Howells, W. D. “Charles Kingsley’s Hypatia,”
in Heroines of Fiction Vol. II (New York and London: Harper &
Brothers, 1901): 1-13.
Howells examines the novel Hypatia and concludes that it was
not an artistic success. Though capable of writing a greater work
about fifth century Alexandria, Kingsley failed in his attempt mainly due
to the weak representation of Hypatia herself, an unattractive and “rather
repellent” character (6). Howells considers Kingsley’s novel to be
on a far higher plane than Bulwer Lytton’s The Last Days of Pompeii,
yet falls below it in artistic effect. While Bulwer was at least
a melodramatist, “Kingsley was no dramatist at all, but an exalted moralist
willing to borrow the theatre for the ends of the church. If we realize
this we shall understand why his figures seem to have come out of the property-room
by way of the vestry” (8). Howells praises Alton Locke for
its potent protest against aspects of society’s injustices, yet criticizes
it on artistic grounds as being excessively polemical.
Hypatia;
Characterization
in Novels; Reception
of Kingsley's Works;
Lytton,
Bulwer. |
