Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-04

government reports, her poetry thar
her budgets.
1t is perhaps because most Americans
have done so, and appreciate the work
of her great writer's. in many cases more
than we do that of our own, that the
two nations are on the best Of terms to-
day. The fact of a common tongue
and literature has given us a bond OF
understanding.
He who knows his Dickens and his
Thackeray and his Scott, his Shake
speare, his Tennyson, his Kipling, his
Shaw, his Priestley, will have in his
heart and mind something far removed
from statistics, yet something which will
enable him to understand news happen
ings in human, straightforward way.
What II some readers do Sneer at
Dickens? Call him cockney all you
will, perhaps that very closeness to his
people, blood of his blood and bone OF
his bone, makes his large stories better
documents Of fact than many dry AS
dust report moldering away in the
archives of Parliament.
No less critic than Gilbert K. Ches-
terton has called his books the great
world Of Dickens" Similarly, other
judges have termed Dumas a vital
force" and have spoken of lola in a
large way.
Those who appreciate and know some
thing OF world literature seem to feel
that abnormal comparisons are in order
for some of the worlds great writer's.
Their work may lack in certain artistic
qualities, but the sheer magnificence of
their efforts. by and large, has put them
In separate classification.
1t may be that part, at least, of their
vast appeal arises because they have
in fI1nfY- inN, ris t<N,1 -
their people. The relentless sincerity
OF lola, for instance. is apparent in
any OF his novels. There can be no
question that here, in these men and
women, we have the French people as
they are.
The teeming oceans of American
fiction will give foreigners a better
understanding of us than any number
Of high flown, bombastic books setting
forth the glories of the United States
in the best phrases of economics, as
valuable as such things are in their
places.
Even the novels Of Cooper and Mel
vile. modelled as they were on Euro
pean patterns. are coming to be recog-
nized as invaluable bits of Americana.
mainly because they faithfully set
Americans, our ancestors, were
What one generation neglects, the
next exalts. Walt Whitman had to
get the critical o. K. of Europe before
reading Americans as a class, were
willing to admit that his work is great.
II we stick to our Bret Harte and
our Hamlin Garland, and our other
writer's of the great borders. we will
know much of our own country and
our own people, and so will readers
OF foreign nations, who, after all, are
so much part of us.
Happily today the works of all ma
tons are readily available in competent
translations. No reader should shrink
with modest inferiority when reading
a good translation. A good translation,
properly done by man in love with
his task. is quite often as good as the
original. and sometimes even better.
In the cases where the original ex-
cells a translation. it will be mostly
on account of the idioms and struc-
lures which 1t is impossible TO trans
late. This is only admitting that
French is best in French, English in
English.
Any book store can supply a reader
with the outstanding fictional works
of the nations. one after the other, SO
that any earnest student of foreign
affairs may supplement his reading OF
foreign news by a perusal of the flc-
ton and general literature Of the ra-
tons involved. The peoples Of all IA
tionS are immensely proud of their
literatureS, and an acquaintance with
it gives a visitor an immediate point
OF contact on the best sides of both
nartin.