His best books are The Shadow of a Crime, The Deemster, The Bondman, The Scapegoat, and The Christian. In all of them there is a definite somberness, a noticeable element of tragedy, only slightly relieved by the lighter aspects of life. His novels deal with profound issues.
Clubs should notice the relations" of fathers and sons in the books mentioned. Discuss the problems presented; read the descriptions of Manx life among the people; compare the heroes. Read several of the dramatic chapters from The Scapegoat and The Deemster. Does the play The Christian show more strength than the novel of the same name?
V--STANLEY J. WEYMAN
In striking contrast with this last novelist is Stanley J. Weyman, the writer of fascinating historical novels which rank among the very first of their kind. Born in Shropshire in 1855 and educated at Oxford, he became first a lawyer and then a novelist. His Gentleman of France brought him immediately into prominence.
The scenes of most of his books are laid in France, either in the period of the Great Cardinal, or later in that of the Revolution. They are crowded with adventure, the plots are of absorbing interest and his characters are full of life and individuality. The times of which he writes are described with accurate fidelity, and his pictures of the court, of campaigning, of travel, of village life, are romantic yet historically correct. Under the Red Robe, The Red c.o.c.kade, The Castle Inn, and The Abbess of Vlaye are all fascinating. Read from any one of these and then from a good history giving an idea of the same period, and note the precise study Weyman gave to his settings.
A paper might be prepared on Sir Walter Scott, Dumas, Hewlett and Weyman as historical novelists. The differences might be brought out by comparing the character of Richard Coeur de Lion in The Talisman and Richard Yea-and-Nay, and that of Richelieu in The Three Musketeers and Under the Red Robe.
VI--JAMES M. BARRIE
James M. Barrie is a Scotchman, born in 1860 and educated at Edinburgh University. He knows thoroughly his own people. He does not write with any defined moral purpose, nor does he have any great events to record; but he has in an unusual degree the power to charm. His sympathetic insight, delightfully sly humor, play of fancy and light touch of pathos are all unique.
A Window in Thrums, describing the lives of the weavers, so apart from the world yet so full of interest, Auld Licht Idylls, with its amusing difficulties of the old churches, and Margaret Ogilvy, the exquisite portrait of the author"s mother, are unsurpa.s.sed in delicate beauty. In Sentimental Tommy, Tommy and Grizel, and The Little Minister there is more of plot and more also of a certain gaiety. The Little White Bird shows the fancy which comes out more strongly in the incomparable Peter Pan.
Read from as many of Barrie"s books as possible, and then discuss his work as a playwright. Do his books lend themselves to the stage? Let those who have seen The Little Minister, The Admirable Crichton, Peter Pan and Little Mary describe them.
VII--HORATIO GILBERT PARKER
Horatio Gilbert Parker, now Sir Gilbert, is both English and Canadian.
His career has been marked by a great variety of experience, as his books show. Born in Ontario in 1802, he became a teacher, then a curate, then an instructor in a deaf and dumb asylum, went to Australia for his health and there took up journalism and play-writing, returned to Canada and became a novelist. Later he decided to live in England and went into Parliament. Many of his earlier novels are of Canadian life. When Valmond Came to Pontiac, The Seats of the Mighty, and The Right of Way are among the best of his early books. Later he wrote The Weavers, a strange mingling of East and West in the story of a Quaker in modern Egypt. His best recent novel is The Judgment House, having for its theme English society in the time of the Boer War. His versatility in turning from one scene to another, and from one type of character to another, is remarkable. Canada, Egypt, London, and Africa are all familiar ground to him, and trappers, Indians, Frenchmen of the seventeenth century, and men and women of to-day in cities are all equally well drawn. His early style was perhaps too diffuse, but his later stories are briefer and more direct. Read from The Seats of the Mighty and The Judgment House.
Note his different types in his books and discuss them. Read also from the scenes in the different countries and see the local color.
VIII--HERBERT G. WELLS
Herbert G. Wells was born in Kent in 1866. He had a scientific training, and his first book was a text book on biology. Later he became one of the staff of _The Sat.u.r.day Review_ and then combined science and literature in a series of romantic novels: His Time Machine, The Wheels of Chance and The War of the Worlds are all stories in which his scientific education was utilized. In 1906 he came to America to study social conditions and since then has written two books in quite another vein--Tono Bungay, a story of finance, and Marriage, a study of modern conditions of love and society.
His earlier work is marked by wild imagination; his later by swift a.n.a.lysis and warm sympathy. Compare the realistic description of village life in Part I. of Tono Bungay with that of the Five Towns in Arnold Bennett"s Old Wives" Tale, mentioned later. Note Wells"s socialistic leanings.
