{"1": {"fulltext": "4fc\\n(MODERN WOMEN\\nLIBRARY OF CONGRESS\\n00027^452^\\nAURA M. HAN", "height": "3643", "width": "2361", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0001.jp2"}, "2": {"fulltext": "LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.\\nChap.. Copyright No...\\nShelt_^jl33\\nUNITED STATES OF AMERICA.", "height": "3479", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0002.jp2"}, "3": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3548", "width": "2184", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0003.jp2"}, "4": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3522", "width": "2329", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0004.jp2"}, "5": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3554", "width": "2175", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0005.jp2"}, "6": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3511", "width": "2297", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0006.jp2"}, "7": {"fulltext": "SIX MODERN WOMEN", "height": "3554", "width": "2163", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0007.jp2"}, "8": {"fulltext": "i\\nf", "height": "3501", "width": "2299", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0008.jp2"}, "9": {"fulltext": "SIX\\nMODERN WOMEN\\njpsj rf)0lagtcal Metres\\nBY\\nLAURA MARHOLM HANSSON\\n^raitslatefc from tfje fflrertnan\\nHERMIONE RAMSDEN\\nr\\nvC!:c:;\\nFEB l 13 It*\\nWfr\\n1 I\\nBOSTON\\nROBERTS BROTHERS\\n1896", "height": "3558", "width": "2156", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0009.jp2"}, "10": {"fulltext": "Copyright, 1896,\\nBy Roberts Brothers.\\nAll rights reserved.\\nJohn Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A.", "height": "3521", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0010.jp2"}, "11": {"fulltext": "PREFACE\\nIt is not my purpose to contribute to the study\\nof woman s intellectual life, or to discuss her\\ncapacity for artistic production, although these six\\nwomen are in a manner representative of woman s\\nintellect and woman s creative faculty. I have\\nlittle to do with Marie Bashkirtseff s pictures in\\nthe Luxembourg, Sonia Kovalevsky s doctor s de-\\ngree and Prix Bordin, Anne Charlotte Edgren-\\nLeffler s stories and social dramas, Eleonora Duse s\\nsuccess as a tragedian in both worlds, and with all\\nthat has made their names famous and is publicly\\nknown about them. There is only one point which\\nI should like to emphasize in these six types of\\nmodern womanhood, and that is the manifestation\\nof their womanly feelings. I want to show how\\nit asserts itself in spite of everything, in spite of\\nthe theories on which they built up their lives,\\nin spite of the opinions of which they were the", "height": "3558", "width": "2165", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0011.jp2"}, "12": {"fulltext": "vi Preface\\nteachers, and in spite of the success which crowned\\ntheir efforts, and bound them by stronger chains\\nthan might have been the case had their lives been\\npassed in obscurity. They were out of harmony\\nwith themselves, suffering from a conflict which\\nmade its first appearance in the world when the\\nwoman question came to the fore, causing an\\nunnatural breach between the needs of the intellect\\nand the requirements of their womanly nature.\\nMost of them succumbed in the struggle.\\nA woman who seeks freedom by means of the\\nmodern method of independence is generally one\\nwho desires to escape from a woman s sufferings.\\nShe is anxious to avoid subjection, also mother-\\nhood, and the dependence and impersonality of\\nan ordinary woman s life but in doing so she un-\\nconsciously deprives herself of her womanliness.\\nFor them all for Marie Bashkirtseff as much as\\nSonia Kovalevsky and A. C. Edgren-Leffler\\nthe day came when they found themselves stand-\\ning at the door of the heart s innermost sanctuary,\\nand realized that they were excluded. Some of\\nthem burst open the door, entered, and became\\nman s once more. Others remained outside and\\ndied there. They were all individualistic, these", "height": "3522", "width": "2304", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0012.jp2"}, "13": {"fulltext": "Preface vii\\nsix women. It was this fact that moulded their\\ndestiny; but Eleonora Duse was the only one of\\nthem who was- individualistic enough. None of\\nthem were able to stand alone, as more than one\\nhad believed that she could. The women of our\\nday are difficult in the choice of a husband, and\\nthe men are slow and mistrustful in their search\\nfor a wife.\\nThere are some hidden peculiarities in woman s\\nsoul which I have traced in the lives of these\\nsix representative women, and I have written\\nthem down for the benefit of those who have\\nnot had the opportunity of discovering them for\\nthemselves.", "height": "3535", "width": "2149", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0013.jp2"}, "14": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3519", "width": "2310", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0014.jp2"}, "15": {"fulltext": "CONTENTS\\nPAGE\\nIntroduction xi\\nI. The Learned Woman Sonia Kovalevsky 3\\nII. Neurotic Keynotes: George Egerton 61\\nIII. The Modern Woman on the Stage: Eleo-\\nnora Duse 97\\nIV. The Woman Naturalist: Amalie Skram 131\\nV. A Young Girl s Tragedy: Marie Bash-\\nKIRTSEFF 147\\nVI. The Woman s Rights Woman: A. Ch.\\nEdgren-Leffler 185", "height": "3557", "width": "2155", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0015.jp2"}, "16": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3519", "width": "2326", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0016.jp2"}, "17": {"fulltext": "INTRODUCTION\\nThe subjects of these six psychological sketches\\nare well known to English readers, with the\\nexception of Amalie Skram, the Norwegian\\nnovelist, and Fru Leffler, who is known only as\\nthe biographer of Sonia Kovalevsky.\\nLaura Marholm, the writer of this book, is a\\nGerman authoress of Norwegian extraction, who\\nis celebrated for her literary criticisms and the\\nbeauty of her style. In September, 1889, she\\nmarried Ola Hansson, the Swedish author of\\nSensitiva Amorosa, Young Scandinavia, and\\na novel called Fru Esther Bruce, in which the\\nheroine is said to bear a strong resemblance to\\nEleonora Duse. He has also published a volume\\nof prose poems, called Ofeg s Ditties, which\\nhas been translated by George Egerton, whose\\nvivid style and powerful descriptions have gained\\na place for her among the foremost women writers\\nof the day.\\nLaura Marholm was the first to introduce her\\nhusband to the German public by means of two\\narticles in the Neue Freie Presse. The first,\\ncalled A Swedish Love Poet, appeared May", "height": "3540", "width": "2132", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0017.jp2"}, "18": {"fulltext": "xii Introduction\\n24th, 1888, before they had met, and was written\\nin praise of his early work, Sensitiva Amorosa.\\nThe second article was a criticism on Pariahs,\\nand it is an interesting fact that in it she com-\\npares him to Gottfried Keller.\\nIn all her writings, Laura Marholm looks at\\nlife through the spectacles of a happy marriage;\\nshe believes that matured thought and widened\\nviews can in a woman s case be only the\\ndirect result of marriage; and consequently she\\nconsiders marriage to be absolutely indispensable\\nto every woman, and that without it she is both\\nmentally and morally undeveloped. She has little\\nsympathy with the Woman s Rights movement,\\njudged either from the social, political, or edu-\\ncational point of view with regard to the latter,\\nshe has not had a university education herself,\\nand she is not at all impressed by those who have.\\nShe considers that a woman s individuality is of\\ngreater importance than her actions she upholds\\nwoman s influence as woman, and has no sympathy\\nwith the advanced thinkers, who, with Stuart Mill\\nat their head, would fain have women exert their\\ninfluence as thinking, reasoning human beings,\\nbelieving all other influence to be unworthy the,\\ndignity of the modern woman. Laura Marholm\\nhas the intuitive faculty, and this enables her to\\ngauge the feelings of those women who spend a\\nlong youth in waiting who are taught to believe,\\nand who do believe, that their youth is nothing", "height": "3520", "width": "2318", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0018.jp2"}, "19": {"fulltext": "Introduction xiii\\nmore than a transition period between childhood\\nand marriage, women who grow old in waiting,\\nand awake to reality to find behind them nothing\\nbut a wasted youth, and in the future an empty\\nold age. But these are not modern women, they\\nare the women of the ancien regime, who have\\nmissed their vocation, and failed to attain their\\nsole object in life, viz., marriage. On the one\\nhand we are confronted with the old-fashioned\\ngirl, on the other by the new woman. Of the\\ntwo, we prefer the new woman and while recog-\\nnizing her mistakes, and lamenting her exag-\\ngerated views, Laura Marholm acknowledges that\\nshe is formed of the best material of the age, and\\nprophesies for her a brighter future. But her\\nviews differ greatly from those of Ibsen and\\nBjornson. According to Ibsen, a woman is first\\nof all a human being, and then a woman; she\\nplaces the woman first, the human being last.\\nBjornson believes that an intellectually developed\\nwoman with a life-work can get on very well\\nby herself; Laura Marholm maintains that, apart\\nfrom man, a woman is nothing. According to\\nher, woman is a creature of instinct, and this\\ninstinct is her most precious possession, and of\\nfar greater value than the intellect Of all the\\nstudies in this book, Fru Leffler is probably the\\none with whom she is least in sympathy. Fru\\nLefrler was essentially intellectual, possessed of\\na somewhat cold and critical temperament, and in", "height": "3552", "width": "2140", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0019.jp2"}, "20": {"fulltext": "xiv Introduction\\nwriting the biography of Sonia Kovalevsky she\\nwas often unable to appreciate the latter s very\\ncomplicated character. Sonia was a rare com-\\nbination of the mystic and the scientist she was\\nnot only a mathematician, but also, in every im-\\nportant crisis of her life, a dreamer of prophetic\\ndreams. The biography was intended to be the\\ncontinuation of Sonia s own story of her child-\\nhood, and the two should be read together. As\\na child, Sonia suffered from a painful conviction\\nthat in her family she was not the favorite, and\\nit is probable that her unaccountable shyness,\\nher want of self-confidence, and her inability to\\nattract love in after life, were due to the fact\\nof her having passed an unhappy and unloved\\nchildhood.\\nFru LefHer s writings are remarkable for the\\nsimplicity and directness of her style, her keen\\nobservation, and love of truth. Her talents were\\nby no means confined to her pen; she held a\\nsalon, the resort of the intellectual world of\\nStockholm, and attained great popularity by her\\ntactfulness and social gifts. She did not, how-\\never, shine in society to the same extent as Sonia\\nKovalevsky. Her conversation was not as bril-\\nliant and witty as the latter s, but it was always\\ninteresting, and it was of the kind that is remem-\\nbered long afterwards. When she told a story,\\nanalyzed a psychological problem, or recounted\\nthe contents of a book, she always succeeded in", "height": "3522", "width": "2295", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0020.jp2"}, "21": {"fulltext": "Introduction xv\\nsetting forth its real character in a clear and\\ndecided manner. Sonia,. on the other hand, was\\never ready with an original remark. Ellen Key\\ntells how one day, when the conversation turned\\nupon love, Sonia exclaimed: These amiable\\nyoung men are always writing books about love,\\nand they do not even know that some people have\\na genius for loving, just as others have a genius\\nfor music and mechanics, and that for these\\nerotic geniuses love is a matter of life and death,\\nwhereas for others it is only an episode.\\nFru Leffler travelled a great deal, and made\\nmany friends in the countries that she visited.\\nShe took great interest in socialism, anarchism,\\nand all religious and educational movements. In\\nLondon she attended lectures given by Mrs. Marx-\\nAveling, Bradlaugh, and Mrs. Besant. Theos-\\nophy, positivism, spiritualism, and atheism,\\nthere was nothing which did not interest her.\\nThe more she saw the more she doubted the pos-\\nsibility of attaining to absolute truth in matters\\neither social or religious, and the more attracted\\nshe became by the doctrine of evolution.\\nFrom this authoress, who was the chief exponent\\nof woman s rights in Sweden, we turn to a very\\ndifferent but no less interesting type. Eleonora\\nDuse, the great Italian actress, has visited Lon-\\ndon during the past few years, acting in such a\\nnatural, and at the same time in such a simple\\nand life-like manner, that a knowledge of the", "height": "3553", "width": "2138", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0021.jp2"}, "22": {"fulltext": "xvi Introduction\\nlanguage was not absolutely indispensable to the\\nenjoyment of the piece. Besides most of the\\npieces mentioned here, she acted in La Femme de\\nClaude Cleopatra, and Martha; but she attained\\nher greatest triumph in Goldoni s comedy, La\\nLocandiera.\\nIn all these typical women, Fru L. Marholm\\nHansson traces a likeness which proves that they\\nhave something in common. Numerous and con-\\nflicting as are the various opinions on the so-called\\nwoman question, the best, and perhaps the only,\\nway of elucidating it is by doing as she has done\\nin giving us these sketches. We have here six\\nmodern women belonging to five nationalities,\\nthree of whom are authoresses, and the other\\nthree mathematician, actress, and artist, por-\\ntrayed and criticised by one who is herself a\\nmodern woman and an authoress.\\nH. R.", "height": "3522", "width": "2292", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0022.jp2"}, "23": {"fulltext": "The Learned IVoman", "height": "3531", "width": "2103", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0023.jp2"}, "24": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3506", "width": "2329", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0024.jp2"}, "25": {"fulltext": "I\\nIt sometimes happens that a hidden characteristic\\nof the age is disclosed, not through any acuteness\\non the part of the spectator, nor as the result of\\ncritical research, but of itself, as it were, and\\nspontaneously. A worn face rises before us, bear-\\ning the marks of death, and never again may we\\ngaze into the eyes which reveal the deep psycho-\\nlogical life of the soul. It is the dead who greet\\nus, the dead who survive us, and who will come\\nto life again and again in future generations, long\\nafter we have ceased to be those dead who will be-\\ncome the living, only to suffer and to die again.\\nThese self-revelations have always existed\\namongst men, but among women they were un-\\nknown until now, when this tired century is draw-\\ning to its close. It is one of the strangest signs\\nof the coming age that woman has attained to the\\nintellectual consciousness of herself as woman, and\\ncan say what she is, what she wishes, and what she\\nlongs for. But she pays for this knowledge with\\nher death.\\nMarie Bashkirtseff s Journal was just such a\\nself -revelation as this the moment it appeared it\\nwas carried throughout the whole of Europe, and", "height": "3558", "width": "2136", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0025.jp2"}, "26": {"fulltext": "4 Six Modern Women\\nfurther than Europe, on far-reaching waves of\\nhuman sympathy. Wherever it went it threw a\\nfirebrand into the women s hearts, which set them\\nburning without most of them knowing what this\\nburning betokened. They read the book with a\\nstrange and painful emotion, for as they turned\\nover these pages so full of ardent energy, tears,\\nand yearning, they beheld their own selves,\\nstrange, beautiful, and exalted, but still them-\\nselves, though few of them could have explained\\nwhy or wherefore.\\nIt was no bitter struggle with the outer world to\\nwhich Marie Bashkirtseff succumbed at the age of\\nfour-and-twenty it was not the struggle of a girl\\nof the middle classes for her daily bread, for which\\nshe sacrifices her youth and spirits she met with\\nno obstacles beyond the traditional customs which\\nhad become to her a second nature, no obstruction\\ngreater than the atmosphere of the age in which\\nshe lived, which bounded her own horizon, although\\nin her inmost soul she rebelled against it. She\\nhad everything that the world can give to assist\\nthe unhindered development of the inner life,\\nmental, spiritual, and physical; everything that\\nhundreds of thousands of women, whose narrow\\nlives need expanding, have not got, and yet she\\ndid not live her life. On every one of the six\\nhundred pages of her journal (written, as it is, in\\nher penetrating Russian-French style) we meet\\nthe despairing cry that she had nothing, that she\\nwas ever alone in the midst of an everlasting void,", "height": "3516", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0026.jp2"}, "27": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 5\\nhungering at the table of life, spread for every\\none except herself, standing with hands out-\\nstretched as the days passed by and gave her noth-\\ning; youth and health were fading fast, the grave\\nwas yawning, just a little chink, then wider and\\nwider, and she must go down without having had\\nanything but work, constant work, trouble and\\nstriving, and the empty fame which gives a stone\\nin the place of bread.\\nThe tired and discontented women of the time\\nrecognized themselves on every page, and for many\\nof them Marie Bashkirtseff s Journal became a\\nkind of secret Bible in which they read a few sen-\\ntences every morning, or at night before going to\\nsleep.\\nA few years later there appeared another con-\\nfession by a woman; this time it was not an\\nautobiography, like the last one, but it was written\\nby a friend, who was a European celebrity, with a\\nname as lasting as her own. This book was called\\nSonia Kovalevsky Our Mutual Experiences,\\nand the things she told me about herself. The\\nwriter was Anne Charlotte Edgren-Leffler, Duchess\\nof Cajanello, who had been her daily companion\\nduring years of friendship.\\nThere was a curious likeness between Marie\\nBashkirtseff s Journal and Sonia Kovalevsky s\\nconfessions, something in their innermost, per-\\nsonal experiences which proves an identity of tem-\\nperament as well as of fortune, something which", "height": "3543", "width": "2116", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0027.jp2"}, "28": {"fulltext": "6 Six Modern Women\\nwas not only due to the unconscious manner in\\nwhich they criticised life, but to life itself, life\\nas they moulded it, and as each was destined to\\nlive it. Marie Bashkirtseff and Sonia Kovalevsky\\nwere both Russians, 1 both descended from rich\\nand noble families, both women of genius, and\\nfrom their earliest childhood they were both in a\\nposition to obtain all the advantages of a good\\neducation. They were both born rulers, true chil-\\ndren of nature, full of originality, proud and inde-\\npendent. In all respects they were the favorites\\nof fortune, and yet and yet neither of these\\nextraordinary women was satisfied, and they died\\nbecause they could not be satisfied. Is not this a\\nsign of the times\\nII\\nThe story of Sonia Kovalevsky s life reads like\\nan exciting novel, which is, if anything, too richly\\nfurnished with strange events. Such is life. It\\ncomes with hands full to its chosen ones, but it\\nalso takes away gifts more priceless than it gave.\\nAt the age of eighteen Sonia Kovalevsky was\\nalready the mistress of her own fate. She had\\nmarried the husband of her choice, and he had\\naccompanied her to Heidelberg, where they both\\n1 Sonia s mother was a German, the daughter of Schubert the\\nastronomer. Marie Bashkirtseff s grandmother was also German,\\nand Fru Leffler was descended from a German family who had\\nsettled in Sweden.", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0028.jp2"}, "29": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 7\\nmatriculated at the university. From thence he\\ntook her to Berlin, where she lived with a girl\\nfriend, who was a student like herself, and studied\\nmathematics at Weierstrass s for the space of four\\nyears, only meeting her husband occasionally in\\nthe course of her walks. Her marriage with\\nValdemar Kovalevsky, afterwards Professor of\\nPaleontology at the university of Moscow, was a\\nmere formality, and this extraordinary circum^\\nstance brings us face to face with one of the chief\\ncharacteristics of her nature.\\nSonia Kovalevsky did not love her husband;\\nthere was, in fact, nothing in her early youth to\\nwhich she was less disposed than love. She was\\npossessed of an immense undefined thirst, which\\nwas something more than a thirst for study, albeit\\nthat was the form which it took. Her inexperi-\\nenced, child-like nature was weighed down beneath\\nthe burden of an exceptional talent.\\nSonia Krukovsky was the daughter of General\\nKrukovsky of Palibino, a French Grand-seigneur\\nof old family; and when she was no more than\\nsixteen, she had in her the making of a great\\nmathematician and a great authoress. She was\\nfully aware of the first, but of the latter she knew\\nnothing, for a woman s literary talent nearly always\\ndates its origin from her experience of life. She\\nwas high-spirited and enterprising, qualities\\nwhich are more often found among the Sclavonic\\nwomen than any other race of Europeans she had\\nthat peculiar consciousness of the shortness of life,", "height": "3548", "width": "2120", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0029.jp2"}, "30": {"fulltext": "8 Six Modern Women\\nthe same which drove Marie Bashkirtseff to accom-\\nplish more in the course of a few years than most\\npeople would have achieved during the course of\\ntheir whole existence.\\nSonia Kovalevsky s girlhood was spent in\\nRussia, during those years of feverish excitement\\nwhen the outbreaks of the Nihilists bore witness\\nto the working of a subterranean volcano, and the\\nhearts and intellects of the young glowed with an\\nenthusiasm which led to the self-annihilating deeds\\nof fanaticism. A few winter months spent at St.\\nPetersburg decided the fate of Sonia and her elder\\nsister, Anjuta. The strict, old-fashioned notions\\nof their family allowed them very little liberty,\\nand they longed for independence. In order to\\nescape from parental authority, a formal marriage\\nwas at this time a very favorite expedient among\\nyoung girls in Russia. A silent but widespread\\nantagonism reigned in all circles between the old\\nand young the latter treated one another as secret\\nallies, who by a look or pressure of the hand could\\nmake themselves understood. It was not at all\\nuncommon for a girl to propose a formal marriage\\nto a young man, generally with the purpose of\\nstudying abroad, as this was the only means by\\nwhich they could obtain the consent of their un-\\nsuspecting parents to undertake the journey.\\nWhen they were abroad, they generally released\\neach other from all claims and separated, in order\\nto study apart. Sonia s sister was anxious to\\nescape in this way, as she possessed a remarkable", "height": "3519", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0030.jp2"}, "31": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 9\\nliterary talent which her father had forbidden her\\nto exercise. She accordingly made the proposal\\nin question to a young student of good family,\\nnamed Valdemar Kovalevsky; he, however, pre-\\nferred Sonia, and this gave rise to further com-\\nplications, as their father refused to allow the\\nyounger sister to marry before the elder.\\nSonia resorted to a stratagem, and one evening,\\nwhen her parents were giving a reception, she\\nwent secretly to Valdemar, and as soon as her\\nabsence was discovered she sent a note to her\\nfather, with these words I am with Valdemar\\ndo not oppose our marriage any longer. There\\nremained no alternative for General Krukovsky\\nbut to fetch his daughter home as speedily as\\npossible, and to announce her engagement.\\nThey were accompanied on their honeymoon by\\na girl friend, who was equally imbued with the\\ndesire to study, and soon afterwards Anjuta joined\\nthem. The first thing that Sonia and Valdemar\\ndid was to visit George Eliot in London; after\\nwhich Valdemar went to Jena and Munich, while\\nSonia, with her sister and friend, studied at Heidel-\\nberg, where they remained during two terms before\\ngoing to Berlin. The sister went secretly to Paris\\nby herself.