Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (Mrs. Ward) began her work at nineteen with The Gates Ajar, suggested by the sorrow of the Civil War; this had a phenomenal success. From that time on she wrote steadily, and each novel had a problem to present, set out with strong emotion. A Singular Life is one of her best, and The Story of Avis, Doctor Zay, and The Confessions of a Wife are all deeply interesting. Read from the first two.
Margaret Deland has taken up the problems of life in her books with sympathy, humor and a certain wise and tender philosophy. Her stories of Old Chester, its delightful people, with their strongly marked characteristics, and the rector, Dr. Lavendar, who is one of the most charming delineations ever drawn, are all known to-day to women readers. Her best novels follow the lines of her other stories, but there is a power in The Awakening of Helena Richie and in The Iron Woman not in the short stories. Read from Old Chester Tales.
IV—STORIES OF SOCIETY AND ITS PROBLEMS
Edith Wharton studied the problems of society in a great city in her The House of Mirth, drawing a faithful if somewhat painful picture. The Fruit of the Tree and The Valley of Decision present other phases of social life. Her books are well planned and well written, with a noticeably subtle touch. Read from The House of Mirth.
Gertrude Atherton also writes of society's problems, but in quite another manner. The Aristocrats and Ancestors have a distinctly satiric flavor. In addition to these she has others in quite another vein, The Doomswoman, and The Conqueror notably.
John Oliver Hobbes (Mrs. Craigie) has some exquisite little books, read by few, perhaps, because of their peculiar style. She wrote The School for Saints, The Herb Moon, and The Flute of Pan. Her problems are rather involved and somewhat attenuated, but on the whole beautifully done. Read from The Herb Moon.
V—STORIES OF HUMOR AND PATHOS
Ruth McEnery Stuart's early life was spent in Louisiana, and there she learned to know the plantation negro at first hand. No one has equaled her in her presentation of his character, with its dependence and childlike drollery. Her appreciation of his humor is no less marked than of his unconscious pathos. Read from A Golden Wedding, Moriah's Mourning, and The River's Children. In Sonny, one of her loveliest books, she has taken a poor white as her hero.
Alice Hegan Rice made a large place for herself when she wrote Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. She found that unusual thing, a new setting for a story, and drew a unique heroine in Mrs. Wiggs. Read from this and its sequel, Lovey Mary.
Kate Douglas Wiggin (Mrs. Riggs) has several gay stories, a brief series about Penelope in England and Scotland, and A Cathedral Courtship, quite as amusing. Her Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is also full of bright sayings. In The Birds' Christmas Carol she mingles humor and pathos. Read from Penelope's Progress.