Realism in the novels of John William DeForest

102 Pages·05.396 MB·English

by  Large, Joseph Parkhurst

REA.USM IN THE NOVEIS OP
JOHN WILLIAM DeFOREST
A Thesis
Presented to
The Faculty of the Department of English
University of Southern California
In P artial Fulfillm ent
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts
hr
February 19$0
UMI Number: EP44268
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION i i i
' I. DEVELOPMENT OF THE NOVELIST (1826-186)*)......................................... 1
The early life of DeForest « » ■ > . . . • • • • • • • • • 1
The author* s firs t novels • 7
II, THE SIGNIFICANT TEARS (1865-1875)...................................................... ll*
Miss Ravenal«s Conversion • • • • • • • • • • • lU
Overland • ..................................... • • 20
Kate Beaumont...................................................... 22
The Wetherel A ffair • • • . • • • . . . . . .......................... 26
Honest John Vane « . . . • • . . . . . 28
Playing the Mischief 33
III. THE DECLINING YEARS (1876-1906)........................................................... 37
Irene the Missionary ............................... 37
The Bloody Chasm 1*0
A Lover* s Revolt ....................... 1*1*
IV. WAR AND MILITARY LIFE.................................................................. 1*7
V. THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES........................................................................ 56
VI. POLITICS . . . ............................................................................................... 70
VII. NORTHERNERS, SOUTHERNERS, AND NEGROES ..................... 80
V III. CONCLUSION.......................................................................................... . . 88
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . .................................................................... 91
INTRODUCTION
People "who spend th eir lives dealing "with books and authors are
engaged in a constant process of discovery, appraisal, rejection, and
re-appraisal* Authors are moved up and down the ladder of literary m erit
according to the temper of the tim es. Contemporary authors tend to slip
slowly downward as the passage of time strips the freshness from their
w ritings. Older, half—forgotten w riters sometimes take on additional
lustre through the years and are moved up to the top rung} such was the
case with Herman M elville and Henry James. More frequently, after re­
examination and a brief c ritic a l flurry, authors are put aside and the
dust is again allowed to se ttle .
At the present time c ritic a l opinion is in a state of flux regard­
ing John William DeForest* As early as 1921 Carl Van Doren wrote, "The
distinct ion., .of w riting the first'A m erican novel which may be called
realistic in a modern sense belongs to Colonel John W. DeForest."^ In
The Cambridge History of American Literature he is mentioned only in a
2
footnote. Writing nine years after Van Doren, Vernon Louis Farrington
3
did not mention DeForest at a ll; yet Alexander Cowie in his The Rise of
the American Novel (19U8) devotes fifteen pages to DeForest.^ Although
th is w riter has been ignored by. most older histories of American lite ra -
Carl Van Doren, The American Novel, p. 129.
William Peterfield Trent and others, editors, The Cambridge
History of American Literature, p. 76.
3 Vernon Iouis Farrington, The Beginnings of C ritical Realism in
America.
^ Alexander Cowie, The Rise of the American Novel, p. 76.
iv
ture, he has recently been called "perhaps the most truly a rea list of the
novelists who began to w rite in the early ' fiftie s And Time magazine
adds this extreme statement: "John William DeForest was so much better than
so many w riters who are famous that readers may wonder why they never heard
2
of him before*" Plainly here is a topic worth further investigation.
I t is the purpose of this thesis to examine the realism in DeForest*s
novels* At a time when sentiment was rampant in American letters DeForest
was attempting to establish a connection between his characters and the
people he saw about him* His success in doing so may be measured by his
failure with the public* Perhaps if he had been a greater author he would
have succeeded* It would have taken a giant to reverse the literary trend;
DeForest was no giant, he was merely a competent author who was born ahead
of his time*
There is not much m aterial available on DeForest or his w ritings.
No biography of the man has ever been published, and the only major research
work concerning him includes only the years 1826-1868;^ DeForest lived u n til
1906* For this reason, and because of the nature of the topic, primary
sources have been -used chiefly. For the same reason the firs t three chap­
ters include some discussion of DeForest* s career as w ell as a b rief chrono­
logical examination of his novels* In the later chapters various aspects
of his realism are examined in detail* Since DeForest*s reputation rests
Arthur H* Quinn, American Fiction, p* 166*
2 Time> 51:106, May 2l±* 19hS.
■5
James H. Croushore, John William DeForest; A Biographical and
C ritical Study to the Year 1868. ~
mainly on Miss Ravenal*s Conversion from Secession to Loyalty, that novel
is treated in more detail than his other works. Kate Beaumont, Honest
John Vane, and Playing the Mischief are also singled out for special atten­
tion because of th eir importance to the topic. His other works are not so
v ita l today, because as other w riters were slowly approaching realism
DeForest was gradually drifting away from i t . Rejected by readers even
when he tried to please them, he lapsed into silence and watched the younger
generation succeed in doing what he had tried to do.
CHAPTER I
DEVELOPMENT OF THE NOVELIST
American novels of the nineteenth century reflect the dominant
ideas, customs, and habits of their day, but they are not dependable in
other respects* Natty Bumppo, Uncle Tom, and the other people portrayed
in the fiction of that era -were two-dimensional and curiously simple-
minded* They lived and moved, but they had no being* They dwelt in a
world where good was easily distinguishable from bad and each person was
compelled to choose between the two. There were good men and bad men,
but a bad woman was a rarity . And, as a rule, the bad men either repented
or were vanquished. People did have children in some unexplained manner,
but they never went to the bathroom. Industry and virtue were the keys
to success* Today we have motion pictures to perpetuate these notions;
our important w riters have ventured out into the world of reality* And
the pendulum has swung to the other extreme. To modem novelists a spade
may be a spade, but i t is more probably ju st a dirty shovel. One of the
firs t Americans to give the pendulum a push was John William DeForest*
DeForest was bom March 31, 1826 in Humphreysville, Connecticut*
He was a sickly youth and attended school only irregularly.'1' His father,
a wealthy cotton manufacturer, died when John was thirteen, and the boy
2
dropped out of school at that tim e. Plagued constantly by ill-h ealth ,
2
DeForest found i t impossible to go to Tale as his family had planned*^
Instead i t was decided to send him to a warmer clim ate. The long, cold
w inters, the short summers, and the constant dampness of the Connecticut
climate aggravated his bronchial condition. His brother, Henry, was a
medical missionary in B eirut, Syria, and John was packed off to v isit him*
On this trip DeForest began to keep a journal, noting the topography,
customs, and peoples of the countries in which he stopped. Like Mark
Twain's Innocents Abroad, the youth's notebook is fille d with humorous
remarks about him self. At Smyrna he made several tours of the countryside
on mule-back. On one such occasion.he, the ta lle st of the group, was on
the sm allest animal, and he noted that he fe lt "like a big ass mounted on
2
a little one." His ship stopped also at Rhodes and Cyprus, and DeForest
made use of his observations of these places many years later in a novel,
Irene the Missionary. His journal gives evidence of his eye for detail
and interest in people. Instead of describing the scenery, he preferred
to observe his feU ow -travelers *
Upon reaching Syria DeForest found himself in an atmosphere far
removed from his native New England. He was introduced to Syrian etiquette
and-found it both amusing and interesting. V isitors came to the mission
at a ll hours of the day and they would stand at the door of the establish­
ment "bowing and smirking and manoeuvring to induce the other to enter
f i r s t T h e r e was scarcely an hour when "some puffy-trowsered individual"
James H. Croushore, op. c it., p. 13*
2
John DeForest, O riental Acquaintance, p. 7.
^ Ibid*, P» UO.