\\nArrived at Berlin, Sonia buried herself in her\\nwork. She saw no one except Professor Weier-\\nstrass, who expressed the greatest admiration for\\nher quickness at mathematics, and did all in his\\npower to assist her by means of private lessons.", "height": "3558", "width": "2128", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0031.jp2"}, "32": {"fulltext": "io Six Modern W omen\\nIf we are honest enough to call it by its true\\nname, we must confess. that the life led by these\\ntwo girls, during eight terms, was the life of a\\ndog. Sonia scarcely ever went out of doors unless\\nValdemar fetched her for a walk, which was not\\noften, as he lived in another part of the town, and\\nwas constantly away. She was tormented with a\\nvague fear of exposing herself. Inexperienced as\\nboth these friends were, they lived poorly, and ate\\nlittle, allowing themselves no pleasure of any\\nsort, added to which they were tyrannized over and\\ncheated by their maid-servant. Sonia sat all day\\nlong at her writing-table, hard at work with her\\nmathematical exercises and when she took a short\\nrest, it was only to run up and down the room,\\ntalking aloud to herself, with her brains as busy as\\never. She had never been accustomed to do any-\\nthing for herself; she had always been waited\\nupon, and it was impossible to persuade her even\\nto buy a dress when necessary, unless Valdemar\\naccompanied her. But Valdemar soon tired of\\nrendering these unrequited services, and he often\\nabsented himself in other towns for the completion\\nof his own studies and as they both received an\\nabundant supply of money from their respective\\nhomes, they were in no way dependent upon each\\nother.\\nThe year 1 870 came and went for Sonia it had\\nbeen a year of study, and nothing more. Her\\nsleep had become shorter and more broken, and\\nshe neither knew nor cared what she ate, when", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0032.jp2"}, "33": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman n\\nsuddenly, in the spring of the following year,\\nshe was sent for by her sister in Paris. Anjuta\\nhad fallen passionately in love with a young\\nParisian, who was a member of the Commune he\\nhad just been arrested, and was in danger of losing\\nhis life. Sonia and Valdemar succeeded in pene-\\ntrating through the line of troops, found Anjuta,\\nand wrote to their father. General Krukovsky came\\nat once, and it was only then that he discovered\\nwhat his daughters were doing abroad, and learned\\nfor the first time that his eldest daughter had been\\nliving alone in Paris, for Anjuta had always been\\ncareful to send her letters through Sonia, with the\\nBerlin postmark.\\nAnjuta showed great spirit, and after an inter-\\nview with Thiers they succeeded in helping this\\nvery undesirable son-in-law to escape. Through-\\nout the whole affair their father s behavior is a\\nrare proof of the nobility of the race from which\\nSonia sprang. This stern man not only forgave\\nhe also admired his daughters for what they\\nhad done. The cold manner and grandfatherly\\nauthority with which he had hitherto treated them\\nwas superseded by a cordial sympathy such as\\nwould have been impossible before. He was much\\nimpressed by Anjuta s passion, but Sonia s platonic\\nmarriage distressed him greatly.\\nIn the year 1874 Sonia took the degree of doctor\\nat Gottingen, as the result of three mathematical\\ntreatises, of which one especially, her thesis On\\nthe Theory of Partial Differential Equations, is", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0033.jp2"}, "34": {"fulltext": "12 Six Modern Women\\nreckoned one of her most prominent works. Imme-\\ndiately after this, the whole family assembled on\\nthe old estate of Palibino. Sonia was completely\\nworn out, and it was a long time before she was\\nable to resume any severe brain work. Her holi-\\nday was cut short by her father s death a few\\nmonths later, and the following winter was spent\\nwith her family at St. Petersburg. Until now\\nSonia s brain was the only part of her which was\\nthoroughly awakened. She had been entirely\\nabsorbed in her studies, and had worked with the\\nobstinate tenacity of auto-suggestion, more com-\\nmonly found in women, especially girls, than in\\nmen. Marie Bashkirtseff had done the same, year\\nin, year out; she had worked breathlessly, fever-\\nishly, with an incomprehensible, unwearied power\\nof production, while failing health was announ-\\ncing the approach of death in her frail young body.\\nSuddenly the end came.\\nThousands of girls in middle-class families work\\nthemselves to death in the same way. Badly paid\\nto begin with, they lower the prices still more by\\ncompeting with one another. Others, placed in\\nbetter circumstances, work with the same insist-\\nency at useless handicrafts, while a large number\\nof women of the poorer classes work because they\\nare driven to it by dire necessity. The result is\\nthe same in all cases; they lose the power of\\nenjoyment, and forget what happiness means.\\nSonia s stay in St. Petersburg was the occasion\\nof the first great change which took place in her,", "height": "3539", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0034.jp2"}, "35": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 13\\nto be followed later on by many like changes.\\nMathematics were thrust aside; she did not want\\nto hear any more about them, she wanted to forget\\nthem.\\nMind and body were undergoing a healing\\nprocess, struggling to attain an even balance in\\nher fresh young nature. She felt the need of\\nchange, she required companionship, and she threw\\nherself into the midst of all social and intellectual\\npursuits. It was then that the woman awoke in\\nher.\\nDuring the period of nervous excitement and\\nsorrow which followed after the death of her\\nbeloved father, she had become the wife of her\\nhusband, after having been nominally married for\\nnearly seven years. Since then they had drawn\\ncloser to one another and now that her fortune,\\nas long as her mother lived, was not sufficient for\\nher support, she and Valdemar invested their\\nmoney in various speculations. With true Russian\\nenthusiasm they set to work building houses,\\nestablishing watering-places, and starting news-\\npapers, besides lending their aid to every imagi-\\nnable kind of new invention. The first year all\\nwent well, and in 1878 a daughter was born.\\nAfter that came the crash. Kovalevsky was bitten\\nwith the rage for speculation, and although he was\\nnominated Professor of Paleontology at Moscow in\\n1880, and in spite of all that his wife could do to\\ndissuade him, he took shares in a company con-\\nnected with petroleum springs in the south of", "height": "3554", "width": "2183", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0035.jp2"}, "36": {"fulltext": "14 Six Modem Women\\nRussia. The company was a swindle, the under-\\ntaking proved a failure, and he shot himself.\\nSonia had left him some time before. She knew\\nwhat was coming, having been warned by bad\\ndreams and presentiments, and as she had lost her\\ninfluence over him, and was anxious to provide for\\nher own and her child s future, she left him and\\nwent to Paris. Just as she was recovering from\\nthe nervous fever to which she succumbed on hear-\\ning the news of her husband s sudden death, she\\nreceived the summons to go to Stockholm.\\nThe invitation had been sent by the representa-\\ntives of a Woman s Rights movement which was\\nthen in full swing. It was an exceedingly narrow\\nsociety of the genuine bourgeois kind, and as it\\nwas to them that she owed her appointment, they\\nwere anxious to bind her firmly to their cause.\\nSonia soon won their hearts by the sociability of\\nher Russian nature, but as one term after the other\\npassed by, she grew more and more weary of it, and\\nwhenever her course of lectures was over she hur-\\nried away as quickly as possible to Russia, Italy,\\nFrance, England, no matter where, if only she\\ncould escape out of Sweden into a freer atmosphere.\\nShe never looked upon her stay there as anything\\nmore than an episode in her life, and she longed\\nto be back in Paris but the years passed by, and\\nshe received no other appointment.\\nHer lectures at the university began to pall upon\\nher it gave her no pleasure to be forever teaching\\nthe students the same thing in a dreary routine.", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0036.jp2"}, "37": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 15\\nShe needed an incentive in the shape of some\\nhighly gifted individual whom she could respect,\\nand whose presence would call forth her highest\\nfaculties but even the esteem in which she held\\nsome few people was not of long duration.\\nHer friendship with Fru Edgren-Leffler dates\\nfrom this period. It was this lady s renown as an\\nauthoress which roused Sonia s talent for writing,\\nfor her life had been rich in experiences, and\\nnever wanting in variety until now, when, in a\\nperiod of comparative leisure, she allowed her\\nthoughts to dwell upon the past. She began by\\npersuading Fru Edgren-Leffler to dramatize the\\nsketches which she gave her, and The Struggle\\nfor Happiness was the first result of this col-\\nlaboration. But Sonia soon realized that the\\nhonest, simple-minded Swede was not in sympathy\\nwith this department of literature so she wrote a\\nstory on her own account, entitled The Sisters\\nRajevsky, which was a sketch of her own youth,\\nfollowed by an excellent novel called Vera\\nBarantzova; after which she began another novel\\ncalled Vae Victis, which was never finished.\\nIll\\nUp till now we have followed this remarkable\\nwoman s life along a clear, though somewhat\\nagitated course; but from henceforward there is\\nsomething uncomfortable, something strange and\\ndistorted about it. It is very difficult for us to", "height": "3558", "width": "2185", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0037.jp2"}, "38": {"fulltext": "1 6 Six Modern Women\\nascertain the cause of her increasing distraction of\\nmind, and early death, and the difficulty is inten-\\nsified by the fact that the material contributed by\\nFru Lefner is poor and contradictory, and also\\nbecause her work is disfigured by the peculiar\\ninferences which she draws.\\nI have seen four portraits of Sonia Kovalevsky,\\nand they are all so entirely different that no one\\nwould imagine that they were intended to represent\\nthe same person. She had none of the fascinat-\\ning, though irregular beauty of Marie Bashkirtseff,\\nwho carried on an artistic cult with her own per-\\nson. Sonia s powerful head, with the short hair,\\nmassive forehead, and short-sighted eyes of the\\ncolor of green gooseberries in syrup, was placed\\non a delicate child-like body. Her chief charm\\nlay in her extraordinary liveliness and habit of\\ngiving herself up entirely to the interest of the\\nmoment but she was completely unversed in the\\nart of dress, and did not know how to appear at her\\nbest; she never gave any thought to the subject\\nat all until she was thirty and although she paid\\nmore attention to it then, she never learned the\\nsecret. She aged early, and a celebrated poet has\\ndescribed her to me as being a withered little old\\nwoman at the age of thirty. These external cir-\\ncumstances stood more in her way in Sweden,\\namong a tall, fair people, than would have been\\npossible either in Russia or in Paris. Between\\nherself and the Swedish type there was a wide gulf\\nfixed, which allowed no encouragement to the", "height": "3539", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0038.jp2"}, "39": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 17\\nfiner erotic emotions to which she was very strongly-\\ndisposed she felt crushed, and her impressionable,\\nunattractive nature suffered acutely from being so\\nunlike the ordinary victorious type of beauty. The\\npicture of her when she was eighteen bears a strong\\nresemblance to the late King Louis II. of Bavaria;\\nnot only are her features like his, but also the ex-\\npression in the eyes and the curve of the lips. The\\nsecond picture dates from the year 1887. It has\\nsomething wearied and disillusioned about it, and\\nshe seems to be making an effort to appear amiable.\\nIt was taken at the time when she was struggling\\nto accustom herself to the stiff, prudish, and some-\\nwhat pretentious ways of Stockholm society. The\\nthird portrait was taken at the time when she won\\nthe Prix Bordin in Paris, and it is a regular\\nRussian face, with a much more cheerful expres-\\nsion than the former ones. But in the last picture,\\ntaken in the year 1890, which was, to a certain\\nextent, official and very much touched up, how\\nill she looks; how disappointed and how weary!\\nThese four portraits are, to my mind, four differ-\\nent women they show us what Sonia was once,\\nand what she became after living for several years\\nin an uncongenial atmosphere.\\nSonia Kovalevsky was a true Russian genius,\\nwith an elastic nature. She was lavish and care-\\nless in her ways, and she thrived best upon a torn\\nsofa in an atmosphere of tea, cigarettes, and pro-\\nfusion of all kinds, intellectual, spiritual, and\\npecuniary she needed to be surrounded by people", "height": "3557", "width": "2176", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0039.jp2"}, "40": {"fulltext": "1 8 Six Modern Women\\nlike herself, who were in sympathy with her, and\\nthe inhabitants of Stockholm were never that.\\nShe had been torn away from the Russian sur-\\nroundings in which she had lived in Berlin. She,\\nwho never could endure solitude, found herself\\nalone among strangers, who forced themselves upon\\nher, hard, angular, women s rights women, who\\nexpected her to be their leader, and to fulfil a\\nmission. She seldom rebelled against the duties\\nwhich were constantly held before her eyes, partly\\nbecause her vanity was flattered by the public\\nposition which she occupied, and also because her\\nlivelihood depended upon it, now that her private\\nmeans were not sufficient for her support, and for\\nthe numerous journeys which she undertook.\\nA great deal of her time was spent in travelling\\nto and fro between Stockholm and St. Petersburg,\\nwhere she went to visit Anjuta, whose marriage\\nhad turned out most unhappily, and who was suf-\\nfering from a severe illness, of which she after-\\nwards died. After her sister s death Sonia took a\\ngreat interest in the study of Northern literature,\\nwhich was then just beginning to attract atten-\\ntion. She also wrote books, and solved some\\nmathematical problems. Every time that she re-\\nturned to Stockholm, after spending her holidays\\nin Russia or the South, she had almost entirely\\nforgotten her Swedish, and every year that passed\\nby called forth fresh lamentations over her exile.\\nThe tone of society in Stockholm was unendurable\\nto her; but she was of too disciplined a character,", "height": "3542", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0040.jp2"}, "41": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 19\\nand too gentle, too submissive in her loneliness,\\nto rebel against it. Her life became monotonous,\\nwhich it had never been before, and her courage\\nbegan to give way. She yearned for sympathy,\\nfor excitement, for her native land, for every-\\nthing, in fact, which was denied her.\\nShe also longed for something else, which was\\nthe very thing that she could not have. She was\\nseized with an eager, nervous longing to be loved.\\nShe wanted to be a woman, to possess a woman s\\ncharm. She had lived like a widow for years\\nduring her husband s lifetime, and for years after\\nhis death as well. As long as her mathemati-\\ncal studies produced a tension in her mind, she\\nasked for nothing better, but buried herself in\\nher work, and was perfectly contented. When she\\nstarted being an authoress, a change came over her\\ncharacter. The development of the imagination\\ncreated a need for love, and because this devouring\\nneed could not be satisfied, she became exacting,\\ndiscontented, and mistrustful of the amount of\\naffection which was accorded her. In her younger\\ndays she had asked for nothing more than that\\ncurious kind of mystic love, known only to Russians,\\nwhich had run its course in mutual enthusiasm of\\na purely intellectual and spiritual character. It\\nwas otherwise- now. She lamented her lost youth,\\nand the time wasted in study; she regretted the\\nunfortunate talent which had deprived her woman-\\nhood of its attractiveness. She wanted to be a\\nwoman, and to enjoy life as a woman.", "height": "3558", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0041.jp2"}, "42": {"fulltext": "20 Six Modern W omen\\nShe had also another wish, just as passionate in\\nits way and as difficult of fulfilment as the former\\none, and this was her wish to receive an appoint-\\nment in Paris. It was to a certain extent fulfilled\\nwhen she was awarded the Prix Bordin on Christ-\\nmas Eve, 1888, on the occasion of a solemn ses-\\nsion of the French Academy of Science, in an\\nassembly which was largely composed of learned\\nmen. It was the highest scientific distinction\\nwhich had ever been accorded to a woman, and\\nfrom henceforth she was an European celebrity,\\nwith a place in history. But it gave her no pleas-\\nure. She was as completely knocked up as she\\nhad been after receiving her doctor s degree. She\\nhad worked day and night for days beforehand,\\nand during the weeks that followed she took part\\nin the social functions which were given in her\\nhonor. She left no pleasure untasted, and yet she\\nwas not satisfied, for by this time her yearning for\\nlove had reached its highest pitch.\\nA short time before, Sonia had made the ac-\\nquaintance of a cousin of her late husband s, fat\\nM., as she called him. The companionship of\\na sympathetic fellow-countryman put her in the\\nheight of good humor, and she soon found it so\\nindispensable that she wanted to have him always\\nat her side, and was never happy except when he\\nwas there. M. K. did not return this strong affec-\\ntion; he was, however, quite willing to marry her,\\nand the result was that a most unfortunate rela-\\ntionship sprang up between them. Sonia could", "height": "3539", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0042.jp2"}, "43": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 21\\nnot exist without him, so they travelled from\\nStockholm to Russia, and from Russia to Paris or\\nItaly, in order to spend a few weeks together, and\\nthen separated, because by that time they were\\nmutually tired of each other. It was on one of\\nthese journeys, when Sonia had come out of the\\nsunshine of Italy into the winter of Sweden, that\\nshe caught cold, and no sooner had she arrived at\\nStockholm than she did everything to make her\\ncondition worse. In a desperate mood of indiffer-\\nence she immediately commenced her lectures, and\\nwent to all the social entertainments that were\\ngiven. Dark presentiments and dreams, in which\\nshe always believed, had foretold that this year\\nwould be fatal to her. Longing for death, yet\\nfearing it, she died suddenly in the beginning of\\nthe year 1891.\\nIV\\nThose who know something about Russian women,\\nwithout having any very detailed knowledge, divide\\nthem into two types, and a superficial observer\\nwould class Sonia Kovalevsky as belonging to one\\nor the other of these. The first type consists of\\nluxurious, languishing, idle, fascinating women,\\nwith passionate black eyes, or playful gray ones, a\\nsoft skin, and a delicate mouth, which is admirably\\nadapted for laughing and eating. These women\\nhave a most seductive charm; their movements", "height": "3558", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0043.jp2"}, "44": {"fulltext": "22 Six Modern Women\\nsuggest that they are wont to recline on soft pil-\\nlows, dressed en neglige, and their power of chat-\\ntering is unlimited, and varies in tone from the\\nmost enchanting flattery to the worst temper ima-\\nginable. They are, in fact, the most womanly of\\nwomen, as little to be depended upon in their\\namiability as in their anger; they are quick to\\nfall in love, and men are as quickly enthralled by\\nthem. But Sonia Kovalevsky was not one of\\nthese.\\nThe women of the second type present the\\ngreatest contrast that it is possible to imagine.\\nThey are honest and straightforward, and essen-\\ntially what is called a good fellow, plain, sen-\\nsible, brave, energetic, as strong in soul as in\\nbody, thinking heads, flat figures they have\\nnone of that grace of form which is peculiar to a\\nlarge number of Russian women. Their faces are\\ngenerally sallow, and their skin is clammy, but\\nthoroughly Russian in spite of it. There is some-\\nthing lacking in them, which for want of a better\\nexpression I shall call a want of sweetness. There\\nis a curious neutrality about them it takes one\\nsome time to realize that they are women. And\\nthey themselves are but dimly conscious of it, and\\nthen only on rare occasions. They are generally\\npeople with a mission, working people, people\\nwith ideas.\\nIt is these women who have furnished the\\nlargest contingent to the ranks of the Nihilists.\\nIt is they who chose to lead the lives of hunted", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0044.jp2"}, "45": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 23\\nwild beasts, and who foiind ample compensation in\\nmental excitement for all that they had renounced\\nas women and as persons of refinement. But\\nalthough this last is a genuine Russian type, it\\nis by no means confined to Russia. It is a type\\npeculiar to the age. The class of women who be-\\ncome Nihilists in Russia are the champions for\\nwomen s rights in Sweden, and it is they who\\nagitate for women s franchise in England, who\\nstart women s clubs in America, and become\\ngovernesses in Germany.\\nThe type is universal, but it is left to circum-\\nstances to decide which special form of mania it\\nis to take, a form of mania which calls itself\\na vocation in life. In Russia the woman, in\\nwhom sex lay dormant, felt it her calling to be-\\ncome a murderess, and that merely from a general\\ndesire to promote the popular welfare in Germany\\nthis philanthropic spirit took the form of wishing\\nto prune little human plants in the Kindergarten.\\nBut this is a long chapter, which I cannot pursue\\nany further at present, and which, like many others\\non the characteristics of the woman of to-day, I\\nshall keep for a separate book. We must include\\nSonia Kovalevsky in this latter type: she con-\\nsidered herself as belonging to it, and the whole\\ncourse of her life is in itself sufficient to prove\\nthat she was one of them. The nature of her\\nfriendships with men furnishes us with yet another\\nproof. She had a large circle of acquaintances,\\namongst whom were some of the best known and", "height": "3549", "width": "2184", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0045.jp2"}, "46": {"fulltext": "24 Six Modern Women\\nmost talented men of Russia, Scandinavia, Eng-\\nland, Germany, France, and Italy, all of whom\\nenjoyed her society, although not one of them\\nfell in love with her, and not one among those\\nthousands said to her, I cannot exist without\\nyou.\\nShe belonged to the class of women with brains,\\nand she was numbered amongst them. She was\\ntheir triumphant banner, the emblem of their\\ngreatest victory, and their appointed Professor.\\nShe did not need the lower pleasures; her\\nscience was her chief delight. She stood on the\\nplatform and taught men, and believed it to be her\\nvocation. Was it not for this that she had toiled\\nduring long years of overwork and study, whilst\\nconcealing her real purpose under the threadbare\\ncloak of a feigned marriage?\\nShe was a woman of genius with a man s brain,\\nwho had come into the world as an example and a\\nleader of all sister brains.\\nShe was, and she was not Sometimes she felt\\nthat she was, and then again she did not. In her\\nlatter years she disclaimed the whole of her for-\\nmer life, and silence reigned among the aggrieved\\nsisterhood whenever her name was mentioned if\\nthese latter years had never been, they would have\\nsent the hat round in order to erect a monument\\nin her memory. But that became impossible;\\nsilence was best.\\nShe was a woman. She was a woman in spite\\nof all in spite of a feigned marriage which lasted", "height": "3518", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0046.jp2"}, "47": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 25\\nnearly ten years, in spite of a widowhood which\\nlasted just as long, in spite of her Doctor s degree\\nand the Professorship of Mathematics and the Prix\\nBordin she was a woman still; not merely a\\nlady, but an unhappy, injured little woman, run-\\nning through the woods with a wailing cry for her\\nhusband.\\nShe was far more of a woman than those luxu-\\nrious, prattling, sweatmeat-eating young ladies\\nwhose languid movements lead us to suppose that\\nthey have only just got out of bed she was more\\nof a woman than the great majority of wives,\\nwhose sole occupation it is to increase the world,\\nand to obliterate themselves in so doing.\\nShe, who never charmed any man, was more of\\na woman than the charmers who turn love into a\\nvocation. She was a new kind of woman, under-\\nstood by no one, because she was new; she did\\nnot even understand herself, and made mistakes\\nfor which she was less to blame than the spirit\\nof the age, by whose lash she was driven. And\\nwhen she became free at last, it was too late to\\nmap out a future of her own.\\nWho knows whether it would have been better\\nfor her had she been free from the first A woman\\nhas no destiny of her own; she cannot have one,\\nbecause she cannot exist alone. Neither can she\\nbecome a destiny, except indirectly, and through\\nthe man. The more womanly she is, and the more\\nrichly endowed, all the more surely will her des-\\ntiny be shaped by the man who takes her to be", "height": "3558", "width": "2184", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0047.jp2"}, "48": {"fulltext": "26 Six Modern Women\\nhis wife. If then, even in the case of the average\\nwoman, everything depends upon the man whom\\nshe marries, how much more true must this be in\\nthe case of the woman of genius, in whom not\\nonly her womanhood, but also her genius, needs\\ncalling to life by the embrace of a man. And\\nif even the average woman cannot attain to the\\nfull consciousness of her womanhood without man,\\nhow much less can the woman of genius, in\\nwhom sex is the actual root of her being, and\\nthe source from whence she derives her talent\\nand her ego. If her womanhood remains unawak-\\nened, then however promising the beginning may\\nbe, her life will be nothing more than a gradual\\ndecay, and the stronger her vitality, the more\\nterrible will the death-struggle be.\\nThat was Sonia s life. No man took her in\\nhis arms and awoke the whole harmony of her\\nbeing. She became a mother and also a wife,\\nbut she never learned what it is to love and be\\nloved again.\\nV\\nAs I write, the air is filled with a sweet pene-\\ntrating fragrance, which comes from a tuberose,\\nplaced near me on the window sill. The narrow\\nstalk seems scarcely strong enough to support its\\nthick, knob-like head with the withered buds and\\nsickly, onion-shaped leaves. A tuberose is a poor", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0048.jp2"}, "49": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 27\\nunshapely thing at the best of times, but this\\nplant is unhealthy because it has lived too long\\nas an ornament in a dark corner of the room under\\nthe chandeliers, among albums and photographs.\\nIt was dying visibly, decaying at the roots, and\\nthere was no help for it. Of course it was a rare\\nflower, but it grew uglier from day to day.\\nThey put it on the window-sill, where there\\nwas just room for one plant more, and a pot of\\nmignonette was fetched out of the kitchen gar-\\nden, attired in an artistic ruffle of green silk\\npaper, and placed under the chandelier in its\\nstead. It fulfilled its duty well, and seemed to\\nthrive admirably among the albums, visiting-cards,\\nand photographs. Nobody looked after the tube-\\nrose on the window-sill until it suddenly reminded-\\nthem of its existence by a strong smell, and even\\nthen they only cast a hasty glance and noticed\\nhow sickly it looked. When I examined it more\\nclosely, I discovered three blossoms in full flower,\\nand quite healthy; the stem was bent forward, and\\nthe blossoms were pressing against the window-\\npane, doing their best to catch the rays of the\\nsun as long as the short autumn day lasted. It\\nthrust forth its dying blossoms and renewed itself\\nnow that the great warmer of life was shining\\non, and embracing it.\\nTo me this flower is an emblem of Sonia\\nKovalevsky.\\nShe was a rare, strange being in this world\\nof mignonette pots and trivialities. Everything", "height": "3551", "width": "2178", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0049.jp2"}, "50": {"fulltext": "28 Six Modern Women\\nabout her was out of proportion, from her thin\\nlittle body, with its large head, to the sweet fra-\\ngrance of her genius. She, too, stood in the\\nplace of honor under the chandelier, among\\nfashionable poets and thinkers who wrote and\\nthought in accordance with the spirit of the age;\\nand she, too, sickened, as though she desired\\nsojnething better, and the nervous blossoms which\\nher mind thrust forth grew more and more\\nwithered, and the thin stem which carried her\\nstretched more and more towards the greater\\nwarmer of life, which shines upon and embraces\\nthe just and the unjust, only not her, only not\\nher!\\nWhat was the reason Why did she get none\\nof that love which is rained down upon the most\\ninsignificant women in so lavish a manner by\\nimpetuous mankind\\nShe was not in the least pretty, that is it,\\nreply her. several women admirers.\\nBut we women know well that it is not the\\nprettiest women who are the most loved, and\\nthat, on the contrary, the most ardent love always\\nfalls to the share of those in whom men have\\nsomething to excuse. Barbey d Aurevilly, the\\ngreatest women s poet, has told us so in his im-\\nmortal lines.\\nShe was too old, that is to say, she aged too\\nearly, say her women admirers, still anxious\\nto find an explanation.\\nBut that is ridiculous. Sonia Kovalevsky died", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0050.jp2"}, "51": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 29\\nat the age of forty, and that is the age when a\\nParisian grande mondaine is at the height of her\\npopularity; and as for aging early A woman\\nof genius does not grow old as quickly as a teacher\\nin a girl s school, and the fading tuberose which\\nthrusts forth fresh blossoms has a far sweeter and\\nmore penetrating fragrance than her white knob-\\nheaded sisters.\\nShe asked too much, asserts Fru Anne Char-\\nlotte Edgren-Leffler, Duchess of Cajanello, who\\nwas of the same age as Sonia, and married at the\\ntime when she died; and her entire book on Sonia\\nis founded on the one argument, that she asked\\ntoo much of love.\\nBut how is it possible? Does not experience\\nteach us that it is just the women who ask most\\nwho receive most? Always make fresh claims,\\nthat is the motto of the majority of ladies in\\nsociety, and with this solid principle to start from\\nthey have none of them failed.\\nShe had everything that a human being can\\ndesire, said that worthy writer, Jonas Lie, in\\nan after-dinner speech. She had genius, fame,\\nposition, liberty, and she took the lead in the\\neducation of humanity. But when she had all\\nthis it seemed to her as nothing; she stretched\\nout her hand like a little girl, and said, Oh, do\\nbut give me also this orange.\\nIt was kindly said, and also very true. Father\\nLie was the only person who understood Sonia,\\nand saw that she remained a little girl all her", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0051.jp2"}, "52": {"fulltext": "30 Six Modern Women\\nlife, a woman who never reached her maturity.\\nBut, tell me, dear Father Lie, do you consider\\nlove to be worth no more than an orange?\\nNo, these explanations will never satisfy us;\\nthey are far too shallow and simple. The true\\nreason lies deeper; it is more a symptom of the\\ntime in which she lived than those who knew her\\nwill allow. Even so friendly and intelligent an\\nexponent as Ellen Key, her second biographer,\\ndoes not seem to be aware of the fact that,\\nalthough Sonia is a typical woman of her time,\\ntypical of the more earnest upholders of women s\\nrights, and the representative of the highest intel-\\nlectual accomplishments to which women have\\nattained, she is also typical of that which the\\nwoman of this century loses in the struggle, and\\nof that in which the woman of the future will be\\nthe gainer.\\nIf Sonia failed to please, she whose personal\\ncharm was so great, whose vivacity was so pre-\\npossessing, as all who knew her declared that it\\nwas; if she failed where so many lesser women\\nhave succeeded, her failure was entirely due to\\nher ignorance of the art of flirtation, an art\\nwhich is as old as sex, and to which men have\\nbeen accustomed since the world began. Even\\nthe most refined, the most highly developed men,\\nare not geniuses in this matter, where everything\\nhas always been most carefully arranged for them.\\nAnd if they did not fall in love with Sonia, it\\nwas due to a kind of purity with which she", "height": "3538", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0052.jp2"}, "53": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 31\\nunconsciously regarded the preliminaries of love,\\na kind of nobility which existed in her more\\nmodern nature, and a lack of the ancient instinct\\nwhich had been a lost heritage to her.\\nSonia belonged to a class of women who have\\nonly been produced in the latter half of our cen-\\ntury, but in such large numbers that it is they\\nwho have determined the modern type. We\\ncannot help hoping that they are but transitory,\\nso greatly do their assumptions seem opposed to\\ntheir sex, and yet they are formed of the best\\nmaterial that the age supplies. They are the\\nwomen who object to begin life by fulfilling their\\ndestinies as women, and who consider that they\\nhave duties of greater importance than that of\\nbecoming wives and mothers; they are the\\nclever daughters of the middle-class families,\\nwho, as governesses and teachers, swarm in every\\ncountry in Europe. The popular opinion about\\nthem is that they do not want to marry; and as\\nthat, by the majority of men, is interpreted to\\nmean that they are no good as wives, they turn\\nto the herd of geese who are driven yearly to the\\nmarket, and who go cackling to meet their fate.\\nAnd although the descendants of such fathers\\nand such mothers present a very small amount of\\nintelligence capable of development, yet it is\\nthey who form the majority, and the majority is\\nalways right. Formerly, it was people s sole\\nobject to get their daughters married, clever and\\nstupid alike; it was an understood thing. But", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0053.jp2"}, "54": {"fulltext": "32 Six Modern Women\\nnowadays, the ones with good heads are set\\napart to lead celibate lives, while those who are\\nhard of understanding are brought into the\\nmarriage market. This method of distribution\\nhas already become one of the first principles of\\nmiddle-class economy. The daughters who are\\nconsidered capable of providing for themselves\\nare given a good education, accompanied by\\nnumerous hints as to the large sums which their\\nparents have spent on them; while, together\\nwith the inevitable marriage portion, every effort\\nis made to find husbands for the others with as\\nlittle delay as possible. The first named are\\nthe clever women, but the latter make the\\nbest wives; and man s sense of justice in the\\ndistribution of the good things of this life has\\nfixed a stern practical barrier between these two\\nclasses.\\nThe intellectual women themselves were origi-\\nnally to blame for raising a distinction which is\\nso essentially characteristic of our time. They\\nwere the first to separate themselves, and to force\\nthe narrow-minded bourgeois to entertain other\\nthan the ordinary ideas concerning women. They\\nthrust aside the dishes which were spread for\\nthem on life s table, and grasped at others which\\nhad hitherto been considered the sole property of\\nmen, such as smoking and drinking. And when\\nit appeared that they were really able to pass\\nexaminations and smoke cigarettes, without suf-\\nfering any apparent harm from either, the spirit", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0054.jp2"}, "55": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 33\\nof equality, so popular at th ;:X time, was\\nquick to recognize a proof of the equality between\\nman and wife, and to proclaim the equal rights of\\nboth, as well as the equality of the brain. They\\ndid not mention the other human ingredient,\\nwhich could never be either equal or identical,\\nbecause it is always inconvenient to go to the\\nroot of a thing, and the arguments of this mate-\\nrialistic century are too superficial ever to go\\nbelow the surface.\\nCan it be true that the talented woman has\\nactually forgotten that destiny intended her to be\\na woman, and bound her by eternal laws Can\\nit be true that the best women have an unnatural\\ndesire to be half men, and that they would prefer\\nto shirk the duties of motherhood? A woman s\\nstupidity would not suffice to account for such\\nan interpretation; it needs all a man s thick-\\nheadedness; and yet there is no doubt that that\\nis, to a great extent, the popular view of the case.\\nThe women whose intellectual abilities are above\\nthe average are often those who lay themselves\\nopen to the reproach that they have abandoned\\ntheir sex and yet, strange to say, some of them\\nhave attained to mature womanhood at an exceed-\\ningly early age. Sonia, who was par preference\\nthe woman of genius of this century, was only\\nnine years old when she flew into a passion of\\njealousy, caused by a little girl who was sitting\\non the knees of her handsome young uncle. She\\nbit him in the arm till it bled, merely because she\\n3", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0055.jp2"}, "56": {"fulltext": "34 Six Modern Women\\nbelieved that he liked the child better than her-\\nself; that this was something more than mere\\nchildish naughtiness, is shown by the fact that\\nher feelings towards her uncle were so changed\\nthat from that moment she felt disillusioned, and\\ntreated him with coldness.\\nDisillusioned Even in their childhood these\\nwomen have a strong, though indistinct, con-\\nsciousness of their own worth as compared to\\nordinary women. They are always on the watch,\\nand they have a good memory. Unlike ordinary\\nyoung girls, they do not fall in love with mere\\noutward qualities, nor with the first man who\\nhappens to cross their path. They wish to marry\\nsome one superior to themselves, and they do not\\nmistake a passing passion for love. Then when\\nthe first years of adolescence with their hot\\nimpulses are past, and a temporary calm sets in,\\nthey experience a new desire, which is that they\\nmay enter into the full possession of their own\\nbeing before beginning to raise a new generation.\\nPhysical maturity, which has hitherto been con-\\nsidered sufficient, has placed the need for intel-\\nlectual and psychical maturity in the shade. They\\nwant to be grown-up in mind and soul before\\nentering on life; they do not wish to remain\\nchildren always; they want to develop all their\\ncapabilities, and this longing for individuality,\\nfor which the road has not yet been made clear,\\nnearly always leads them astray into the wilder-\\nness of study.", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0056.jp2"}, "57": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 35\\nThis is certainly the case when they are urged\\non, as Sonia Kovalevsky was, by a remarkable\\ntalent. She was not even obliged to follow the\\nusual weary path of study; richly endowed and\\nfavorably situated as she was, she discovered a\\nmore direct way than is possible to the majority\\nof girl students. Few have been able to begin\\nas she did at the age of seventeen, under the pro-\\ntection of a devoted husband, and under the\\nguidance of learned men, who took a personal\\ninterest in her welfare. Few have finished at\\nthe age of twenty-four, and have been loaded\\nwith distinctions while in the full bloom of their\\nyouth, able to stand on the threshold of a rich,\\nfull life, while fortune bid them take and choose\\nwhatever they might wish.\\nYet these were but hollow joys that were\\noffered to her. Those six years of protracted\\nstudy left her weak in body and soul, and so weary\\nthat she needed a long period of idle vegetation,\\nand she felt an aversion from the very studies in\\nwhich she had accomplished so much. Sonia had\\noverworked herself in the way that most girls over-\\nwork themselves in their examinations, whether\\nit be for the university or as teachers they work\\non with persistent diligence, looking neither to\\nthe right nor to the left, but going straight ahead\\nas though they were the victims of hypnotic sug-\\ngestion, with all their energies paralyzed except\\none solitary organ, the memory. A man never\\ndoes this; he interrupts his studies with social", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0057.jp2"}, "58": {"fulltext": "36 Six Modern Women\\nrecreations and by means of a system of hygiene,\\napplied alike to body and soul, from which a\\nwoman is excluded, no less on account of her\\nwomanly susceptibility than owing to conven-\\ntional views. During this period of nervous ten-\\nsion, her sex is silent or if it shows itself at all,\\nit does so only in general irritability.\\nThis was the case with Sonia; but until she\\nbecame thoroughly engrossed in her work at\\nWeierstrass s, Valdemar Kovalevsky had a great\\ndeal to endure. It was not enough for her that\\nshe made him run all kinds of messages, which\\na servant could have done as well, but she was\\nalways going to see him in his bachelor apart-\\nments, and planning little excursions, and she\\nwas never satisfied unless she could have him to\\nherself. Valdemar did not understand her. He\\nhad willingly consented to become the husband,\\nin name only, of an undeveloped little girl, and\\nhe respected the distorted ideas of the time,\\nwhich had got firmly fixed into this same little\\ngirl s head. It is very natural that Sonia should\\nnot have understood the situation; it was not her\\nbusiness to do so, it was his. But she was always\\nirritable and vexed after a tete-a-tete of any length\\nwith him, and long after his death she used scorn-\\nfully to say: He could get on capitally without\\nme. If he had his cigarettes, his cup of tea, and\\na book, it was all that he required.\\nValdemar Kovalevsky, the translator of Brehm s\\nBirds and other popular scientific works into", "height": "3541", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0058.jp2"}, "59": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 37\\nRussian, appears to have belonged to that por-\\ntion of the male sex who are called para-\\ngons. He drudged diligently, had few wants,\\nalways did what was right, and never gave in.\\nBut he was in no way suited to Sonia, and\\nthe fact of his having agreed to her proposal\\nproves it. After he had gone to Jena to escape\\nfrom her wilful squandering of his time, an\\nestrangement took place between them, and at\\nBerlin she seems to have behaved as though she\\nwere ashamed of him. She was living then, as\\nwe have seen, with a girl friend who was a fellow-\\nstudent of hers and although she let Valdemar\\nfetch her from Weierstrass s, she introduced him\\nto no one, and did not let it appear that he was\\nher husband. Afterwards, when she had finished\\nher studies and undergone a long period of en-\\nforced idleness at the time when her nerves were\\nshaken by her father s death, she clung so closely\\nto him that a little warmth came into his stolid\\nnature. But, naturally enough, neither her affec-\\ntion nor the birth of a daughter could change his\\nnature, and even during the short time when they\\nwere together at St. Petersburg he allowed an\\nintriguing swindler to come between them. Re-\\npulsed, dissatisfied, and saddened, Sonia went to\\nParis.\\nShe wished to stand alone, and the only way\\nin which this was possible was to turn her studies\\nto account and to work for her own bread. She\\nhad given up the wish to be a learned woman she", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0059.jp2"}, "60": {"fulltext": "38 Six Modern Women\\nwanted to be a wife, to be loved and made happy;\\nshe had done her best, but it had turned out a\\nfailure. It was just about this time that she\\nreceived an invitation through Professor Mittag-\\nLeffler to be teacher under him in the new high\\nschool at Stockholm. He was Fru Leffler s\\nbrother, and a pupil of Weierstrass s. Sonia\\ngratefully consented, but a fine ear detects a\\npeculiar undertone in the letters with which she\\nresponded.\\nIn Stockholm she did not show the womanly\\nside of her character to any one, least of all to\\nProfessor Mittag-Leffler, with whom she was on\\nterms of the most cordial friendship. She found\\nherself in very uncongenial surroundings, in a\\nsociety where life was conducted on the strictest\\nutilitarian principles. It was the worst time of\\nher life, and one from which her impressionable\\nnature never entirely recovered.\\nBefore this, however, while she was in Paris,\\nshe had an experience which was truly charac-\\nteristic of her.\\nIn the interval which elapsed between her\\nseparation from her husband and his death, she\\nmade the acquaintance of a young Pole, who was,\\nas Fru Lefiier tells us, a revolutionary, a mathe-\\nmatician, a poet, with a soul aglow with enthu-\\nsiasm like her own. It was the first time that\\nshe had met any one who really understood her,\\nwho shared her varying moods, and sympathized\\nwith all her thoughts and dreams as he did.", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0060.jp2"}, "61": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 39\\nThey were nearly always together, and the short\\nhours when they were apart were spent in writ-\\ning long effusions to each other. They were wild\\nabout the idea that human beings were created\\nin couples, and that men and women are only\\nhalf beings until they have found their other\\nhalf. He was with her by night and day,\\nfor he could seldom make up his mind to go\\nbefore two o clock in the morning, when he would\\nclimb over the garden wall, quite regardless of\\nwhat people would think. Fru Leffler, who had\\npassed the twenty years of her first marriage in\\nthe outer courts of the temple of Hymen, and only\\nlearned to know love and the joys of motherhood\\nat the age of forty, alludes to this incident as\\nbeing very curious. Because the two did noth-\\ning but talk, talk, talk, revelling in each other s\\nconversation, and assuring one another that they\\ncould never be united, because he was going\\nto keep himself pure for the girl who was\\nwandering about on this or another planet, and\\nkeeping herself for him.\\nOne would imagine that this was childish non-\\nsense, and that a woman of Sonia s intelligence,\\nwith her position in the world, must surely have\\nsent the silly boy about his business as soon as\\nhe began to talk in this strain. But no her soul\\nmelted into his like two flames which unite in\\none common glow. And there they sat, ner-\\nvous and excited, unable to tear themselves away\\nfrom each other, flinging endless chains of words", "height": "3533", "width": "2177", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0061.jp2"}, "62": {"fulltext": "40 Six Modern Women\\nbackwards and forwards across the table, and\\npouring streams of witticism into Danai de s bar-\\nrel, talking as though life depended upon it, for\\nthere must not be any pauses, anything was\\nbetter than those dreadful pauses, when one seems\\nto hear nothing but the beating of one s own\\npulse, when shy eyes meet another s, and cold\\ndamp hands seek for a corner in which to hide\\nthemselves.\\nWe do not know what pleasure the pure\\nyoung mathematician, poet, and Pole could find\\nin this, nor do we care; we leave that to those\\nwho take an interest in the ebullitions of model\\nyoung men of his class. The only part of the\\nsituation with which we are concerned is Sonia\\nherself, and she is extremely interesting. In\\nthe first place, such a situation as this is never\\nbrought about by the man, or, at any rate, not\\nmore than once; and a woman cannot be en-\\ntrapped into it against her will. The silliest\\nschoolgirl knows how to get rid of a troublesome\\nman when she wishes; they all do it brilliantly.\\nIt is quite a different matter when she wants him\\nto stay, when she is trembling with excitement,\\nand dreads the moment when he will rise to go.\\nWho is not well acquainted with the situation,\\nespecially when the parties concerned are an\\nintelligent girl and a dilettante man? In this\\ncase Sonia was the intelligent girl. Her behavior\\nwas that of a young lady who is painfully con-\\nscious of her own inexperience. A married", "height": "3519", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0062.jp2"}, "63": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 41\\nwoman who knows what love is can be calm in\\nthe presence of the warmest passion. She knows\\nso well the path which leads astray that she no\\nlonger fears the unknown, and uncertainty has\\nno attraction for her.