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Letters to Dead Authors-Part6_ANDREW LANG(1844-1912)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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now, in the circulating library. How Lyddy, perched on a corner of

the roof, first beheld her Wickham; how, on her challenge, he



climbed up by a ladder to her side; how they kissed, caressed, swung

on gates together, met at odd seasons, in strange places, and



finally eloped: all this might have been put in the mouth of a

jealous elder sister, say Elizabeth, and you would not have been



less popular than several favourites of our time. Had you cast the

whole narrative into the present tense, and lingered lovingly over



the thickness of Mary's legs and the softness of Kitty's cheeks, and

the blonde fluffiness of Wickham's whiskers, you would have left a



romance still dear to young ladies.

Or, again, you might entrance fair students still, had you



concentrated your attention on Mrs. Rushworth, who eloped with Henry

Crawford. These should have been the chief figures of "Mansfield



Park." But you timidly decline to tackle Passion. "Let other

pens," you write, "dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious



subjects as soon as I can." Ah, THERE is the secret of your

failure! Need I add that the vulgarity and narrowness of the social



circles you describe impair your popularity? I scarce remember more

than one lady of title, and but very few lords (and these



unessential) in all your tales. Now, when we all wish to be in

society, we demand plenty of titles in our novels, at any rate, and



we get lords (and very queer lords) even from Republican authors,

born in a country which in your time was not renowned for its



literature. I have heard a critic remark, with a decided air of

fashion, on the brevity of the notice which your characters give



each other when they offer invitations to dinner. "An invitation to

dinner next day was despatched," and this demonstrates that your



acquaintance "went out" very little, and had but few engagements.

How vulgar, too, is one of your heroines, who bids Mr. Darcy "keep



his breath to cool his porridge." I blush for Elizabeth! It were

superfluous to add that your characters are debased by being



invariably mere members of the Church of England as by law

established. The Dissenting enthusiast, the open soul that glides



from Esoteric Buddhism to the Salvation Army, and from the Higher

Pantheism to the Higher Paganism, we look for in vain among your



studies of character. Nay, the very words I employ are of unknown

sound to you; so how can you help us in the stress of the soul's



travailings?

You may say that the soul's travailings are no affair of yours;



proving thereby that you have indeed but a lowly conception of the

duty of the novelist. I only remember one reference, in all your



works, to that controversy which occupies the chief of our

attention--the great controversy on Creation or Evolution. Your



Jane Bennet cries: "I have no idea of there being so much Design in

the world as some persons imagine." Nor do you touch on our mighty



social question, the Land Laws, save when Mrs. Bennet appears as a

Land Reformer, and rails bitterly against the cruelty "of settling



an estate away from a family of five daughters, in favour of a man

whom nobody cared anything about." There, madam, in that cruelly



unjust performance, what a text you had for a tendenz-romanz. Nay,

you can allow Kitty to report that a Private had been flogged,



without introducing a chapter on Flogging in the Army. But you

formally declined to stretch your matter out, here and there, "with



solemn specious nonsense about something unconnected with the

story." No "padding" for Miss Austen! in fact, madam, as you were



born before Analysis came in, or Passion, or Realism, or Naturalism,

or Irreverence, or Religious Open-mindedness, you really cannot hope



to rival your literary sisters in the minds of a perplexed

generation. Your heroines are not passionate, we do not see their



red wet cheeks, and tresses dishevelled in the manner of our frank

young Maenads. What says your best successor, a lady who adds fresh



lustre to a name that in fiction equals yours? She says of Miss

Austen: "Her heroines have a stamp of their own. THEY HAVE A



CERTAIN GENTLE SELF-RESPECT AND HUMOUR AND HARDNESS OF HEART . . .




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