NEW HISTORICAL WORKS

391

people of the colonies and of England were doing and thinking during that period. Professor Guy Carleton Lee's "True History of the Civil War" (Lippincott), William Garrett Brown's "History of the United States Since the Civil War" (Macmillan), were two of the most important records of special periods in our history. An important group of books dealt with American institutions: James Albert Woodburn's "Political Parties and Party Problems in the United States (Putnam), Albert Bushnell Hart's "Actual Government (Longmans), Edward Stanwood's "American Tariff Controversies " (Houghton, Mifflin), William Henry Smith's "Political History of Slavery" (Putnam). "The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898" (Clark), is a work which the word monumental but feebly describes, since we have here the original documents giving accounts of the earliest explorations of the archipelago, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and the records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporary books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of the islands from the earliest times up to the war with Spain by which we became possessed of them. Volume VI of the fifty-five which will comprise the work was issued. It covered the years 1583-1588.

Contemporary history, written as it was made, included "The Turk and His Lost Provinces," by William Eleroy Curtis; "The Great Boer War," by Conan Doyle; "The Land of the Boxers," by Captain Gordon Casserley; and a handbook of “Modern Japan," by Ernest W. Clement.

"Modern Germany" was the subject of several important works. "Germany, the Welding of a World Power," by Wolf von Shierbrand (Harper), gave a fresh and trustworthy story of the development of Germany under the reign of William II. Poultney Bigelow's "History of the German Struggle for Liberty" (Harper) was brought down to 1848, from which point the story was taken up by W. H. Dahlinger in a volume on “The German Revolution of 1848" (Putnam). 'Personal Reminiscences of Prince Bismarck," by Sidney Whitman (Appleton), and the "Correspondence of William I and Bismarck" (Stokes), contained valuable material for the historian of the period during which Bismarck dominated the affairs not only of Germany, but of Europe at large. "The Journals of Field Marshal,

Count von Blumenthal" (Longmans) contained recollections of the seven weeks' war with Bavaria, in which the author played an important part.

In Bohemia the Huss celebration led to a publication of all the works of the martyr, many of them from manuscripts only recently discovered. The most prominent event in the Bohemian literary world was the formation of an independent publishing society called Maj, the object of which was to improve the material situation of literary men and women and to promote the interests of authors. The society during its first year helped to raise the price of literary work, to insure a greater share in the profits of books for the writers of them, and to protect rights in literary property. The history of Bohemian literature in the Nineteenth Century, a joint work by several writers, was fathered by this society.

France continued to make great advance in the department of history, French historians gaining greater mastery over method and finding an increasing popularity for their works among the cultured. The noteworthy historical works of the year were Gabriel Hanotaux's "History of Contemporary France," Paul Gautier's "Madam de Stael and Napoleon," Albert Vandal's "Bonaparte," Vicomte de Noailles's" French Soldiers in the American Revolution." Two monumental historical works were undertaken in Hungary, “A Great Illustrated Universal History," by Professor Marczali, and “A History of the World's Literature," by a number of specialists directed by Professor Heinrich. A "History of Moscow," by Tabielin was Russia's most important historical work.

The Vast Output of Fiction

While the first bewildering glance at the vast output of fiction for 1903 failed to disclose any remarkable achievements, patient comparative study brought to light a number of novels distinctly worth while, and a higher general grade of workmanship than that of several preceding seasons. It was encouraging to note that the most widely read novels of the year were not mere ephemeral successes, hysterical-historical novels, log-rolled into recognition. With few exceptions they represented the production of those writers who had, so to speak, found themselves: those who, centered and poised in their

separate spheres, depended alone upon the worth of their work for their laurels.

While various other conventions governing the novelist now seemed puerile enough very few writers skipped the love scene, though there were unmistakable signs that the love interest was somewhat subordinate. Here and there a novelist dared to write of what he saw and produce a book whose every incident did not relate to the artificial romance of he and she. It was a bad day for the classic heroine when George Eliot began writing about women as they really were instead of about lay figures dressed up in traditional robes for various parts. It is both easier and pleasanter thus to explain the apparent deterioration of the heroine than to believe that the maidens of to-day have fallen below the maidens who inspired the beautiful Rowenas, the blushing Sophias, and the constant Amelias. A few stories of the year emphasized the fact that stress and strain are required to sound the deeps of human nature, and that there is neither stress nor strain in sweetly optimistic and placidly happy events. The great stories in the world's literary treasure house seem to depend upon the tragic. and terrible for their strength and greatness. The editors of magazines, however, stated very good commercial grounds for refusing admission to the unpleasant, the morbid, and the depressing.