\\nI shall probably be told that it is the married\\nwomen who enjoy these situations most. That\\nis quite true. There are many married women\\nfor whom marriage is neither V amour gout, nor\\nV amour passion, nor V amour savant, nor yet any\\nother love, but a mere mechanical transaction.\\nIf the husband is indifferent he cannot rouse his\\nwife s love. Not motherhood, but the lover s\\nkiss, awakes the Sleeping Beauty. And in the\\nMadonna s immaculate conception the Church\\nhas incarnated the virgin mother in a profound\\nsymbol, which only needs a psychological inter-\\npretation to make it applicable to thousands of\\nevery-day cases.\\nExtraordinary though it may seem, Sonia was\\non this occasion, as on many other occasions in\\nlater life, a woman who experienced desire with-\\nout being in the least aware of it. She was like\\na virgin mother who had borne a child without\\nknowing man s love. Valdemar Kovalevsky, who\\nseems to me to have been incapable of filling any\\nposition in life, was certainly not the husband for\\nSonia, who, as a woman of genius, cannot be\\njudged by the same standard as ordinary women.\\nThe average man is certainly not suited to be\\nthe husband of an exceptional woman with an", "height": "3558", "width": "2180", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0063.jp2"}, "64": {"fulltext": "42 Six Modern Women\\noriginal mind and sensitive temperament. But\\nthey do not know themselves; for it is in the\\nnature of great talents to remain hidden from\\ntheir owners, who have a long way to go before\\nthey attain to the full realization of their own\\npowers. Only those geniuses whose talents have\\nlittle or no connection with their individuality\\nare sufficiently alive to their own claims not to\\nfall short in life, and not to allow themselves to\\nbe hindered by any natural modesty.\\nModesty comes only too naturally to great\\ngeniuses. They are conscious of being different\\nfrom other people, yet when they are compelled\\nto come forward they only do so under protest,\\nand then beg every one s pardon. The richest\\nnatures are the least conscious of their own\\npowers; they are ashamed because they think\\nthat they are offering a copper, when in reality\\nthey are giving away kingdoms. This is doubly\\ntrue of the woman who knows nothing of her\\nown powers until the man comes to reveal them\\nto her.\\nIt was the same with Sonia. She was always\\ngiving away handfuls, her mind, her learning,\\nher social gifts; she placed them all at the dis-\\nposal of others yet when she, who felt the eter-\\nnal loneliness which accompanies genius, asked\\nfor the entire affection of another, she was told\\nthat she asked too much. There can be no agree-\\nment between that which genius has the right to\\nask, and mediocrity the power to give. It was", "height": "3511", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0064.jp2"}, "65": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 43\\nnot a very strong affection that she had for the\\nyoung Pole, and, such as it was, it did but inten-\\nsify her sense of loneliness. It was at Paris that\\nshe received the news of her husband s suicide;\\nand she, who suffered so acutely from every suc-\\ncessive death in her family, seemed doomed to\\nreceive one blow after another at the hand of\\nfate. She had scarcely recovered from a nervous\\nfever, resulting from the shock, when she was\\ncalled to Stockholm by the supporters of women s\\nrights, to Stockholm, where her soul congealed,\\nher mind was unsatisfied, and where her body\\nwas to die.\\nVI\\nI shall only give a hasty sketch of the years that\\nfollowed. Fru LefHer has given us a detailed\\naccount of them in her book on Sonia, and Ellen\\nKey, in her life of Fru LefHer, has made the\\ncrooked straight, and has filled in some of the\\ngaps. I shall merely touch upon this period for\\nthe sake of those of my readers who are not\\nacquainted with either of the above-mentioned\\nworks. These years were about the most life-\\nless, and, psychologically speaking, the most\\nempty in Sonia s life. She was called upon to\\ntake part in a movement which from its com-\\nmencement was doomed to fail on account of its\\nnarrow principles. The social circle was divided", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0065.jp2"}, "66": {"fulltext": "44 Six Modern Women\\ninto two separate groups, one of which consisted\\nof ladies and dilettante youths, very excitable\\nand full of zeal for reform, but without a single\\nreally superior man among them; the other was\\nof an essentially Swedish character, consisting\\nchiefly of men the better class of women were\\nexcluded, and drinking bouts, night revelling,\\nclub life, song-singing, and easy-going friendship\\nwas the rule. These included a few talented\\npeople among their number, and expressed the\\nutmost contempt for the other group. For the\\nfirst time in her life Sonia was made to do\\nordinary every-day work, and to exert herself\\nafter the manner of a mere drudge, or a cart-\\nhorse, for payment. Her position rendered her\\ndependent on the moral standard of a clique.\\nWith the flexibility of her Russian nature, she\\nrenounced the freedom to which she had been\\naccustomed, and devoted herself to her duties\\nas lecturer under a professor. This work soon\\nbegan to weary her to death. Mathematics\\nlost their charm now that the genius of old\\nWeierstrass was no longer there to elucidate\\nthe problems, and to encourage her to do\\nthat which women had hitherto been unable\\nto accomplish.\\nFor some time she struggled on through thick\\nand thin, without however sinking low enough to\\ngive her superiors no longer any cause to shake\\ntheir heads or to admonish her. Lively, witty,\\nand unassuming, the task of entertaining people", "height": "3539", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0066.jp2"}, "67": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 45\\nat their social gatherings fell to her share, and\\nshe bore the weight of it without a murmur,\\nuntil her wasted amiability resulted in an undue\\nfamiliarity in the circle of her admirers, of both\\nsexes, causing her much vexation. When the\\nfirst excitement of novelty was passed, she de-\\nvoted herself chiefly to her true but stolid friend,\\nAnne Charlotte Leffler. It was one of those\\nfriendships which are getting to be very common\\nnow that women are becoming intellectual; it\\nwas not the result of any deep mutual sympathy,\\nnor was it formed out of the fulness of their lives,\\nbut rather from the consciousness that there was\\nsomething lacking, as when two minus combine\\nin the attempt to form one plus. Then as soon\\nas the plus is there, all interest in one another,\\nand all mutual sympathy is a thing of the past,\\nas it proved in this case, when the Duke of\\nCajanello appeared on Fru Leffler s horizon, and\\nshe afterwards, in the honeymoon of her happi-\\nness, possibly with the best of intentions, but\\nwith very little tact or sympathy, wrote her\\nobituary book on Sonia.\\nOne of the results of this friendship was a\\nseries of unsuccessful literary attempts, for which\\nthe material was provided by Sonia, and drama-\\ntized by Fru Leffler. The latter tried to put\\nSonia s psychological, intuitive experiences into\\na realistic shape, and the result was, as might be\\nexpected, a failure. Sonia was a mystic, whose\\nwhole being was one indistinct longing, without", "height": "3542", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0067.jp2"}, "68": {"fulltext": "46 Six Modern Women\\nbeginning and without end; Fru Leffler was an\\nenlightened woman, daughter of a college rector,\\nwho worked incessantly at her own develop-\\nment. Even while the work of collaboration\\nwas in progress, a slight friction began to make\\nitself felt between the two friends. Fru Leffler\\nwas vexed at having, as she expressed it, repud-\\niated her own child in the story called Round\\nabout Marriage, in which she attempted to\\ndescribe the lives of women who remain unmar-\\nried. The storms raised by Sonia s vivid imagi-\\nnation oppressed her, and imported a foreign\\nelement into her sober style, resulting in long\\npadded novels, which were too ambitious, and\\nhad a false ring about them. Her influence on\\nSonia produced the opposite result. Sonia saw\\nthat Fru Leffler was less talented than she had\\nsupposed, and this made her place greater con-\\nfidence in, her own merits as an author. She\\nbegan to write a story of her own youth, called\\nThe Sisters Rajevsky, which we have already\\nmentioned, followed by a story about the so-\\ncalled Nihilists, Vera Barantzova both these\\nbooks displayed a wider experience, and con-\\ntained the promise of greater things than any of\\nthe contemporaneous literature by women, but\\nthey did not receive the recognition which they\\ndeserved, because nobody understood the char-\\nacters which she depicted.\\nUp till now there has been a fundamental\\nerror in all the attempts made to understand", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0068.jp2"}, "69": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 47\\nSonia Kovalevsky, and the fault is chiefly due to\\nFru Leffler, who wrote of her from the following\\nstandpoint\\nI am great and you are great,\\nWe are both equally great.\\nSonia and her biographer are by no means\\nequally great. To compare Fru Leffler to\\nSonia is like comparing a nine days wonder\\nto an eternal phenomenon. One is an ordi-\\nnary woman with a carefully cultivated talent,\\nwhile the other is one of those mysteries who,\\nfrom time to time, make their appearance in\\nthe world, in whom nature seems to have over-\\nstepped her boundaries, and who are created\\nto live lonely lives, to suffer and to die without\\nhaving ever attained the full possession of their\\nown being.\\nIn the year 1888, at the age of thirty-eight,\\nSonia learned for the first time to know the love\\nwhich is a woman s destiny. M. K. was a great,\\nheavy Russian boyar, who had been a professor,\\nbut was dismissed on account of his free-think-\\ning views. He was a dissipated man and rich,\\nand had spent his time in travelling since he left\\nRussia. He was no longer young, like the Duke\\nof Cajanello. A few years older than Sonia, he\\nwas one of those complacent, self-centred char-\\nacters who have never known what it is to long\\nfor sympathy, who are totally devoid of ideals,\\nand are not given to vain illusions. Compara-", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0069.jp2"}, "70": {"fulltext": "48 Six Modern Women\\ntively speaking, an older woman always has a\\nbetter chance with a man younger than herself,\\nand there was nothing very surprising in the love\\nwhich the young and insignificant Duke bestowed\\non Fru Leffler. With Sonia it was quite differ-\\nent. The boyar had already enjoyed as many of\\nthe good things of this world as he desired; he\\nwas both practical and sceptical, the kind of man\\nwhom women think attractive, and who boast that\\nthey understand women. I am not at liberty to\\nmention his name, as he is still alive and enjoys\\ngood health. He was interested in Sonia, as\\nmuch as he was capable of being interested in\\nany one, because she was a compatriot to be\\nproud of, and he also liked her because she was\\ngood company, but Sonia never acquired all the\\npower over him which she should have had. He\\nwas not like a susceptible young man who is\\ninfluenced by the first woman who has really\\ngiven him the full passion of her love. The\\nlong-repressed love which was now lavished upon\\nhim by the woman who was no longer young had\\nnone of the surprise of novelty in it, not even\\nthe unexpected treasure of flattered vanity. He\\naccepted it calmly, and never for a moment did\\nhe allow it to interfere with his mode of life.\\nEven though he had no wife, his bachelor s exist-\\nence had never lacked the companionship of\\nwomen. Sonia should occupy the position of\\nwife, but an ardent lover it was no longer in his\\npower to be.", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0070.jp2"}, "71": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 49\\nThe conflict points plainly to a double rupture\\nbetween them, the one internal and the other\\nexternal, both brought about by the spirit of\\nthe age.\\nSonia s womanhood bad awakened in her the\\nfirst time they met, and he became her first love.\\nShe loved him as a young girl loves, with a\\ntrembling and ungovernable joy at finding all\\nthat had hitherto been hidden in herself; she\\nrejoiced in the knowledge that he was there, that\\nshe would see him again to-morrow as she had\\nseen him to-day, that she could touch him, hold\\nhim with her hands. She lived only when she\\nsaw him; her senses were dulled when he was\\nno longer there. It was then that Stockholm\\nbecame thoroughly hateful to her; it seemed to\\nhold her fast in its clutches, to crush the woman\\nin her, and to deprive her of her nationality.\\nHe represented the South, the great world of\\nintellect and freedom but above all else, he was\\nhome, he was Russia! He was the emblem of\\nher native land; he had come speaking the lan-\\nguage in which her nurse had sung to her, in\\nwhich her father and sister and all the loved and\\nlost had spoken to her; he was her hearth and\\nhome in the dreary world. But more than all\\nthis, he was the only man capable of arousing\\nher love.\\nBut if she took a short holiday and followed\\nhim to Paris and Italy, his cold greeting was\\nsure to chill her inmost being, and instead of\\n4", "height": "3555", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0071.jp2"}, "72": {"fulltext": "So Six Modern Women\\nthe comfort which she had hoped to find in his\\nlove and sympathy, she was thrown back upon\\nherself, more miserable and disappointed than\\nbefore.\\nHer spirits were beginning to give way. It\\nseemed as though the world were growing empty\\naround her and the darkness deepening, while\\nshe stood in the midst of it all, alone and unpro-\\ntected. But what drove matters to a climax was\\nthat their most intimate daily intercourse took\\nplace just at the time when she was in Paris\\nworking hard, and sitting up at nights. When\\nshe was awarded the Prix Bordin on Christmas\\nEve, 1888, in the presence of the greatest French\\nmathematicians, she forgot that she was a Euro-\\npean celebrity, whose name would endure forever\\nand be numbered among the women who had out-\\nstripped all others; she was only conscious of\\nbeing an overworked woman, suffering from one\\nof those nervous illnesses when white seems\\nturned to black, joy to sorrow, enduring the\\nunutterable misery caused by mental and physi-\\ncal exhaustion, when the night brings no rest to\\nthe tortured nerves. As is always the case with\\nproductive natures under like circumstances, her\\npassions were at their highest pitch, and she\\nneeded sympathy from without to give relief. It\\nwas then that she received an offer of marriage\\nfrom the man whom she loved but she was too\\nwell aware of the gulf which lay between his\\ngentlemanly bearing and her devouring passion", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0072.jp2"}, "73": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 51\\nto accept it, and determined that since she could\\nnot have all she would have nothing. It may be\\nthat she was haunted by the recollection of her\\nfirst marriage, or she may have been influenced\\nby the woman s rights standpoint which weighs\\nas in a scale For so and so many ounces of love,\\nI must have so and so many ounces of love and\\nfidelity; and for so and so many yards of virtuous\\nbehavior, I have a right to expect exactly the\\nsame amount from him.\\nIt happened, however, that the man in ques-\\ntion would not admit of such calculations, and\\nSonia went back to Stockholm and her hated\\nuniversity work with the painful knowledge of\\nnever having been all in all to anybody. After\\na time she began to realize that love is not a thing\\nwhich can be weighed and measured. She now\\nconcentrated her strength in an attempt to free\\nherself from her work at Stockholm, which had\\nbeen turned into a life-long appointment since\\nshe won the Prix Bordin; she longed to get away\\nfrom Sweden, where she felt very lonely, having\\nno one to whom she could confide her thoughts.\\nShe had some hopes of being given an honorary\\nappointment as a member of the Imperial Russian\\nAcademy, which would place her in a position of\\npecuniary independence, with the liberty to reside\\nwhere she pleased. But when she returned to\\nher work at Stockholm in the beginning of the\\nyear 1891, after a trip to Italy in company with\\nthe man whom she loved, it was with the convic-", "height": "3556", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0073.jp2"}, "74": {"fulltext": "52 Six Modern Women\\ntion, grown stronger than ever, of not being able\\nto put up with the loneliness and emptiness of\\nher existence any longer, and with the determi-\\nnation of throwing everything aside and accepting\\nhis proposal.\\nShe came to this decision while suffering from\\nextreme weariness. Her Russian temperament\\nwas very much opposed to the manner of her\\nlife for the last few years. Her spirits, which\\nwavered between a state of exaltation and apathy,\\nwere depressed by a regular routine of work and\\nsocial intercourse, and she was never allowed the\\nthorough rest which she so greatly needed. In\\none year she lost all who were dear to her and\\nthough dissatisfied with her own life, she was\\nable to sympathize deeply with her beloved sister\\nAnjuta, whose proud dreams of youth were either\\ndoomed to destruction, or else their fulfilment\\nwas accompanied with disappointment, while she\\nherself was dying slowly, body and soul. Life\\nhad dealt hardly with both these sisters. When\\nSonia travelled home for the last time, after ex-\\nchanging the warm, cheerful South for the cold,\\ndismal North, she broke down altogether. Alone\\nand over-tired as she always was on these innu-\\nmerable journeys, which were only undertaken in\\norder to cure her nervous restlessness, her spirits\\nwere no longer able to encounter the discomforts\\nof travel, and she gave way. The perpetual\\nchanges, whether in rain, wind, or snow, accom-\\npanied by all the small annoyances, such as get-", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0074.jp2"}, "75": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 53\\nting money changed, and finding no porters,\\noverpowered her, and for a short time life seemed\\nto have lost all its value. With an utter disre-\\ngard for consequences, she exposed herself to all\\nwinds and weathers, and arrived ill at Stockholm,\\nwhere her course of lectures was to begin imme-\\ndiately. A heavy cold ensued, accompanied by\\nan attack of fever; and so great was her longing\\nfor fresh air, that she ran out into the street on\\na raw February day in a light dress and thin\\nshoes.\\nHer illness was short she died a couple of\\ndays after it began. Two friends watched beside\\nher, and she thanked them warmly for the care\\nthey took of her, thanked them as only strangers\\nare thanked. They had gone home to rest before\\nthe death-struggle began, and there was no one\\nwith her but a strange nurse, who had just\\narrived. She died alone, as she had lived,\\ndied, and was buried in the land where she had\\nnot wished to live, and where her best strength\\nhad been spent.\\nVII\\nThere is yet another picture behind the one\\ndepicted in these pages. It is large, dark, and\\nmysterious, like a reflection in the water; we\\nsee it, but it melts away each time we try to\\ngrasp it.", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0075.jp2"}, "76": {"fulltext": "54 Six Modern Women\\nWhen we know the story of a person s life,\\nand are acquainted with their surroundings and\\nthe conditions under which they have been\\nbrought up when we have been told about their\\nsufferings, and the illness of which they died, we\\nimagine that we know all about them, and are\\nable to form a more or or less correct portrait of\\nthem in our mind s eye, and we even think that\\nwe are in a position to judge of their life and\\ncharacter. There is scarcely any one whose life\\nis less veiled to the public gaze than Sonia\\nKovalevsky s. She was very frank and communi-\\ncative, and took quite a psychological interest in\\nher own character; she had nothing to conceal*\\nand was known by a large number of people\\nthroughout Europe. She lived her life before\\nthe eyes of the public, and died of inflamma-\\ntion of the lungs, brought on by an attack of\\ninfluenza.\\nSuch was Sonia Kovalevsky s life as depicted\\nby Fru Leffler, in a manner which reveals a very\\nlimited comprehension of her subject; the chief\\nthing missing is the likeness to Sonia.\\nThis sketch was afterwards corrected and com-\\npleted with great sympathy and delicacy by Ellen\\nKey, but she has also failed to catch the likeness\\nof Sonia Kovalevsky.\\nAnd mine written as it is with the full con-\\nsciousness of being better able to understand\\nher than either of these two, partly on account of\\nthe impressions left by my own half-Russian", "height": "3519", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0076.jp2"}, "77": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 55\\nchildhood; partly, too, because in some ways\\nmy temperament resembles hers my sketch,\\nalthough it is an analysis of her life, is not\\nSonia Kovalevsky.\\nShe is still standing there, supernaturally\\ngreat, like a shadow when the moon rises, which\\nseems to grow larger the longer one looks at it;\\nand as I write this, I feel as though she were as\\nnear to me as a body that one knocks up against\\nin the dark. She comes and goes. Sometimes\\nshe appears close beside me sitting on the flower-\\ntable, a little bird-like figure, and I seem to\\nsee her quite distinctly; then, as soon as I begin\\nto realize her presence, she has gone. And I\\nask myself, Who is she I do not know she\\ndid not know it herself. She lived, it is true,\\nbut she never lived her own, real, individual\\nlife.\\nShe remains there still, a form which came\\nout of the darkness and went back into the same.\\nShe was a thorough child of the age in every\\nlittle characteristic of her aimless life; she was\\na woman of this century, or/rather, she was what\\nthis century forces a woman to be, a genius for\\nnothing, a woman for nothing, ever struggling\\nalong a road which leads to nowhere, and faint-\\ning on the way as she strives to attain a distant\\nmirage. Tired to death, and yet afraid to die,\\nshe died because the instinct for self-preservation\\nforsook her for the space of a single instant; died\\nonly to be buried under a pile of obituary notices,", "height": "3540", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0077.jp2"}, "78": {"fulltext": "56 Six Modern Women\\nand forgotten for the next novelty. But behind\\nthem all she stands, an immortal personality, hot\\nand volcanic as the world s centre, a thorough\\nwoman, yet more than a woman. Her brain rose\\nsuperior to sex, and learned to think independ-\\nently, only to be dragged down again and made\\nsubservient to sex; her soul was full of mys-\\nticism, conscious of the Infinite existing in her\\nlittle body, and out of her little body again soar-\\ning up towards the Infinite, a one day s super-\\nficial consciousness which allowed itself to be\\nled astray by public opinion, yet possessing, all\\nthe while, a sub-consciousness, which, poetically\\nviewed, clung fast to the eternal realities in her\\nwomanly frame, and would not let them rise to\\nthe brain, which, freed from the body, floated in\\nempty space. Hers was a queenly mind, feeding\\na hundred beggars at her board, giving to all,\\nbut confiding in none.\\nEllen Key once said to me: When she shook\\nhands, you felt as if a little bird with a beating\\nheart had fluttered into your hand and out again.\\nAnd another friend, Hilma Strandberg, a young\\nwriter of great promise, whose after career belied\\nits commencement, said, after her first meeting\\nwith Sonia, that she had felt as though the latter s\\nglance had pierced her through and through, after\\nwhich she seemed to be dissecting her soul, bit\\nby bit, every bit vanishing into thin air; this\\npsychical experience was followed by such violent\\nbodily discomfort that she almost fainted, and it", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0078.jp2"}, "79": {"fulltext": "The Learned Woman 57\\nwas only with the greatest difficulty that she\\nmanaged to get home.\\nBoth these descriptions prove that Sonia s\\nhands and eyes were the most striking part of her\\npersonality. Many anecdotes are told about her\\npenetrating glance, but this is the only one which\\nmentions her hands, although it is true that Fru\\nLeffler remarked that they were very much dis-\\nfigured by veins. But this one is sufficient to\\ncomplete a picture of her which I remember to\\nhave seen: she has a slender little child s body,\\nand her hands are the hands of a child, with\\nnervous, crooked little fingers, anxiously bent\\ninwards and in one hand she clasps a book, with\\nsuch visible effort that it makes one s heart ache\\nto look at her.