In some of his later stories, as “The Traveller from Altruria” (1894) and “Through the Eye of the Needle” (1907), Mr. Howells has shown an increasing interest in the more serious problems of society--poverty, strikes, the causes of crime, “the tyranny of individualism,” and the conditions that hinder the spread of sympathy and human brotherhood. The effect of this increased ethical and human interest has probably not been to enhance the artistic value of his work; and some deplore his lapse from the high ideal of art for art’s sake. Others see in Mr. Howells’ recent works a greater attention to substance, a firmer tissue, a broader humanity. And always, be it said, in reading Mr. Howells, one is conscious of that fine and careful workmanship, that care for correct and proper form, that artistic conscience, without which, whatever his literary creed, Mr. Howells could never have become the foremost and representative American novelist of his time.
_Frances Hodgson Burnett._--Frances H. Burnett was born in Manchester, England, in 1849, but came to America with her parents in 1865 and lived for eight years, until her marriage, in New Market and Knoxville, Tennessee. Since then she has lived in Washington and in Kent, England. She first gained notice with “Surly Tim’s Trouble” (_Scribner’s Monthly_, June, 1872), a story of Lancashire, as were also “That Lass o’ Lowrie’s” (1877), “Dolly” (1877, republished in 1883 as “Vagabondia”), and “Haworth’s” (1879) said to be a favourite with its author. With “Louisiana” (1880) she turned to America for material, describing life in the mountains of North Carolina. “Through One Administration” (1883) is a pathetic and powerful story of social and political life in Washington. “Little Lord Fauntleroy” (1886), the Anglo-American story of a seven-year-old hero, has become a children’s classic; similar but less known are the tales in “Sara Crewe, and Other Stories” (1888), and “The Captain’s Youngest, Piccino, and Other Stories” (1894). In “The Pretty Sister of José” (1889), Mrs. Burnett deals with picturesque and striking Spanish characters and scenes. “A Lady of Quality” (1896) and its sequel, “His Grace of Osmonde” (1897), are melodramatic stories of English aristocrats in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. “In Connection with the De Willoughby Claim” (1899) deals with country life in Tennessee in the early sixties. Her latest stories are “The Dawn of a To-Morrow” (1906) and “The Shuttle” (1907), the latter a fascinating international novel. She has thoroughly demonstrated her power to delineate character as moulded by passion.