rywomen more
intimately than Mr. James, at least he loves them better. There is a
warmer sentiment in his fictions, too; his men are better fellows and
his women are more lovable. Howells was born in Ohio. His early life
was that of a western country editor. In 1860 he published, jointly
with his friend Piatt, a book of verse--_Poems of Two Friends_. In
1861 he was sent as consul to Venice, and the literary results of his
sojourn there appeared in his sketches, _Venetian Life_, 1865, and
_Italian Journeys_, 1867. In 1871 he became editor of the _Atlantic
Monthly_, and in the same year published his _Suburban Sketches_. All
of these early volumes showed a quick eye for the picturesque, an
unusual power of description, and humor of the most delicate quality;
but as yet there was little approach to narrative. _Their Wedding
Journey_ was a revelation to the public of the interest that may lie in
an ordinary bridal trip across the State of New York, when a close and
sympathetic observation is brought to bear upon the characteristics of
American life as it appears at railway stations and hotels, on
steam-boats and in the streets of very commonplace towns. _A Chance
Acquaintance_, 1873, was Howells's first novel, though even yet the
story was set against a background of travel-pictures. A holiday trip
on the St. Lawrence and the Saguenay, with descriptions of Quebec and
the Falls of Montmorenci, etc., rather predominated over the narrative.
Thus, gradually and by a natural process, complete characters and
realistic novels, such as _A Modern Instance_, 1882, and _Indian
Summer_, evolved themselves from truthful sketches of places and
persons seen by the way.

The incompatibility existing between European and American views of
life, which makes the comedy or the tragedy of Henry James's
international fictions, is replaced in Howells's novels by the
repulsion between differing social grades in the same country. The
adjustment of these subtle distinctions forms a part of the problem of
life in all complicated societies. Thus in _A Chance Acquaintance_ the
heroine is a bright and pretty Western girl, who becomes engaged during
a pleasure tour to an irreproachable but offensively priggish young
gentleman from Boston, and the engagement is broken by her in
consequence of an unintended slight--the betrayal on the hero's part of
a shade of mortification when he and his betrothed are suddenly brought
into the presence of so