THE NEW WOMAN.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8929, 20 October 1894, Page 6

THE NEW WOMAN.

The new woman, aa she is called, ia very much in evidence just now in the old world, especially in literature, and she is exciting some interest even here, though we hope she is not going to ihvade us in any great force. It is true we have some varieties ol the new woman amougst us, even as it is. We have women who adopt eccentric and utf attractive forms of dress j we have the political Woman; we have the womau who dabbles in fancy religions ; the woman who agitates, and other kinds of women who desire more or

less to get out of the domestic sphere. But as we ate not yet enough advanced to have a iiterature of our owu, we have to take our ideas of the new wotuau in literature from the books we impure. This is uudoubtedjy a period of great activity in the literature of fiction amongst women, and where women stick to the old lines of the ordinary novel our female writers take fair rank among their male rivals, never reaching the highest places, buc being, maiiy of! them at least, quite up to Second and third-class male writers. There ie nothing much to say of such novelists as, for example, Braddon, filiaa Mulock, aud other?, except that their stories are more readable than those of some male novelists aud lees readable than those of others.

I Bug tbe quite up to date female novelist has taken up quite a new line of her. own. To begin with, she is very prosy. This, of course, is not her intention. Even Mrs. Humphbrt Ward, who is perhaps the moist iuteliectual and capable of the women novelists of the present day; is terribly prosy. She is no doubt au able woman, possessed of considerable iuteliectual capacity, but entirely destitute of the least trace of creative genius. The reader plods through tbe long pages of her three stories which have sold so largely during the past few year*, aud he does nob experience one solitary tiftill of emotion. There is hardly a character of hers, however admirable may be their couducl, who excites the love aud admiration of the reader, and for whom they really live aa inuah as if tbe narrative were history iu&iead of fiction, as is the case with many of the characters of the great novelises. All Mrs. Ward's characters, nearly, from Uobebt Isl£merb dowu to Maugslla, are mure or leas prige and bores. They are not people whose society we stiouid seek for in real life. We might admire the earnestness, energy, and sincerity of liofiEßT Klsmboe, but eurely he would be very tiresome as a husband, a brother, a father, or even as a friend. at any rate, this much caii be said for Mrs. Ward, that) her pages are cle«£. The reader niay.noc agree, with her views ou politics or social ecouoniy, and her stories are mainly essays ou such subjects, but at any rate he will not come across auyfcuiug which wi.i prevent the book being read to an audience of mixed sexes. , - But the ueweet oiasa of new woman, as she appears in literature, laakes up for her want of genius by choosing subjects which, if they 'should be treated at all in literature, need very delicate haudiing. In face, her books though avowedly written in the cause of purity, deal very largely with impurity. We are sorry to say that we fear thia it the maiu reason why these books have sold so largely of late. It in very questionable whether these books do not do more harm tbau good. We are afraid they are found to be more interesting and read with greater avidity by the impure tnan by the .pure. The fact is these writers have not that touch of genius without which it is impossible to become great teachers of morality. By a stretch of charity it may be assumed that they mean well, and that; they choose these subjects from a desire to do good rather than because they know that books on such, subjects will sell. well. But these' books, nevertheless, only sell because they treat) of such subjects Nobody finds them really interesting, and we are glad to say that nobody likes to boast of haviug read them. They are more, or less read ia secret. Wβ are glad, however, to observe that this class of literature appears even , now to have had its day. The new. woman's of tbie sort at least, are nap nearly as. tnuoh in demand as they were even a few months ago.