: The Mentor: American Novelists Vol. 1 No. 25 by Mabie Hamilton Wright - Authors American The Mentor

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THE MENTOR

"A Wise and Faithful Guide and Friend"

Vol. 1 No. 25

AMERICAN NOVELISTS

HENRY JAMES WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS THOMAS NELSON PAGE JAMES LANE ALLEN WINSTON CHURCHILL OWEN WISTER

This group of distinguished novelists may be divided into four smaller groups, not only in time, but in selection and treatment of subjects. Mr. James and Mr. Howells are now the senior members of the literary fraternity in this country, and have not only American but European reputations. Only three novelists before them attained this distinction. The earliest of these, Cooper, is still read in many parts of the world, and in little German villages boys call themselves "Cooper Indians," and play at oldtime savage warfare. The author of the "Leatherstocking Tales" wrote the first original American novel, and Hawthorne wrote the first American romance. The first described the manners and customs of a people whom he knew at first hand, but whom Europe knew only by hearsay; the second analyzed the motives and described the workings of the Puritan spirit, and showed how the consciousness of sin worked itself out in the Puritan character. The theme was new, and the manner of treating it was both effective and beautiful--and Hawthorne remains the most artistic writer this country has produced.

The next novelist to whom Europe paid attention was Mrs. Stowe. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was like a great torch held up over a fiercely disputed field; it showed men and women living under all conditions of slavery, paternal and humane on one hand, and commercial and cruel on the other. It made a drama of a political issue, and was read with bated breath by a million people. It interested Europe because it was a powerful story dealing with a situation that had attracted the attention of the whole Western world; it was at once translated into several languages, and could be found from London to Constantinople.

HENRY JAMES

When Mr. James began writing a generation ago there had been no American fiction of a high order for twenty years or more, and the country had grown rapidly in experience and knowledge. Mr. James showed this more cosmopolitan attitude toward the world, and his style had a quality which was new in our fiction. It was clear in those days; it had great flexibility and capacity for conveying fine distinctions and delicate shadings of thought; it had a tone of maturity which was lacking in the earlier writers, and it was the medium of expression of a thoroughly trained man to whom writing was a fine art. The early short stories, of which "The Passionate Pilgrim" may serve as an example, arrested attention by reason of their insight into character and their fine workmanship. There was an air of romance about them; but it was the romance of human temperament, not of incident. The early novels were not popular in the sense of running into large editions; but "The American" found many readers who were quick to appreciate its penetrating and searching analysis of character, its sharp contrasts of American and European traits, and the refinement of a style which is both rich and restrained.

All novelists reveal character; but those in whom the dramatic instinct is strong show it chiefly in action. Mr. James brings out character largely by means of analysis and description, and for this reason he is often classed among the psychological novelists. In his later years the habit of analysis grew on him to such an extent that the movement of his stories was impeded and his style became complex and at times obscure. In a time when social relations between America and Europe were becoming more intimate, Mr. James found a rare opportunity of studying American character against a European background, and in the whole range of fiction there have been few writers of more acute penetration, of greater delicacy of stroke and line in painting character, than he. He was one of the small group of American authors to whom the word "distinction" may be applied.

W. D. HOWELLS

Mr. James was a student of men and women in society, using that word in its narrower sense; Mr. Howells, who is also a keen observer, has dealt with less sophisticated men and women, and has given us American types unmodified by other influences. A man of deep sympathy with his fellows and sharing in his heart the sorrow and pain of the common lot, a lover of Tolstoi and a professed realist, with a strong leaning toward constructive socialism, Mr. Howells has kept his fiction free from any kind of preaching. He has understood his vocation as an artist, and has not made his novels serve his social and political doctrines. Although a man of strong convictions, he is a writer whose touch is notably light, and whose humor is delightfully unforced and happy.

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