hat fustian most of his
poetry really was. Ruskin and Oscar Wilde are the two popular modern
authors, and the novel-reading public chooses, so several booksellers
assured me, Marion Crawford and Mrs. Croker. I could not hear a word
anywhere of Stevenson or Rudyard Kipling, but I did come across one
person who had enjoyed _Richard Feverel_.

"Your English novels are rather better than they used to be, are they
not?" said a lady to me in good faith, and I found it a difficult
question to answer, because I had always believed that we had a long
roll of great novelists; but then, I had also thought that England had
a few poets.

The most popular German novels are mostly translated into English, and
all German novels of importance are reviewed in our papers. So English
people who read German know what a strong reaction there is against
the moonshine of fifty years ago. The novels most in vogue exhibit the
same coarse, but often thoughtful and impressive, realism that
prevails on the stage and in the conversation and conduct of some sets
of people in the big cities. The _Tagebuch einer Verlorenen_ has sold
75,000 copies, and it is the story of a German _Kamelliendame_
compared with whom Dumas' lady is moonshine. It is a haunting picture
of a woman sinning against the moral and social law, and no one with
the least sense or judgment could put it on the low level of certain
English novels that sell because they are offensive, and for no other
reason in the world. _Aus guter Familie_, by Gabrielle Reuter, is
another remarkable novel, and I believe it has never been translated
into English. It presents the poignant tragedy of a woman's life
suffocated by the social conditions obtaining in a small German town
where a woman has no hope but marriage, and if she is poor no chance
of marriage. It is one of the most sincere books I ever read. _Das
Taegliche Brot_, Klara Viebig's story of servant-life in Berlin, is
another typical novel of the present day, and that has been translated
for those amongst us who do not read German. I choose these three
novels for mention because they are written by women, and because they
are brilliant examples of the modern tone amongst women. If you want
the traditional German qualities of sentiment, poetry, formlessness,
and dreamy childlike charm, you must read novels written by men.

I have said very little about music in Germany, because we all know
and admit that it reaches heights there no other