The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-09-08


have withercd forever the moral cancer of his coun
trymen-and we cannot articuate it.
1t is to GOETHE above all other literary influence
that Mrs. WHARTON feels indebted. Strike out the
word tother." The influence of GOETHE is not
literary influence, but an influence proceeding d.
rectly from the heart of life itself. What sort Of
an influence is iti High, pure clean and yet
human. Intangible, too; about all you really can
say Of it is that it is like the company of some
people who bring out all the best that is in you.
They do not put into you anything new. They
draw you out, rather they draw something out
Of you. At the risk of shocking the fastidious
reader and to the joy of the literally minded we
may say that they are the spiritual antithesis of
the mustard plaster They have equal drawing
power and efficacy, but they do not draw out the
ache but the great glow and spirit which the
incontestable proof Of the existence in the human
soul Of something immortal
Mrs. WHARTON read widely, as we say, and she
read in the main standard" fiction. Her taste is
for GEORGE ELIOT and the ethical teachings of that
earlier woman novelist. Her taste is equally for
GUsTAyE FLAUBERT the craftsman 8 master" the
writer who teaches writer's how to write You learn
the innermost secrets of your writing craft from
FLAUBERT and then you put aside everything you
have learned from the master and learn from life.
BAIzAC, THAcKERAY, DICKENS and MEREDITH have
been Mrs WHARTON steady diet; she has reread
them so often repeatedly and contentedy to fall
into with respect to current fiction. She has
had always great interest in biology and in what
ever touches upon the history of human thought
This, in brief, is the substance of EDITH WHARTON
the woman and the background of EpITH WHARTON
the novelist.
Her Work as Whole.
We shall not discuss Mrs. WHARTON books in
detail for the best of reasons--they leave room
for two opinions Of her work. Of almost other
novelist would it be possible to say this; indeed of
some American women novelists there are nearer
twenty-five than two opinions.
Some writer's, like GERTRUDE ATHERToN, are sub
jects of perpetual controversy others the cause
Of wide but sharply defined clcavages Of opinion
GENE STRATToN- PORTER, for example. The work of
still others is properly matter for speculation
as to what they may do than estimate Of what they
have done. But Mrs. WHARTON falls in none of
these classifcations. There is only one opinion
about her work: it is excellent but ifeess; it is
Greek marble with no PYGMALIoN near. From this
sweeping verdict three--and only three--of her
books are to be excepted. They are Ethan Frome
and The House of MIth and Summer. In these
three books you feel the pulse beat
1t will be taken as very dogmatic piece of bust
ness on our part when say that her work leaves
no room for TWO opinions. Was there ever a bit OF
writing, some will ask, which could not give birth
in the minds of readers to more than one opinion!
Often, indeed, twin opinions are born to the same
reader!
The Peculiar Fact.
We must answer that here and hereafter we are
dealing with easily asccrtainabe facts and not in
dulgng in criticism. Mrs. WHARTON S work leaves
room for only opinion simply because those who
might form another opinion do not read her. And
those who do not read her take their opinions from
those who do, and then, following the instinct of
our natures declare (quite honestly the borrowed
opinion their own.
Our real audacity consists in the assertion, i'm
piled in what we have said, that of all the thou
sands who read Mrs. WHARTON not one believes in
his heart for solitary instant that the mass of
her fiction is alive. They look upon her work as
they look upon the Winged Victory; it is ravsh-
ingly beautiful it has perfection of form, it has
every attribute of beauty possible of attainment by
the consummate artist, but it has also the severe
limitations of any form of art