WOMEN'S WORK IN ENGLISH FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 840, 11 June 1910, Page 11

WOMEN'S WORK IN ENGLISH FICTION.

Considering how largo a proportion Of English fiction is the work of women, it is curious how little has been written about feminine influence on fiction. Now a book by Miss ■ Clara H. Whitmore, on "Women's Work in English Fiction," comes to fill the gap, and . y-ery interesting is' the summary which . is published by an Australian paper. A constant charge brought against women in their various undertakings •is that they imitate but seldom originate. According to Miss Whitrnore, English women writers have on many occasions opened up new veins of \ thought which have been assiduously worked by imitativo men. One is indeed amazed to find how great their \ influence has been. .'"..'.- The first English woman writer of pure fiction, she tells us, was tho- : >. Duchess of Newcastle, \Vho wrote plays, philosophical volumes, poems, and novels, and to whom belongs tho distinction of introducing the 'form of letters into English fiction. The stylo was followed the neist century'- by Richardson and Smollett, and others of less note, and.is still, extant—as we know to. our sorrow. v Contemporary with the .illustrious Duchess was Mrs. Aphra Balm, tho first English woman to earn ,a. living by •■her pen, and an excellent • living it was. Her plays were performed to crowded houses, her novels-wero in . every libarry, and so distinguished was she for her wit and brilliancy, that such mon as Dryden. sought her friendship. Her first novel, "Oroonoko," passed through several editions; and was translated into French and German. It created as great a sensation ' as did "Uncle Tom's Cabin", two Iron-, dred years later, .and 'was, amongst the earliest efforts to call the attention of Europe to the African slave trade. "Oroonoko" was also the. first English novel with a well-developed plot, and the hero is the- first distinctly drawn ■ ■■ character in English fiction: The first English'novel in which political and personal scandal formed .the ground-work of a romance was the "New Atlantis," by Mrs. Manley.,. The publisher and printer of the book were arrested for libel, but Mrs. Mauley owned to the authorship, was tried for libel, but ■ finally discharged. The book' was the forerunner of Swift's" "Gulliver's Travels," and Smollett's "Adventures of an Atom." During the middle of the 18th century the , women' writers were overshadowed by the early .masters of English fiction—Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, and Smollett, but they saw and noted phases of life that were overlooked by , their male contemporaries. To us, the most interesting woman writer of that age was Mrs. Sheridan, mother of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. To'_her belongs the distinction of introducing the introspective novel into England, and, of creating "Mrs. Mala.prop.": In-a, comedy "A Journey, to Bath," Mrs. Sheridan introduces a character, Mrs. Twyford; whom ' Richard Brinsley.. Sheridan. later transformed into the famous Mrs. M'alaprop. The Feminine Heroins. . In the end. of the eighteenth: and beginning of the nineteenth, century a marked "change came., over English fiction,'and the moral tone, was raised.' This change was,'inaugurated by Miss Fanny Burney, a young woman ignorant of the world, whoso power lay in her innocence and lively imagination. Her "Evejina," declared by Dr. Johnson to ■be better, than anything Fielding had 'written, introduced a new heroine into English' fiction." .'.'She■'•' showed'"' the', woman's point of view, was iii'depend.ent,- fearless,"'; and witty. Man's, "heroines .hitherto; had 'been saints or Magdalene's^the'Syomau-' weeping for, man, eithor'husband, lover, or son, man, the centre of her,, hopes and fears. Evelina was . the> first woman to break, the spell, ; to. show men woman as woman, instead of woman as parasite and adjunct to man. From the time of Fanny Burney to that of Sir Walter Scott, English fiction was kept alivo by women, and much of the coarseness and vulgarity was pruned away ..by thciri jdelicate hands. Macaulay says, of Fanny"' ißurncy. "She first showed,that a'talo .might be written in which both tho' fashionable and vulgar life of : London'might.bo exhibited with ' great force and with broad comic humour, i arid■ .;which yet should not contain.a single lline inconsistent with rigid morality, or «ven with virgin delicacy. She took away the reproach which lay on a most useful and delightful species of composition. jShe vindicated the right of her sex ito an equal share in a fair'and noble ■province of letters. . '. , Wo owe to her not only Evelina, Cecili.j, and Camilla, but also Mansfield Park and 'The Absentee." The next woman of that age to. leave 'her mark on literature was Hannah More, to'whom we owe the introduction of the cheap books, and the first detailed stories of the class which was later immortalised by Dickens. Then came 'Charlotte Smith—the first'.' writer to iportray quiet, intellectual: ladies, • and :olso the first to give us descriptions of a-ural scenery; Mrs. 'Tnchbald, whoso hook,. "A Simple Story," has been called the precursor of "Jane ' Eyre," inasmuch' as it is the first novel in ■which. the reader is'more interested in what is felt than in ■ what actually "happens, and in some of its' situations ..rivals Hardy and Tolstoi. .founder of Gothio Romance. Ann Radcliffe, the next, woman writer taf: note, has been called the founder |Of the Gothic romance, and no one is iher superior in the power to awaken tt feeling of • the: supernatural; Scott said of her: "Mrs. Badcliffe has,a title ■■to be considered as the first poetess of [romantic fiction," and her. influence is apparent in his works. ' ' The other writer who 'made the Strongest- impression on the of "the "Waverley Novels" was Maria Edgeworth, whoso stories of Ireland and its people glow with' tho inspiration of genius. There is no exaggeration; mo caricature—all is told with simple ftruth. She loved Ireland, and "Castle ißackrent" was tho first national novel in which the avowed object is to represent traits of national -'character Patriotic writers in' other countries learned through her how to servo their own land, and Scott, in his preface to the "Waverley Novels," acknowledges her inspiration. Her children's stories also marked an epoch, and their wholesome simplicity was in sharp contrast to the morbid tales of tho period; tho boys and girls in her stories were drawn from life, and their.failings and virtues wero ordinary childish ones. For 50 years her children's tales wero read by • young and old; then for. a time they wore lost in libraries, but have now been revived with a fresh, interest for the- present-.generation.- In "Tho Cottagers of Glenburnio," Elizabeth Hamilton 'represented for the first time in fiction' tho life of the common people. Hannah Moro had used their habits and failings to point her morals, but Elizabeth Ha'milton wrote wit.i sympathy and affection; her little book of a Scotch village was read throughout the length and breadth of Scotland, and was really tho ancestor of a. "Window in. Thrums" and "Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush." While-she was immortalising the Scottish poor, another woman, Jane Porter, was writing tho first novel of Scotland's Kings. In 1784 Sophia Leo bad made the first attempt at an historical novel, but it was so poor that it scarcely counts, and Jane Porter may truly bo called the onthor of the first English historical aovel. "Thaddeus of Warsaw" was her

