ENGLISH NOVELISTS OF TO-DAY
INTRODUCTION
There is at the present day a more than usually interesting group of
writers in England. Their personality is delightful, and their point of
view is eminently modern, full of the spirit of the times. The material
for study must be gleaned largely from magazine articles, and by looking
over the files of such publications as the _Review of Reviews_, the
_Literary Digest_, the _Outlook_, and the _Bookman_, there will be found
sketches of the lives and work of all those given here. In addition the
New International Encyclopaedia has biographical sketches, and Poole's
Index and other reference books at a public library will direct to more
material.
All programs on these authors should be arranged in four parts: first,
the life of the author, as full as may be, with sketches of his
experiences, his home circle, his friends, his methods of work; second,
a criticism of his writing, his style, his mannerisms, the general trend
of his ideas, and some mention of his place among writers; third,
readings from several of his books; and fourth, a discussion of his
characters by the club members.
In place of one of these topics, some clubs may prefer a paper showing
the change in the author's methods and style, based on a comparison of
his earlier and later writings.
I--THOMAS HARDY
Thomas Hardy was born in Dorsetshire in 1840, and educated to be an
architect. It was as a rebuilder of old churches that he became an
antiquarian and then a student of rural types, since his work took him
to country districts. His own county lives in his books under the name
of Wessex, and the people he draws are taken from life. He has a
sympathetic touch in dealing with their problems and peculiarities which
comes from close contact and genuine affection.
His first novel, Under the Greenwood Tree, was followed by a second
which won him popularity, Far from the Madding Crowd. This appeared
anonymously as a serial, and at the time was attributed to George Eliot,
because she was thought to be the only living author capable of writing
it. The Return of the Native is perhaps his most characteristic book,
although in Jude the Obscure he shows a merciless character analysis.
But in Tess of the D'Urbervilles he reaches the height of his power. It
is a story of tragedy, expressing the doctrine that man must reap what
he has sown. Read several chapters from Tess and discuss the story.
Hardy's short stories also are well known and a collection called Wessex
Tales will be found excellent for selections for club reading. The Three
Strangers is generally considered his best story. Notice the
descriptions of scenery, the characteristics of the country people and
their personalities. Does Hardy show a lack of humor? Is he a fatalist?
II--MAURICE HEWLETT
Maurice Hewlett was born in London in 1866, educated there, and admitted
to the bar. It was in the midst of city life that he wrote his first
novel, The Forest Lovers, which he has never excelled in beauty and
charm. It is an exquisite, simple picture of life in the Middle Ages,
with a lovely romance running through it. Critics tell us that of all
his contemporaries he has best interpreted medieval thought and
sentiment.
Later he wrote other novels of the same period, notably Richard
Yea-and-Nay, sometimes called an epic story, full of passion, war and
poetry. It was with this book that fame came to Hewlett.
In The Queen's Quair we have a study of Mary, Queen of Scots, her court
and the tragedy of her life. The Stooping Lady is laid in the Eighteenth
Century, but the author shows the same peculiarity, that of making any
time vividly real and preserving the atmosphere. This novel is full of
imagination, yet terse and clear. Hewlett has also written some short
stories of a delightful sort--Little Novels of Italy and The Madonna of
the Peach Tree, quite unlike his longer books.
It is interesting to note that into all his writings the one idea is
woven so skilfully as to be almost imperceptible--of the progress of the
soul, either upward or downward. This key unlocks many of the puzzling
passages, especially in Richard Yea-and-Nay. Clubs can follow out this
suggestion in reading his books.
Read from the novels mentioned; note the strength of Jehan and the
subtlety of Mary. Read also from his three delightful out-of-door
stories of to-day, Half-Way House, Open Country, and Rest Harrow.
Compare the descriptions of scenery in England, Scotland, France and
Italy.
III--MRS. HUMPHRY WARD
Mrs. Humphry Ward, born of English parents in Tasmania in 1851, lived in
Oxford and was educated in the Lake Country. The granddaughter of Thomas
Arnold of Rugby, and the niece of Matthew Arnold, she inherited a strong
moral sense which was increased by the atmosphere of her home, and grew
up feeling that life was full of ethical problems. She married an Oxford
tutor, moved to London, wrote reviews, translated Amiel's Journal into
English, and then in 1888 wrote her first novel, Robert Elsmere, a
brilliant presentation of the religious difficulties of a young
clergyman, leading to his abandonment of orthodoxy. It attracted so much
attention that Gladstone thought it worth his while to review it and
combat its views.
She wrote later The History of David Grieve, contrasting the spiritual
development of a brother and a sister. This is called her most vital
book. Marcella, her most powerful book, deals with the problem of
socialism in England. Then came Sir George Tressady, Eleanor, Lady
Rose's Daughter, Fenwick's Career, and others. Her later books, if more
finished, lack the strength of her earlier.
