MOTHERS, ACCORDING TO ENGLISH NOVELISTS.

Press, Volume XLVII, Issue 7528, 18 April 1890, Page 2

MOTHERS, ACCORDING TO ENGLISH NOVELISTS.

There is an interesting article In Temple Bar ori "Mothers, According to English Novelists." The genesis of this curious analysis is stated to be a remark made by a mother as to the .unfavourable portraits of mothers in the fiction of Charles Dickens. There is the " weak " old Mrs Garland, the ** detestable " Mrs Jiniwln, the "idiotic," Mrs Gradgrind, the "criminal" Mrfi.Clehnam, fche "outrageous" MrsWilthe "horrid" Mrs Sceerforthj the "abominable"Mrs Guppy, and others to whom the critic applies feminine adjectives of equal disfavour. The only mother rshe could find in Dickens's novels with redeeming qualities is Mrs Measles, who IS " nice, but very homely." Whilst wondering that a novelist whose writings are " so "full "of tender sympathy" should be the -one to " do our English matrons such injustice," the critic pursued her investlgationsfurther.andfoundthatothernovelists were equally {-appreciative. Thackeray's mothers are, with the exception of Mrs Pendennis and Bachel Esmond, almost as objectionable as those of Dickens. Where are the admirable mothers in Fielding, Smollett or Kichardson? In Goldsmith's " Vicar of Wakefield " Mrs Primrose "can tauhther repentant daughter in her tflisery, and is altogether a mass of vanity and contemptible vulgar conceit." In six of Wilkae Cb-Uns's stories there is tout one mother, and she is a nonentity. Charles Eeadehas drawn a "charming mother" lu-Mrs-Little, but another is intensely offensive, and yet another is downright criminal. Bulwer Lytton has done well in ■'The Caxtons." The lady novelists are apparently as unjust as the men. Jane Austen depicts one in "Sense and Sensibility" as an intensely.foolish creature, arid the toother of Elizabeth id " Pride and Prejudice" is still worse., George Elfot rather ignores than satirises). Mrs Irvine, Mrs Poyser. and Mrs our critic can, think of with pleaiufei and Mrs Garth is admirable.! "Biifeven George Eliot could not stand the mental strain necessary to evolve a decently intelligent' mother any further than,this." Charlotte Bronte keeps on the beaten track In this matter, and "Ouida" has the further peculiarity of mothers objectionable and grandmothers charming. When the critic applies the Shakespeare he also Is found waneinfer 1 In the plays --passing by the Countess in " Airs Well that Ends Well" —there are Hamlet'- mother, Lady CapuletV the Queen in "Cymbeline" and Taj_»A| : in the'< historical drama, (keen Constance, Queen Elinor, and the Duchess of York "are loud-voiced dames, to speak mildly," arid Volumnia. while "admittedly noble/ is nob loyeable." Our critic, in conclusion, makes a curious confession. She also. Is a novelist, and iv her published stories there is only one good *mother, and even tbis one dies quite early in the book. Evidently there is an original vein to be developed by any writer of fiction who is capable of drawinif thfe mottte*; M Shf in fact happay"B__-tts In hosts of English homes.