The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-05-28
HowELL's TALK ABOUT FICTION
America Produces the Best Short
Stories in the World. The Evo-
luton of the Novel Since
the Civil War.

the Civil War.
The most impressive quality IN
mans life is the number of years ne
has lived. If he has passed them
amid trivialties his age becomes
forbidding example; if he has been a
man with an instinct for culture, with
a delicate taste for delicate fiavors,
then the years hang together in his
brain like vine of rare and delicious
grapes; pick any one of them, ana
you have the best III the market.
When William Dean Howells began
the part of literature he became one
of the four or five men who represent
ed it IN America; that was, say, fifty
odd years ago.
"Those were the days of small
things" said Mr.. Howells, with
smile; then looking down from those
wears to the present he added, half
sadly and more seriously, "And these
are the days of the big thing"
Mr.. Howells', literary intuitions
were always, as they are now, singu-
larly alert to the tendencI OIL the
future, for years ago, rs far back as
1856, his enthusiasm was stored by
that most modern of noVelists now,
Henry James.
A Henry James Manuscript.
81 was associated in an editolia'
capacity with Henry Field, who was
my chief on the Atlantic Monthly,
said Hr. Howells, recalling the advent
of a Henry James manuscript into
that office, when my opinion was
asked about q story by Henry James
that was sent in DIS a contribution. [
remember recommending it warmly,
and saying Yes, by all means accept
it, and all other material you can get
by the same writer.
'The name of the story was Poor
Richard and it dealt with the period
of the Civil War.
OF course, it showed the excep-
tional brilliancy of style and thought"
continued Mr. HoWells, that distin-
cuisines everything Henry James
writes. 1t was q three-part story
They would call it a novelette, today,
which they ought not to do, because
there should be no such thing AT
that time we expected great things
from the war story, but somehow or
other our expectations were never
realized.
IT urged the author to trace the ev-
olution Of the American story from
| the end of the war to the present day.
that 1t might indicate the course OF
| American fiction-its triumphs, its
efforts, its neglected opportunities IL
was scarcely a subject to be thorough
| ly completed in the more or less tri-
vial snapshot of an interview, but we
touched the borders here and there
| of the purpose.
.Scarlet Letter. Stands Alone.
"Those of us who lived by artistic
| impulses expected great things in lit
erature and art after the war. We
| lived then in poetic period, we felt
| that after the great social upheaVal
would come flashes of artistic genius:
| The time had come to think, to feeI
| with gentler, broader instinct than
the hatreds of war had allowed us.
/ The time had come for repose, for
taking inventory of the inherent quail
| tiles of art that might be expected or
q young country that had outgroWn
| it's first restless action of youth. In
| sculpture, in painting, in literature,
we expected great strides after the So
cial CONFUSION of war.
| There came q great wave of pros
| perity over the country, and in the
| sweep of it's oncoming it swallowed
| the sculptor the painter, the writer.
| They turned their talents to CONNER
| cial instinct and neglected the self
| sacrificing spirit of doing the things
| they liked best, perhaps. The trl-
| Imph of that period was Hawthorne,
| Scarlet Letter There is a book that
will never be surpassed in American
4
| ity that makes it stand alone, because
| it was a romance, which is quite a
| different thing from a novel. HaW-
| thorne attempted a most daring ana
| difficult task; he put his story bacE,
| into the romantic atmosphere, IAN
| guage, instincts, and sustained it. 1t
was the way he saw it, felt it, and
could alone do it,
What is the definite character of
So, III ann
| like many others in the present day,
had no doubt been misapplied.
Romance u Story of Life.
IT suppose a romance is story
| of life in prose, the poetic vision OF
a story that could have been written
in verse and to accommodate TINS
vision, Hawthorne put the period and
incidents back, gave it veil of DIS
lance, emancipated himself from act
ualities, created a world for himself,
by himself. You see, the novel is
quite a different vision of story.
1.-THE form more especially than the
material of the American story was
born of an initiative influence.
'All young writer's have their
models, the ideals they prefer, those
writer's that are the nearest of kin to
them temperamentally continued
Mr.. Howells.
1.-THE men who had the most infu-
ence upon the earliest forms of the
American story after the war We're
Dickens and Thackeray. The man
who influenced the American novel
list greatly also was Turgeniff, the
Russian novelist. His books have
been more widely read in America
than anywhere else; he saw the form
Of his studies more clearly perhaps
than Tolstoy, but where Tolstoy de-
scribes a huge area of vision Turgenif1
would take one corner of it.
Historical Novels Declining.
still, for many years the literature
of America after the war was IN the
hands of the four or five leaders o.
the New England coterie; as to tbs
rest, the American story was in the
main doing the small things, copyins
| in pale inks the inspirations of Dick
ems, Thackeray, Turgeniff, Haw
thorne, or the New England writers
Then came perhaps the first individ
uality of American fiction, the his
torical novel;" Mr.. HOwells was no
enthusiastic in his "Reminiscences o.
. this innovation.
There are not so many historical
: novels now, and 1 fancy their inter
= est is Almost gone.
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