Mrs. Ward has often been compared with George Eliot; clubs will find it
interesting to note resemblances and differences and compare heroines
and plots. Which of the two best concealed the moral purpose both used
as the theme of their books? Read from several of Mrs. Ward's earlier
volumes and also some selections from George Eliot's Adam Bede and
Romola. Discuss the sense of humor shown by the two authors.
IV--HALL CAINE
Hall Caine, though of Manx descent, was born in Cheshire in 1853, but he
has always seemed less of an Englishman than a Manxman. His stories all
have the atmosphere of the little Isle of Man, and his plots are laid
there. Yet he lived in London as architect, journalist, novelist, and
dramatist. There is much that is interesting about his life, especially
the year that he spent with Rossetti.
His best books are The Shadow of a Crime, The Deemster, The Bondman, The
Scapegoat, and The Christian. In all of them there is a definite
somberness, a noticeable element of tragedy, only slightly relieved by
the lighter aspects of life. His novels deal with profound issues.
Clubs should notice the relations' of fathers and sons in the books
mentioned. Discuss the problems presented; read the descriptions of Manx
life among the people; compare the heroes. Read several of the dramatic
chapters from The Scapegoat and The Deemster. Does the play The
Christian show more strength than the novel of the same name?
V--STANLEY J. WEYMAN
In striking contrast with this last novelist is Stanley J. Weyman, the
writer of fascinating historical novels which rank among the very first
of their kind. Born in Shropshire in 1855 and educated at Oxford, he
became first a lawyer and then a novelist. His Gentleman of France
brought him immediately into prominence.
The scenes of most of his books are laid in France, either in the period
of the Great Cardinal, or later in that of the Revolution. They are
crowded with adventure, the plots are of absorbing interest and his
characters are full of life and individuality. The times of which he
writes are described with accurate fidelity, and his pictures of the
court, of campaigning, of travel, of village life, are romantic yet
historically correct. Under the Red Robe, The Red Cockade, The Castle
Inn, and The Abbess of Vlaye are all fascinating. Read from any one of
these and then from a good history giving an idea of the same period,
and note the precise study Weyman gave to his settings.
A paper might be prepared on Sir Walter Scott, Dumas, Hewlett and Weyman
as historical novelists. The differences might be brought out by
comparing the character of Richard Coeur de Lion in The Talisman and
Richard Yea-and-Nay, and that of Richelieu in The Three Musketeers and
Under the Red Robe.
VI--JAMES M. BARRIE
James M. Barrie is a Scotchman, born in 1860 and educated at Edinburgh
University. He knows thoroughly his own people. He does not write with
any defined moral purpose, nor does he have any great events to record;
but he has in an unusual degree the power to charm. His sympathetic
insight, delightfully sly humor, play of fancy and light touch of pathos
are all unique.
A Window in Thrums, describing the lives of the weavers, so apart from
the world yet so full of interest, Auld Licht Idylls, with its amusing
difficulties of the old churches, and Margaret Ogilvy, the exquisite
portrait of the author's mother, are unsurpassed in delicate beauty. In
Sentimental Tommy, Tommy and Grizel, and The Little Minister there is
more of plot and more also of a certain gaiety. The Little White Bird
shows the fancy which comes out more strongly in the incomparable Peter
Pan.
Read from as many of Barrie's books as possible, and then discuss his
work as a playwright. Do his books lend themselves to the stage? Let
those who have seen The Little Minister, The Admirable Crichton, Peter
Pan and Little Mary describe them.
VII--HORATIO GILBERT PARKER
Horatio Gilbert Parker, now Sir Gilbert, is both English and Canadian.
His career has been marked by a great variety of experience, as his
books show. Born in Ontario in 1802, he became a teacher, then a curate,
then an instructor in a deaf and dumb asylum, went to Australia for his
health and there took up journalism and play-writing, returned to Canada
and became a novelist. Later he decided to live in England and went
into Parliament. Many of his earlier novels are of Canadian life. When
Valmond Came to Pontiac, The Seats of the Mighty, and The Right of Way
are among the best of his early books. Later he wrote The Weavers, a
strange mingling of East and West in the story of a Quaker in modern
Egypt. His best recent novel is The Judgment House, having for its theme
English society in the time of the Boer War. His versatility in turning
from one scene to another, and from one type of character to another, is
remarkable. Canada, Egypt, London, and Africa are all familiar ground to
him, and trappers, Indians, Frenchmen of the seventeenth century, and
men and women of to-day in cities are all equally well drawn. His early
style was perhaps too diffuse, but his later stories are briefer and
more direct. Read from The Seats of the Mighty and The Judgment House.
