The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-11-24

I
! Bound" from the Greek poet Aeschy-
lus brought Elizabeth Barrett Browns
! ing (1S09-186D prominently before
| the public. 1t is true that in 1926
Mrs. Browning's Essay on Mind was
published, but this attracted little at
tention. Probably her best work is
Aurora Leigh" her longest poem.
! This has been aptly styled "a Novel
In Verse"
| Mrs. Browning is without question
the greatest English poetess. but her
/ writings do not appeal to the many as
they are primarily "mood-stuff," and
consequently. her meaning is often OBJ
scure. In truth, it is only at times.
when one can rise above the level of
common earthly things, that her full
| meaning flashes on one. and the
| depth and character, the great beauty
| and delicacy of expression that mark
| her writings are revealed
Just about this time another Eng
| lishwoman. Jean Ingelow won high
place in literature by one of her
! poems-"High Tide on the Coast of
/ Lincolnshire.
During the year 1S47, a novel, Jane
Eyre by Charlotte Bronte appeared
! under her pen name of "Currer Bell
"a novel of such strength and beauty
and originality that the pre- eminence
! of Dickens and Thackeray in the lit
ed. Unfortunately, for English liter
ature, the gifted authoress died soon
after the publication of this novel
having, however. written in the mean
time Shirley" and "Villete." bul
neither of these was up TO the stand
ard of Jane Eyre
George Eliot" Mrs. Lewes GS20-
1881 was one of the most gifted of
English novelists. Her books. with
I their passion and power. their haunt
ing and soui-stirring patnos, one reads
and reads again with Dersistency thai
proves their nearneSs to life and eX-
perience. to human emotions and af-
fections and stamps them indelibIy
with the hallmark of genius. Con-
temporary with Thackeray and Dick
! ems who are among the greatest OF
male novelists. her works entitle her
to an equal place in literature with
them. Her pen was most prolific ana
all of her books we're of a high STAN
dard. However, it is generally con-
coded that the best of her writings
were these five-"Ad dam. Bede," THE
Mill on the Floss" Felix Holt" Mid
dlemarch," and "Romola."
AS this essay is intended to cover
English literature in its broadest sense,
& i. e., literature in the English lam
guage, it is now meet to mention Har-
riet Beecher Stowe of our own lana,
whose Uncle Toms Cabin was pub
lshed shortly before the Civil War.
1t is true that no other novel was
ever so popular as uncle Toms
Cabin but this is due to the condi-
tons existing at the time of it's pub
| lication. rather than to any intrinsic
! literary worth
This brings us down to very recent
tines when woman has entered the
field on an equal footing with man.
he toll mr. a q
pastime but as work. and to-day
| there are almost as many strong, viz
/ lie woman writers as there are in the
ranks of the stronger sex, particu-
larly in the realm of fiction.
The peculiar versatility of woman's
genius makes her proficient in any
| branch of literature--in history, biog-
raphy, poetry, fiction-but if one were
| asked in what particular phase of lit
erature woman to-daV shone the
brightest, the answer would certainly
/ be in the short story of fiction. What
an array of names comes to ones
mind at this question:: Juliet Wilbur
Tompkins, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps,
Ruth McEnery Stuart Mary r. Ship
man Andrews, Rebecca Harding Davis,
George Madden Martin. Josephine
| Dodge Daskam, Myra Kelly, and many
| many others in this country. There
| is not such great number in Eng
! land, but the works of those English
women of to-day who do write are Of
an exceedingly high grade.
! Among the more prominent women
novelists we have Mrs. Humphrey
Ward, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Mary
, T.. Wilkins Freeman. Ellen Glasgow,
Mary Johnston. Halle Rives. Ger
trude Anterior, Mrs. +. G. Herman
| christian Reid, Mabel Shippie
Clarke Pelton, Sarah Beaumont Ken
| ~, INNi., fRHT
our home State, North Carolina.
| When we see the place that woman
, has gained for herself in literature.
When we realize how lasting is the
hold she has obtained upon the pub
| lie, we women feel proud of our sex,
and we women of the South feel par
| ticularly proud of our Southern Sis
! ters who have SO ably and so truly
portrayed ourselves. our homes and
our lives and won everlasting fame IN
| the portrayal.
But there yet remains one great
work in literature to be accomplished
the production of a great American
novel. The books of Mary e. WIKI
ms, of the Far North are as accurate
and as strong and as true as those of
Thos Nelson Page of the South Geo.
| w. Gable of the Far South, Hamlin
Garland, of the Middle West. or Bret
| Harte, of the Far West These writ
| erS have all shown that they have
genius enough to feel the conditions
of the life of which they are q part
and are artists enough to put their
| impressions in lasting form. But they
have only pictured the sections which
| they knew.
1t may be that the time for this
great American novel has not yet
| come-that sectional peculiarities and
| differences are SO great that there is
| no composite american" and there
| fore. that no American novel can be
| yet written. If this be SO, then when
! the time does come when such sec
| tional differences are obliterated, who
can say that the writer Of that great
! novel will not be woman?
Woman has i'll century and a half
overtaken man in fictional literature at
least. PROGRESS at the same speed
must SOON make her pass him. and
there seems to be no obstacle in the
way of that progress. Then, why
should not a woman be the writer of
the Great American Novel?
| HULDA SINGER DRISCOLL.
! WOMAN IN LITERATURE. ....
| A RAIN-SINGER.