All novelists reveal character; but those in whom the dramatic instinct is strong show it chiefly in action. Mr. James brings out character largely by means of analysis and description, and for this reason he is often classed among the psychological novelists. In his later years the habit of analysis grew on him to such an extent that the movement of his stories was impeded and his style became complex and at times obscure. In a time when social relations between America and Europe were becoming more intimate, Mr. James found a rare opportunity of studying American character against a European background, and in the whole range of fiction there have been few writers of more acute penetration, of greater delicacy of stroke and line in painting character, than he. He was one of the small group of American authors to whom the word “distinction” may be applied.
W. D. HOWELLS
Mr. James was a student of men and women in society, using that word in its narrower sense; Mr. Howells, who is also a keen observer, has dealt with less sophisticated men and women, and has given us American types unmodified by other influences. A man of deep sympathy with his fellows and sharing in his heart the sorrow and pain of the common lot, a lover of Tolstoi and a professed realist, with a strong leaning toward constructive socialism, Mr. Howells has kept his fiction free from any kind of preaching. He has understood his vocation as an artist, and has not made his novels serve his social and political doctrines. Although a man of strong convictions, he is a writer whose touch is notably light, and whose humor is delightfully unforced and happy.
W. D. HOWELLS IN HIS LIBRARY
Born in the Central West, Mr. Howells has kept its democracy of spirit and reinforced it by familiarity with modern languages and literature. In his lighter work he has made studies of the whims and foibles of certain feminine types in this country, of such fidelity that they have disturbed those who believe that Americans should tell the truth about themselves only to themselves, and that to take Europe into the national confidence is a kind of petty treason. But if Mr. Howells has seemed sometimes to draw American women with too light a hand, no one so well as he has conveyed a sense of the purity of American women, and the wholesome tone of American social life outside the very limited circle of what is known as the “Fast Set,”—a group of men and women who are representative not of a nation, but of the attitude toward life so strikingly defined in “The House of Mirth.” In his graver mood Mr. Howells has given us “The Rise of Silas Lapham,” one of the lasting achievements of American fiction, and “A Hazard of New Fortunes,” both original studies of American life during the age of great fortune-making. The charm of Mr. Howells’ art and the refinement of his humor have not given him the popularity of the more dramatic novelists; but he has made a place of high importance for himself in American literature, and in the hearts of a host of readers who have discerned in him a singularly pure and lovable nature.
THOMAS NELSON PAGE
The aftermath of the war between the States was an idealization of the old social order in the South. Mr. Page and Mr. Allen found in the tradition and habit of the Old South elements of a romance founded on reality. Society in the South before the war received its tone from men and women bred in habits of deference and courtesy, sensitive to any slight put upon honor, and prodigal of hospitality. It had rested on an unstable basis; but it had those delightful qualities which came with leisure, easy conditions, and the absence of commercial spirit. This vanishing order found in Mr. Page’s earliest stories a record true to life and yet enveloped in the air of romance. “Marse Chan,” “Unc’ Edinburg,” and “Meh Lady” gave the country a thrill of pleasure, so sure was their appeal to sentiment, so refreshingly human and unforced, a rich and picturesque life of its own, a fresh field for the romance of spiritual adventure and social habit.
