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Indiana University Studies 



"he is very careful to produce harmonious sentences'' j^'^ '^these har- 

 monious periods, which as they unfold give the impression of the most 

 beautiful poetry, "^^ etc. 



His vocabulary is remarkable, it is said, for its richness. ''He 

 possesses a vocabulary of great extent which permits him to con- 

 stantly vary his expression," says M. Milne (p. vii); M. Rosenzweig 

 asserts that it is ''as rich as it is varied" (p. x). No other modern 

 author, according to M. Milne, makes more frequent use than he of 

 compound words (p. vii). 



The only fault that has been found with Irving's style is that it 

 lacks virility. M. Chasles thinks that a certain degree of weakness 

 is visible in it.^^ M. Rosenzweig, on the other hand, seems to think 

 that Irving was able "to combine grace with vigor" (p. xi). 



His Originality. On the question of Irving's originality, his 

 French critics are neither agreed one with the other nor consistent 

 with themselves. Some of them have declared that he was absolutely 

 devoid of originality. Fontaney, for example, writes as follows: 

 "The more attentively one studies him the more clearly one perceives 

 the complete absence of originality in him. He has perfect command 

 of four or five manners that he has borrowed — he has not one of his 

 own" (p. 548). M. Haussaire says that "he has invented nothing" 

 (p. 15). One of the critics of theGlohe, "E. D.", regrets that Irving, 

 unlike Cooper, did not try to write an original work (p. 523). 



He is charged with being too much preoccupied with England. 

 "Towards England alone all his thoughts are turned," says M. 

 Chasles, "he renders it a singular superstitious homage" (p. 45). 

 M. Quesnel says on this point: "Altho the independence of letters in 

 the United States is supposed to date from Washington Irving, 

 Irving was still English" (p. 123). According to M. Rosenweig it 

 was for the purpose of instructing those who had not studied John Bull 

 in his own home that Irving wrote the greater part of the Sketch- 

 book (p. viii). It has been asserted even that his success is due, in 

 large measure, to English influence. M. Chasles declares that "he 

 owes his celebrity, not to flights of imagination, to creative thought, 

 to a wide reach of intelligence, but to a graceful imitation of the older 

 Enghsh literature" (Etudes, p. 44). 



It is especially Goldsmith and Addison who are thought to have 

 been his models. One of his earlier French critics declared that he 

 had chosen them as models ("E. T.", p. 395), and since then the state- 



so Haussaire, 11. 

 51 Fievet, p. xii. 

 B2 Etudes, 44. 



