
ENGLISH LITERATURE;

C.B. LID. and Edmund t;osse. Honorary NJ.
A. of Trinity College. Cambridge. and Hon
orary LID. OF st. Andrews University. New
York: The Macmillan Company.
The completion of the Garnett-Gosse
history of English literature is an event
worthy of celebration by all students of
the letters of our own language. These
four volumes. the last of which has re-
Gently been issued. form a compendium
and criticism of the whole range of the
literature of England from the year 440
to the close of the reign of Queen Vic
toria The fact that it does not deal with
living authors and that it is confined
strictly to English writers makes it none
the less valuable to American lovers of
literature for it covers all the begin
nings from which the best of the western
output has sprung.
The publishers of the work have spared
no expense in the preparation of this
work. They have given it, indeed. a truly
beautiful setting, adding richly to it's at
tractiveness. and especially to its value,
through their liberal provisions for Illus
tration. This phase of the work is the
keynote of the whole scheme. The pur-
pose was not merely to present a critical
analysis of the English writer's of the
past or chronological record of the men
and their works but to make the student
and reader as closely acquainted with
the writers and their times as it is pos
sible at present. To this end the four
volumes are replete with portraits, often
as many as ten of the same author, some
times showing the view taken of them by
contemporaries of a caricaturing dis
position. Facsimile specimens of their
handwriting and examples of the earliest
editions of their works. with typical il
Illustrations from the works themselves,
all serve to this end of enhancing the
personal appeal of the work. This is es-
dealing. as they do, with the more remote
periods. and, therefore. with the least
familiar writers and writings
The publishers note. Furthermore, that
the authors have worked upon a system
which has aimed rather at the preSenta-
ton of a record than prolonged critical
, essay. Yet there runs through the books
commentary which serves to link to-
gether the various parts of what is COM
prehensively styled today English liter
ature" DIR. GOsSe, who entered upon the
work after DR.. Garnett had finished the
hrst volume, and, collaborating with him
In the second completed the whole under
taking by preparing the last two with
out aid. appendS an "epilogue" which
sets forth his own view of the function
of criticism and indicates the principle
upon which the great field has been sur
veyed. He takes issue with the doctrine
that the critic of literature has nothing
whatever to do with the theories of phys
zeal evolution enunciated by Darwin and
Hacked. From them. he contends, the
critic should view the broad subject or
| the work of any individual. He rejects
the ancient doctrine that literature was
created in polite antiquity" fully armed.
that Homer had been presented as the
flnal perfection of literature He sets
forth two fundamental principles which
he believes. should guide the critic today:
Ihe first Is primitive and merely
of -
the work before us, or the author. per-
form what he sets out to perform with a
distinguished skill in the direction in
winch his powers are exercised? If not
ne interests the higher criticism not at
an; but IL yes. then follows the second
test: Where In the vast and ever-shift-
Ing scheme of literary evolution does he
take his place. and in what relation does
ne stand. not to those who are least like
MIN. but to those who are of his own kith
and kim"
On this basis, then, he has Judged those
WORKS and writer's chosen for the pur-
pose or tracing the history of English
literature and indicating the Relationship
OF parts. He says, further:
w hat we are in the habit of describ-
ing as originality in a great modern
poet Is largely an aggregation of ele-
mehts which he has received by inheri-
lance from those who have preceded him
ana his genius consists of the faculty
he possesses of selecting and rearranpinp
as IN new pattern or harmony those
many elements from many predecessors
which most admirably suit the only new
thins about him. his unique set of personal
instaoce 'o of natural ss,a He is complex
ana almost geometrical, vet interfering
not whit with that counter principJe of
INDIVIDUAL variation which is needfuI to
nm ahe lhe poet, not a parasite upon his
, artlsuc ancestors, but an independent
output from the main growing organism
ana what is patiently true of this great
representative poet of our days (Ten-
nyson) Is in measure true also of the
smallest and apparently the most a.
centrlc writer in prose or verse il he
WRITES Wen enough to exist at all Every
PRODUCER or vital literature adds an Off
shoot TO the unrolling and unfoIdine or
sanism of literary history in its cease.
less processes of growth"
The ISSUES OF LIFE; Novel of the Amer
,cah Woman of Today. By Mrs John Van
worst. Joint author Of The Woman who
ioii'' New York; Doubleday. Page & Co.
MS book might properly be called ssTho
woman Who Tried to Think" and II would
serve excellently as a companion volume
10 that which Mrs. Van Worst wrote in col,
alteration with Miss Van Worst last season
and which called forth country-wide dis
cussion of the race suicide" issue There
is the very thinnest scheme of novel-mak
ing In 1t. being rather series of episodes
almost detached. Grouped around the citv
experiences of a happily married young
woman who has always lived in exceptional
comfort in the country are several little
stories tending to illustrate the dangers
which are run by the women who try to
displace themselves from their best suited
environment and to override the natural
laws n harsh note of tragedy runs
throughout the tale There is a suicide a
fatal automobile accident. case of self
imposed invalidlsm, a divorce, a scandal
ana the death of child in consequence of
IT'S ultra scientific rearing by a reforming
mother These little stories of New York
life are scathlng In their criticism of met
ropolitan conditions. The literary phase of
the work Is not finished with particular
Etre. There are evidences. too of laxity in
The matter of broad facts. as when the au-
thor speaks page 312l of n storm in these
! words: Sudden gusts of wind blew the
ram and sleet against the window-long
fingers of snow and ice'' evidently forget
ting that the incident occurs in May But
the meaning OF the book lies far beneath
such tribes OF inaccuracy. II is unmistaka-
Ole. and IL is for the correction of certain
ueplorable tendencies 1t will arouse crit
icism and provoke denial. But the impress
sion remains that il is essentially true of a
large portion of the social world of the mo-
tropolis