“Dr. Grimshawe’s Secret.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne was, without doubt, the most powerful writer in the field of romance which our country has produced. His fame was of slow growth, but as the years have passed it has been continually swelling and widening, and his name is certain to long hold a foremost place in American literature. He lived long enough to see some recognition of his genius, but since his death, in 1864, he has been read and praised as he never was in his life. Various editions of his works have been published, and whatever products of his pen, not published in his life-time, from time to time have come to light, have been put into print and have been eagerly read. Undoubtedly much, if not all, of the posthumous Hawthorne literature would never have been given to the public if his own wishes had been carried out. His shy and sensitive nature is well known. It could not have been grateful to him to have his personality brought before the world as it has been since his death. It was his request that his life should not be written, but already there are no less than four Hawthorne biographies, and two more are in preparation. And who doubts that if he could have foreseen the publication of the notes, fragments, and studies for stories which were written simply as memoranda, suggestions and helps to be used in the preparation of his works, he would have taken good care that they should not be left behind him? No writer ever elaborated his works with greater care. Each story which he himself gave to the world is perfect in style, and a finished work of art. And to have such crude and hasty work made into books, as much published with his name since his death is, is almost enough to cause this exquisite literary artist to turn in his grave.
Soon after Hawthorne’s death the opening chapters of “The Dolliver Romance,”—a story which he left unfinished—were published. Later came the publication of his “American Note Books,” “English Note Books,” and “French and Italian Note Books.” In 1872 the story “Septimius Felton, or the Elixir of Life,” which had been found among his manuscripts, was edited by his daughter and published. It seems quite clear that it was Hawthorne’s intention to merge this story in “The Dolliver Romance,” and that, if he had lived to complete the latter work, no “Septimius Felton” would ever have seen the light. But this was not the last of the fragmentary work of this author which the world was to see. Not long since it was announced that another work from Hawthorne’s pen had been found, and would be published. We now have it—“Dr. Grimshawe’s Secret.” Recently, also, The Atlantic Monthly and The Century have given us, under the titles, “The Ancestral Footstep,” and “A Look Into Hawthorne’s Workshop,” certain Hawthorne fragments in which this story is sketched. And the question now for the critics to decide is whether in “Dr. Grimshawe’s Secret” we have the fulfillment of the studies in these fragments, or whether this published story is itself but a sketch and study, to be fulfilled with the others in a romance which was long germinating in the great author’s mind, but which death came too soon for him to execute. Certainly “Dr. Grimshawe’s Secret” Hawthorne himself would never have published as it is. It is no finished work of his own. There has been incredulity on the part of some as to his having written any part of it. But it is in part his work, clearly enough; and how much of it is his and how much the editor’s—who is his son, Julian Hawthorne—readers must conjecture for themselves. When asked to take this as substantially a complete work of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, we decline. Evidently it is not so. His hand of power is seen in it at times, but it is very unequal, and as a whole it is unsatisfactory.
We have not the space to give an analysis of the book. It will be widely read. Of the lovers of Hawthorne the name is legion, and nothing to which his name is attached is likely to be passed by unnoticed. But that it can add nothing to his fame goes without saying. Indeed, if it could be believed that it is really Hawthorne’s work, that he wrote it as a whole, to publish substantially as it is, it might have the opposite effect. But it will doubtless be very generally regarded as one among the many posthumous Hawthorne fragments. A much more powerful story than “Dr. Grimshawe’s Secret,” as we have it, was struggling in the brain of this rare literary genius, and in the course of time would have come forth had not death stepped in with the inevitable summons. For this unwritten romance, what we have been reading in the magazines, and what we have in this recent book, were but the studies. These various Hawthorne fragments are interesting, as showing his methods of work, but again we say he would not have wished them published.
