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his repartee and his shuffle and break-down."
Whitman says boldly:--
"And the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue."
He discarded ordinary poetic meter, because it seemed to lack the rhythm of nature. It is, however, very easy
for a poet to cross the line between realism and idealism, and we sometimes find adherents of the two schools
disagreeing whether Whitman was more realist or idealist in some of his work, for instance, in a line or verse
unit, like this, when he says:--
"That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again, and ever again, this soil'd
world."
[Illustration: IDENTITY (Drawing by Elihu Vedder)]
The fact that not all the later eastern poets were realistic needs emphasis. Thomas Bailey Aldrich, perhaps the
most noted successor of New England's famous group, was frequently an exquisite romantic artist, or painter
in miniature, as these eight lines which constitute the whole of his poem, Identity, show:--
"Somewhere--in desolate wind-swept space-- In Twilight-land--in No-man's-land-- Two hurrying
Shapes met face to face, And bade each other stand.
"And who are you?' cried one, agape, Shuddering in the gloaming light. 'I know not,' said the second Shape, 'I
only died last night!'"
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS, 1837-1920
[Illustration: WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS]
The foremost leader of realism in modern American fiction, the man who influenced more young writers than
any other novelist of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, was William Dean Howells, who was born in
Martin's Ferry, Ohio, in 1837. He never went to college, but obtained valuable training as a printer and editor
in various newspaper offices in Ohio. He was for many years editor of the Atlantic Monthly and an editorial
CHAPTER VII 160
contributor to the New York Nation and _Harper's Magazine_. In these capacities, as well as by his fiction, he
reached a wide public. Later he turned his attention mainly to the writing of novels. So many of their scenes
are laid in New England that he is often claimed as a New England writer.
His strongest novels are A Modern Instance (1882), The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885), _The Minister's
Charge_ (1886), Indian Summer (1886), and A Hazard of New Fortunes (1889). These belong to the middle
period of his career. Before this, his mastery of character portrayal had not culminated, and later, his power of
artistic selection and repression was not so strictly exercised.
The Rise of Silas Lapham is a story of the home life and business career of a self-made merchant, who has the
customary braggadocio and lack of culture, but who possesses a substantial integrity at the root of his nature.
The little shortcomings in social polish, so keenly felt by his wife and daughters, as they rise to a position due
to great wealth, the small questions of decorum, and the details of business take up a large part of the reader's
attention; but they are treated with such ease, naturalness, repressed humor, refinement of art, and truth in
sketching provincial types of character, that the story is a triumph of realistic creation. A Modern Instance is
not so pleasant a book, but the attention is firmly held by the strong, realistic presentation of the jealousy, the
boredom, the temptations, and the dishonesty exhibited in a household of a commonplace, ill-mated pair.
Indian Summer begins well, proceeds well, and ends well. It may be a trifle more conventional than the two
other novels just mentioned, but it is altogether delightful. The conversations display keen insight into the
heart of the young, imaginative girl and of the older woman and man. _The Minister's Charge_ is thoroughly
individual. The young boy seems so close to his readers that every detail in his life becomes important. The
other people are also full of real blood, while the background is skillfully arranged to heighten the effect of the
characters. A Hazard of New Fortunes would be decidedly improved if many pages were omitted, but it is full
of lifelike characters, and it sometimes approaches the dramatic, in a way unusual with Howells.
In his effort to present life without any misleading ideas of heroism, beauty, or idyllic sweetness, Howells
sometimes goes so far toward the opposite extreme as to write stories that seem to be filled with commonplace
women, humdrum lives, and men like Northwick in The Quality of Mercy, of whom one of the characters
says:--
"He was a mere creature of circumstances like the rest of us! His environment made him rich, and his
environment made him a rogue. Sometimes I think there was nothing to Northwick except what happened to
him."
But in such work as the five novels enumerated, Howells shows decided ability in portraying attractive
characters, in making their faults human and as interesting as their virtues, in causing ordinary life to yield
variety of incident and amusing scenes, and, finally, in engaging his characters in homelike, natural,
self-revealing conversations, which are often spiced with wit.
Howells does not always have a plot, that is, a beginning, a climax, and a solution of all the questions
suggested. He has, of course, a story, but he does not find it necessary to present the entire life of his
characters, if he can accurately portray them by one or more incidents. After that purpose is accomplished, the
story often ceases before the reader feels that a real ending has been reached.
Howells rarely startles or thrills; he usually both interests and convinces his readers by a straightforward
presentation of everyday, well-known scenes and people. The strongest point in his art is the easy, natural
way in which he seems to be retailing faithfully the facts exactly as they happened, without any juggling or
rearranging on his part. His characters are so clearly presented that they do not remain in dreary outline, but
emerge fully in rounded form, as moving, speaking, feeling beings. His keen insight into human frailties, his
delicate, pervading humor, his skill in handling conversations, and his delightfully clear, easy, natural, and
familiar style make him a realist of high rank and a worthy teacher of young writers.
CHAPTER VII 161
HENRY JAMES, 1843-1916
[Illustration: HENRY JAMES]
The name most closely associated with Howells is that of Henry James, who was born in New York. William
James (1842-1910) the noted psychologist, was an older brother. Henry James is called an "international
novelist" because he lived mostly abroad and laid the scenes of his novels in both Europe and America. His
sympathy with England in the European war caused him to become a British subject in 1915, eight months
before his death in 1916.
Like Howells, James was a leader in modern realistic fiction. His work has been called the "quintessence of
realism." But instead of selecting, as Howells does, the well-known types of the average people, James
prefers to study the ordinary mind in extraordinary situations, surroundings, and combinations. For this
reason, his characters, while realistically presented, rarely seem well-known and obvious types.
James was the first American to succeed in the realistic short story, that is, the story stripped of the
supernatural and romantic elements used by Hawthorne and Poe. James selects neither a commonplace nor a
dramatic situation, but chooses some difficult and out-of-the-way theme, and clears it up with his keen,
subtle, impressionistic art. A Passionate Pilgrim, The Madonna of the Future, and The Lesson of the Master
are short stories that show his abstruse, unusual subject matter and his analytical methods.
He was a very prolific writer. He published as many as three volumes in twelve months. Year after year, with
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