English and American Novels

In American fiction Frank Norris's "posthumous" novel, "The Pit" (Doubleday), seemed to present the strongest claim to the title of the novel of the year. The writer's power of comprehending and depicting large movements reached its highest attainment in relating an episode that involved the daily bread of more than one nation. With unrestrained energy and fine poetic feeling he pictured Curtis Jadwin's fierce and relentless struggle to corner the world's supply of wheat, his intoxicating successes, and the final tremendous crash of failure when the wheat had broken from the control of his titanic will. The mingling of the trivial with the tragic in human affairs, and the interweaving of man's varied interests relieved the tension of the high strung life of the pit and gave the needed touch of completeness to Mr. Norris's last and greatest work.

Three notable novels by Southern writers formed a feature of the

year's production. "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" (Scribner), by John Fox, Jr., besides being a charming story of a highly endowed hero, lovable in spite of all his perfections, contained some valuable social data. The civil war was shown to be the most potent force in overturning the old order of society and setting in operation other forces whose activity has not yet ceased. In "Gordon Keith " (Scribner), Thomas Nelson Page related the experiences of a son of the new South, and various incidents attendant upon the development of Southern coal fields and the exploitation of Southern railways. James Lane Allen's novel, "The Metal of the Pasture" (Macmillan), was Southern only in its setting. It propounded the universal problem of human error and tragic expiation. Its purpose was to show that the great personal tragedy of the world is failing to be true to one's self. It was the most powerful presentation of love and suffering pictured in any novel of the year.

Novelists of long established reputation, like Henry James, Mrs. Humphrey Ward and William Dean Howells, naturally added something of genuine value to the year's work. Mr. James gave us one of the best efforts of his later period in "The Ambassadors " (Harper), a study, thoughtful, scrutinizing, but withal irresistibly humorous, of the effects of European, or more strictly, French life, upon different types of the American temperament. Mrs. Ward's novel was one of reincarnation, having told the story of "Mlle. de Lespinasse," in "Lady Rose's Daughter" (Harper), the French woman living again in Julie Breton, the illegitimate daughter of an English noblewoman. Mr. Howells adopted the prevailing fad for writing novels in epistolary form, the letter writers who chronicled the love affair in "Letters Home" (Harper) merely taking the places of Mr. and Mrs. Marsh and certain others of Mr. Howells's creation, whose observations are usually more interesting than the story itself. Five stories of recognized merit were Edith Wharton's "Sanctuary (Scribner), Thomas Sherburn Hardy's "His Daughter First " (Houghton, Mifflin), Catherine Cecil Thurston's "The Circle" (Dodd, Mead), Conan Doyle's "Adventures of Gerard" Adventures of Gerard" (McClure), and

Richard Whiting's purpose novel, "The Yellow Van" (Century.) Pure romance and the old fashioned love story seem to occupy a smaller relative space with each advancing year. The growing tend

STORIES OF AMERICAN LIFE

395 ency to subordinate the love interest in novels, or at any rate to give it no larger place in fiction than it holds in life, does not, however, satisfy a class of readers who go on demanding the romance in which love makes the world go round. Of the new stories published under this head those that found greatest favor with the public were Mr. Booth Tarkington's "Cherry" (Harper), a gay little comedy of old New York; Mollie Elliott Sewell's "Fortunes of Fi Fi" (Bobbs, Merrill), a tale of a third rate actress at a fourth rate theatre during the first empire of France; Agnes and Egerton Castle's sprightly romance, "The Incomparable Bellairs" (Stokes); Onoto Watanna's Japanese tale, "The Heart of Hyacinth" (Harper), and "Girillo " (Life), a Florentine romance by a new writer, Effie Douglass Putnam, and the most notable "first book" of the year.

Stories of present day American life took precedence, in quality at least, over the revolutionary or colonial romance, and by far the largest quota of these came from out West: the works of George Barr McCutcheon, Hamlin Garland, Elia W. Peattie and others. Among the historical romances were many imitations of previous successes, but no work of originality. Social and political affairs were the themes chosen by a group of writers conspicuously more numerous this year than ever before. Society in all its aspects-high life and low life, smart set and slums, Belgravia and Bohemia were subjects for satire or burlesque, or sympathetic study, according to the temperament and talent of the writer. Thomas Dixon lifted his voice and it was the loud sonorous voice of a preacher, accustomed to brandishing eloquence as a weapon- and his melodramatic story of "The One Woman" (Doubleday) enjoyed the distinction of being the sensation of the year. Other voices were lifted for the sake of propagating doctrines that Mr. Dixon decried; yet, with the possible exception of Mr. Moore's "The Untilled Field" (Lippincott's) they scarcely made themselves heard. Ward politics and graft were the subjects treated in "The Spoilsman," by Elliott Flower (Page), and "The Boss," by Alfred Henry Lewis (Barnes).

The problem novel still wrestling with the old Adam in human nature, still searching for solutions to life's enigmas, found exponents in "Gwendolyn Overton" whose novel "Ann Carmel" (Macmillan) propounded the question "Are there ever circumstances under