literary artist. His style is simple, straightforward, and clear. His descriptive powers are most remarkable, especially in his nature pictures and in his pen portraits of his chief characters. Note, for instance, the description of Egdon heath and of Eustacia Vye in "The Return of the Native." His plots are well-nigh perfect. This remark applies not only to his novels as a whole but to the workingout of individual incidents. A good example is the chapter "All Saints and All Souls" in "Far from the Madding Crowd." Hardy is fortunate in his humorous passages; his humor is genuine, though it has an ironic tinge. If we were to suggest one book displaying all the excellences of Hardy, it would be "The Return of the Native"-clearly one of the masterpieces of fiction of the last generation. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Books of our own day pass in endless procession. Time has not yet thinned their ranks. We follow our tastes and read what we will; our judgments are largely matters of individual opinion and are subject to continuous modification. Yet it may be useful, in closing this chapter on English literature, to speak of some of the currents of thought of the twentieth century and a few of the writers who, for one reason or another, have won public esteem. The English novel continues in its place of preeminence over other types of writing. We hear a great deal about the novel of ideas. One of its chief exponents was said by Henry James in a famous essay to "turn out his mind and its contents upon us by any free familiar gesture and as from a window forever open." The contemporary English novel, though sometimes quite undisciplined in form, shows, perhaps more frequently, remarkable technical skill. Many novels are clearly propagandist documents, written to prove some theory and exhibiting the well-recognized tendency of the day in the direction of extreme liberalism. Coupled with this is a disregard of the conventionalities, extravagant at times, but wholesome and refreshing as an offset to the smugness and respectability of the immediate past. The present is not a time of reticence, it appears; but in the attempt to discover "the real facts of life" many writers of the day go to absurd lengths. For instance, the vogue of a number of novelists is secured largely because of their boldness in describing the pathology of sex. Sociological novels are still common, for our generation is exercised by many pressing social problems. Ordinarily the treatment of religion in the novel and in other types of literature is an uncommon motive, and when Mr. Chesterton or Mr. Wells or Mr. Shaw, each in his way, enters the field, his mood is generally apologetic, never fervid. A. C. Benson's religious studies are clearly a survival. A more definite reference to the fiction of this century shows its very complex character-it cannot be hedged in by any brief mention of the current tendencies. At the beginning of the century Rudyard Kipling's popularity was at its highest point. He has glorified the achievements of the age in material and scientific progress and in empire-building; he has made India amazingly clear to us, especially in "Kim," his masterpiece; and he has written some of the best short stories in our language. William De Morgan produced in 1906, at the age of sixty-four, his first novel, "Joseph Vance," and followed this by five others, all written after the fashion of an earlier time rather than of our own period. Maurice Hewlett's varied work, of which the historical novels "Richard Yea-and-Nay" and "The Queen's Quair" may be given the chief place, shows the care of a real artist. Arnold Bennett, in his provincial studies, the "Five Towns" novels, ushered in by "The Old Wives' Tale” in 1908, has produced remarkable books which are certainly destined to survive. Joseph Conrad, a man of Polish origin, a sailor of the seas, and a writer only in his later years, may well prove to be one of the chief English novelists of our generation. His is a sincere and attractive personality, and there is in his work a permanent and universal quality. "The Nigger of the Narcissus," "Lord Jim," "Nostromo," and indeed all of Conrad's novels have a host of admirers. John Galsworthy, who is, as yet, more conspicuous in his dramatic writings, is growing in power as a novelist. Hugh Walpole, Eden Phillpotts, W. L. George, Gilbert Cannan, W. B. Maxwell, D. H. Lawrence, Compton Mackenzie, and other novelists have a considerable following. H. G. Wells must be accorded a prominent place, for he is a phenomenon of our era. Since 1895 he has written constantly, and his renown has grown. Romances; essays of a sociological and religious character; a series of novels, of which "Mr. Britling Sees it Through" and others have had an astonishing circulation; and "The Outline of History," a brilliant performance out of his natural field, which has served to a surprising extent to make historical reading popular,—all these are to his credit. They are all written in a hurried, journalistic style, as if the author possessed a rage for production that could not be appeased. In the field of criticism England has continued to make substantial contributions to the work of the past, as evidenced by the writings of George Saintsbury, Edmund Gosse, William Archer, Arthur Symons, Sidney Colvin, and others. The drama, after a long period of comparative inaction, has come to its own again in England as on the Continent. While the Romantic tradition has been preserved in the verse dramas of Stephen Phillips, of which "Paolo and Francesca" is so choice an example, and while the Irish drama1 of our day has a characteristic poetic quality, the plays by English writers of the past two decades are nearly all in prose, following in the wake of the sociological and problem plays of Ibsen, which they so frequently resemble. Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, Henry Arthur Jones, and Arnold Bennett are well-known playwrights. Sir James Barrie's plays, with their very original flavor and charm, are extremely popular. John Drinkwater, in his thoughtful study "Abraham Lincoln," has proved of special interest to Americans. John Galsworthy's somber and powerful "The Silver Box," "Justice," and other plays exhibit his deep sense of social inequality and wrong. George Bernard Shaw, however, overtops the other English dramatists of his day. No one can doubt his wit, his brilliance, and his versatility,-nor his manifold eccentricities of manner and ideas. His prose prefaces, frequently of unconscionable length, set forth some of his favorite theories. Shaw's most representative plays are apparently intended as tracts for the times, to overturn commonly accepted ideas and conventions. His 1 See the chapter on Irish literature. purpose is probably sincere enough, though he takes delight in exasperating people, and one always suspects that he is standing in the wings and winking at his audience. Playgoers of our day have vivid recollections of "Arms and the Man," "Cæsar and Cleopatra,” "Man and Superman," "Fanny's First Play," "Androcles and the Lion," and "Pygmalion." Shaw has also an extremely large reading public, especially in America. In some respects the poetry of our era is its richest literary product. It has many phases. One of these, "free verse," will be treated in the chapter on American literature. Only a few of the recent English poets can be mentioned in our narrow limits. At the beginning of the century Kipling's poems had an enormous popularity; and some of them, especially the dialect verses and the noble "Recessional," have taken a permanent place in our literature. The poems of Stephen Phillips and of Arthur Symons are remarkable for their sensuous beauty; and A. E. Housman's collection of verses, "A Shropshire Lad," for its extraordinary simplicity. "When I was one-and-twenty I heard a wise man say, 'Give crowns and pounds and guineas But not your heart away; Among the newer poets Wilfrid W. Gibson, Siegfried Sassoon, William H. Davies, Ralph Hodgson, Lascelles Abercrombie, and Walter de la Mare should certainly be mentioned. Alfred Noyes has produced a great body of verse of varied character,-delicate, beautiful, whimsical, sometimes stirring in its appeal. "The Highwayman," "The Barrel Organ," "A Song of England," "The Tramp Transfigured," and others of his poems are deservedly popular. John Masefield is now generally regarded as one of the most gifted of recent English poets. A number of his lyrics have a captivating beauty. The sea is his element; when this is his theme he is always fortunate. "A wind's in the heart of me, a fire's in my heels, Last of all, we mention Rupert Brooke, one of the young men of promise who laid down their lives during the World War. Brooke had written praiseworthy poems earlier, but nothing to equal the little group of prophetic sonnets produced in service. That beginning "Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour," and that other, "Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead!" positively electrify the reader; they take their place with the best lyric poetry of our era. Reference List CHEYNEY. Short History of England. Ginn and Company. Cambridge Modern History, Vols. XII and XIII. G. P. Putnam's Sons. Cambridge History of English Literature (the later volumes). G. P. Putnam's Sons. ELTON. Survey of English Literature, 1780-1880 (4 vols.). The Macmillan Company. GARNETT and Gosse. History of English Literature, Vol. IV. The Macmillan Company. Dictionary of National Biography (many volumes). The Macmillan Company. English Men of Letters Series (many volumes). The Macmillan Company. LONG. English Literature (Ginn and Company). Similar high-school texts on other publishers' lists. SAINTSBURY. Short History of English Literature. The Macmillan Company. SAINTSBURY. History of Nineteenth Century Literature. The Macmillan Company. GOSSE. Modern English Literature. D. Appleton and Company. SYMONS. The Romantic Movement in English Poetry. E. P. Dutton & BUCK. Social Forces in Modern Literature. Ginn and Company. CROSS. Development of the English Novel. The Macmillan Company. CUNLIFFE. English Literature during the Last Half Century. The Macmillan Company, 1919. BROWNELL. Victorian Prose Masters. Charles Scribner's Sons. BRYAN and CRANE. The English Familiar Essay. Ginn and Company. UNTERMEYER. Modern British Poetry. Harcourt, Brace and Company. |