first novel, and tho writer hesitated for a long time about publishing it, because it was so different from any known styles of story-writing. But its success was instantaneous, and then Jane Porter began to collect her material for her famous book, "Tho Scottish ; Chiefs," the first historical novel in which tho. author mado diligent research in order to givo, a .truthful representation of the times. First Problem Novuls. • Tho first.novels, which may bo said to have discusscd tho problems of,their ago were thoso of Mrs. 'Opie and Mrs. Brunton. Tho former, who was intimately acquainted with Mary Wollstonecraft, used her life story .as the theme of her novel;'' "Adeline Mowbray, or the Mother and Daughter," a book with the' same standard ot conduct as we hold to-day. To a community that reads and loves "Mansfield Park" and "Pride and Prejudice," there is little need to speak of

Jano Austen's claim to fame. She has been likened to ■ Shakespeare in her delineation of character; .she has been praised by., all. critics from , , Scott to Gossc; and her, books, with their varying flesh and -blood : pe'oplej.'ißro! ' now:read just as much as, if not more than, they were a hundred-ryears published her first books ;in 1811, three '■ j'ears before "Waverley," and her last novels.came after.it,, and.the taste ofthe public was caught ; more by the cavalcade than the tea-cups. But we of this generation, having tired a little, of. brilliant scenes,, have turned to the restful,, siniple stories of Jano Austen. ■ Hiss, llitford introduced a new form of fiction into English .literature in "Our Village." It is a novel without a plot, and its charm is as great todayas ever it was. The freshness and sweetness of the .outdoor, scenes, the charm, and simplicity of the villagers and the children, the reader with a stronger tie than any wild sensational scenes. In marked contrast to the . sweet charm of "Our Village'' was Mary Shelley's . "Frankenstein," published • about the same time,' a book _ which also marked a new era. -Very different again • were the numerous novels of Mrs. Gore, a young writer, who, with lively wit, pointed, out. the affectations and ludicrous pretensions of the polite world which were, 20 years afterwards, to be ridiculed by Thackeray with a master's pen. Mrs.. Trollops and Harriet Martineau may bo called- the mothers of the book with a purpose, and their personalities are far more interesting to modern generations than anything they ■ ever wrote. Then.-.came the Brontes—Emily with her weird and wonderful "Wuthering Heights," of which Swinburne wrote, "It is a poem in. the fullest and most positive sense of tho, tefm"; Anno with her "Agnes Grey".and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall"; and Charlotte with "Jane Eyre," the first English novel which can compare' with the novels~of Madame de Stael, or George Sand.in its intensity of emotion. Charlotte Bronte was the. first novelist; who made a minute analysis of the varying emotions of men and women, and her influence oh English fiction has been.tremendous. Last on the list,of women who have helped to form the school of English fiction is Mrs". Gaskell..- She was better known to her generation. as a writer of humanitarian novels, but to us her name is inseparable from "Cranford," that inimitable comedy of mannerß. Her first novel, ."Mary,Barton," was the story of mill-workers, and set in a.gloumy background; but.hi it we feel the heartbeats of humanity, and it leave's the impression of. life rather than of art. Her later books, "North and South," "Sylvia's Lovers," "Cranford," and "Wives and Daughters" are more artistic, but just as true to life. To-day when reading her books, one re-echoes George Sand's tribute: "Mrs. Gaskell," she said, "has done what neither I nor any other female writers in France can accomplish; she has written novels which excite the deepest interest in men of the world, and yet which every girl will be tho better for reading."