MAKERS OF ENGLISH FICTION.
Makers of English Fiction. By W. J. Dawson. (Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.)—Mr. Dawson reviews the writers of English fiction from Defoe down to George Meredith in the strenuous fashion to which he has accustomed us. He says many true things, and says them well ; he says some few things which do not seem to us true, but he always commends them by the manifest conviction from which they proceed. We cannot criticise a number of elaborate criticisms. We should select as especially good the chapter on Dickens, though we think that Mr. Dawson does not recognise the great gulf that separates Dickens's later books from his earlier. Who could rank "Little Dorrit " with "Martin Chuzzlewit" ? The Thackeray chapter is, we think, admirable throughout. We are glad to see that he recognises the genius of George Macdonald,—" he has uttered in fiction the message which Maurice uttered in theology." Now and then, we must confess, we cannot follow Mr. Dawson.'s reason- ing, when he says, for instance, that "the hosannas of the world only reached Charlotte Brenta* through the darkness of Calvary." (We doubt whether be does justice to the story of "Jane Eyre." That part which describes Jane's wanderings between her leaving Rochester's house and her finding a home with the River sisters is an admirable bit of narrative.) We notice a curious error in the "Charles Iteade " chapter. He was, says Mr. Dawson, "meant for high position in the Church, a Vice-Chancellor of Magdalen College, Oxford." He was Vice-President for a year, taking his turn when the office came down to him. In the bad old days— and they were very bad at Magdalen—the office of Vice-President, with its stipend, was handed on from Fellow to Fellow without any regard to fitness.
Previous page