Read from The War of the Worlds and Marriage. Contrast the two styles; discuss the character of Marjorie in the latter; is she a possible woman?
IX--WILLIAM J. LOCKE
William J. Locke, born of English parents in Barbadoes in 1803, was educated at Cambridge, where he took the highest honors in mathematics.
He became a teacher, and it was only after years of hated drudgery that he obtained a secretary"s position and leisure to write. For long his novels were little known, though At the Gate of Samaria, The Derelicts, Idols, and The White Dove were all full of interest and promise. Then with The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne, called his greatest book, and The Beloved Vagabond, his most popular, he suddenly became famous. Septimus, Simon the Jester and The Glory of Clementina have followed one another rapidly, and Septimus has been dramatized.
Locke"s style is so easy as to conceal its art. His plots are lightly constructed and many of his novels have unexpected endings. His men are much alike, but so delightful that no one would have them altered. Each has a certain chivalry, an ability to endure hardships, a lack of practical judgment, but a simple goodness that is irresistible. Their humor is charming, and their gentle philosophy convincing. Locke holds the theory that life should be accepted cheerfully; this is his dominant theme.
Clubs should read the amusing diatribe against teaching, and especially against teaching mathematics, in Marcus. Read also the first and last chapters of the Vagabond and Clementina. Compare his women and his men.
X--ARNOLD BENNETT
Arnold Bennett, in many ways the most talked-of English author living, was born in Staffordshire in 1867 in a district known as "The Potteries," or "The Five Towns." Here are furnaces, collieries, manufactories and a people whose interests are made narrow and provincial by the restricted boundaries of their lives.
Bennett went to London, became a journalist, an essayist, an editor, a novelist, and a playwright. He lived for a time in Paris and traveled extensively, and he has made use of his varied experiences in his writings.
He has some remarkable books, long, careful, full of psychological problems. His Old Wives" Tale, Anna of the Five Towns and Clay-hanger all deal with the place and the people with which he was first familiar, and are graphic pictures of types. In Hilda Lessways he presents a study rather unlike those in his first books, and in Denry the Audacious and Buried Alive he has quite another manner and keener humor.
He is singularly direct and painstaking in his work, a master of realism. For sheer observation, says one critic, he is unequaled. Of late he has visited America and made a close and remarkably sympathetic study of our country, our cities, our manners.
Take up Bennett also as a playwright, and note the good work he has done in this field; contrast his plays with his earlier books. Read from Hilda Lessways and from the graphic description of the siege of Paris in the Old Wives" Tale, and also a descriptive chapter from the Five Towns.
Compare his realistic work with that of Henry James, and note the differences. Quote from his little essay, How to Live on Twenty-four Hours a Day.
Clubs which wish programs for more than ten meetings may take in addition to the authors already suggested these others:
De Morgan: read Joseph Vance, Alice for Short, and An Affair of Dishonor. Conan Doyle: Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The White Company.
Eden Phillpotts: Knock at a Venture, The Port-reeve, The Secret Woman.
A. E. W. Mason: Four Feathers, The Truants, Courtship of Morrice. Robert Hichens: The Garden of Allah, The Dweller on the Threshold. Anthony Hope: The Prisoner of Zenda, The Dolly Dialogues, Quisante. Agnes and Egerton Castle: The Pride of Jennico, If Youth But Knew, The Secret Garden. E. F. Benson: The Challoners, An Act in a Backwater, The Luck of the Vails. May Sinclair: The Divine Fire, The Judgment of Eve. Mrs.
Henry Dudeney: The Battle of the Weak, The Story of Susan.
Detailed criticisms and complete bibliographies of many novelists here mentioned may be found in Some English Story Tellers by F. T. Cooper (1912).
CHAPTER XVI
THE GILDED AGE OF LOUIS XIV
I--THE KING
1. _The Story of His Life_.
2. _The Splendor of the Court_--Compulsory residence of the n.o.bles at Versailles; Louis"s dislike and fear of Paris; effect politically of the segregation of the court.
3. _The Great Ministers_--Mazarin, Colbert, Louvois; relation of the king to them.
4. _The Women of the Court_--Louise de la Valliere, Madame de Montespan, Madame de Maintenon.
BOOKS TO CONSULT--Guizot: History of France. De Nolhac: Versailles.
Heroes of the Nations Series: Louis XIV. A. Ha.s.sall: Louis XIV. and Madame de Maintenon. Lady Blennerha.s.set.
Study everything relating to Versailles, to which Louis moved the court; show pictures of the famous gardens, the fountain at play, the palace.
Read a description of some fete: describe the Grand Trianon and its social life. Show pictures of Louis.
II--SOCIAL FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV