Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-17

| IF am asked what was nv inten
] ton, I must answer that I wished to
make something very touching and very
simple, and that have not succeeded
as I could have wished" wrote George
Sand, speaking Of her story, THE
Seeing and depicting are not the
same thing, and the most that an
artist can hope for is to charge those
who have eyes to gaze where he has
gazed."
Such was the literary theory of
Amantine Lucille Aurore Dupin. better
known SIS George Sand, one of the first
OF the feminists, who wrote 30 novels,
aroused the censure of her age. and is
| remembered by two or three of her
! books.
There is no one who has written any,
thing at all but who will echo her
honest, rather sad, words: IT wished to
make something and I have not
succeeded as could have wished
That is the eternal cry of the artist,
whether successful or unsuccessful,
, whether big or little, whether recog-
nized by all as an artist or held to be
one only by himself.
George Sand was not great writer,
but in her day she was a successful
one. Her ability was aided by her
| somewhat startling escapades with
young men. Today the world has
largely forgotten her books and her
amourS.
AS writer she was rather inclined
toward the sugar coating. Her peasants,
as set forth in The Devils POOL and
THE Little Fadette," are peasants In
their best light. And again we ask,
why not?" She had a right as an
artist to paint her characters as she
saw them. If she chose to forget the
sweat for one book, that was her right.
Even those who have written in a
small way know that when one starts
out to write something very touching
and very simple" he has q real Job on
his hands. 1t would seem that the very
attitude of determination involved in
| such Ia tends to render the effort
useless.
He succeeds best who has no idea at
the beginning that he is attempting
such a feat. He wants to tell a GER
tain story, he sets out, and the first
thing he knows he has achieved pathos.
Pathos and humor are the most diff
cult in all the writer's arsenal-the
ability to create them Is a gift What
ever one may think of Charles Dickens.
the fact remains that he did achieve
genuine pathos and genuine humor in
many OF his novels.
Az 10 interesting 10 reallZe tnat George
Sand. who wrote after the French man
ner, simply by putting her pen to paper
ana permitting the ideas to come,
thought that in her peasant stories she
had failed, to some extent at least.
Posterity, by choosing these as the
ones TO keep alive, has reversed her own
opinion. And yet she was right, too.
She did not succeed as she could have
wished. No writer ever does.
-
Seeing and depicting are not the
same thing, and the most that an
artist can hope for is to charge those
who have eyes TO gaze where ne has
gaZed"
This Is a bit self-conscious.
1t Is true that seeing and writing are
not the same thing, but an artist. by
the very fact of his writing, does more
than turn the eyes of the reader in
the same direction.
The sightseeing tour is an example.
The Sightseer is taken to a spot or a
building, and there he can see all that
Is to be seen, guided by the hand and
voice of the man with the megaphone.
A reader can see nothing but what
his conductor. the writer, sees. The
author not only creates all that Is to
be seen but he is very careful to put
his own Interpretations upon it, so
that the reader must be a real reader,