New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-02-04
CHE Neiars Dork gribae,te
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1906.

The enchanting nature of literary technique
as Il subject of study is undeniable. yet we are
often constrained to wonder why the hopeless
ness of solving its mystery is not more frankly
admitted. In The Reader" there is an article
on The Structure of the Short Story by MIR.
Clayton Hamilton. Encouraged by Poes own
notes on the evolution of The Raven he has
undertaken to reduce that writer's famous tale,
"Iigeia" to its constructive elements. He
grants that I'VE should seek in vain TO eaten
the secret of his style but. pointing 10 the fact
that Poe fashioned the plots of his stories with
mathematical precision he goes on to assert
that lit must be perfectly possible TO under
stand his structure" This is all very well, and
we find n certain plausibility in Mr.. HamiltOns
analysis of "Ligeia." But we balk at his claim
10 having thus "set forth clearly and with am
pie illustration the essential principles Of struct
ure that must be applied in the production of
any good example of that most interesting
form of fiction, the short story" Theoretically
these principles of structure look very pretty,
but unfortunately they throw us back upon the
fact that almost as many sets of principles of
structure rs there are good short stories might
easily be formulated. In other words, when we
have got through talking about how the short
story may be built we return TO the conviction
that genius always uses a method of cOnstruc.
ton entirely its own
Some remarks by George Moore in the de-
lightful "reminiscences of the ImpresSiOnist
Painters which he contributes to "Scribners"
for February. bear suggestively upon these
questions of literary technique Speaking of
the disciples of lola, whom he used to meet
in the Partisan cafe frequented by Manet and
DeSas, lie says:
The airl and triumph of the realist to
with he 9iUfp -
brush and the engravers needle in the descrip-
ton, let us say, of mean street, Just the de-
sire of a symbOliStic writer was TO describe the
vague but intense sensations of music so accu-
rately that the reader would guess the piece he
had selected for description, though it were not
named in the text. We all entertained doubts
regarding the validity of the art we practised
and enVled the art of the painter, deeming ii
superior to literature.
TO see what good results may be developed
from the idea thus indicated one has only to
turn to Mr.. Moore's fiction There are pass
ages in Evelyn Innes" for example which
rival in their pictorial quality the marvellous
interiors painted by the little old masters of
the Low Countries. One recalls, too the extraor
sion for delineating the insides and the out
sides of houses was only equalled by his skill
in this branch of literary art Yet it is not too
much to say that where n really gifted writer
can play the painter with impunity there is
nothing which 50 quickly betrayS the little man
as an ambition Ito force the pen to compete
with the painters brush" Witness the awful
descriptive writing in most of the contemporary
novels. 1t actually brings nothing recogniza-
bic into the printed page; it spells naught but
confusion of mind.
The Other day Mr.. Gilbert Murray's version