His novels are almost entirely devoted to the lives of the poorer classes: Workers of the Dawn (1880), The Unclassed (1884), Demos (1889), Grub Street (1891), and The Odd Women (1893) are only a selection from his books. His Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft (1903) is partly autobiographical, and is an excellent example of his style. He handles his subjects with a depressing fidelity that will always restrict his novels to a narrow circle of readers. He lacks Mr. Hardy’s Elizabethan largeness of vision, and will not rank as a really great writer, but he deserves honorable mention as a novelist who in poverty and distress would not bow the knee to false gods, who steadily kept in view the highest ideals, and who died true to his literary faith.
2. George Moore, born in Mayo in the year 1857, is the son of a landowner in that county. He was educated at Oscott, and then for some years studied art in Paris. During those years he imbibed that passion for French art and French fiction that was never to leave him. As an artist he had no success; but as a novelist, after a moderate beginning, he has won the admiration of an important section of the reading public. He is a man of varied but unstable enthusiasms, which are reflected in his novels. In the course of time he was caught up in the Celtic Revival, which he valiantly served with his pen, though he was not backward in candid criticism of it.
Mr. Moore began authorship with two volumes of verse, the first of which was Flowers of Passion (1878). Neither of them was of any great merit. He started his career as a novelist as disciple of the great French realist Zola, publishing in this manner A Mummer’s Wife (1884). This novel, a squalid tale unrelieved by any bright touches, followed the example of Zola with much audacity, and shocked the more staid opinion in England. Other stories of the same kind followed, the more noteworthy being A Drama in Muslin (1886) and The Confessions of a Young Man (1888). His more mature works, though they never lacked frankness, were rather more restrained in manner; characteristic specimens were Esther Waters (1894) and Sister Teresa (1901). Subsequently he wrote some attractive books of reminiscence, of which the best is Hail and Farewell, published in three volumes between the years 1911 and 1914.
In his later books Mr. Moore’s style is delightfully sweet and clear. The earlier books, in which he followed his model with a devoted fidelity, are devoid of the ornaments of style. In humor he is often whimsical and charming, though his wit seldom lacks the sharp touch of satire.
3. Rudyard Kipling was born (1865) at Bombay, where his father was an official. He was educated in Devonshire, and wished to join the Army, a project that had to be abandoned. Returning to India, he joined the editorial staff of the Lahore Civil and Military Gazette and of The Pioneer. For these journals he began writing short stories, which very soon attracted an attention that became worldwide. After some years’ residence in the United States, Mr. Kipling settled in England. For a time his popularity was immense, and received international recognition in the award of the Nobel Prize for literature (1907). Passing years have dimmed his brightness, and recently his voice has fallen nearly silent.
Mr. Kipling first became known as a writer of short stories, and it is upon the short story that his fame will probably rest. As the writer of such a type of fiction he is very well equipped: he has a genius for terse narrative, a swift eye for dramatic incident and detail, a capacity for touching off men’s characters, and a style which, though it may be cocksure and jerky, is none the less attractive and intensely individual. Plain Tales from the Hills (1887) and Soldiers Three (1888) are among the most enjoyable of the volumes of short stories. In his longer tales he is less at his ease. The Light that Failed (1891) is not a great success; but Kim (1901), a kind of picaresque Indian tale, is crammed with a rich abundance of observation and description. The two Jungle Books (1894 and 1895) are among the most delightful of books written for children.
As a poet of Army life and of British Imperialism Mr. Kipling was long a notable figure. The climax came during the South African War of 1899–1902; after that the patriotic poem began to suffer eclipse. A good deal of Mr. Kipling’s poetry is brazen and commonplace, but it rarely lacks energy and picturesqueness. In such pieces as Mandalay, however, he touches the deeper springs of humanity, and becomes a real poet; and in The Recessional (1897), a short poem that in essence expresses the negation of all his usual teachings, he has attained to poetical greatness.
4. Arnold Bennett, whose full name is Enoch Arnold Bennett, was born in North Staffordshire in 1867. He was educated at Newcastle, and studied for the law, which he later forsook for journalism (1893). He was on the staff of Woman till 1900, when his books claimed all his time.
Mr. Bennett’s most notable contribution to the novel is a group of interrelated stories dealing with his native Staffordshire. These stories, very full in detail, are realistic presentations of the squalid life of the pottery district; the personages introduced are commonplace, and the style, though it does not lack vivacity and humor, is studiously subdued. Anna of the Five Towns (1902), The Old Wives’ Tale (1908), Clayhanger (1910), Hilda Lessways (1911), and These Twain (1916) represent this group. The Card (1911) is lighter and more humorous; and The Pretty Lady (1918), rather unequal, contains some telling reflections upon modern society.
Like Mr. Hardy, Mr. Bennett has essayed to render with artistic completeness the life of one section of England; unlike Mr. Hardy, however, he tends to become swamped with detail, so that he fails to give his works unity and singleness of purpose. In addition, his style has a certain aridity and a lack of flavor and attraction. On the other hand, he writes with clearness and care, his humor is reticent but keenly penetrating, and his character-drawing able and realistic.