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English Society

English Society

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
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to be an example. She had to be done something with, and after all she had suffered, it was not in the heart of poetic justice to deny her a little moriturary triumph.

Du Maurier was not a censor of morals, but of manners, which indeed are or ought to be the flower of morals, but not their root, and his deflections from the straight line in the destiny of his creations must not be too seriously regarded. I take it that the very highest fiction is that which treats itself as fact, and never once allows itself to be otherwise. This is the kind that the reader may well hold to the strictest accountability in all respects. But there is another kind capable of expressing an engaging beauty, and bewitchingly portraying many phases of life, which comes smiling to you or (in vulgar keeping) nudging you, and asking you to a game of make-believe. I do not object to that kind either, but I should not judge it on such high grounds as the other. I think it reached its perfect effect in Du Maurier's hands, and that this novelist, who wrote no fiction till nigh sixty, is the greatest master in that sort who ever lived, and I do not forget either Sterne or Thackeray when I say so.

III.

When I first spoke, long ago, of the confidential attitude of Thackeray, I said that now we would not endure it. But I was wrong, if I meant that more than the very small number who judge novels critically would be impatient of it. No sooner were those fearful words printed than I began to find, to my vast surprise, that the confidential attitude in Thackeray was what most pleased the greatest number of his readers. This gave me an ill opinion of their taste, but I could not deny the fact; and the obstreperous triumph of Trilby, which was one long confidence, has since contributed to render my defeat overwhelming. Du Maurier's use of the method, as he perfected it, was so charming that I am not sure but I began to be a little in love with it myself, though ordinarily superior to its blandishments. It was all very well to have Thackeray weep upon your neck over the fortunes of his characters, but if he had just been telling you they were puppets, it was not so gratifying; and as for poor Sterne, his sighs were so frankly insincere you could not believe anything he said. But Du Maurier came with another eye for life, with a faith of his own which you could share, and with a spirit which endeared him from the first. He had prodigious novelties in store: true-dreaming, hypnotism, and now (one does not know quite what yet) intelligence from the neighborly little planet Mars. He had the gift of persuading you that all his wonders were true, and his flattering familiarity of manner heightened the effect of his wonders, like that of the prestidigitator, who passes round in his audience, chatting pleasantly, while he pours twenty different liquors out of one magical bottle.

I would not count his beautiful talent at less than its rare worth, and if this figure belittles that, it does him wrong. Not before in our literature has anything more distinct, more individual, made itself felt. I have assumed to trace its descent, from this writer to that; but it was only partly so descended; in what made it surprising and captivating, it was heaven-descended. We shall be the lonelier and the poorer hereafter for the silence which is to be where George du Maurier might have been.

W. D. Howells.


ENGLISH SOCIETY


POST-PRANDIAL STUDIES

Fair Hostess (passing the wine).—"I hope you admire this decanter, Admiral?"

Gallant Admiral.—"Ah! it's not the vessel I am admiring...."

Fair Hostess.—"I suppose it's the port?"

Gallant Admiral.—"Oh, no; it's the pilot."


HAMPERED WITH A CONSCIENCE

Tommy (home from an afternoon party).—"Mamma, darling, I've got a great favor to ask of you.... Please don't ask me how I behaved!"


FELINE AMENITIES

Old Lady (to fashionable beauty, who has recently married the General).—"And so that white-haired old darling is your husband! What a good-looking couple you must once have been!"


TAKING THE CHANCES

The General.—"I've brought you a new book, Aunt Emily, by the new French Academician. I'm told it's very good; but I've not read it myself, so I'm not sure it's quite—a—quite correct, you know."

Aunt Emily.—"My dear boy, I'm ninety-six, and I'll risk it!"


TRIALS OF A PAINTER'S WIFE

Sir Binks (who always piques himself on saying just the right thing).—"A—what I like so much about the milkmaid, dontcherknow, is that your husband hasn't fallen into the usual mistake of painting a lady dressed up in milkmaid's clothes! She's so unmistakably a milkmaid and nothing else, dontcherknow!"

The Painter's Wife.—"I'm so glad you think so.... He painted her from me!"


LADIES OF FASHION AND THEIR DOCTORS

(Scene: The Waiting-Room of a Fashionable Physician.)

Fair Patient (just ushered in).—"What—you here, Lizzie? Why, ain't you well?"

Second Ditto.—"Perfectly, thanks! But what's the matter with you, dear?"

First Ditto.—"Oh, nothing whatever! I'm as right as possible, dearest ...!"


"BONJOUR, SUZON!"

RIVAL SMALL AND EARLIES

MOTHER'S DARLINGS

DAYLIGHT WISDOM

Elder Sister.—"Oh! he proposed

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