The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-03-17
AS NOVELISTS VIEW LIFE

ing the innermost realities OF London's
nultitudtnous life. And there are many
cthers-but their e1perim ents in real
isuc portraiture impress me as manned
and imperfect.
There is one supremely great writer
thomas Hardy. who cannot be classed
With any of his contemporaries His
place is among the immortals. Like
Shakespeare. he is mot of an age
tut for all time
In American fiction we have one
master OF the art of narrative whose
place is beside Cervantes and Field
ing and George Eliot. The master is
Nathaliel Hawthorne He calls his
books romance" but the name is
misnomer. for never has the heart of
a noble but erring woman been more
tuly revealed than in the study of
Hester Prynne in "The Scarlet Let
ter." And the hidden charm of New
England spinsterhood has indeed been
faithfully painted in the character OF
dear old Hep0i5ah Pyncheon In "The
Louise Of the Seven Cables
Mr.. William Dean Howells. SO often
referred to as realist, is delineator
of superficial American traits. His la
lest novel "The Leatherwood Cod is
his best. But it is not realism 1t is
record of superstition which is en-
tfrely incapable OF verffication. 1t is
exceedingly unlikely that any rural
community in the United States even
In less sophisticated age than ours
would have wOrshipped the base ras-
cal and imposter in the story as Di-
vine Being.
In recent American fiction there
has been an honest effort to paint
real life. Mrs. Mary g. Watts, Booth
Harrington, the late David Graham
Phillips, and Theodore Dresser have
strtven to interpret human nature in
the individual and to analyze char
acter thoroughly. Phillips novels, de
sective though they are n form, show
us not the surface but the under side
Of American life. Neverless this fear
less writer is very disagreeable in
his mode of exposing the yelled dis
eases of democratic society Mrs.
Watts in 1.-THE Rudder' has some adj
portraits of American men
{ nd women. But her materials are too
limited. She has come much closer to
reality in THE Rise of Jennie Cush-
ing"
Theodore Dresser has In 1.-THE I'll
tan" and in "The Genius" libeled
American morality. His suggestions
ere too gross and some OF the situa-
tons in these novels are incredible.
The best American short story
writer is 0. Henry. But, in spite of his
great knowledge of human nature, he
had a crude style He never took the
pains to write a noveI--possibly he
could not write one. His tales are
wonderful as bits of life" But they
have the defects of rapidly produced
Journalism.
The great American novel must be
realistic. It must deal with life I'M
conventionally and must be moral
without perpetrating the aesthetic
b.under of moral purpose" The only
purpose" OF novel should be to de-
fict life with that narrative art which
appeals to us by its CONTINGENCIES.
lola, who claimed to be 1.-THE pion-
eer of realism in fiction, was a very
poor artist. The master of the realistic
novel in France was FIaubert, in many
respects a greater writer than Baizac
5tendhal, with all his passion for YER
ity, was romanticfst In France today
the nearest approach to an authentic
realist is Yourget, but he has degener-
ated into pietism since De wrote his
Crime d'Amour." In
IN England Hardy Is just as real, just
If novelist equal in power to Mr.
as vivid, as any of the Dutch painters
Hardy could deal SO effectively with
English city life. then the puerilities
q Victorian fiction would be made
absurd by contrast. But up to the pres
ent there is no living writer save
Thomas Hardy who can stand on the
same level as Thackeray or Haw-
thcrne 1t Is my own opinion that the
author of Tess" ia equal in his way
to Hawthorne and superior to Tnaclf-
Gray.
ROBBIE.