Note his different types in his books and discuss them. Read also from
the scenes in the different countries and see the local color.
VIII--HERBERT G. WELLS
Herbert G. Wells was born in Kent in 1866. He had a scientific training,
and his first book was a text book on biology. Later he became one of
the staff of _The Saturday Review_ and then combined science and
literature in a series of romantic novels: His Time Machine, The Wheels
of Chance and The War of the Worlds are all stories in which his
scientific education was utilized. In 1906 he came to America to study
social conditions and since then has written two books in quite another
vein--Tono Bungay, a story of finance, and Marriage, a study of modern
conditions of love and society.
His earlier work is marked by wild imagination; his later by swift
analysis and warm sympathy. Compare the realistic description of village
life in Part I. of Tono Bungay with that of the Five Towns in Arnold
Bennett's Old Wives' Tale, mentioned later. Note Wells's socialistic
leanings.
Read from The War of the Worlds and Marriage. Contrast the two styles;
discuss the character of Marjorie in the latter; is she a possible
woman?
IX--WILLIAM J. LOCKE
William J. Locke, born of English parents in Barbadoes in 1803, was
educated at Cambridge, where he took the highest honors in mathematics.
He became a teacher, and it was only after years of hated drudgery that
he obtained a secretary's position and leisure to write. For long his
novels were little known, though At the Gate of Samaria, The Derelicts,
Idols, and The White Dove were all full of interest and promise. Then
with The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne, called his greatest book, and The
Beloved Vagabond, his most popular, he suddenly became famous. Septimus,
Simon the Jester and The Glory of Clementina have followed one another
rapidly, and Septimus has been dramatized.
Locke's style is so easy as to conceal its art. His plots are lightly
constructed and many of his novels have unexpected endings. His men are
much alike, but so delightful that no one would have them altered. Each
has a certain chivalry, an ability to endure hardships, a lack of
practical judgment, but a simple goodness that is irresistible. Their
humor is charming, and their gentle philosophy convincing. Locke holds
the theory that life should be accepted cheerfully; this is his dominant
theme.
Clubs should read the amusing diatribe against teaching, and especially
against teaching mathematics, in Marcus. Read also the first and last
chapters of the Vagabond and Clementina. Compare his women and his men.
X--ARNOLD BENNETT
Arnold Bennett, in many ways the most talked-of English author living,
was born in Staffordshire in 1867 in a district known as "The
Potteries," or "The Five Towns." Here are furnaces, collieries,
manufactories and a people whose interests are made narrow and
provincial by the restricted boundaries of their lives.
Bennett went to London, became a journalist, an essayist, an editor, a
novelist, and a playwright. He lived for a time in Paris and traveled
extensively, and he has made use of his varied experiences in his
writings.
He has some remarkable books, long, careful, full of psychological
problems. His Old Wives' Tale, Anna of the Five Towns and Clay-hanger
all deal with the place and the people with which he was first familiar,
and are graphic pictures of types. In Hilda Lessways he presents a study
rather unlike those in his first books, and in Denry the Audacious and
Buried Alive he has quite another manner and keener humor.
He is singularly direct and painstaking in his work, a master of
realism. For sheer observation, says one critic, he is unequaled. Of
late he has visited America and made a close and remarkably sympathetic
study of our country, our cities, our manners.
Take up Bennett also as a playwright, and note the good work he has done
in this field; contrast his plays with his earlier books. Read from
Hilda Lessways and from the graphic description of the siege of Paris in
the Old Wives' Tale, and also a descriptive chapter from the Five Towns.
Compare his realistic work with that of Henry James, and note the
differences. Quote from his little essay, How to Live on Twenty-four
Hours a Day.
* * * * *
Clubs which wish programs for more than ten meetings may take in
addition to the authors already suggested these others:
De Morgan: read Joseph Vance, Alice for Short, and An Affair of
Dishonor. Conan Doyle: Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The White Company.
Eden Phillpotts: Knock at a Venture, The Port-reeve, The Secret Woman.
A. E. W. Mason: Four Feathers, The Truants, Courtship of Morrice. Robert
Hichens: The Garden of Allah, The Dweller on the Threshold. Anthony
Hope: The Prisoner of Zenda, The Dolly Dialogues, Quisante. Agnes and
Egerton Castle: The Pride of Jennico, If Youth But Knew, The Secret
Garden. E. F. Benson: The Challoners, An Act in a Backwater, The Luck of
the Vails. May Sinclair: The Divine Fire, The Judgment of Eve. Mrs.
Henry Dudeney: The Battle of the Weak, The Story of Susan.
Detailed criticisms and complete bibliographies of many novelists here
mentioned may be found in Some English Story Tellers by F. T. Cooper
(1912).