But there are signs that the novel resents
suchtreatment. The drama is impossible, for only servile anddocile plays have any
chance of success.
He becomes rich; he becomesrespectable; he buys an
evening suit and dines with peers. The true work of poets, shesaid, is to present
their own age, not Charlemagnes. Certainly,there is compensation to a
degree.
The drama is impossible, for only servile anddocile
plays have any chance of success. Yet here, too, there are gaps in plenty, and many
dark places leftunlit. Smith Elders readersummed up the situation tersely
enough.
It did not much matter, perhaps, whether his
audiencewas cultivated or simple.
Following the lilt of her rhythm rather than the
emotions of hercharacters, Mrs.
It is a boy speaking, a boy thinking,a boy
adventuring. Certainly,there is compensation to a degree.
Browning had warned so imperiously outof her modern
living-room. Indeed, the whole fabric seems to rock alittle insecurely. There is no
animosity, perhaps, but thereis no communication.
Thus it may well be thatwe are on the edge of a
greater change than any the world has yetknown. Forpages all is effort and agony;
phrase after phrase is struck and nolight comes.
At her hand Aurora suffered the educationthat was
thought proper for women.
Noearldom, baronetage, or knighthood protected him.
The first of theseimpressions and the most pervasive is the sense of the
writerspresence.
Ironic commentalternates with long-winded
narrative. We know Gissing thus as we do not know Hardy or George Eliot. Life was
changing round him; his comment upon life waschanging too.
Tennyson asked no better thanto live with books in
the heart of the country. The writer has dined upon lentils; he gets up at five;
hewalks across London; he finds Mr.
He has got too far from them towrite of them with
ease.
The tap of ivy on the pane became the thrash
oftrees in a gale. Now he speaks as an Earls niece;now as a carpenters wife.
Gissing, indeed, never ceased to educate himself.
Yet his great people are more successful thanhis
humble.
The drama is impossible, for only servile anddocile
plays have any chance of success.
Now he speaks as an Earls niece;now as a carpenters
wife. Compliments that would have flattered aduchess were presented with equal
ceremony to a child.
At any rate, her couragewas justified in her own
case. Skionar and the rest with naturaldelight.
Blank verse has proved itself the mostremorseless
enemy of living speech. The Elizabeths and the Emmasof Miss Austen could not
possibly be taken for anything else.