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Indiana University Studies 



novelist has created so many lovely, charming people. And his 

 good men and women do not act like sticks, as Dickens' generally 

 do. And, like George Eliot's characters, his people have complex 

 personalities, with both good and bad in them. Charley Heath, 65 

 admirable as he is, makes more or less a failure of his life; Rosalind 

 Graythorpe 66 has a dark past; and Christopher Vance's death 67 

 resulted from drink. Athelstan Taylor 68 has a human as well as 

 a theological nature; Fred Cartaret 69 barely escapes being true to 

 his friend; even Daverill 70 is affected by the sight of his dead 

 mother. 



In his child-creations De Morgan is especially felicitous, ex- 

 hibiting the keenest perceptions of child-psychology. Lizarann 

 furnishes an instance of this. 68 Because of the Reverend Athelstan 

 Taylor's effective measures against her uncle, Mr. Steptoe, she 

 has taken the former for a policeman, and to herself calls him the 

 "New Police". So, shortly afterwards, when she hears him tell 

 Addie Fosset, "I suppose I shall have to, Addie. I always have 

 to do all the dirty work", she wonders, "Did the New Police scrub 

 underneath the beds, clear the flues of sut, scour out the sink, 

 and so on? Impossible!" In this understanding of children. 

 De Morgan is very modern. Master Charles 69 is the most human 

 baby in all English literature. No children in all fiction ever 

 thought or talked as much like children as do David and Dolly 

 Wardle. 70 



Another noteworthy thing about De Morgan's characters is 

 the fact that they develop. If, as it has been said of Dickens' 

 characters, they always remain the same, this is not true of De 

 Morgan's. They grow: some up and some down. Joseph Vance 

 develops in a very lifelike way; Joey Thorpe degenerates in a 

 most convincing way. 71 Charley Heath appears as two different 

 people. 72 Janey expands wonderful^ under the influence of Joe's 

 love. 71 And yet, altho De Morgan shows us the soul-growth of 

 these characters, except in a few instances, 73 he does not give us 

 the tedious minutiae of such analyses, as George Eliot does. She 

 points out too elaborately the relation of thought to action, and 

 she cannot conceive of character except in terms of soul. 74 How- 



^Alice-for-Short. 



^Somehow Good. 



* 7 Joseph Vance. 



**lt Never Can Happen Again. 



™The Old Madhouse. 



7 °When Ghost Meets Chost. 



71 Joseph Vance. 



72 Aiice-f or -Short , 

 "See above, pp. 8, 9. 



7 'Richard Burton, Musters of the English Novel, p. 20'J, 