\\nThe hands often afford better material for\\npsychological study than the face, and they give\\na deeper and more truthful insight into the char-\\nacter because they are less under control. There\\nare people with fine, clever faces, whose hands are\\nlike sausages, fleshy and veinless, with thick\\nstumpy fingers which warn us to beware of the\\nanimated mask. And there are round, warm,\\nsensuous faces, with full, almost thick lips, which\\nare obviously contradicted by pale, blue-veined,\\nsickly-looking hands. The momentary amount\\nof intellectual power which a person has at his\\ndisposal can change the face, but the hands are\\nof a more physical nature, and their speech is a\\nmore physical one. Sonia s face was lit up by", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0079.jp2"}, "80": {"fulltext": "58 Six Modern Women\\nthe soul in her eyes, which bore witness to the\\nintense interest which she took in everything\\nthat was going on around her; but the weak,\\nnervous, trembling little hands told of the unsat-\\nisfied, helpless child, who was never to attain the\\nfull development of her womanhood.", "height": "3517", "width": "2295", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0080.jp2"}, "81": {"fulltext": "II\\nNeurotic Keynotes", "height": "3556", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0081.jp2"}, "82": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0082.jp2"}, "83": {"fulltext": "Last year there was a book published in Lon-\\ndon with the extraordinary title of Keynotes.\\nThree thousand copies were sold in the course of\\na few months, and the unknown author became\\na celebrity. Soon afterwards the portrait of a\\nlady appeared in The Sketch. She had a\\nsmall, delicate face, with a pained and rather\\ntired expression, and a curious, questioning look\\nin the eyes it was an attractive face, very gentle\\nand womanly, and yet there was something dis-\\nillusioned and unsatisfied about it. This lady\\nwrote under the pseudonym of George Egerton,\\nand Keynotes was her first book.\\nIt was a strange, book too good a book to\\nbecome famous all at once. It burst upon the\\nworld like the opening buds in spring, like the\\ncherry blossom after the first cold shower of rain.\\nWhat can have made this book so popular in the\\nEngland of to-day, which is as totally devoid of\\nall true literature as Germany itself? Was it\\nonly the writer s strong individuality, which each\\nsuccessive page impressed upon the reader s\\nnerves more vividly and more painfully than the", "height": "3550", "width": "2185", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0083.jp2"}, "84": {"fulltext": "62 Six Modern Women\\nlast? The reader, did I say? Yes, but not the\\nmale reader. There are very few men who have\\na sufficiently keen appreciation for a woman s\\nfeelings to be able to put their own minds and\\nsouls into the swing of her confession, and to\\naccord it their full sympathy. Yet there are\\nsuch men. We may perhaps come across two or\\nthree of them in a lifetime, but they disappear\\nfrom our sight, as we do from theirs. And they\\nare not readers. Their sympathy is of a deeper,\\nmore personal character, and as far as the success\\nof a book is concerned, it need not be taken into\\nconsideration at all.\\nKeynotes is not addressed to men, and it\\nwill not please them. It is not written in the\\nstyle adopted by the other women Georges,\\nGeorge Sand and George Eliot, who wrote from\\na man s point of view, with the solemnity of a\\nclergyman or the libertinism of a drawing-room\\nhero. There is nothing of the man in this book,\\nand no attempt is made to imitate him, even in\\nthe style, which springs backwards and forwards\\nas restlessly as a nervous little woman at her\\ntoilet, when her hair will not curl and her stay-\\nlace breaks. Neither is it a book which favors\\nmen; it is a book written against them, a book\\nfor our private use.\\nThere have been such books before; old-maid\\nliterature is a lucrative branch of industry, both\\nin England and Germany (the two most unliterary\\ncountries in Europe), and that is probably the", "height": "3538", "width": "2291", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0084.jp2"}, "85": {"fulltext": "Neurotic Keynotes 63\\nreason why the majority of authoresses write as\\nthough they were old maids. But there are no\\nsigns of girlish prudery in Keynotes; it is a\\nliberal book, indiscreet in respect of the inti-\\nmacies of married life, and entirely without\\nrespect for the husband it is a book with claws\\nand teeth ready to scratch and bite when the\\noccasion offers, not the book of a woman who\\nmarried for the sake of a livelihood, but the book\\nof a devoted wife, who would be inseparable from\\nher husband if only he were not so tiresome, and\\ndull, and stupid, such a thorough man, insuffer-\\nable at times, and yet indispensable as the hus-\\nband always is to the wife.\\nAnd it is the book of a gentlewoman\\nWe have had tell-tale women before, but Heaven\\npreserve us! Fru Skram is a man in petticoats;\\nshe speaks her mind plainly enough, rather too\\nplainly to suit my taste. Gyp, a distinguished\\nFrenchwoman, has written Autour du Manage,\\nand she cannot be said to mince matters either.\\nBut here we have something quite different;\\nsomething which does not in the least resemble\\nGyp s frivolous worldliness or Amalie Skram s\\ncoarseness. Mrs. Egerton would shudder at the\\nthought of washing dirty linen in public, and she\\ncould not, even if she were to force herself, treat\\nthe relationship between husband and wife with\\ncynical irony, and she does not force herself in\\nthe very least.\\nShe writes as she really is, because she cannot", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0085.jp2"}, "86": {"fulltext": "64 Six Modern Women\\ndo otherwise. She has had an excellent educa-\\ntion, and is a lady with refined tastes, with some-\\nthing of that innocence of the grown woman\\nwhich is almost more touching than a girl s\\ninnocence, because it proves how little of his\\nknowledge of life in general, and his sex in par-\\nticular, the Teutonic husband confides to his\\nwife. She stands watching him, an eating,\\nloving, smoking organism. Heavens! how weari-\\nsome So loved, and yet so wearisome S It is\\nunbearable And she retreats into herself, and\\nrealizes that she is a woman.\\nIt is almost universal amongst women, espe-\\ncially Germans, that they do not take man as\\nseriously as he likes to imagine. They think\\nhim comical, not only when they are married\\nto him, but even before that, when they are in\\nlove with him. Men have no idea what a comical\\nappearance they present, not only as individuals,\\nbut as a race. The comic part about a man is\\nthat he is so different from women, and that is\\njust what he is proudest of. The more refined\\nand fragile a woman is, the more ridiculous she\\nis likely to find the clumsy great creature who\\ntakes such a roundabout way to gain his comical\\nends.\\nTo young girls especially man offers a per-\\npetual excuse for a laugh, and a secret shudder.\\nWhen men find a group of women laughing among\\nthemselves, they never suspect that it is they who\\nare the cause of it. And that again is so comic", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0086.jp2"}, "87": {"fulltext": "Neurotic Keynotes 65\\nThe better a man is, the more he is in earnest\\nwhen he makes his pathetic appeal for a great\\nlove; and woman, who takes a special delight in\\nplaying a little false, even when there is no\\nnecessity, becomes as earnest and solemn as he,\\nwhen all the time she is only making fun of\\nhim. A woman wants amusement, wants change;\\na monotonous existence drives her to despair,\\nwhereas a man thrives on monotony, and the\\ncleverer he is the more he wishes to retire into\\nhimself, that he may draw upon his own resources\\na clever woman needs variety, that she may\\ntake her impressions from without.\\nThe early blossoms of the cherry-tree\\nshudder beneath the cold rain which has burst\\ntheir scales; this shudder is the deepest vibra-\\ntion in Mrs. Egerton s book. What is the sub-\\nject? A little woman in every imaginable mood,\\nwho is placed in all kinds of likely and unlikely\\ncircumstances: in every story it is the same little\\nwoman with a difference, the same little woman,\\nwho is always loved by a big, clumsy, comic\\nman, who is now good and well-behaved, now\\nwild, drunk, and brutal; who sometimes ill-treats\\nher, sometimes fondles her, but never under-\\nstands what it is that he ill-treats and fondles.\\nAnd she sits like a true Englishwoman with her\\nfishing-rod, and while she is waiting for a bite,\\nher thoughts go to other women she has known,\\nwomen good and bad, school friends, casual ac-\\nquaintances, women-workers, joyless machines\\n5", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0087.jp2"}, "88": {"fulltext": "66 Six Modern Women\\nfor grinding daily corn, unwilling maids grown\\nold in the endeavor to get settled, patient wives\\nwho bear little ones to indifferent husbands until\\nthey wear out, a long array. She busies herself\\nwith questioning. Have they, too, this thirst for\\nexcitement, for change, this restless craving for\\nsun and love and motion? Stray words, half\\nconfidences, glimpses through soul-chinks of sup-\\npressed fires, actual outbreaks, domestic catas-\\ntrophes, how the ghosts dance in the cells of\\nher memory And she laughs laughs softly to\\nherself because the denseness of man, his chival-\\nrous conservative devotion to the female idea he\\nhas created, blinds him, perhaps happily, to the\\nproblems of her complex nature, and weri\\nit is that the workings of our hearts are closed\\nto them, that we are cunning enough or great\\nenough to seem to be what they would have us,\\nrather than be what we are. But few of them\\nhave had the insight to find out the key to our\\nseeming contradictions, the why a refined,\\nphysically fragile woman will mate with a brute,\\na mere male animal with primitive passions,\\nand love him; the why strength and beauty\\nappeal more often than the more subtly fine qual-\\nities of mind or heart; the why women (and not\\nthe innocent ones) will condone sins that men\\nfind hard to forgive in their fellows. They have\\nall overlooked the eternal wildness, the untamed\\nprimitive savage temperament that lurks in the\\nmildest, best woman. Deep in through ages of", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0088.jp2"}, "89": {"fulltext": "Neurotic Keynotes 67\\nconvention this primeval trait burns, an untam-\\nable quantity that may be concealed, but is never\\neradicated by culture, \u00e2\u0080\u0094the keynote of woman s\\nwitchcraft and woman s strength.\\nThey are not stories which Mrs. Egerton tells\\nus. She does not care for telling stories. They\\nare keynotes which she strikes, and these key-\\nnotes met with an extraordinary and most unex-\\npected response. They struck a sympathetic chord\\nin women, which found expression in a multitude\\nof letters, and also in the sale of the book. An\\nauthor can hope for no happier fate than to receive\\nletters which re-echo the tune that he has dis-\\ncovered in his own soul. Those who have received\\ntxicm know what pleasant feelings they call forth.\\nWe often do not know where they come from, we\\ncannot answer them, nor should we wish to do so\\nif we could. They give us a sudden insight into\\nthe hidden centre of a living soul, where we can\\ngaze into the secret, yearning life, which is never\\nlived in the sight of the world, but is generally\\nthe best part of a person s nature; we feel the\\nsympathetic clasp of a friendly hand, and our own\\nsoul is filled with a thankfulness which will never\\nfind expression in words. The dark world seems\\nfilled with unknown friends, who surround us on\\nevery side like bright stars in the night.\\nMrs. Egerton had struck the fundamental chord\\nin woman s nature, and her book was received\\nwith applause by hundreds of women. The critic\\nsaid The woman in Keynotes is an excep-", "height": "3551", "width": "2186", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0089.jp2"}, "90": {"fulltext": "68 Six Modern Women\\ntional type, and we can only deal with her as\\nsuch. Good heavens How stupid they, are\\nlaughed Mrs. Egerton. Numberless women wrote\\nto her, women whom she did not know, and whose\\nacquaintance she never made. We are quite\\nordinary, every-day sort of people, they said;\\nwe lead trivial, unimportant lives; but there is\\nsomething in us which vibrates to your touch, for\\nwe, too, are such as you describe. Keynotes\\ntook like wildfire.\\nThere is nothing tangible in the book to which\\nit can be said to owe its significance. Notes are\\nnot tangible. The point on which it differs from\\nall other well-known books by women is the in-\\ntensity of its awakened consciousness as woman.\\nIt follows no pattern and is quite independent of\\nany previous work; it is simply full of a woman s\\nindividuality. It is not written on a large scale,\\nand it does not reveal a very expansive tempera-\\nment. But, such as it is, it possesses an amount\\nof nervous energy which carries us along with it,\\nand we must read every page carefully until the\\nlast one is turned, not peep at the end to see what\\nis going to happen, as we do when reading a story\\nwith a plot we must read every page for its own\\nsake, if we would feel the power of its different\\nmoods, varying from feverish haste to wearied\\nrest.", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0090.jp2"}, "91": {"fulltext": "Neurotic Keynotes 69\\nII\\nNearly a year afterwards, a book was published in\\nParis by Lemerre, called Dilettantes. Instead\\nof the author s name there were three stars, but a\\ncatalogue issued by a less illustrious publisher is\\nnot so discreet. It mentions the bearer of a well-\\nknown pseudonym as the author of the book; a\\nlady who first gained a reputation by translating\\nHungarian folk songs into French, for which she\\nreceived an acknowledgment from the Academie\\nFrancaise, and who afterwards introduced Scandi-\\nnavian authors to Paris, thereby deserving the\\nthanks of both countries. She has also made\\nherself a name in literary circles by her original\\nand clever criticisms. Those who are behind the\\nscenes know that the translator s pseudonym and\\nthe three stars conceal a lady who belongs to the\\nhighest aristocracy of Austria, and who is herself\\na dilettante, inasmuch as she writes without any\\npecuniary object, and that, quite independent of\\nher public, she writes and translates what she\\npleases. Her social position has placed her among\\nintellectual people; on her mother s side she is\\ndescended from one of the foremost families among\\nthe Austrian nobility, and she has lived in Paris\\nfrom her childhood, where she has enjoyed the\\nsociety of the best authors, and acquired a French\\nstyle which, for richness, beauty, and grace, might", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0091.jp2"}, "92": {"fulltext": "70 Six Modern Women\\nwell cause many an older French author to envy\\nher. It is in this French, which she finds more\\npliable than the homely Viennese German, that\\nthis curious book is written.\\nI search high and low for words in which to\\ndescribe the nature of this book, but in vain. It\\nis womanly to such an extent, and in such a pecu-\\nliar way, that we lack the words to express it in a\\nlanguage which has not yet learned to distinguish\\nbetween the art of man and the art of woman in\\nthe sphere of production. It has the same effect\\nupon us as Mrs. Egerton s Keynotes. 3\\nThe same reason which makes it difficult to\\nunderstand this Celtic woman with the English\\npseudonym, makes it equally difficult to draw an in-\\ntelligible picture of this French-writing Austrian,\\nwith the Polish and Hungarian blood mingled in\\nher veins. But it is not the cross between the\\nraces, nor, we might add, is it any cross between\\nsoul and ideas which makes these two women so\\nincomprehensible and almost enigmatical one is\\ntwice married, the other a girl, although she is\\nperhaps the more wearied and disillusioned of the\\ntwo, and yet it is not the outer circumstances of\\ntheir lives which render both what they are, it is\\nsomething in themselves, quite apart from the ex-\\nperience which beautifies and develops a woman s\\ncharacter; it is the keynote of their being which\\nretreats shyly to the background as though afraid\\nof the public gaze. It is the beginning of a series\\nof personal confessions at first hand, and forms an", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0092.jp2"}, "93": {"fulltext": "Neurotic Keynotes 71\\nentirely new department in women s literature.\\nHitherto, as I have already said, all books, even\\nthe best ones, written by women, are imitations of\\nmen s books, with the addition of a single high-\\npitched, feminine note, and are therefore nothing\\nbetter than communications received at second\\nhand. But at last the time has come when woman\\nis so keenly alive to her own nature that she re-\\nveals it when she speaks, even though it be in\\nriddles.\\nI have often pointed out that men only know\\nthe side of our character which they wish to see,\\nor which it may please us to show them. If they\\nare thorough men, they seek the woman in us,\\nbecause they need it as the complement to their\\nown nature; but often they seek our soul, our\\nmind, our character, or whatever else they\\nmay happen to look upon as the beautifying veil\\nof our existence. Something may come of the\\nfirst, but of the last nothing. Mrs. Egerton inter-\\npreted man from the first of the above standpoints\\nshe wrote of him half in hate and half in admira-\\ntion; her men are great clowns. The author of\\nDilettantes wrote from the opposite point of\\nview; her man is the smooth-speaking poseur,\\nof whom she writes with a shrug of the shoulders\\nand an expression of mild contempt.\\nBoth feel themselves to be so utterly different\\nfrom what they were told they were, and which\\nmen believe them to be. They do not understand\\nit at all they do not understand themselves in the", "height": "3524", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0093.jp2"}, "94": {"fulltext": "72 Six Modern Women\\nvery least. They interpret nothing with the under-\\nstanding, but their instinct makes them feel quite\\nat home with themselves and leads them to assert\\ntheir own natures. They are no longer a reflec-\\ntion which man moulds into an empty form they\\nare not like Galatea, who became a living woman\\nthrough Pygmalion s kiss; they were women be-\\nfore they knew Pygmalion, such thorough women\\nthat Pygmalion is often no Pygmalion to them at\\nall, but a stupid lout instead.\\nIt is a fearful disappointment, and causes a\\nwoman and many a womanly woman too to\\nshrink from man and scan him critically. You\\nshe cries. No, it were better not to love at all!\\nBut the day is coming\\nAnd when the day has come, then woman will\\nbe as bad as Strindberg s Megoras, or as humorous\\nas a certain poetess who sent a portrait of her hus-\\nband to a friend, with this inscription My old\\nAdam or else she may meet with the same fate\\nas Countess Resa in the anonymous book of a\\ncertain well-known authoress. She will commit\\nsuicide in one way or the other. She will not\\nkill herself like Countess Resa, but she will kill\\na part of her nature. And these women, who are\\npartly dead, carry about a corpse in their souls\\nfrom whence streams forth an odor as of death;\\nthese women, whose dead natures have the power\\nof charming men with a mystery they would gladly\\nsolve, these women are our mothers, sisters,\\nfriends, teachers, and we scarcely know the mean-", "height": "3505", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0094.jp2"}, "95": {"fulltext": "Neurotic Keynotes 73\\ning of the shiver down our backs which we feel\\nin their presence. A very keen consciousne.\\nneeded to dive down deep enough in ourselves to\\ndiscover the reason, and very subtle, spiritual tools\\nare necessary to grasp the process and to reproduce\\nit. The Austrian authoress possessed both these\\nrequisites. But there is also a third which is\\nequally indispensable to any one who would draw\\nsuch a portrait of themselves, and that is the dis-\\ntinguished manner of a noble and self-confident\\nnature, in which everything can be said.\\nShe has something besides, which gives the\\nbook a special attraction of its own, and that is her\\nextremely modern, artistic feeling, which teaches\\nhow the laws of painting can be brought to bear\\nupon the art of writing, and gives her a keen\\nappreciation of the value of sound in relation to\\nlanguage.\\nThere is a picture by Claude Monet, pale,\\ngolden sunshine upon a misty sea. There is\\nscarcely anything to be seen beyond this faint\\ngolden haze, resting upon the shimmering, trans-\\nparent water, painted in rainbow colors, pale as\\nopal. There is just a faint suggestion of a prom-\\nontory, rising up from the warm, southern sea,\\nand something which looks like a squadron of fish-\\ning boats in the far distance. It is not quite day,\\nbut it is already light, one of those cool morn-\\nings which precede a dazzling day. It is years\\nsince last I saw this picture, but it charmed me\\nso much that I have never forgotten it. It is in", "height": "3544", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0095.jp2"}, "96": {"fulltext": "74 Six Modern Women\\nconsequence of this same sense for fine shades of\\ncolor, applied in this instance to the soul, that\\nDilettantes was written.\\nIt is a very quiet book, and just as there is not\\na single strong color in Monet s picture, so there\\nis not a single high note in this book. We feel\\nlike gazing down into the water which glides and\\nglides along, carrying with it seaweed, dead bodies,\\nand men, but always in silence, a most unevent-\\nful book. But beneath this almost lethargical\\nstillness is enacted a tragedy in which a life is\\nat stake, and the stake is lost, and death is the\\nconsequence. The deadliest blow against another s\\nsoul is caused, not by words, but by deafness and\\nindifference, by neglect at the moment when the\\nheart yearns for love, and the bud is ready to\\nblossom into flower beneath a single breath of\\nsympathy. Next morning, when you go to look\\nat it, you find it withered it is then too late for\\nyour warm breath and willing fingers to force it\\nopen you only make it worse, and at last the buds\\nfall to the ground.\\nThe famous unknown has called her book\\nDilettantes, although there is but one lady in\\nit to whom the name applies. Can it be that, by\\nher use of the plural, she meant to include herself\\nwith the heroine? The supposition seems not\\nunlikely.\\nShe introduces us to a colony of artists in Paris,\\namongst whom is Baron Mark Sebenyi, an Hun-\\ngarian magnate, who is a literary dilettante. At", "height": "3515", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0096.jp2"}, "97": {"fulltext": "Neurotic Keynotes 75\\nthe house of the old Princess Ebendorf he makes\\nthe acquaintance of her niece, Theresia Thaszary,\\nand feels himself drawn towards her as his twin\\nsoul. During the Princess s long illness, they\\nbecome engaged, and when the Princess dies he\\ncontinues his visits to the Countess as though her\\naunt were still alive, and he spends his hours of\\nliterary work in her house, because, as he says,\\nher presence is an indispensable source of inspira-\\ntion to him. Countess Resa is one of those whom\\na life of constant travel has rendered cosmopoli-\\ntan. Her life is passed in a state of mental tor-\\npor which is more general, and, I should like to\\nadd, more normal, among young girls than men\\nimagine or married women remember; she was\\nneither contented nor discontented while she\\nlived with her aunt, and she continues the same\\nnow, with Mark continually beside her. She is\\nglad to have him with her; she feels a certain\\nattraction in his manly and sympathetic presence,\\nand his behavior towards herself is so decorous\\nthat it seldom happens that so much as a pressure\\nof the hand passes between them. She knows\\nthat Mark has relations with other women, but\\nthat fact does not enter into her womanly con-\\nciousness at all.