A Comparative Evaluation of Selected Prose by Maarten Maartens
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A Comparative Evaluation of Selected Prose by Maarten Maartens Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doktors der Philosophie an der Fakultät Sprach-, Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaften der Technischen Universität Dresden. Vorgelegt von Hendrik Breuls, M.A. Betreuer: Prof. Dr. Uwe Böker 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This is as revised version of my doctoral dissertation, which was received by the “Technische Universität Dresden” in partial fulfilment of the requirements for awarding a Ph.D. and which was defended on December 10, 2004. I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Uwe Böker, Prof. Dr. Christoph Houswitschka, and Prof. Dr. Hans-Ulrich Mohr for their helpful comments. The Maarten Maartens Foundation at Doorn, The Netherlands, has been invaluable in granting me immediate and unrestricted access to manuscripts, correspondence, notebooks and other documents still present in Maarten Maartens’ former home. My special thanks go to Mevrouw A. A. Schwartz, Maarten Maartens’ niece, at Loenen aan de Vecht in The Netherlands for her personal encouragement. I would like to thank my friends for their help in the final stages of the work, of which I would like to mention in name Theo Gorissen and Anna-Christina Giovanopoulos. My gratitude also goes both my tutors at Regensburg University, the late Prof. Dr. Hans Bungert and Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Göller. After the sudden demise of Professor Bungert, Professor Uwe Böker at the Technische Universität Dresden graciously offered to take over his office as my first advisor. I also wish to thank all those whose unerring faith in the ultimate realisation of this doctoral dissertation project persistently bolstered my motivation to proceed with the work, of whom I name in particular: Sabine Hohberger, Anke Hergesell and Alice Rudolf. Dresden, September 2005 3 The Critic’s first duty in the presence of an authors’ collective works is to seek out some key to his method, some utterance of his literary convictions, some indication of his ruling theory. Henry James The recognition of a work of art as such is chiefly a matter of tradition, and tradition is chiefly a matter of caprice. Caprice – not of the individual – but of the fate that rules us all. Maarten Maartens 4 CONTENTS Introduction................................................................................................................... 7 I Maarten Maartens: A Preliminary Survey of the Man and Writer ............................................................................................ 19 I.1. The formative years ......................................................................................... 19 I.2. Schwartz’ debut as a poet ................................................................................ 22 I.3. Maarten Maartens’ exceptional position as an artist ....................................... 24 I.4. The critical appreciation: Britain and the United States.................................. 27 I.5. The critical appreciation in Germany .............................................................. 42 II The Published Novels..................................................................................... 51 II.1. Schwartz’ debut as a novelist: The Black Box Murder (1889)........................ 51 II.2. Entry into the Dutch microcosm: The Sin of Joost Avelingh (1889)............... 52 II.3. Introducing the Foreigner: An Old Maid’s Love (1891).................................. 61 II.4. Benevolent satire blossoming: A Question of Taste (1891) ............................ 63 II.5. Christian ideals crushed: God’s Fool (1892)................................................... 67 II.6. Yielding to fate is not to surrender: The Greater Glory (1894) ...................... 71 II.7. Woman on the way to herself: My Lady Nobody (1895)................................. 75 II.8. The cosmopolitan view: Her Memory (1898) ................................................. 79 II.9. The search for a compromise: Dorothea (1904).............................................. 83 II.10. The attempt at satire pur sang : The Healers (1906)........................................ 90 II.11. Introducing the ludicrous: The New Religion (1907) ...................................... 92 II.12. Disinterested love: The Price of Lis Doris (1909)........................................... 96 II.13. The very smell of the soil: Harmen Pols, Peasant (1910) ............................ 104 II.14. The adulterous woman: Maartens ’ last novel: Eve (1912)............................ 112 5 III Comparing Techniques: Maarten Maartens and his Master, Thackeray ....................................... 128 III.1. Writing about one’s own people: Literary influences within the tradition ... 128 III.2. The principles of method ............................................................................... 133 III.3. The Author’s standpoint ................................................................................ 143 III.4. The author’s various ways to veracity........................................................... 152 III.5. The whole range of society in view............................................................... 167 III.6. Diversion from the Thackerayan example..................................................... 176 IV The Art of Implication: Maarten Maartens’ Short Stories ............................................................. 182 IV.1. Introduction.................................................................................................... 182 IV.2. Some Women I Have Known (1901).............................................................. 184 IV.3. Comparative analysis: Some Women and A Group of Noble Dames (1896), by Thomas Hardy...... 209 IV.3.1. Introduction .................................................................................. 209 IV.3.2. A Group of Noble Dames : Part One............................................. 215 IV.3.3. A Group of Noble Dames : After Dinner ...................................... 223 IV.4. The author within his range: The Woman’s Victory (1906) .......................... 236 V General Assessment ..................................................................................... 257 V.1. Maarten Maartens and realism....................................................................... 257 V.2. The author’s growing sense of artistic inferiority.......................................... 267 V.3. The method of Maarten Maartens.................................................................. 273 V.3.1. Introduction .................................................................................. 273 V.3.2. Ambiguity of intention: the comical vision with a stain.............. 275 V.3.3. The panorama and the picture ...................................................... 276 V.3.4. The novels: detail for details’ sake............................................... 277 V.3.5. The short stories: the significant detail ........................................ 278 V.3.6. Nationalities and localities: The Dutch scene and the foreign typicality....................................................................................... 281 V.3.7. Maartens’ method of characterisation.......................................... 283 V.4. The pitfall of mixing modes .......................................................................... 290 6 V Conclusion .................................................................................................... 293 Appendix: Maarten Maartens’ definition of art .................................................... 300 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 302 7 INTRODUCTION “There are two ways of existing for ever, as a living creature or as a mummy. Now in these days of literary activity the continuation of a large number of literary mummies is certain. They will be preserved in their hundreds by biographies, dictionaries, etc. We shall know their names, but how many writers of the Victorian era will remain alive throughout the ages? Half a dozen?” 1 When an author, who has enjoyed a certain degree of popularity for more than two decades, lives through the long dreaded eclipse of his fame, the actual experience will nonetheless be immensely painful. This happened to Maarten Maartens, penname of Joost Maria Willem van der Poorten Schwartz (1858-1915), who was a born Dutchman, yet an English author by vocation. Initially he wrote poetry, but as he was not very successful, he soon embarked upon prose writing with a detective story, The Black Box Murder , published in 1889. Throughout the years 1890 up to 1912, his novels and short stories were highly acclaimed by many in the Anglo-Saxon world. Hundreds of reviews testify to that fact. Their general tenor is that Maartens’ books were full of power and charm although the subject matter concerned itself with an array of characters who, in themselves, would not awaken interest were it not for the intensely sympathetic and vivid manner in which the author caused them to live. This is proved by the warm appreciation Maartens received in British literary circles and clubs, by the requests for interviews and the invitations to give speeches, and by the lasting friendships he fostered with some of the outstanding literary men of his day. Returning from a visit to Britain in 1893, he says in a letter to George Bentley (1828-1895), his publisher at the time: “I thought I was not going to write again, but my visit has taught me that I have quite