FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126  
127   128   129   130   131   132   133   >>  
hose picture, in _The Open Question_, of a Southern family impoverished by the war, is exceedingly vivid and bears all the marks of the utmost fidelity. Nor must I omit to mention that the stage has borne a modest but not insignificant part in this movement of national self-portraiture. Mr. Augustus Thomas' _Alabama_ is a delightful picture of Southern life, while Mr. James A. Herne's _Shore Acres_ takes a distinct place in the literature of New England, his _Griffith Davenport_[P] in the literature of Virginia. There must, of course, be many gaps in this summary enumeration. It is very probable that many novelists of distinction have altogether escaped my notice; and I have made no attempt to include in my list the writers of short magazine stories, many of them artists of high accomplishment. One omission, however, I must at once repair. "Mark Twain's" contributions to the work of self-realisation have been in the main retrospective, but nevertheless of the first importance. He is the "sacred poet" of the Mississippi. If any work of incontestable genius, and plainly predestined to immortality, has been issued in the English language during the past quarter of a century, it is that brilliant romance of the Great Rivers, _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_. Intensely American though he be, "Mark Twain" is one of the greatest living masters of the English language. To some Englishmen this may seem a paradox; but it is high time we should disabuse ourselves of the prejudice that residence on the European side of the Atlantic confers upon us an exclusive right to determine what is good English, and to write it correctly and vigorously. We are apt in England to class as an "Americanism" every unfamiliar, or too familiar, locution which we do not happen to like. As a matter of fact, there is a pretty lively interchange between the two countries of slipshod and vulgar "journalese;" and as the picturesque reporter is a greater power in America than he is with us, we perhaps import more than we export of this particular commodity. But there can be no rational doubt, I think, that the English language has gained, and is gaining, enormously by its expansion over the American continent. The prime function of a language, after all, is to interpret the "form and pressure" of life--the experience, knowledge, thought, emotion, and aspiration of the race which employs it. This being so, the more tap-roots a language sends down int
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126  
127   128   129   130   131   132   133   >>  



Top keywords:
language
 

English

 

picture

 

American

 

England

 
literature
 
Southern
 

locution

 
happen
 

familiar


Americanism

 

unfamiliar

 
Atlantic
 

disabuse

 
residence
 

prejudice

 
paradox
 
masters
 

Englishmen

 

European


correctly

 

vigorously

 

determine

 

confers

 

exclusive

 

reporter

 

function

 

interpret

 

experience

 

pressure


continent

 
enormously
 

gaining

 

expansion

 

knowledge

 
thought
 

aspiration

 
emotion
 

employs

 
gained

slipshod
 

countries

 
vulgar
 
journalese
 

picturesque

 

matter

 
pretty
 

lively

 
interchange
 

living