Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-29

formerly instructor in English at
Harvard. Lampson professor of Eng
lish literature at Yale. New York:
The Macmillan Company.
- TOT until the afterword of this
~ book is reached does its full
purpose at bottom peda-
II gogical one. appear. The au-
thor himself a university
teacher OF literature. puts in a claim for
the spirit and uses of modernity in the
somewhat plaintive plea that every
thoughtful man who is alive in this'year
of grace should not attempt to live his
whole life in the year 400 e. c., even
thought he be so humble an individual
as a teacher" This teachers psychology
says. in effect, that if one get any hold
on the larger aspects OF life he will get
this hold through dealing first with i'm
mediate things, things of which he him
self is part. making ii possible for him
to keep tally. to speak. between life
ana its various manifestations. More
over, that If he come to any adequate
comprehension of the. past it will lie
through successive backward steps from
the present. Confident of the efficacy of
the present, not only for its own sake.
but also as an interpretative nucleus for
the past, the author. few years ago. Of
fered "a course on Modern Novels One
almost hear the CLAIMANT disapproval
following this offer. The intrenched
classicists declared the study of modern
fiction to be unacademic, trivial. indi;l-
sesH and devoid of mental discipline. The
author patiently and conclusively answer
ed these accusations. but the real answer
lies in the splendid study of modern fic-
ton and its writers embodied in the es
SAYS that constitute this volume. No
better mental discipline can be devised
no finer intellectual achievement. apart
from literary creation itself, can be imaS-
ined than for students under such leader
ship to make for themselves the diScov-
cries set down In these essays. The au-
thor starts off with 1.-The strange case of
William de Morgan that wonderful in
spiration TO tagging age, with his four
frst-claSs novels. all made, too, after
The Oslerian time call The enormous
length of his stories, the great number
of characters presented, the Interviewing
of several plots to make the whole, the
sympathy for the unfortunate, the toler-
ance for the foolish. the gentlea humor.
the real pathos, the authors little trick
of stepping out in front of the story for
a heart-to- heart talk with the reader and
then getting out of the way for the story
to move on, all these personal and lit
erary traits point clearly to an earlier
writer, Charles Dickens. "reincarnate.'
as Mr.. Phelps happily says. in William
dc Morgan
Then follows the study of Thomas
Hardy for the sake of his mastery of
literary form. devoted to the service of
a superbly gloomy pessimism, and How
ellis for his creed of realism, his method
of refinement. his outlook of social whole
someness. kipling, Stevenson, Suder-
man and Sienkiewicz follow, and Bjorn-
son. that intellectual athlete, that parti
san fighter. that strenuous reformer,
whose twin, in nature and method is in
duoitably at the present time engaged
r,,1 tl,.,
best of these critical estimates Is that of
Mark Twain as man of letters and ideal
american. So effectually has the voice
of this author been overhorne by the
laughter OF his audiences that his real
genius has been, in the main.
reckoned. An act of patriotic and liter
AIRY justice declares that Mark Twain is
one of our foremost living writer's, and
that he is also our great democrat. mucn
more American than that fayorite eX-
ample of Americanism and democracy.
Walt Whitman. Among the last of these
notably discriminating analyses is that
of the writings of Mrs. Humphrey Ward.
a very sober soHhd, courageous judg-
Inent. TO which a large number of read
ers will now, with upheld hands, SUD-
scribe. The novel is now the most
prominent literary form. 1t is also the
most realistic means of picturing cotem-
porary social life and condition. Its
proper study furnishes instruments of
valuation by which substantial literature
may be discovered and used. Such a
study is far from being unacademic. \
pleasurable feature of these essays is
their simplicity. their freedom from the
conventional phrase of the literary critic.
Another one is the authors crisp. YER
nacular, idiomatic way of putting things.
On THE BRANCH. From the French
of Pierre de Coulevain, by Alys Hal
lard. New York: Z. p. Dutton K Co.
Why does the serious writer of seri-
Gus story give it SO foolish a title? The
best of authors, it appears, are now and
then vbeset by this christening obsession.
Even Thomas Hardy named one of his
most gloomy and pessimistc novels "A
Pair of Blue Eyes Think of it! 1t is
the very voice Orwell. every one knows
the tones of that voice. This particular
substance, a psychological self-study
whose opportunity for research is a
meager thread of events, invented, one
feels confident, merely TO give vantage
points where this self-analyst may stand
10 watch hfr own wheels go round. A
woman of fifty, suddenly bereft of de-
voted husband. finds almost at the in
slant of his death, through the time-hon-
ofed accident of a Incorporated let
ter. that he has been the lover of the
wife's cousin and is the father of this
cousins son. Her redemption out Of con-
sequent Indebtedness, jealousy. hatred
and distrust of life through the mega
tive but kindly Offices of TIME and the
positive reconstructive service of work,
TO an optimistic belief that all expert
erces. both bitter and sweet. work to-
gether directly for good. is accomplished
with much circumstance of self-eXamina-
tion and self-explanation. Even her own
death is made a matter of analysis and
the gates are held ajar while the dying
woman tells, somewhat inelodramaticaliy
and with sad twist to artistic realism,
how she looks and feels, and what she
thinks in this supreme final experience.
Listen, 1T is nearly finished.
feel suffocated. - 1t is impossible TO
take anything. and at times 1 get out of
my depth. The branch is bending
il is bending terribly. II is even
cracking under me. And ] am
not afraid not at all afraid. =
Like the bird Of whom the poet sings
- L know that l have wings /"
Fallen from the branch" A rec
of this novel in its native country. In
letter to her American publishers the
author says that il has arrived at it's
135th thousand
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN LIFE.
BY Herbert Croly. New York: The
Macmillan Company.
IL is hard to conceive a more compre-
hcnsive or a more philosophical ap-
proach to the present symptomatic con-
ditions of political. economic and social
american life. considered in the logic OF
their effects. than by way of Mr.. Herbert
CrolyS study of the American national
promise and ideal. This promise Is de-
fined as that OF an ultimate democratic
nationalism. Standing in the present.