PAGE Sip THE MICHIGAN DAILY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9 123
His style is very simple and rather foreswear unity; we must not expec
A nthony\1T rolloory Ip uneven at times. One is not infre- the minute analysis of character.
G SMITH-HAMILTON quently rather irritated by some of Yet Thollope has lived and will
lhis Victorian conciets. He uses sim- continue to be read because of his
Today cur bokstalls are crowded eration the result would have justi- ple English, but he is not always pure realism, ranking, not in the first
wih the output of the contemporary fled the expenditure of time. He is correct in his grammar. Ite finds it class of the great novelists, but lead-
school of neo-realists, an outpft far from poetic, and he lacks any difficult to maintain the same person ing the second.
which is indeed a vain apology for' spirtuloeait ,deficnar hou utncnstlakte
realism, one that is fast becoming spiritual quality. He, deficient in ar throughout and constantly asks the His chief merit lies in his portrayal
distasteful. To be considered a suc- tistic temperament and devoid of aes- reader to witness this or that.' of the England of his day, and, as
cessful novelist today one must write thetic inclination, is very material Lord Bryce says that "he crowned Henry James says, his appreciation
either the wierdly impossible extra- minded, a fact quite evident in his his canvas with figures; he pursued of the -usual He is unsurpassed In
vaganzas of the pseudo-novelists of work. He admits that he could not the fortunes of three or four sets of
the type of Zane Grey and Harold Bell formulate an intricate plot, and never people at the same time, caring little the depiction of his contemporary life
Wright; or the sordid, coarse, dis- but once attempted to do so. Like a i how the fate of the one set affected and manners.
agreeable "realistic" novela of the child, he cannot wait to tell his story that of the others; he made his novel In summing him up ins recent articde
type of Sherwood Anderson's "Many and as a result we do not feel a sus- a sort of chronicle which you might in the Nineteenth Century, Michael
Marriages." A recent book seems to tained interest in the action of the open anywhere and close anywhere, Sadlier says: "He' is' Intensely Eng
indicate the possible future of the plot. But he does succeed in holding instead of a drama animated by one, lish, with the quiet humour, the shy
novel. Louis Hemon's Maria Chap- the 'interest to the very last page idea and converging towards one cen- sympathy .masquerading as, indiffer-
delaine was a success, even in Amer- through his delineation of character, tre. He neglected the. art which uses ence, the delicate sense of kindliness
ica, where only the sensational can be not so much by means of actual word-incidents small in themselves to lead and toleration, 'tIe occasional heavi-
safely counted a success. This sim- description, as through a subtle meth- up to the denoument and make it ness, the occasional -irritability, that
ple, unexaggerated tale of the Cana- od, all his own, of permitting them more striking. He took little pains mark a man or a book as Eglish. But
dian north woods, realistic in the to portray themselves through their! with his diction, seeming not to care if to these qualities he owes his place
true sense of the word, Is comparable very personalities, their conversation how he said what he had to say." We in our proud heritage of, literature.
to The Warden of Anthony Trollope. and their actions. His people are must give up many things to enjoy tothem also. he owes the tarrying of
The Warden is representative of rarely drawn in caricature; rather, "iim; we must cease to concern, our- true recognition. far theyand the art-
Trollope at his best. It was written they are the English men and women selves with artistic effect; we must ists who possess them are of all qual-
during his earlier phase of more per- whom he knew, with whom he came' not demand style; we must be satis- ities and of all artists the most diffi-
feet work. Previous to its appearance Into daily contact, whom he met in fled with simple phrasing, unassum- cult to impress upon the sceptical
he had published three novels, all his tours as a postal inspector. They ing and clear, yielding its meaning outsider, seeing that their very beau-
miserable failures. But with this one live, and will continue to live for-i upon the first reading, lacking bril- ty and profundity and power lies in
he caught the eye of the English read- ever. liant epigrammatic turns.; we must their elusiveness."
ing public, which he managed to hold
until his death in the early eighties.
The setting is Barchester, a purely
fictitious section of England, which
presents, however, a faithful picture G ood \ i Think of it ot as a Christmas. suggestion merely.
of the country during the reign of!
Victoria. Trollope himself says that! rg(M n Make it of a year round creed you have. Practice
he knew thoroughly all the ctny iaoW aru enprtod
of Barset, the 'country lanes, the it daily. You'll find yourself the greatest beneficiary.
hedge-rows, the manor houses, the
pavements of the city, its spires and
towers
towdes, nBut Christmas time, when the spirit of goodwill is
Arch-deacon Grantly is quite hu-
man, and in him we find an accurate most in the air, and in the thoughts of men, is a good
portrayal of the mid-Victorian clergy-,
man, a man quite material minded,'- time to consider it carefully.. Carefully lest when the
who knew and enjoyed the good things
ef life, and yet one who had the in- holiday spirit is over we again neglect goodwill.For
terests of his professions very much
at heart, who was sincere in his devo- the heritage of goodwill to the individual is content-
tion In it, even though he doe not
auite reach our expectations of .a --ment, o, ndusry is wth and a good name.
priest in matters spiritual.
Mr. Harding is, of course, the main
character of the book. He is a sim Without goodwill toward men, no individual may con-
ple man, very sincere-in his belieft.
and in his sympathy, very benevolent ider himself asicess He has missed a great op
and kindly, completely enwrapped In
his old church music and his violon- portunity. All that he has is a mess of pottage. He
cello, fond of chanting the chprhf
service from the vaulted sanctuary ofa ve r mself alone
the old cathedral, because he knew .
he did it well. His is a most imprac-
tical mind, one which little under-
ta nd ebunes of lie Buhe iNor can an institution long exist without goodwill
stands the business of life. But hetis c
conscientious and when the fact oc- Goodwill is the firm foundation upon which every
curs to him that the source of his in-
come is not exactly legitimate, no- great industry is founded. It is the power behind
thing, not even the threats of his
practical son-in-law, can shake his governments that makes then strong.
determination- to resign his post and.
voluntarily reduce his income to such
anextent that it will mnean privation
to him.n tGoodwill is a quality within the hearts of men that
tohis
His daughters, the Bishop, John makes them great-that makes friends for them.
Bold, and the other subordinate char-
acters are drawn very lightly but suf From Bethlehem comes the greatest lesson in good-
ficiently to produce the right.effect.
In his Autobiography Trollope has will. It is Christ's birth that we celebrae. He iaught
given us, with disconcerting frank-
ness, his method of writing. He de- us the lesson of "Peace on Earth Goodwill Toward
liberately arose at five-thirty a. m. Men."
and wrote his twenty-five hundred!
words every morning before break-
fast, re-reading -always in the first
half-hour that which he had written So we'll enter into the spirit of Christmas. Maybe a
the day before. He defends this meth-
od with great vehemency and had few will carry some of it with them into the new year,
nothing but contempt for the author
who waits until inspiration moves and into the years to come.
him to write. He fails to see the
weakness in his method, one which
should have been quite obvious tor;
him. It is evident that his work,.
which is voluminous as a result of
this mechanical arrangement, suffers TWO OFFICES: MAIN at HURON-707 N. UNIVERSITY
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artistic effect. We frequently feel that
if he had given this chapter or that
character more conscientious consid-