\\nAll goes well until a fashionable friend of hers,\\na rather vulgar lady, asks her when she means\\nto marry Mark, and persuades her to go into\\nsociety, although she has no desire to do so, and is\\nperfectly content with the sameness of her life.", "height": "3551", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0097.jp2"}, "98": {"fulltext": "76 Six Modern Women\\nIn society she finds that her friendship with Mark\\nattracts observation, and this is the first shock\\nwhich leads to an awakening. In the long winter\\nhours, while she is sitting still in the room where\\nhe is writing, she suddenly realizes the situation,\\nand feels that it is like a lover s tete-a-tete. His\\nbehavior in society irritates her in a hundred lit-\\ntle ways, because she knows that he is not true\\nto his real nature, and that he gives way to his\\nvanity as an author and poses in public. Mark\\nhas no intention of marrying her; he is quite con-\\ntent with matters as they stand. Cold-hearted,\\nand probably aged before his time, he feels drawn\\ntowards her by a kind of distant, erotic feeling,\\nand he seeks her society for the sake of the draw-\\ning-room where he can make himself thoroughly\\nat home and bring his artist friends; he likes her\\nbecause he is not bound to her, and he has never\\ntired of her because she was never his.\\nSpring comes. They make expeditions round\\nabout Paris, and are constantly together; she is\\nin a state of nervous excitement, and the more\\nshe feels drawn towards him the more she tries\\nto avoid him. There are moments when he too\\nfeels his hand tremble, if by chance it comes into\\ncontact with hers. Their friendship with one\\nanother has become a hindrance to any greater\\nfriendship between them and he is too much\\ntaken up with himself, too accustomed to have\\nher always busily attending to him, to notice the\\nchange which is gradually taking place in her.", "height": "3541", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0098.jp2"}, "99": {"fulltext": "Neurotic Keynotes 77\\nHer love dwindles beneath the cold influence of\\ndoubt, which increases the more as she feels her-\\nself rejected by the man she loves. Ignorant\\nthough she be, she is possessed of an intuitive\\nknowledge which is the heritage of many gener-\\nations of culture, which enables her to read\\nhim through and through, until she conceives\\nan antipathy for him, the man whose love she\\ndesires, an antipathy which makes him appear\\ncontemptible and almost ridiculous in her sight.\\nStill she clings to him. She has no one else;\\nshe is alone among strangers. He belongs to her\\nand she to him. This fact of their belonging to\\neach other makes her tire of his company, and\\none day, when he and his literary friends are pre-\\nparing to hold lectures in her drawing-room, she\\nflies from the house to escape from their aesthetic\\nchatter.\\nAt last she can stand it no longer, and whilst\\nher guests are engaged in discussing a work of\\nMark s, she goes downstairs and out into the\\nnight. She scarcely knows what she is doing;\\nher pulse beats feverishly, her nerves are quite\\nunstrung. She walks down the street towards\\nthe Champs Elysees, and there she meets a man\\ncoming towards her. She perceives that she is\\nalone in the empty street, and she is overcome\\nwith a nameless fear. Seized with a sudden im-\\npulse to hide herself, she jumps into the nearest\\ncab, which is standing at the door of a cafe. The\\ndriver asks, Where to? and when she does not", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0099.jp2"}, "100": {"fulltext": "78 Six Modern Women\\nreply, he gets angry. At this juncture the man\\nappears at the door of the carriage, and she recog-\\nnizes Imre Borogh, a friend of Mark s, who was\\non his way to call on her. She still cannot say\\nwhere she wishes to go, but feeling herself under\\nthe protection of a friend, she allows him to get\\nin. They drive and drive. She perceives the\\ncompromising nature of the situation, but is too\\nstupefied to put an end to it. He talks to her\\nafter the manner of an emotional young man,\\nwhose feelings have gained the mastery over him.\\nAt last he tells the driver to stop in front of a\\ncafe. She is half unconscious, but he assists her\\nto get out. And the nervous strain of these many\\nlong months results in a misunderstanding with\\nthis stranger, even greater than would have been\\nthe case with Mark.\\nShe comes very quietly home. She takes hold\\nof Mark s portrait, as she has so often done be-\\nfore, and compares it with her own image in the\\nlooking-glass. She throws it away. She burns\\nhis letters and all the little mementos which she\\nhas of him, then while she is searching in her\\ndrawers she comes upon a revolver\\nMark was very much moved at the funeral, and\\nhe cherished her memory for long afterwards.\\nNowhere in the book is there any attempt made\\nto describe men. The authoress only shows them\\nto us as they are reflected in her soul. In this\\nshe not only shows an unusual amount of artistic\\ntalent, but also a new method. Woman is the", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0100.jp2"}, "101": {"fulltext": "Neurotic Keynotes 79\\nmost subjective of all creatures; she can only\\nwrite about her own feelings, and her expres-\\nsion of them is her most valuable contribution to\\nliterature. Formerly women s writings were, for\\nthe most part, either directly or indirectly, the\\nexpression of a great falsehood. They were so\\noverpoweringly impersonal, it was quite comic to\\nsee the way in which they imitated men s models,\\nboth in form and contents. Now that woman is\\nconscious of her individuality as a woman, she\\nneeds an artistic mode of expression; she flings\\naside the old forms, and seeks for new. It is\\nwith this feeling, almost Bacchanalian in its\\nintensity, that Mrs. Egerton hurls forth her play-\\nful stories, which the English critics judged\\nharshly, but the public bought and called for in\\nfresh editions; and this was how the Austrian\\nlady wrote her story, which has the effect of a\\nplay dreamed under the influence of the sordine.\\nBoth books are honest. The more conscious a\\nwoman is of her individuality, the more honest\\nwill her confession be. Honesty is only another\\nform of pride.\\nIll\\nAnother characteristic is beginning to make\\nitself felt, which was bound to come at last. And\\nthat is an intense and morbid consciousness of the\\nego in women. This consciousness was unknown\\nto our mothers and grandmothers they may have", "height": "3539", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0101.jp2"}, "102": {"fulltext": "80 Six Modern Women\\nhad stronger characters than ours, as they un-\\ndoubtedly had to overcome greater hindrances;\\nbut this consciousness of the ego is quite another\\nthing, and they had not got it.\\nNeither of these women, whose books I have\\nbeen reviewing, are authors by profession. There\\nis nothing they care for less than to write books,\\nand nothing that they desire less than to hear\\ntheir names on every one s lips. Both were able\\nto write without having learned. Other author-\\nesses of whom we hear have either taught them-\\nselves to write, or have been taught by men.\\nThey began with an object, but without having\\nanything to say; they chose their subjects from\\nwithout.\\nNeither of these women have any object. They\\ndo not want to describe what they have seen.\\nThey do not want to teach the world, nor do they\\ntry to improve it. They have nothing to fight\\nagainst. They merely put themselves into their\\nbooks. They did not even begin with the inten-\\ntion of writing; they obeyed an impulse. There\\nwas no question of whether they wished or not\\nthey were obliged. The moment came when they\\nwere forced to write, and they did not concern\\nthemselves with reasons or objects. Their ego\\nburst forth with such power that it ignored all\\nouter circumstances; it pressed forward and crys-\\ntallized itself into an artistic shape. These women\\nhave not only a very pronounced style of their\\nown, but are in fact artists; they became it as", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0102.jp2"}, "103": {"fulltext": "Neurotic Keynotes Si\\nsoon as they took up the pen. They had nothing\\nto learn, it was theirs already.\\nThis is not only a new phase in the work\\nof literary production, it is also a new phase in\\nwoman s nature. Formerly, not only all great\\nauthoresses, but likewise all prominent women,\\nwere or tried to be intellectual. That also\\nwas an attempt to accommodate themselves to\\nmen s wishes. They were always trying to fol-\\nlow in the footsteps of the man. Man s ideas,\\ninterests, speculations, were to be understood and\\nsympathized with. When philosophy was the\\nfashion, great authoresses and intelligent women\\nphilosophized. Because Goethe was wise, Rahel\\nwas filled with the wisdom of life. George Eliot\\npreached in all her books, and philosophized all\\nher life long after the manner of Stuart Mill and\\nHerbert Spencer. George Sand was the receptacle\\nfor ideas men s ideas of the most contradic-\\ntory character, which she immediately reproduced\\nin her novels. Good Ebner-Eschenbach writes as\\nsensibly, and with as much tolerance, as a right\\nworthy old gentleman; and Fru Leffler chose\\nher subjects from among the problems which\\nwere being discussed by a few well-known men.\\nNone of their writings can be considered as essen-\\ntially characteristic of women. It was not an\\naltogether unjust assertion when men declared\\nthat the women who wrote books were only half\\nwomen.\\nYet these were the best Others, who wrote\\n6", "height": "3555", "width": "2184", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0103.jp2"}, "104": {"fulltext": "82 Six Modern Women\\nas women, had no connection with literature at\\nall; they merely knitted literary stockings.\\nMrs. Egerton and the author of Dilettantes\\nare not intellectual, not in the very least. The\\npossibility of being it has never entered their\\nbrain. They had no ambition to imitate men.\\nThey are not in the least impressed by the specu-\\nlations, ideas, theories, and philosophies of men.\\nThey are sceptics in all that concerns the mind;\\nthe man himself they can perceive.\\nThey perceive his soul, his inner self, when\\nhe has one, and they are keenly sensitive when\\nit is not there. The other women with the great\\nnames are quite thick-headed in comparison.\\nThey judge everything with the understanding;\\nthese perceive with the nerves, and that is an\\nentirely different kind of understanding.\\nThey understand man, but, at the same time,\\nthey perceive that he is quite different from\\nthemselves, that he is the contrast to themselves.\\nThe one is too highly cultured; the other has too\\nsensitive a nervous system to permit the thought\\nof any equality between man and woman. The\\nidea makes them laugh. They are far too con-\\nscious of being refined, sensitive women. They\\ndo not concern themselves with the modern\\ndemocratic tendencies regarding women, with its\\nlevelling of contrasts, its desire for equality.\\nThey live their own life, and if they find it\\nunsatisfying, empty, disappointing, they cannot\\nchange it. But they do not make any compro-", "height": "3504", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0104.jp2"}, "105": {"fulltext": "Neurotic Keynotes\\nmise to do things by halves their highly devel-\\noped nerves are too sure a standard to allow of\\nthat. They are a new race of women, more\\nresigned, more hopeless, and more sensitive than\\nthe former ones. They are women such as the\\nnew men require; they have risen up on the\\nintellectual horizon as the forerunners of a gen-\\neration who will be more sensitive, and who\\nwill have a keener power of enjoyment than the\\nformer ones. Among themselves these women\\nexchange sympathetic glances, and are able to\\nunderstand one another without need of confes-\\nsion. They, with their highly-developed nerves,\\ncan feel for each other with a sympathy such as\\nformerly a woman only felt for man. In this\\nway they go through life, without building castles\\nin the air, or making any plans for the future;\\nthey live on day by day,, and never look beyond.\\nIt might be said that they are waiting; but as\\neach new day arrives, and the sand of time falls\\ndrop by drop upon their delicate nerves, even\\nthis imperceptible burden is more than they can\\nbear the strain of it is too much for them.\\nIV\\nI have before me a new book by Mrs. Egerton,\\nand two new photographs. In the one she is\\nsitting curled up in a chair, reading peacefully.\\nShe has a delicate, rather sharp-featured profile,", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0105.jp2"}, "106": {"fulltext": "84 Six Modern Women\\nwith a long, somewhat prominent chin, that gives\\none an idea of yearning. The other is a full-\\nlength portrait. A slender, girlish figure, with\\nnarrow shoulders, and a waist, if anything, rather\\ntoo small a tired, worn face, without youth and\\nfull of disillusion the hair looks as though rest-\\nless fingers had been passed through it, and there\\nis a bitter, hopeless expression about the lines of\\nthe mouth. In her letters in which we never\\nwholly possess her, but merely her mood\u00e2\u0080\u0094 she\\ncomes to us in various guises, now as a playful\\nkitten, that is curled up cosily, and sometimes\\nstretches out a soft little paw in playful, tender\\nneed of a caress or else she is a worried, disap-\\npointed woman, with overwrought and excitable\\nnerves, sceptical in the possibility of content, a\\nseeker, for whom the charm lies in the seeking,\\nnot in the finding. She is a type of the modern\\nwoman, whose inmost being is the essence of\\ndisillusion.\\nWhen we examine the portraits of the four prin-\\ncipal characters in this book Sonia Kovalevsky,\\nEleonora Duse, Marie Bashkirtseff, and George\\nEgerton we find that they all have one feature\\nin common. It was not I who first noticed this,\\nit was a man. Ola Hansson, seeing them lying\\ntogether one day, pointed it out to me, and he\\nsaid The lips of all four speak the same lan-\\nguage, the young girl, the great tragedian, the\\nwoman of intellect, and the neurotic writer; each\\none has a something about the corners of the", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0106.jp2"}, "107": {"fulltext": "Neurotic Keynotes 85\\nmouth that expresses a wearied satiety, mingled\\nwith an unsatisfied longing, as though she had as\\nyet enjoyed nothing.\\nWhy this wearied satiety mingled with an\\nunsatisfied longing? Why should these four\\nwomen, who are four opposites, as it were, have\\nthe same expression? The virgin in body and\\nsoul, the great creator of the roles of the degen-\\nerates, the mathematical professor, and the neu-\\nrotic writer? Is it something in themselves,\\nsomething peculiar in the organic nature of their\\nwomanhood, or is it some influence from with-\\nout Is it because they have chosen a profession\\nwhich excites, while it leaves them dissatisfied,\\nfor the simple reason that a profession can never\\nwholly satisfy a woman? Yet these four have\\nexcelled in their profession. But can a woman\\never obtain satisfaction by means of her achieve-\\nments Is not her life as a woman as a wife\\nand as a mother the true source of all her hap-\\npiness? And this touch of disillusion in all of\\nthem is it the disillusion they have experienced\\nas woman; is it the expression of their bitter\\nexperiences in the gravest moment in a woman s\\nlife? Disappointment in man? The man that\\nfate thrust across their path, who was their ex-\\nperience? And their yearning is now fruitless,\\nfor the flower of expectant realization withered\\nbefore they plucked it.\\nTwo of these women have carried the secret of\\ntheir faces with them to the grave, but the others", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0107.jp2"}, "108": {"fulltext": "86 Six Modern Women\\nlive and are not willing to reveal it. George\\nEgerton would like to be as silent about it as\\nthey are; but her nerves speak, and her nerves\\nhave betrayed her secret in the book called\\nDiscords.\\nWhen we read Discords we ask ourselves\\nhow is it possible that this frail little woman\\ncould write such a strong, brutal book? In\\nKeynotes Mrs. Egerton was still a little\\ncoquette, with 5^ gloves and 18-inch waist, who\\nherself played a fascinating part. She had some-\\nthing of a midge s nature, dancing up and down,\\nand turning nervous somersaults in the sunshine.\\nDiscords is certainly a continuation of Key-\\nnotes, but it is quite another kind of woman\\nwho meets us here. The thrilling, nervous note\\nof the former book has changed into a clashing,\\npiercing sound, hard as metal it is the voice of\\nan accuser in whom all bitterness takes the form\\nof reproaches which are unjust, and yet unanswer-\\nable. It is the voice of a woman who is con-\\nscious of being ill-treated and driven to despair,\\nand who speaks in spite of herself in the name of\\nthousands of ill-treated and despairing women.\\nWho can tell us whether her nerves have ill-\\ntreated this woman and driven her to despair, or\\nwhether it is her outward fate, especially her fate\\nwith regard to the man Women of this kind\\nare not confidential. They take back to-morrow\\nwhat they have confessed to-day, partly from a\\nwish not to let themselves be understood, and", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0108.jp2"}, "109": {"fulltext": "Neurotic Keynotes 87\\npartly because the aspect of their experiences\\nvaries with every change of mood, like the colors\\nin a kaleidoscope.\\nBut throughout these changes, one single note\\nis maintained in Discords, as it was in Key-\\nnotes. In the latter it was a high, shrill treble,\\nlike the song of a bird in spring; in Discords\\nit is a deep bass note, groaning in distress with\\nthe groan of a disappointed woman.\\nV\\nThe tone of bitter disappointment which per-\\nvades Discords is the expression of woman s\\ndisappointment in man. Man and man s love\\nare not a joy to her; they are a torment. He\\nis inconsiderate in his demands, brutal in his\\ncaresses, and unsympathetic with those sides of\\nher nature which are not there for his satisfac-\\ntion. He is no longer the great comic animal\\nof Keynotes, whom the woman teases and\\nplays with he is a nightmare which smothers\\nher during horrible nights, a hangman who tor-\\ntures her body and soul during days and years\\nfor his pleasure; a despot who demands admira-\\ntion, caresses, and devotion, while her every nerve\\nquivers with an opposite emotion; a man born\\nblind, whose clumsy fingers press the spot where\\nthe pain is, and when she moans, replies with\\ncoarse, unfeeling laughter, Absurd nonsense", "height": "3535", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0109.jp2"}, "110": {"fulltext": "88 Six Modern Women\\nAlthough I believed myself to be acquainted\\nwith all the books which women have written\\nagainst men, no book that I have ever read has\\nimpressed me with such a vivid sense of physical\\npain. Most women come with reasonings, moral\\nsermons, and outbursts of temper: a man may\\nallow himself much that is forbidden to others,\\nthat must be altered. Women are of no impor-\\ntance in his eyes; he has permitted himself to\\nlook down upon them. They intend to teach\\nhim their importance. They are determined that\\nhe shall look up to them. But here we have no\\ntrace of Xantippe-like violence, only a woman\\nwho holds her trembling hands to the wounds\\nwhich man has inflicted upon her, of which the\\npain is intensified each time that he draws near.\\nA woman, driven to despair, who jumps upon\\nhim like a wild-cat, and seizes him by the throat\\nand if that does not answer, chooses for herself\\na death that is ten times more painful than life\\nwith him, chooses it in order that she may have\\nher own way.\\nWhat is this? It is not the well-known domes-\\ntic animal which we call woman. It is a wild\\ncreature belonging to a wild race, untamed and\\nuntamable, with the yellow gleam of a wild\\nanimal in its eyes. It is a nervous, sensitive\\ncreature, whose primitive wildness is awakened\\nby a blow which it has received, which bursts\\nforth, revengeful and pitiless as the lightning\\nin the night.", "height": "3521", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0110.jp2"}, "111": {"fulltext": "Neurotic Keynotes 89\\nThat is what I like about this book. That a\\nwoman should have sprung up, who with her\\ninstinct can bore to the bottom layers of woman-\\nhood the quality that enables her to renew the\\nrace, her primaeval quality, which man, with\\nall his understanding, has never penetrated. A\\nfew years ago, in a study on Gottfried Keller s\\nwomen, I mentioned wildness as the basis of\\nwoman s nature; Mrs. Egerton has given utter-\\nance to the same opinion in Keynotes, and has\\nsince tried to embody it in Discords; her best\\nstories are those where the wild instinct breaks\\nloose.\\nBut why this terror of man, this physical repul-\\nsion, as in the story called Virgin Soil The\\nauthoress says that it is because an ignorant girl\\nin her complete innocence is handed over in mar-\\nriage to an exacting husband. But that is not\\nreason enough. The authoress s intellect is not\\nas true as her instinct. There must be some-\\nthing more. The same may be said of Wed-\\nlock, where the boarding-house cook marries an\\namorous working-man, who is in receipt of good\\nwages, for the sake of having her illegitimate\\nchild to live with her; he refuses to allow it, and\\nwhen the child dies of a childish ailment, she\\nmurders his two children by the first marriage.\\nMrs. Egerton s stories are not invented neither\\nare they realistic studies copied from the notes\\nin her diary. They are experiences. She has\\nlived them all, because the people whom she por-", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0111.jp2"}, "112": {"fulltext": "90 Six Modern Women\\ntrays have impressed their characters or their\\nfate upon her quivering nerves. The music of\\nher nerves has sounded like the music of a\\nstringed instrument beneath the touch of a\\nstrange hand, as in that masterpiece, Gone\\nUnder, where the woman tells her story be-\\ntween the throes of sea-sickness and drunken-\\nness. The man to whom she belongs has pun-\\nished her unfaithfulness by the murder of her\\nchild, and she revenges herself by drunkenness\\nyet, in spite of it all, he remains the master\\nwhom she is powerless to punish, and in her\\ndespair she throws herself upon the streets.\\nOnly one man has had sufficient instinct to\\nbring to light this abyss in woman s nature, and\\nthat is Barbey d Aurevilly, the poet who was\\nnever understood. But in Mrs. Egerton s book\\nthere is one element which he had not discovered,\\nand, although she does not express it in words, it\\nshows itself in her description of men and women.\\nHer men are Englishmen with bull-dog natures,\\nbut the women belong to another race; and is\\nnot this horror, this physical repulsion, this\\nwoman raging against the man, a true represen-\\ntation of the way that the Anglo-Saxon nature\\nreacts upon the Celtic?\\nTwo races stand opposed to one another in\\nthese sketches; perhaps the authoress herself is\\nnot quite conscious of it, but it is plainly visible\\nin her descriptions of character, where we have\\nthe heavy, massive Englishman, V animal male,", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0112.jp2"}, "113": {"fulltext": "Neurotic Keynotes 91\\nand the untamable woman who is prevented by\\nrace instinct from loving where she ought to love.\\nIn The Regeneration of Two, Mrs. Egerton\\nhas tried to describe a Celtic woman where she\\ncan love, but the attempt is most unsuccessful,\\nfor here we see plainly that she lacked the basis\\nof experience. There are, however, many women\\nwho know what love is, although they have never\\nexperienced it. Men came, they married, but\\nthe man for them never came.\\nVI\\nThere is a little story in this collection called\\nHer Share, where the style is full of tender-\\nness, perhaps even a trifle too sweet. It affects\\none like a landscape on an evening in early\\nautumn, when the sun has gone down and twi-\\nlight reigns; it seems as though veiled in gray,\\nfor there is no color left, although everything is\\nstrangely clear. Mrs. Egerton has a peculiarly\\ngentle touch and soft voice where she describes\\nthe lonely, independent working girl. Her little\\nstory is often nothing more than the fleeting\\nshadow of a mood, but the style is sustained\\nthroughout in a warm stream of lyric; for this\\nCeltic woman certainly has the lyrical faculty, a\\nthing which a woman writer rarely has, if ever,\\npossessed before. There is something in her\\nwriting which seems to express a desire to draw", "height": "3553", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0113.jp2"}, "114": {"fulltext": "92 Six Modern Women\\nnear to the lonely girl and say: You have such\\na good time of it in your grayness. In Grayness\\nyour nerves find rest, your instincts slumber, no\\nman ill-treats you with his love, you experience\\ndiscontent in contentment, but you know noth-\\ning of the torture of unstrung nerves. Would\\nI were like you; but I am a bundle of electric\\ncurrents bursting forth in all directions into\\nchaos.