MID-VICTORIANS ON MEREDITH

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 693, 18 December 1909, Page 9

MID-VICTORIANS ON MEREDITH

v A-book'for, Meredithians is Buxton Forman's 1 ';. .Ctoorge'Meredith: Some Early Appreciations.'.' ;: Each .generation (says the. writer of , an'-early! ■notice of'the:book) seems to ■ have' a tendency to believe: thatit. has discovered for itself tho ■literary gods whom it'erects for worship: .'-But ]ust.as Mr. Nichol Smith had-to remind 11s a year or.; two ago that. Shakespeare had been cordially; appreciated by English critics before Coleridge and ;Hazlitt credited the' ■ Germans with discovering him, so Mr. .Buxton Forman hero shows that George Meredith's work was appreciated by discerning critics from the date of his ..first •appearance* in ."print, in 1851, and that,the appreciation was sane and laudatory of the points in his work which ato still praised, but: not blind to the' defects .which .-still ;limit ..the ,number .'of : MereditWs readers. .': Critics Jin: those days had time' both "tOi'iead , .their books and to.' weigh1 their judgments; : end the papers -quoted here: stand pretty well' the. test pf iime; ' . ■' ■ K■. : Tho- volume .contains': twe'itj-Tthreo ; paper's ranging-in date;from Mr.;W..M. Bossetti's and Charles Kirigsleyls estimates of- the' "Poems" in .1851 -down'to.llarlc r Pat£ison's"'«stimate of tl(6 " Poems, and Lyrics of.'th : e' : Joy of Earth ". iS 1883. ■ The • writers include, besides those mentioned; George: Eliot, , James .Thomson ("B. V.'-),' A. C...Swinburne, Kichard Garnett, : Geraldine Jewsbiiry, K,... , H. Hu'ttonrarid W.'E. Henley.: It is worth while to compare the opinions of "Mr. EossettiVand-.CharleS';iKingsleyi on the "Poems", , -to" , admiro George Eliot's enthusiasm for "The Sha-ving of'Shaspat" and to sympathise with her colQnessr.to "Farina",; to-find James' Thomson describing "Eichard Fever.el" as "ono of tho most brilliant and. daring [books]/of: our, generation"j.'and so on." From the'."Saturday,. Review" one ilearns , that "Evan Harrington l ",/ deserves 'a .front place 'in, ; the literature that is "ranked as avowedly : not destined;tb endure.":; Swinburne's paper ,is -a' let- , ter-tp-tbe-editor: defence of "Modern Love" against the' : strictures of a critio; ■ and- Henley, while admiring "The Egoist" lind . tho '"'aiithor's..' books,.'thinks'..that -Meredith's ■ style '."has always .been i his -. weak point."- 'Unlike:, some fceurrectionisfe, • Mr. Buxton Forman has "really done a servico to literary criticism by.exhuining. these early-appreciations. ■. -•:' .-

;.v;A: difference of -opinion, has .arisen' between , ' ■Mi\,' Hilaire • JBelloe, the member * for North, Salford, 1 and -the /publishers. •..-Mr. Belloo . is. a: popular' author.Vas!: well as a ; politician.'Ho : has; written. '■'. novels, among.' other things; and he has'been expressing, the opinion that, the day,,of the novel .is over.. : It;has had, 1 he -says, ;■ a., lifetime, -of' 150 years or so, and 1 is now . among the expiring forms ■ of literature. .-- ■ .The ■: publishers. disagree "■ with hinii' quite, unanimously; • as' it.: would seem; but on varying (grounds. 'Novels as'a form of.literature will- go;on practically for ever,' says one; but he then proceeds to-admit that they ara.read.less than "they, were, five,'years' - 'ago. l Ir _ the. sixpenny,, isevenpenny,-- and. eightpenny '■■ editions ,ard-taken into' account (comments - one critic),'novels.imust be more widely read than they have ever been since they were first published;- and, /indeed, * this- publisher admits n3 much,-for-he:says.that : the board schools—in England they, are council schools now—are continually-creating ;new readers. 'Another fact .that •:' is.' clearly 'brought, out is . that: this is* -a ..bad tinno - for inferior ( authors or for ■authors, with' their reputations' still, to ■■make. The'booksellers will not touch them. For my ani reminded by Mr. Belloc'scon. tentiori of ail -interesting, position maintained by De : Quincey, which was that: nothing survives • in.literature 1 but the .narrative or ■ the matchless style. ;• And the novel is a, narrative, sometimes, with.a.matchless style in. addition.