LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1888. 



491 



time of criticism entitled "The Romantic 

 School in France," and in his " Men and 

 Works" he has collected a number of valuable 

 essays about modern authors. A new history 

 of Danish literature has been begun by P. 

 Hansen ; and several works on the fine arts 

 have appeared. The centenary celebration of 

 the distinguished theologian and writer, Grundt- 

 vig, gave rise to a number of publications; as 

 did also the commemorative festival in honor 

 of the fourth centenary of the birthday of 

 Martin Luther. The autobiography of the 

 Danish primate, Martensen, has aroused not 

 only interest but more or less of sharp contra- 

 diction and comment. In addition may be 

 named here several good books of travel, a 

 volume or two on philosophy, and a few con- 

 tributions to popular questions of the day, such 

 as ''Liberty," ''Education," etc. 



France. Literary activity in the republic has 

 flowed in about the usual channels in 1883. 

 Poetry is of small account this year. Victor 

 Hugo has furnished nothing new, but has given 

 his energies to rendering exact a complete edi- 

 tion of his works. Other writers of verse in 

 France at present hardly deserve special men- 

 ion. The novel seems to be assuming the 

 lormal form of the literature of to-day. Zola 

 id his so-called "naturalistic" school have 

 lot produced much this year; but HaleVy, 

 ienriet, Ch. Edmond, F. du Boisgobey (called 

 " the French Wilkie Collins "), and a number 

 others, have been as active and successful 

 ever. Literary and philosophical criticism 

 ms been almost at a stand-still; but, on the 

 "ler hand, the publication of documents and 

 ritherto unpublished papers is furnishing large 

 material for work in this department at no dis- 

 tant day. These documents and papers refer 

 to Madame d'Epinay, Madame de Chateau- 

 riand, M. de Remusat, the "Diplomates of 

 le Revolution," the " Captivity and Death of 

 )uis XVII in the Temple," "Les Rois Freres 

 le Napoleon I," etc. Religious history sup- 

 lies several publications of merit. Ktihn's 

 ^Life of Luther" is excellently done ; Ber- 

 iere's " Coligny " deserves much praise, as 

 loes also Lagrange's "Life of Mgr. Dupan- 

 )up." One of the most curious and peculiarly 

 3nch publications, mo r e or less of a religious 

 laracter, are the brilliant skeptic and critic 

 Kenan's " Souvenirs of his Childhood and 

 r outh." They are pronounced to be of much 

 ?alue (like the " Confessions " of Rousseau), 

 though marked by a good deal of pretension, 

 >tism, and naivete, and they may be termed 

 remarkable psychological document. The 

 )man history of M. V. Duruy has reached its 

 sixth volume, and is a work of superior merit 

 a well-trodden field. Mention also should 

 here be made of MM. Perot and Chipier's 

 History of Ancient Art"; DeVaux's "Pales- 

 me " ; the Count de Paris's volumes V and 

 VI of his "History of the American Civil 

 ; the documents relating to the Spanish 

 iccession, Louis XIV, and William III., etc. 



During 1883 great gaps have been made in the 

 ranks of French authors. Jules Sandeau, La- 

 prade, H. Martin (the national historian), Fran- 

 cois Leriormant, and others of less note, have 

 gone the way of all the earth. Their loss is 

 very great to France, and in measure to all 

 civilized nations. 



Germany. If one may trust statistics, literary 

 activity in Germany during 1883 has been fif- 

 teen times as great as in the British Empire. 

 This is probably so, but it can hardly be assert- 

 ed of the higbest and most enduring form of 

 literature. In history we have the venerable 

 Leopold von Ranke's " Weltgeschichte," which 

 gives, in clear impressive outline, the history 

 of the Roman Empire, and depicts, in a man- 

 ner worthy of its importance, the gradual rise 

 of Christianity and its final fusion with the 

 Roman Empire, from a purely historical point 

 of view. Able critics pronounce this to be far 

 superior to any contemporaneous historical pro- 

 duction in Germany or elsewhere. Also, O. 

 H. am Rhyn's great work on the " History of 

 Civilization " has reached its conclusion in a 

 sixth volume; and Hans Prutz, likewise, has 

 dealt freely and with tolerable fullness on the 

 history of the Crusades, and their relation- 

 ship to art and civilization. Biographical liter- 

 ature has been more than usually rich this 

 year. O. Baisch's life of the German landscape- 

 painter, J. C. Reinhart (1847), is full of in- 

 teresting matter. Another volume of corre- 

 spondence between W. von Humboldt's secre- 

 tary and a lady friend has been issued; Scho- 

 penhauer's personal recollections and a portion 

 of his letters have been published ; and a life 

 and critical estimate of R. Wagner have made 

 their appearance. Philosophy has little or 

 nothing of moment to show this year. A few 

 volumes on Oriental systems, Hartmann's Pes- 

 simism reviewedand examined, Inductive Logic, 

 etc., are all that can be named in this connec- 

 tion. Lyric poetry has been largely and suc- 

 cessfully cultivated by numerous writers; and 

 the drama, considerably influenced by Schopen- 

 hauer's philosophy, has been enriched by the 

 pessimistic tragedies of Richard Vosz. Most 

 of the dramatists are also writers of novelettes, 

 and they deal with all sorts of subjects and in 

 all sorts of ways. The writers of novels and 

 romances are very numerous, and the country 

 has been flooded with their productions. Paul 

 Heyse stands at the head in his special line. 

 Georg Ebers, Felix Dalm, Alfred Meissner, to 

 say nothing of inferior names, have -contrib- 

 uted abundantly to the romance literature of 

 the year. F. Spielhagen, who is ranked as the 

 most eminent novelist of the day, has pub- 

 lished his criticisms on works of fiction, and. 

 gives it as his opinion that the novel is " the 

 only admissible epic of the present." W. 

 Scherer's " History of German Literature '' has 

 reached its conclusion, and is highly praised 

 by the critics on account of its style and full- 

 ness of thought. 0. Wedingen's work on the 

 same subject is regarded as of inferior m.erit. 