\\nBesides these two dainty twilight sketches, she\\nhas others like the description in Gone Under,\\nof the storm on that voyage from America to\\nEngland where we imagine ourselves on board\\nship, and seem to feel the rolling sea, to hear\\nthe ship cracking and groaning, to smell the\\nhundreds of fetid smells escaping from all cor-\\nners, and the damp ship-biscuits and the taste of\\nthe bitter salt spray on the tongue. We owe this\\nforcible and matter-of-fact method of reprodu-\\ncing the impressions received by the senses to the\\nretentive power of her nerves, through which she\\nis able to preserve her passing impressions and\\nto reproduce them in their full intensity. She\\nrelies on her womanly receptive faculty, not on*\\nher brain.\\nGeorge Egerton s life has been of the kind\\nwhich affords ample material for literary pur-\\nposes, and it is probable that she has more raw\\nmaterial ready for use at any time when she may\\nrequire it; but at present she retains it in her", "height": "3538", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0114.jp2"}, "115": {"fulltext": "Neurotic Keynotes 93\\nnerves, as it were, under lock and key. She had\\nintended from childhood to become an artist, and\\nwriting is only an afterthought; yet, no sooner\\ndid she begin to write than the impressions and\\nexperiences of her life shaped themselves into\\nthe form of her two published works. Until the\\npublication of Discords, we had thought that\\nshe was one of those intensely individualistic\\nwriters who write one book because they must,\\nbut never write another, or, at any rate, not one\\nthat will bear comparison with the first the pub-\\nlication of Discords has entirely dispelled this\\nopinion, and has given us good reason to hope for\\nmany more works from her pen.", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0115.jp2"}, "116": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3516", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0116.jp2"}, "117": {"fulltext": "Ill\\nThe Modern Woman on the Stage", "height": "3545", "width": "2098", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0117.jp2"}, "118": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0118.jp2"}, "119": {"fulltext": "I\\nA lean figure, peculiarly attractive, though\\nscarcely to be called beautiful; a melancholy\\nface with a strangely sweet expression, no longer\\nyoung, yet possessed of a pale, wistful charm la\\nfemme de trente ans, who has lived and suffered,\\nand who knows that life is full of suffering;\\na woman without any aggressive self-confidence,\\nyet queenly, gentle, and subdued in manner, with\\na pathetic voice, such is Eleonora Duse as she\\nappeared in the parts which she created for her-\\nself out of modern pieces. When first I saw her,\\nI tried to think of some one with whom to com-\\npare her; I turned over in my mind the names of\\nall the greatest actresses in the last ten years or\\nmore, and wondered whether any of them could\\nbe said to be her equal, or to have surpassed\\nher. But neither Wolter nor Bernhardt, neither\\nEllmenreich nor the best actresses of the Theatre\\nFrangais, could be compared with her. The French\\nand German actresses were entirely different;\\nthey seemed to stand apart, each complete in\\nthemselves while she too stood apart, complete\\nin herself. They represented a world of their\\nown and a perfected civilization; and she, though\\n7", "height": "3558", "width": "2119", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0119.jp2"}, "120": {"fulltext": "98 Six Modern Women\\nlike them in some ways, seemed to represent\\nthe genesis of a world, and a civilization in\\nembryo. This was not merely the result of com-\\nparing an Italian with French and German, and\\none school with another, it was the woman s\\ntemperament compared to that of others, her\\nacute susceptibility, compared to which her cele-\\nbrated predecessors impressed one as being too\\nmassive, almost too crude, and one might be\\ntempted to add, less womanly. Many of them\\nhave possessed a more versatile genius than hers,\\nand nearly all have had greater advantages at\\ntheir disposal; but the moment that we compare\\nthem to Duse, their loud, convulsive art sud-\\ndenly assumes the appearance of one of those\\ngigantic pictures by Makart, once so fiery colored\\nand now so faded and if we compare the famous\\ndramatic artists of the seventies and eighties\\nwith Duse, we might as well compare a splendid\\nfestal march played with many instruments to a\\nviolin solo floating on the still night air.\\nThe pieces acted by Eleonora Duse at Berlin,\\nwhere I saw her, were mainly chosen to suit the\\npublic taste, and they differed in nothing from\\nthe usual virtuosa programme. These consisted\\nof Sarah Bernhardt s favorite parts, such as\\nFedora, La Dame aux Camelias, and pieces\\ntaken from the repertoire of the Theatre Francais,\\nsuch as Francillon and Divorgons, varied\\nwith Cavalleria Rusticana, and such well-\\nknown plays as Locandiera, Fernande, and", "height": "3537", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0120.jp2"}, "121": {"fulltext": "The Modern Woman on the Stage 99\\nThe Doll s House. She did not act Shake-\\nspeare, and there she was wise; for what can\\nDuse s pale face have in common with the exu-\\nberant spirits and muscular strength of the\\nwomen of the Renaissance, whose own rich life-\\nblood shone red before their eyes and drove them\\nto deeds of love and vengeance, which it makes\\nthe ladies of our time ill to hear described. But\\nshe also neglected some pieces which must have\\nsuited her better than her French repertoire. She\\ndid not give us Marco Praga s Modest Girls,\\nwhere Paulina s part seems expressly created for\\nher, nor his Ideal Wife, into which she might\\nhave introduced some of her own instinctive phi-\\nlosophy. Neither did she act the Tristi Amori\\nof her celebrated fellow-countryman, Giuseppe\\nGiacosa.\\nAnd yet, in the parts which she did act, she\\nopened to us a new world, which had no existence\\nbefore, because it was her own. It was the world\\nof her own soul, the ever-changing woman s world,\\nwhich no one before her has ever expressed on\\nthe stage; she gave us the secret, inner life of\\nwoman, which no poet can wholly fathom, and\\nwhich only woman herself can reveal, which with\\nmore refined nerves and more sensitive and varied\\nfeelings has emerged bleeding from the older,\\ncoarser, narrower forms of art, to newer, brighter\\nforms, which, though more powerful, are also\\nmore wistful and more hopeless.", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0121.jp2"}, "122": {"fulltext": "ioo Six Modern Women\\nII\\nEleonora Duse has a strangely wearied look.\\nIt is not the weariness of exhaustion or apathy,\\nnor is it the weariness natural to an overworked\\nactress, although there are times when she suffers\\nfrom that to so great an extent that she acts\\nindifferently the whole evening, and makes the\\npart a failure. Neither is it the weariness of\\ndespondency which gives the voice a hollow,\\nartificial sound, which is noticeable in all vir-\\ntuosas when they are over-tired. Neither is it\\nthe utter prostration resulting from passion, like\\nthe drowsiness of beasts of prey, which our tragic\\nactors and actresses delight in. Passion, the so-\\ncalled great passion, which, according to an old\\nlegend recounted in one of the Greek tragedies,\\ncomes like the whirlwind, and leaves nothing\\nbehind but death and dried bones passion such\\nas that is unknown to Duse. Brunhild, Medea,\\nMessalina, and all the ambitious, imperious prin-\\ncesses of historic drama are nothing to her; she\\nis no princess or martyr of ancient history, but a\\nprincess in her own right, and a martyr of cir-\\ncumstances. Throughout her acting there is a\\nfeeling of surprise that she should suffer and be\\nmartyred, accompanied by the dim knowledge\\nthat it must be so and it is that which gives\\nher soul its weary melancholy. For it is not her\\nbody, nor her senses, nor her mind which give", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0122.jp2"}, "123": {"fulltext": "The Modern Woman on the Stage 101\\nthe appearance of having just awoke from a deep\\nlethargy; the weariness is all in her soul, and it\\nis that which gives her a soft, caressing, trustful\\nmanner, as though she felt lonely, and yearned for\\na little sympathy. Love is full of sympathy, and\\nthat is why Eleonora Duse acts love. Not greedy\\nlove, which asks more than it gives, like Walter s\\nand Bernhardt s; not sensual love, nor yet impe-\\nrious love, like the big woman who takes pity\\non the little man, whom it pleases her to make\\nhappy. When Duse is in love, even in Fedora,\\nit is always she who is the little woman, and the\\nman is for her the big man, the giver, who holds\\nher happiness in his hands, to whose side she\\nsteals anxiously, almost timidly, and looks up at\\nhim with her serious, wearied, almost child-like\\nsmile. She comes to him for protection and\\nshelter, just as travellers are wont to gather\\nround a warm fire, and she clings to him caress-\\ningly with her thin little hands, the hands of a\\nchild and mother. Never has woman been repre-\\nsented in a more womanly way than by Eleonora\\nDuse and more than that, I take it upon myself\\nto maintain that woman has never been repre-\\nsented upon the stage until now by Eleonora\\nDuse.\\nShe shows us the everlasting child in woman,\\nin the full-grown, experienced woman, who is\\npossessed of an erotic yearning for fulness of life.\\nWoman is not, and cannot be, happy by herself,\\nnor is the sacrifice of a moment enough for her;", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0123.jp2"}, "124": {"fulltext": "102 Six Modern Women\\nit is not enough for her to live by the side of the\\nman; a husband s tenderness is as necessary to\\nher as the air she breathes. His passion, lit by\\nher, is her life and happiness. He gives her the\\nlove in which her life can blossom into a fair and\\nbeautiful flower. And she accepts him, not with\\nthe silly innocence of a child, not with the igno-\\nrance of girlhood, not with the ungoverned pas-\\nsion of a mistress, not with the condescending\\nforbearance of the superior woman, not with\\nthe brotherly affection of the manly woman, we\\nhave had ample opportunity of seeing and benefit-\\ning by such representations as those in every\\ntheatre, and in every tongue, since first we began\\nto see and to think. They include every type\\nof womanhood as understood and represented by\\nactresses great and small. But into all this, Duse\\nintroduces a new element, something which was\\nformerly only a matter of secondary importance on\\nthe stage, which, by the highest art, was judged\\nin the light of a juggler s trick, and was con-\\nsidered by the lower art as little more than a\\nvaluable ingredient. She makes it the main-\\nstring on which her acting vibrates, the keynote\\nwithout which her art would have no meaning.\\nShe accepts the man with the whole-hearted sin-\\ncerity of an experienced woman, who shrinks from\\nthe loneliness of life, and longs to lose herself in\\nthe loved one. She has the dreadful sensation\\nthat a human being has nothing but minutes,\\nminutes; that there is nothing lasting to rely on;", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0124.jp2"}, "125": {"fulltext": "The Modern Woman on the Stage 103\\nthat we swim across dark waters from yesterday\\nuntil to-morrow, and our unfulfilled desires are\\nless terrible than the feverish anxiety with which\\nwe anticipate the future in times of prosperity.\\nEleonoraDuse s acting tells of infinite suspense.\\nHer entire art rests on this one note, Sus-\\npense which means that we know nothing, possess\\nnothing, can do nothing that everything is ruled\\nby chance, and the whole of life is one great un-\\ncertainty. This terrible insecurity stands as a\\nperfect contrast to the cause and effect theory\\nof the schools, which trust in God and logic, and\\noffer a secure refuge to the playwright s art.\\nThis mysterious darkness, from whence she steps\\nforward like a sleep-walker, gives a sickly color-\\ning to her actions. There is something timid\\nabout her; she seems to have an almost supersti-\\ntious dislike of a shrill sound, or a brilliant color;\\nand this peculiarity of hers finds expression not\\nonly in her acting, but also in her dress.\\nWe seldom see toilets on the stage which reveal\\na more individual taste. Just as Duse never acted\\nanything but what was in her own soul, she never\\nattempted any disguise of her body. Her own\\nface was the only mask she wore when I saw her\\nact. The expression of her features, the deep\\nlines on her cheeks, the melancholy mouth, the\\nsunken eyes with their large heavy lids, were all\\ncharacteristic of the part. She always had the\\nsame black, broad, arched eyebrows, the same\\nwavy, shiny black Italian hair, which was always", "height": "3528", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0125.jp2"}, "126": {"fulltext": "ic 4 Six Modern Women\\ndone up in a modest knot, sometimes high, some-\\ntimes a little lower, from which two curls always\\nescaped during the course of her acting, because\\nshe had a habit of brushing her forehead with a\\nwhite and rather bony hand, as though every\\nviolent emotion made her head ache.\\nNo jewel glittered against her sallow skin, and\\nshe wore no ornament on her dress; there was\\nsomething pathetic in the unconcealed thinness\\nof her neck and throat. She was of medium\\nheight, a slender body with broad hips, without\\nany signs of the rounded waist which belongs to\\nthe fashionable figure of the drama. She wore no\\nstays, and there was nothing to hinder the slow,\\ngraceful, musical movements of her somewhat\\nscanty figure. She made frequent gestures with\\nher arms which were perfectly natural in her,\\nalthough her Italian vivacity sometimes gave\\nthem a grotesque appearance. But it was the\\ngrace of her form, rather than her gestures, which\\ncalled attention to the natural stateliness of her\\nperson. As to her dresses, they were not in the\\nleast fashionable, there was nothing of the French\\nfashion-plate style about them but then she never\\nmade any attempt to follow the fashion, she set\\nit. There was an antique look about the long\\nsoft- folds of her dress, also something suggestive\\nof the Renaissance in the velvet bodices and low\\nlace collars.\\nBut her arrangement of color was new; it was\\nnot copied either from the antique or the Renais-", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0126.jp2"}, "127": {"fulltext": "The Modern Woman on the Stage 105\\nsance, and it was certainly not in accordance with\\nthe present-day fashion. She never wore red,\\nwith the exception of Nora s shabby blouse, nor\\nbright yellow, nor blue never, in fact, any strong,\\ndeep color. The hues which she affected most\\nwere black and white in all materials, whether\\nfor dresses or cloaks. She always wore pale,\\ncream-colored lace, closely folded across her\\nbreast, from whence her dress fell loosely to the\\nground; she never wore a waist-band of any kind\\nwhatever.\\nShe sometimes wore pale bronze, faded violet,\\nand quiet myrtle green in soft materials of velvet\\nand silk. There was an air of mourning about\\nher dresses which might have suited any age\\nexcept merry youth, and that note was entirely\\nabsent from her art, for she was never merry.\\nShe had a happy look sometimes, but she was\\nnever merry or noisy on the stage. I have twice\\nseen her in a hat and they were sober hats, such\\nas a widow might wear.\\nIll\\nI saw Duse for the first time as Nora. 1 I was\\nsorry for it, as I did not think that an Italian\\ncould act the part of a heroine with such an\\nessentially northern temperament. I have never\\nhad an opportunity of seeing Frau Ramlo, who is\\n1 A Doll s House, by Henrik Ibsen.", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0127.jp2"}, "128": {"fulltext": "106 Six Modern Women\\nconsidered the best Nora on the German stage,\\nbut I have seen Ibsen s Nora, Fru Hennings of\\nthe Royal Theatre of Copenhagen, and I retained\\na vivid picture of her acting in my mind. Fru\\nHennings Nora was a nervous little creature,\\nwith fair hair and sharp features, very neat and\\npiquante, but dressed cheaply and not always with\\nthe best taste; she was the regular tradesman s\\ndaughter, with meagre purse and many preten-\\nsions, whose knowledge of life was bounded by\\nthe narrow prejudices of the parlor. There was\\nsomething undeveloped about this Nora, with her\\nsenseless chatter, something almost pitiable in\\nher admiration for the self-important Helmer,\\nand something childish in her conception of his\\nhidden heroism. There was also a natural, and\\nperhaps inherited tendency for dishonest deal-\\nings, and a well-bred, forced cheerfulness which\\ntook the form of hopping and jumping in a\\ncoquettish manner, because she knew that it\\nbecame her. When the time comes that she is\\nobliged to face life with its realities, her feeble\\nbrain becomes quite confused, and she hops round\\nthe room in her tight stays, with her fringe and\\nhigh-heeled boots, till, nervous and void of self-\\ncontrol as she is, she excites herself into the\\nwildest apprehensions. This apprehension was\\nthe masterpiece of Fru Hennings masterly act-\\ning. She kept the mind fixed on a single point,\\nwhich had all the more powerful effect in that it\\nwas so characteristically depicted, she showed", "height": "3536", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0128.jp2"}, "129": {"fulltext": "The Modern Woman on the Stage 107\\nus the way by which a respectable tradesman s\\ndaughter may be driven to the madhouse or to\\nsuicide. But when the change takes place, and\\na fully developed, argumentative, woman s rights\\nwoman jumps down upon the little goose, then\\neven Fru Hennings undoubted art was not equal\\nto the occasion. The part fell to pieces, and two\\nNoras remained, connected only by a little thread,\\nthe miraculous. Fru Hennings disappears with\\nan unspoken an revoir!\\nWhen Eleonora Duse comes upon the stage as\\nNora, she is a pale, unhealthy-looking woman,\\nwith a very quiet manner. She examines her\\npurse thoughtfully, and before paying the servant\\nshe pauses involuntarily, as poor people usually\\ndo before they spend money. And when she\\nthrows off her shabby fur cloak and fur cap, she\\nappears as a thin, black-haired Italian woman,\\nclad in an old, ill-fitting red blouse. She plays\\nwith the children, without any real gayety, as\\ngrown-up people are in the habit of playing\\nwhen their thoughts are otherwise occupied.\\nFru Linden enters, and to her she tells her\\nwhole history with true Italian volubility, but in\\nan absent manner, like a person who is not think-\\ning of what she is saying. She likes best to sit\\non the floor very unlike women of her class\\nand to busy herself with the Christmas things.\\nIn the scene with Helmer an expression of sub-\\nmissive tenderness comes over her, she likes to\\nbe with him, she feels as though his presence", "height": "3540", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0129.jp2"}, "130": {"fulltext": "108 Six Modern Women\\nafforded her protection, and she nestles to his\\nside, more like a sick person than a child.\\nThe scenes which are impressed with Nora s\\nmodern nervousness come and go, but Duse\\nnever becomes nervous. The many emotional\\nand sudden changes which take place, the un-\\nreasonable actions and other minor peculiarities\\nof a child of the bourgeois decadence, these do\\nnot concern her. Duse never acts the nervous\\nwoman, either here or elsewhere. She does not\\nact it, because she has too true and delicate a\\nnervous susceptibility. She can act the most\\npassionate feelings, and she often does so; but\\nshe never acts a capricious, nervous disposition.\\nShe has too refined a taste for that, and her soul\\nis too full of harmony.\\nIbsen s Nora is hysterical, and only half a\\nwoman; and that is what he, with his poetic\\nintuition, intended her to be. Eleonora Duse s\\nNora is a complete woman. Crushed by want\\nand living in narrow surroundings, there is a\\ncertain obtuseness about her which renders her\\nwilling to subject herself to new misfortunes.\\nThere is also something of the child in her, as\\nthere is in every true woman but even in her\\nchild-like moments she is a sad child. Then the\\nmisfortune happens But, strange to say, she\\nmakes no desperate attempt to resist it she gives\\nno hysterical cry of fear, as a meaner soul would\\ndo in the struggle for life. There is something\\npitiable in a struggle such as that, where power", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0130.jp2"}, "131": {"fulltext": "The Modern Woman on the Stage 109\\nand will are so disproportionately unlike. Duse s\\nNora hastily suppresses the first suggestion of\\nfear; but she does not admire her muff mean-\\nwhile, like Fru Hennings. She merely repeats\\nto herself over and over again in answer to her\\nthoughts No, no I never heard any one say\\nno like her; it contains a whole world of\\nhuman feeling. But all through the night she\\nhears fate say Yes, yes and the next day,\\nwhich is Christmas Day, she is overcome with a\\nfatalistic feeling. She dresses herself for the\\nfestival, but not with cheap rags like Nora; she\\nwears an expensive dark green dress, which hangs\\ndown in rich graceful folds. It is her only best\\ndress, and sets off her figure to perfection; it\\nmakes her look tall and slender, but also very\\nweary. And as the play goes on, she becomes\\neven more weary and more resigned, and when\\ndeath comes, there is no help for it. Then, after\\nthe rehearsal of the tarantella, when Helmer calls\\nto her from the dining-room and she knows that\\nfate can no longer be averted, she leaps through\\nthe air into his arms with a cry of joy, to look\\nat her one would think that she was one of those\\nthin, wild, joyless Bacchantes whose bas-reliefs\\nhave come down to us from the later period of\\nGrecian art.\\nThe third act Nora and Helmer return from\\nthe mask ball. She is absent-minded and quite\\nindifferent to everything that goes on around her.\\nThat which she knows is going to happen, is to", "height": "3556", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0131.jp2"}, "132": {"fulltext": "no Six Modern Women\\nher already a thing of the past, since she has\\nendured it all in anticipation her actions in the\\nmatter are only mechanical.\\nWhen Helmer goes to empty the letter-box, she\\ndoes not try to stop him with a hundred excuses,\\nshe scarcely makes a weak movement to hold him\\nback she knows that it must come, nothing that\\nshe can do will prevent it. While Helmer reads\\nthe letter, she stands pale and motionless, and\\nwhen he rushes at her, she throws on her mantle\\nand leaves the room without another word.\\nHe drags her back and overwhelms her with\\nreproaches, in which the pitiful meanness of his\\nsoul is laid bare. Now Duse s acting begins in\\nearnest, now the dramatic moment has come\\nthe only moment in the drama for the sake of\\nwhich she took the part.\\nShe stands by the fireplace, with her face\\ntowards the audience, and does not move a muscle\\nuntil he has finished speaking. She says noth-\\ning, she never interrupts him. Only her eyes\\nspeak. He runs backwards and forwards, up and\\ndown the room, while she follows him with her\\nlarge, suffering eyes, which have an unnatural\\nlook in them, follows him backwards and for-\\nwards in unutterable surprise, a surprise which\\nseems to have fallen from heaven, and which\\nchanges little by little into an unutterable, incon-\\nceivable disappointment, and that again into an\\nindescribably bitter, sickening contempt. And\\ninto her eyes comes at last the question: Who", "height": "3537", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0132.jp2"}, "133": {"fulltext": "The Modern Woman on the Stage m\\nare you? What have you got to do with me?\\nWhat do you want here? What are you talking\\nabout?\\nThe other letter drops into the letter-box, and\\nHelmer loads her with tender, patronizing words.\\nBut she does not hear him. She is no longer look-\\ning at him. What does the chattering creature\\nwant now She does not know him at all. She\\nhas never loved him. There was once a man\\nwhose sympathy she possessed, and who was her\\nprotector. That man is no more, and she has\\nnever loved any one!\\nShe turns away with a gesture of displeasure,\\nand goes to change her clothes, anxious to get\\naway as quickly as possible. He stops her.\\nWhat then The woman is awake in her. She\\nis a woman in the moment of a woman s greatest\\nignominy, when she discovers that she does not\\nlove. What does he want with her? Why does\\nhe raise objections? He Tant de bruit\\npour une omelette! She throws him a few indif-\\nferent words, shrugs her shoulders, turns her\\nback upon him, and goes quickly out at the door.