long series of realistic narratives dealing with New England life and character. Perhaps the best among his thirty or more volumes which may be classed as fiction are A Foregone Conclusion (1874), The Lady of the Aroostook (1879), A Modern Instance (1882), and The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885). Of these The Rise of Silas Lapham is usually considered Howells's masterpiece. It certainly takes rank among the four or five greatest American novels. After he was fifty years of age Howells came under the influence of the Russian philosopher and novelist Tolstoi, and since that time his works have shown a seriousness of purpose in the criticism of life which was noticeably absent from his earlier stories. Of those more mature stories the best are A Hazard of New Fortunes (1889), The World of Chance (1893), The Traveler from Altruria (1894), and Through the Eye of a Needle (1907). · His farces. In another type of literature Howells undoubtedly takes precedence over all other American writersnamely, in the literary farce. The farce is not usually considered among the finer types of literature: but Howells has put into his farces so much of good, healthy humor; so much of genial satire, sparkling repartee, and brilliant wit; so much of keen analysis of real life and real charactersthat his productions of this kind must inevitably be recognized as belonging to pure literature. Among the best of his many farces are A Counterfeit Presentment, The Parlor Car, The Sleeping Car, The Elevator, The Mouse Trap, and The Unexpected Guest.

Henry James, Jr.: his position. Henry James, Jr. (1843-1915), was born in New York City, lived in Boston for a time, and was educated partly in Boston and partly abroad. He doubtless inherited his tendency toward subtle psychological analysis from his father, Henry James, the distinguished New England theologian; this point may be further substantiated by noting that the late William James, the brother of Henry James, Jr., was recognized as

the greatest American psychologist. In 1869 Henry James, Jr., went abroad, and he lived most of his later life in France and England. In fact, so continuous was his residence in England that by many he is considered as an English rather than an American writer. Just before his death in 1915, when the United States had not yet declared war against Germany, he renounced his allegiance to America and claimed citizenship in England in order to devote his property and his literary gifts more fully to the cause of the Allies in the great World War. But we may claim the works of this writer as at least partially American, and as such we are led to class him with the New England rather than the New York School.

His fiction. The fiction of Henry James, Jr., is usually judged to be too difficult for young readers. He is, like Browning in poetry, a sort of "subtle analyst of the soul," and in his psychological studies he deals with material which is uninteresting because it is peculiar and unusual and largely unintelligible to young readers. But to older and more thoughtful readers James's work, particularly his earlier fiction, is a source of delight. In his later work his style becomes so complex, so hair-splitting in thought, and so shadowy, figurative, and obscure in expression, that very few readers can follow him with pleasure. He has been called the international novelist, because most of his books have a sort of international setting and deal with the peculiar point of view of persons of one nationality when brought into contrast with those of another nationality. His best stories are The American (1877), Daisy Miller (1878), An International Episode (1879), The Portrait of a Lady (1881), and The Wings of a Dove (1902). Among his best short stories may be named "The Real Thing," "The Lesson of the Master," and "Sir Edmund Orne," a ghost story. James's books of literary criticism, like his novels, demand close attention in the reading. His fine analysis of the style of

our greatest novelist in his critical volume Nathaniel Hawthorne in the English Men of Letters Series deserves special mention. James has done much critical work also in foreign literature, especially in his admirable estimates of French authors.

3. THE SOUTHERN GROUP

PRELIMINARY SURVEY

General conditions in the South. The South was somewhat slower than the North in developing her literary resources. It is true that during the colonial period, the first literature written within the present boundaries of the United States was produced in the Virginia Colony; but the attitude of the settlers in the Southern Colonies toward literature was always amateurish and incidental rather than professional and serious, and the result was that very few* of the greater minds in the South during the first two and a half centuries of our history turned to literature as the principal sphere for their intellectual efforts. And even since 1865, on account of the scarcity of large cities and the almost total absence of publishing facilities, there have been no nationally important literary centers in the South. In a section devoted largely to varied agricultural pursuits, the people are naturally widely scattered and diverse in mode of life and thinking. On the other hand, in more concentrated and congested centers where commercial and manufacturing interests attract the population into large city groups, we should naturally expect literary centers and publishing interests to be developed. In the North and East, even before the beginning of the nineteenth century, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston had already grown into comparatively large commercial and manufacturing centers. In the South there were scarcely any large cities or thickly populated districts even up to the end of the century. Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah, and

New Orleans were ports of some importance, it is true; but with the single exception of Richmond, Virginia, the inland cities such as Columbia, South Carolina, and Raleigh, North Carolina, were small in size and of little significance as literary centers.

Charleston and Richmond as literary centers. Of all these towns Charleston and Richmond are the only ones that may be said to have become in any sense literary centers. At Charleston William Gilmore Simms was a sort of leader around whom a number of ambitious young men like Paul Hamilton Hayne and Henry Timrod gathered, deferring to his judgment and regarding him in literary matters as guide, philosopher, and friend. Besides Simms's home, John Russell's book store was one of their places of meeting. Here in 1857, the same year in which The Atlantic Monthly was founded, Russell's Magazine was launched under the editorship of Paul Hamilton Hayne.1 This periodical bade fair to become a strong rival of The Southern Literary Messenger at Richmond, but it suspended publication at the approach of the Civil War. The dominant attitude of the Southern people seemed to be one of receptivity rather than active participation in literary matters. The Southern colonial gentleman preferred to get his education and his literature from England. Moreover, he looked upon literature as a means of diversion and amusement for his idle moments rather than as a serious employment for his mature powers. To him the management of his estate and participation in politics made up the serious business of life. Even until late in the century, the common schools of the South lagged far behind the system of public education developed in the North and East. The methods of intercommunication were inadequate and poorly maintained. Roads were bad, and mail routes were slow and

1 See Hayne's essay on "Ante-bellum Charleston," reprinted in Library of Southern Literature, Vol. V.

uncertain. Periodicals were few in number and commanded only a meager patronage among the richer families. The Southern Literary Messenger (1834-1864) at Richmond attained under the editorship of Poe, Thompson, and others, a notable rank, it is true, in the quarter of a century immediately preceding the Civil War, but even this journal was forced to suspend publication near the close of the war.

The influence of slavery. The economic success of negro slave-holding on Southern plantations had drawn most of the slaves from the North and the East where slave labor was unprofitable, and so the South became the great slave section of our country long before the middle of the century. Slave traffickers and shipowners had found a profitable market for their trade in the South, and they prosecuted their business so successfully as to fill the country with African slaves. Though there were a few Southern slave owners who believed in the abolition of slavery, the South as a whole naturally took the position that slavery was a good thing both for the black and for the white race. The question of states' rights, or local self-government by the individual states, was closely bound up with the question of the abolition of slavery, and it was upon the constitutional grounds of states' rights that the argument for the continuation of slavery in the South was primarily based. The policy of territorial expansion and the creation of new states out of the territory acquired by the Florida and the Louisiana purchases also brought the question of slavery to the front, for it was necessary to determine beforehand whether the states to be carved out of the newly acquired territory should be free or slave-holding. Out of all this controversy there naturally arose in the South, as also in the North, a notable school of orators.

Robert E. Lee, a typical Southerner. Just as Washington and Jefferson may be considered typical Southern figures in the earlier Colonial and Revolutionary civilization, so