The conversations
display keen insight into the heart of the young, imaginative girl and of
the older woman and man. _The Minister's Charge_ is thoroughly individual.
The young boy seems so close to his readers that every detail in his life
becomes important. The other people are also full of real blood, while the
background is skillfully arranged to heighten the effect of the characters.
_A Hazard of New Fortunes_ would be decidedly improved if many pages were
omitted, but it is full of lifelike characters, and it sometimes approaches
the dramatic, in a way unusual with Howells.
In his effort to present life without any misleading ideas of heroism,
beauty, or idyllic sweetness, Howells sometimes goes so far toward the
opposite extreme as to write stories that seem to be filled with
commonplace women, humdrum lives, and men like Northwick in _The Quality of
Mercy_, of whom one of the characters says:--
"He was a mere creature of circumstances like the rest of us! His
environment made him rich, and his environment made him a rogue.
Sometimes I think there _was_ nothing to Northwick except what happened
to him."
But in such work as the five novels enumerated, Howells shows decided
ability in portraying attractive characters, in making their faults human
and as interesting as their virtues, in causing ordinary life to yield
variety of incident and amusing scenes, and, finally, in engaging his
characters in homelike, natural, self-revealing conversations, which are
often spiced with wit.
Pages:
453
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