The seven stories comprised in this volume have already been published in the pages of the "Atlantic Monthly," where they attracted much notice; but in this reprint they are likely to find many new readers, and in their collected form they demand a somewhat more searching criticism than they received when first published. The early productions of a writer, who has at once achieved so large a popularity as Miss Prescott has already won, can never be matters of indifference to any one who is interested in the growth of ...
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The seven stories comprised in this volume have already been published in the pages of the "Atlantic Monthly," where they attracted much notice; but in this reprint they are likely to find many new readers, and in their collected form they demand a somewhat more searching criticism than they received when first published. The early productions of a writer, who has at once achieved so large a popularity as Miss Prescott has already won, can never be matters of indifference to any one who is interested in the growth of American literature, and it is well to consider what are their real merits and defects, and what is the promise which they reveal. In analyzing the impressions derived from a careful reading of Miss Prescott's stories, we suppose that it will be generally admitted that her popularity is due in the first place to the united strength and brilliancy of her descriptions. In each of her stories there are many passages of gorgeous magnificence, of intense interest, or of startling power, and there is scarcely one in which there is not abundant evidence that she has an imagination of extraordinary richness and strength in everything relating to this part of her art, however poor it may be in any other respect. In the second place, her popularity, we think, is largely owing to her skill in investing her characters with a personal interest, and compelling the reader to follow their careers to the end, even though the characters are in themselves utterly despicable. These two traits - an ability to describe scenes and personages with clearness and force, and the power of enchaining the reader's attention through a long narrative - are among the most important qualifications of a novelist or the storywriter; and both of them our author possesses in large measure. Her stories are open to criticism: a low, murky atmosphere too often hangs over them; and almost without exception they have a morbid and unhealthful tone. In four of the seven stories now before us, the dominant passion in the breast of one or more of the chief characters is illicit love; and in each of these four stories, the whole or the greater part of the interest is made to depend on the history of this passion. That such a representation of the relation which a married man or a married woman holds to any one of his or her friends is a true picture of married life, no one will affirm; and therefore, to put our objection in its lowest form, a writer who makes the interest of her love-stories, with a single exception, depend on the development of an unlawful affection, commits a grave artistic fault. Illicit love in ordinary life is the exception, not the rule; and it is certainly making rather an extravagant use of the exceptional for a writer to employ it in four cases out of five in a single collection of miscellaneous stories. But it is a still more fatal objection to the too frequent use of such machinery, that the constant contemplation of a diseased side of human nature can scarcely fail to produce an unhealthy state of mind, and thus to exert a dangerous influence. .... From what has already been said, it will readily be inferred that we think very highly of Miss Prescott's ability. Her stories are too full of promise not to give abundant assurance of her increasing excellence as a writer. She already possesses too many elements of power not to improve with experience, and she has done wisely in giving some respite to her pen, instead of following up her early successes with a flood of new productions, as a person of less discretion might have done. She has only to avoid a few faults, to breathe a healthier tone into her writings, and to cultivate her own capacity of original thought, in order to assume a foremost place in this department of letters. -"The North American Review," Volume 97 [1863]
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