PRUDISH WIFE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 31, 7 February 1933, Page 11

PRUDISH WIFE

A CENSORED DIAEY

HAWTHORNE FIND

Evidence that Mrs. Nathaniel Hawthorne, wife of the author-of "The House of Seven Gables" and "The Scarlet Letter," altered her husband's notebooks to conform to her standards of propriety and morality is offered by Professor Kanaall Stewart, of the English department of Yale University. He says that he found that a large number of revisions were made by Mrs. Hawthorne because of her "prudishness of false delicacy." Where Hawthorne described a woman as a "devil of a brunette," his wife changed the description to " mischief °* a brunette." "Quick-tempered as the devil" was altered to "very quick tempered." Passages relating to ses were revised or omitted. Striving for social elegance, Mrs. Hawthorne changed ' "store" to "shop," "pantaloons" to "trousers," and "supper time" to "tea time," says the "New York Times." . "It was also her aim to add literary elegance to the notebooks," Professor Stewart says. "The word 'queer,' for example, which, ia unliterary, became variously 'strange,' 'odd,' 'singular,' and 'droll.' Yet 'queer' is a very common word in Hawthorne's works. It occurs there perhaps more frequently than its synonyms. "Incidents revealing Hawthorne's natural indolence—as when he throws the fish back into the river to avoid the trouble of cleaning them or allows his wife to rake the leaves in the avenue—and his frank avowals of indolence—as when he explains, 'I hate all labour, but less that of the hands than of the head'—were either omitted or recorded with important modifications. Changes such as these not only misrepresent the man; they subtract from his humanity. OTHER TAMPERINGS. "Again there are editorial tamperings, tho most unscrupulous of all, •which affect the view of life presented in the notebooks. • The editor set about removing any suggestions of cynicism or pessimism. After jgiving a goodnatured description of the mutual endearments of a newly married couple whom he saw in the stagecoach in the summer of'lß3B, Hawthorne observed: 'It would be pleasant to meet them, again next summer, and note the change.' This mildly cynical remark was not allowed to stand. In another passage, Hawthorne spoke with some boldness of the 'injustice' of our exist-, enee; the revised text reads 'apparent injustice.' . "Once more Hawthorne wrote somewhat dubiously in the journal: 'Happiness in this world, if it comes at all, comes" incidentally. . . Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have found happiness without dreaming of such luck.' In the revised text he was made to say with assurance: 'Happiness in this world, Svhen it comes ' '" and the phrase 'such luck,' with its. suggestion of worldly cynicism, was deleted. "Finally," says Professor Stewart, "editorial alterations include the omission of significant passages which bear upon Hawthorne's religious views,-and which were excluded because of their heterodoxy. ' The- following entry is now well known as it was published, though not in its context, in Julian Hawthorne's biography: 'I find that my respect for clerical people, as such, and my faith in the utility of their office, decreases daily. We certainly do need a new revelation— r a new system—for there seems to be no life in the old one.' " - '•'•"■-. By comparing the' original manuscripts of the' American; notebooks now-in: the Pierpont Morgan Library with the notebooks published by Mrs. Hawthorne, Professor Stewart discovered/he'says, that she not ;only 'omitted portions which throw considerable lighten her husband but .that she "also revised the notebooks to such an extent that the published version seriously misrepresents his character and literary genius." '- , - . ■ • • The results of Professor Stewart's research in this field are, given in^'The American Notebooks by Nathaniel Hawthorne," published "by the Yale University Press. It is the first edition of the notebooks as they were actually written by Hawthorne.

According to the English school outfitters, the modern girls of 15 need much larger sizes in clothing and shoes than their mothers did.