\\nPresently we hear the front door close with a\\nbang. There is no mention at all about the\\nmiracle.\\nThat is how Duse united Nora s double person-\\nality. Make it up There is no making it up\\nbetween the man and wife, except the kiss and the\\nshrug of the shoulders. She ignores Ibsen s prin-\\ncipal argument. Reason, indeed? Reason has", "height": "3546", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0133.jp2"}, "134": {"fulltext": "ii2 Six Modern Women\\nnever settled anything in stern reality, least of\\nall as regards the relationship between husband\\nand wife. One day Nora wakes up and finds that\\nHelmer has become loathsome to her, and she\\nruns away from him with the instinctive horror\\nof a living person for a decomposed corpse. Of\\ncourse nothing miraculous can happen, for that\\nwould mean that the living person should go mad\\nand return to the corpse.\\nEleonora Duse treats all her parts in the same\\nindependent manner that she treats the text of\\nNora. When we are able to follow her, and that\\nis by no means always, we notice how she alters\\nit to suit herself, how another being comes to the\\nfront, a being who has no place in the written\\nwords, and whom the author never thought of,\\nwhom he, in most cases, could certainly not have\\ndrawn from his own views of life and his own\\ninner consciousness. Duse s heroine is more\\nwomanly, in the deeper sense of the word, than\\nthe society ladies in Ibsen s and Sardou s dramas,\\nand she is not only more simple than they are,\\nbut also far greater. Eleonora Duse is not a\\ndialectician like Ibsen and Sardou; their hair-\\nsplitting logic is no concern of hers, and it cer-\\ntainly was not written for her. She has an\\ninstinctive, unerring intuition of what the part\\nshould be, and she throws herself into it and acts\\naccordingly. She does not vary much she is not\\na realist who makes a careful note of every little\\npeculiarity, and arranges them in a pattern of", "height": "3537", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0134.jp2"}, "135": {"fulltext": "The Modern Woman on the Stage 113\\nmosaic; she is truthful to a reckless extent, but\\nnot always true to the letter; sometimes like\\nthis, sometimes like that, she differs in the\\ndifferent parts. She is true, because she is proud\\nand courageous enough to show herself as she\\nreally is. There is no need for her to be other-\\nwise. There is danger of uniformity in this great\\nsimplicity of hers, and she would not escape it\\nif it were not for her emotional nature, and an\\nintense, almost painful sincerity, which was per-\\nhaps never represented on the stage before her\\ntime, and which was certainly never before made\\nthe groundwork of a woman s feelings. She\\ncomes to meet us half absorbed in her own\\nthoughts, a complete woman, complete in that\\nindissoluble unity which is the basis of a healthy\\nwoman s nature: woman-child and also woman-\\nmother, a woman with the stamp which is the\\nresult of deep, vital experience, with a woman s\\ntragedy ineffaceably engraved on every feature,\\nthis same woman s tragedy which she reproduces\\nupon the stage. It is the fact of her not troub-\\nling herself about anything else that imbues her\\nacting with an air of simplicity, and because she\\nis such a complete woman herself, there is an air\\nof indescribable stateliness about her acting. She\\nnot only simplified all that she took in hand, but\\nshe also improved it. For all these characters\\nwhich she created were the result of the com-\\npleteness of her womanly nature, and that is why\\nthey never had but the one motive, for all the", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0135.jp2"}, "136": {"fulltext": "ii4 Six Modern Women\\nevil they did, and for their hate they revenged\\nthemselves for the crimen Icesce majestatis, which\\nsin was committed against their womanly nature,\\nand which a true woman never forgives, as when\\nthe priceless pearl of her womanhood has been\\nmisused. That is why they made no pathetic\\ngestures, no noise or tragic screams, but acted\\nquietly and silently, as we do a thing which is\\nexpected of us, with a quiet indifference, as when\\nintact nature bows itself under and assists fate.\\nThat is how Duse acted Nora, but she acted\\nClotilde in Fernande in the same mood, also\\nOdette in the play, called by the same name, both\\nby Sardou, and that was more difficult. Clotilde\\nand Odette are a couple of vulgar people. Clotilde,\\na widow of distinction, revenges herself upon a\\nyoung man of proud and noble family, who has\\nbeen her lover for many years, but has broken\\nhis marriage vows, by encouraging his attachment\\nfor a dishonored girl, whom she persuades him to\\nmarry, and afterwards triumphantly tells him his\\nwife s history.\\nOdette s husband finds her one night with her\\nlover, and he turns her out of the house in the\\npresence of witnesses. For several years she leads\\na dissolute life, dishonoring the name of her hus-\\nband and grown-up daughter. This stain on the\\nfamily makes it almost impossible for the latter\\nto marry, and the husband offers the fallen woman\\na large sum of money to deprive her of his name.\\nShe agrees, on condition that she shall be allowed", "height": "3539", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0136.jp2"}, "137": {"fulltext": "The Modern Woman on the Stage 115\\nto see her daughter. She is prevented from mak-\\ning herself known to the latter, and when she\\ncomes away after the interview, she drowns her-\\nself in a fit of hysterical self-contempt. Such\\nare the contents of the two pieces into which\\nDuse put her greatest and best talent.\\nIV\\nShe comes as Clotilde into the gambling saloon,\\nto inquire after the young girl whom she had\\nnearly driven over. She is simply dressed, and\\nhas the appearance of a distinguished lady, with\\na happy and virtuous past. The manner in which\\nshe receives the girl in her own house, talks to\\nher and puts her at her ease, was so kind and\\nhearty that the audience, very unexpectedly in\\nthis scene, broke into a storm of applause before\\nthe curtain had gone down. Her lover returns\\nfrom a journey which arouses her suspicion, and\\nshe, anxious not to deceive herself, elicits the\\nconfession that he no longer cares for her, and\\nis in love with some one else. That some one\\nis Fernande. He goes to look for her, finds her\\nin the same house, and returns immediately.\\nClotilde thinks that he has come back to her.\\nHer speechless delight must be seen, for it can-\\nnot be described; her whole being is suffused\\nwith a radiant joy, she trembles with excitement.\\nWhen it is all made plain to her, and there is no\\nlonger any room for doubt, she bows her head", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0137.jp2"}, "138": {"fulltext": "n6 Six Modern Women\\nover his hand for an instant, as though to kiss\\nit, as she had so often done before, then she\\nstrokes it softly with her own. She will\\nnever look into his face again, yet she cannot\\ncease to love the dear, caressing hand, which\\ncalls to mind her former happiness.\\nShe lets things take their course, and when it\\nis over she has the scene with Pomerol, when she\\ndefends her conduct. Duse has a form of dia-\\nlectic peculiar to herself, which is neither sen-\\nsible nor deliberate, but impulsive. When she\\ndoes wrong she does it not because she is bad,\\nbut because she cannot help herself. A part of\\nher nature, which was the source of her life, is\\nwounded and sick unto death, and a gnawing,\\nburning pain compels her to commit deeds as\\ndark and painful as her own heart. She goes\\nabout it quietly, doing it all as a matter of\\ncourse to her they seem inevitable as the outer\\nexpression of a hidden suffering.\\nShe is at her best in the passionate Fedora,\\nwhen she represents this state of blank amaze-\\nment, mingled with despair, taking the place of\\nwhat has been love. If she afterwards comes\\nacross the French cynic, she reasons with him\\ntoo but like a woman, i.e., she drowns his argu-\\nments in an extraordinary number of interjec-\\ntions, with or without words. She never crosses\\nthe threshold of her life as an actress, she never\\nonce attains to the consciousness of objective\\njudgment.", "height": "3522", "width": "2301", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0138.jp2"}, "139": {"fulltext": "The Modern Woman on the Stage 117\\nWhen the man whom she loves is married to\\nthe dishonored girl, Clotilde comes to bring him\\nthe information which she has reserved until\\nnow. Suddenly she stands in the doorway, and\\nsees that he is alone, and there comes over her\\nan indescribable expression of dumb, suppressed\\nlove. She seems to be making a frantic appeal\\nto the past to be as though it had never taken\\nplace, and in the emotion of the moment she has\\nforgotten what brought her there. Not until he\\nhas unceremoniously shown her the door, and\\nopened the old wound, does she tell him who his\\nwife is.\\nThe same with Odette. She is in love, and\\nshe receives her lover. At that moment her\\nhusband comes home. (Ando, Duse s partner, is\\nalmost as good an actor as she is.) He is a shal-\\nlow, restless, hot-tempered little man, who seizes\\nher by the shoulders as she is about to throw her-\\nself into the other man s arms. She collapses\\naltogether, and stands before him stammering\\nand ashamed. He thrusts her out of the house,\\nalthough it is the middle of the night, and she is\\nlightly clad. In a moment she has drawn herself\\nup to her full height, a woman deprived of home\\nand child, on whom the deadliest injury has been\\ninflicted in the most barbarous manner; in the\\npresence of such cruelty, her own fault sinks to\\nnothing, and with a voice as hoarse as that of an\\nanimal at bay, she cries, Coward and leaves\\nhim.", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0139.jp2"}, "140": {"fulltext": "n8 Six Modern Women\\nMany years have gone by, and we meet Odette\\nonce more, this time as a courtesan in a gambling\\nsaloon. She is very much aged, a thin, disil-\\nlusioned woman, for whom her husband is search-\\ning everywhere, with the intention of depriving\\nher of his name. There is still something about\\nher which bears the impress of the injured woman.\\nShe recalls the past as clearly as though it hap-\\npened only yesterday; for she can never forget it,\\nand time has not lessened the disgrace. She treats\\nhim with wearied indifference, and her voice is\\nharsh like an animal s, and she chokes as though\\nshe were trying to smother her indignation.\\nThen follows the last act, when she meets her\\ndaughter. She comes in, dressed like an unhappy\\nold widow, shaking with emotion, and scarcely\\nable to contain herself. Her eyes are aglow with\\nexcitement, as she rushes forward, ready to cast\\nherself into her daughter s arms. But when she\\nsees the fresh, innocent girl, she is overcome with\\na feeling of shyness, and shrinks from her with\\nan awkward, anxious gesture. She speaks hesi-\\ntatingly, like one who is ill at ease; she raises\\nher shoulders and stoops, and holds her thin,\\nrestless hands clasped together, lest they should\\ntouch her daughter. The girl displays the vari-\\nous little souvenirs that belonged to her mother,\\nand plays the piece which was her favorite, and\\ntalks about her dead mother. Then this man\\nand woman are stirred with a deep feeling, which\\nis the simple keynote of humanity, which they", "height": "3541", "width": "2294", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0140.jp2"}, "141": {"fulltext": "The Modern Woman on the Stage 119\\nnever experienced before in the days when they\\nwere together. And they sit and cry, each buried\\nin their own sorrow, and far apart from one\\nanother. After that she puts her trembling arms\\nround the girl, and kisses her with an expression\\nin her face which it is impossible to simulate,\\nand which cannot be imitated, which no one\\nunderstands except the woman who is herself a\\nmother. She gazes at her daughter as though\\nshe could never see enough of her; she strokes\\nher with feverish hands, arranges the lace on her\\ndress, and you feel the joy that it is to her to\\ntouch the girl, and to know that she is really\\nthere. Then she becomes very quiet, as though\\nshe had suffered all that it was possible for her to\\nsuffer. As she passes her husband, she catches\\nhold of his outstretched hand, and tries to kiss\\nit. Then she tears herself away, overcome with\\nthe feeling that she can endure it no longer.\\nEleonora Duse prefers difficult parts. She\\nwas nothing more than an ordinary actress in\\nLa Locandiera, and the witty dialogue in\\nCyprienne and Francillon had little in com-\\nmon with her nature. Even the part of La\\nDame aux Camelias was an effort to her. The\\nsilly, frivolous cocotte, with her consumptive\\nlonging to be loved, was too exaggerated a part\\nfor Eleonora Duse. A superabundance of good\\nspirits is foreign to her nature, which is sad as\\nlife itself. Pride and arrogance she cannot act,\\nnor yet the trustfulness which comes from inex-", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0141.jp2"}, "142": {"fulltext": "120 Six Modern Women\\nperience. She gave the impression of not feel-\\ning young enough for La Dame aux Camelias\\nhappy and unhappy moods. Eleonora Duse s art\\nis most at home where life s great enigma begins:\\nWhere do we come from Why are we here\\nWhere are we going to We are tossed to and\\nfro on the waters in a dense fog we suffer wrong,\\nand we do wrong, and we know not why. Fate\\nfate! We are powerless in the hands of Fate!\\nWhen Duse can act the blindness of fatalism,\\nthen she is content.\\nShe was able to do so in Fedora.\\nThe pretty, fashionable heroine does not change\\ninto a fury when the man whom she loves is\\nbrought home murdered. When we meet her\\nagain she is quite quiet, a calm, cold woman of\\nthe world, with only one object in life, which is\\nto punish the murderer. It is a task like any\\nother, but it is inevitable, and must be under-\\ntaken as a matter of course. She makes no dis-\\nplay of anger, and takes no perverse pleasure in\\nthoughts of vengeance. The murderer is nothing\\nto her, he is a stranger. But she has been ren-\\ndered desolate in the flower of her youth; the\\ntable of life, which is never spread more than\\nonce, has been upset before her eyes, at the very\\nmoment of her anticipated happiness, and this is\\nan injury which she is going to repay. She is\\nproud, and has no illusions; she is a just judge,\\nwho recompenses evil with evil and good with\\ngood. This Fedora is reserved and unreasoning.", "height": "3510", "width": "2295", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0142.jp2"}, "143": {"fulltext": "The Modern Woman on the Stage 121\\nThe scene changes. She loves the man whom\\nshe has been pursuing, and she discovers that the\\ndead man has been false to both of them, and she\\nrealizes that now for the first time life s table is\\nspread for her, while the secret police, to whom\\nshe has betrayed him, are waiting outside, and\\nshe clings to him terrified, showers caresses upon\\nhim, kisses him with unspeakable tenderness.\\nThere is something in her of the helplessness of\\na little child, mingled with a mother s protecting\\ncare, as she implores him to remain, and entices\\nhim to love, and seeks refuge in his love, as a\\nterrified animal seeks refuge in its hole.\\nThere are two other features of Eleonora Duse s\\nart which deserve notice. These are, the way in\\nwhich she tells a lie, and the way she acts death.\\nAs I have said already, she is not a realist, and\\nshe frames her characters from her inner con-\\nsciousness, not from details gathered from the\\noutward features of life. Her representation of\\ndeath is also the outcome of her instinct. A\\ndeath scene has no meaning for her unless it\\nreflects the inner life. As a process of physical\\ndissolution, she takes no interest in it. She has\\nnot studied death from the side of the sick-bed,\\nand she makes short work of it in Fedora, as\\nalso in La Dame aux Camelias. In the first\\npiece, the point which she emphasizes is the\\nsudden determination to take the poison; in the\\nsecond, it is her joy at having the man whom she\\nloves near her at the last.", "height": "3557", "width": "2104", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0143.jp2"}, "144": {"fulltext": "122 Six Modern Women\\nThen her manner of lying. When Duse tells\\na lie, she does it as if it were the simplest and\\nmost natural thing in the world. Her lies and\\ndeceptions are as engaging, persuasive, and fan-\\ntastic as a child s. Lying is an important factor\\nin the character of a woman who has much to fight\\nagainst, and it is a weapon which she delights to\\nuse, and the use of it renders her unusually fas-\\ncinating and affectionate. Even those who do\\nnot understand the words of the play, know when\\nDuse is telling a lie, because she becomes so\\nunusually lively and talkative, and her large eyes\\nhave an irresistible sparkle in them.\\nCavalleria Rusticana was the only good Italian\\nplay that Duse acted. She was more of a realist\\nin this piece than in any other, because she repro-\\nduced what she had seen daily before her eyes,\\nher native surroundings, her fellow-countrymen,\\ninstead of that which she had learned by listening\\nto her own soul. Her Santuzza the poor, for-\\nsaken girl with the raw, melancholy, guttural\\naccents of despair was lifelike and convincing,\\nbut the barbaric wildness of the exponent was\\nsomething which was as startling in this stupid,\\npale weakly creature as a roar from the throat of\\na roe deer.\\nAnd now to sum up Eleonora Duse goes tour-\\ning all round the world. She is going to America,", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0144.jp2"}, "145": {"fulltext": "The Modern Woman on the Stage 123\\nand she is certain to go back to Berlin and St.\\nPetersburg and Vienna, and other places where\\nshe may or may not have been before. She will\\nhave to travel and act, travel and act, as all popular\\nactresses have done before her. She will grow\\ntired of it, unspeakably tired, we can see that\\nalready, but she will be obliged to go on, till\\nshe becomes stereotyped, like all the others.\\nWhen we see her again, will she be the same as\\nshe is now? Her technical power is extraordinary,\\nbut her art is simple; melancholy and dignity\\nare its chief ingredients. Will Duse s womanly\\nnature be able to bear the strain of never-ending\\nrepetition? This fear has been the cause of my\\nendeavor to accentuate her individuality as it\\nappeared to me when I saw her. Hers is not\\none of those powerful natures which always regain\\ntheir strength, and are able to fight through all\\ndifficulties. Her entire acting is tuned upon one\\nnote, which is usually nothing more than an\\naccompaniment in the art of acting; that note\\nis sincerity. In my opinion she is the greatest\\nwoman genius on the stage.\\nNowadays we are either too lavish or too sparing\\nin our use of the word genius we either brandish\\nit abroad with every trumpet, or else avoid it alto-\\ngether. We are willing to allow that there are\\ngeniuses amongst actors and actresses, and that\\nsuch have existed, and may perhaps continue to\\nexist, but I have never observed that any attempt\\nis made to distinguish between the genius of", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0145.jp2"}, "146": {"fulltext": "124 Six Modern W omen\\nman and woman on the stage. This may possibly\\nbe accounted for by the fact that the difference\\nwas not great. The hero was manly, the heroine\\nwomanly, and the old people, whether men or\\nwomen, were either comic or tearful, and the\\ncharacters of both sexes were usually bad. The\\ndifference lay chiefly in the dress, the general\\ncomportment, and the voice one could see which\\nwas the woman, and she of course acted a woman s\\nfeelings; tradition ruled, and in accordance with\\nit the actress imitated the man, declaimed her\\npart like him, and even went as far as to imitate\\nthe well-known tragic step. Types, not indi-\\nviduals, were represented on the stage, and I\\nhave seldom seen even the greatest actresses of\\nthe older school deviate from this rule.\\nThe society pieces were supposed to represent\\neveryday life; therefore it was necessary before all\\nelse that the actress should be a lady, and where a\\nlady s feelings are limited, hers were necessarily\\nlimited too. To every actress, the tragedian not\\nexcepted, the question of chief importance was\\nhow she looked.\\nBut Duse does not care in the least how she\\nlooks. Her one desire is to find means of express-\\ning an emotion of the soul which overwhelms her,\\nand is one of the mysteries of her womanly nature.\\nHer acting is not realistic; by which I mean that\\nshe does not attempt to impress her audience by\\nmaking her acting true to life, which can be easily\\nattained by means of pathological phenomena, such", "height": "3538", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0146.jp2"}, "147": {"fulltext": "The Modern Woman on the Stage 125\\nas a cough, the cramp, a death struggle, etc.,\\nwhich are really the most expressive, and also, in\\na coarse way, the most successful. She will have\\nnone of this, because it is the kind of acting com-\\nmon to both sexes. What she wants is to give\\nexpression to her own soul, her own womanly\\nnature, the individual emotions of her own physi-\\ncal and psychical being and she can only accom-\\nplish that by being entirely herself, i.e., perfectly\\nnatural. That is why she makes gesticulations,\\nand speaks in a tone of voice which is never used\\nelsewhere upon the stage and she never tries to\\ndisguise her age, because her body is nothing\\nmore to her than an instrument for expressing\\nher woman s soul.\\nWhat is genius The word has hitherto been\\nunderstood to imply a superabundance of intelli-\\ngence, imagination, and passion, combined with\\na higher order of intellect than that possessed by\\naverage persons. Genius was a masculine attri-\\nbute, and when people spoke of woman s genius,\\ntheir meaning was almost identical. A finer\\nspiritual susceptibility scarcely came under the\\nheading of genius; it was therefore, upon the\\nwhole, a very unsatisfactory definition. There\\ncan be no doubt that there is a kind of genius\\npeculiar to women, and it is when a woman is a\\ngenius that she is most unlike man, and most\\nwomanly; it is then that she creates through the\\ninstrumentality of her womanly nature and refined\\nsenses. This is the kind of productive faculty", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0147.jp2"}, "148": {"fulltext": "126 Six Modern Women\\nwhich Eleonora Duse possesses to such a high\\ndegree.\\nA woman s productive faculty has always shown\\na decided preference for authorship and acting,\\nthe two forms of art which offer the best oppor-\\ntunity for the manifestation of the inner life, as\\nbeing the most direct and spontaneous, and in\\nwhich there are the fewest technical difficulties\\nto overcome. A woman s impulses are of such\\nshort duration that she feels the need for constant\\nchange of emotion. The majority of women are\\nattracted by the stage, and there is no form of\\nartistic production which they find more difficult\\nto renounce. Why is this We will leave vanity\\nand other minor considerations out of the ques-\\ntion, and imagine Duse shedding real tears upon\\nthe stage, enduring real mental and maybe physi-\\ncal sufferings, experiencing real sorrow and real\\njoy.\\nAnd now, putting aside all question of nerves\\nand auto-suggestion, we would ask what it is that\\nattracts a woman to the stage\\nSensation.\\nA productive nature cannot endure the monotony\\nof real life. To it, real life means uniformity.\\nUniformity in love, uniformity in work, uni-\\nformity in pleasures, uniformity in sorrows. To\\nbreak through this uniformity this half sleep of\\ndaily existence is a craving felt by all persons\\npossessed of superfluous vitality. This vitality\\nmay be more or less centred on the ego, and for", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0148.jp2"}, "149": {"fulltext": "The Modern Woman on the Stage 127\\nsuch, i. e. the persons who are posesssed of the\\nlargest share of individual, productive vitality,\\nauthorship and acting are the two shortest ways\\nof escape from the uniformity of daily life. Of\\nthese two, the last-named form of artistic expres-\\nsion is best suited to woman, and the woman\\nwho has felt these sensations, especially the tragic\\nones, can never tear herself away from the stage.\\nFor she experiences them with an intensity of\\nfeeling which belongs only to the rarest moments\\nin real life, and which cannot then be consciously\\nenjoyed. But the artificial emotions, which can\\nscarcely be reckoned artificial, since they cause\\nher excited nerves to quiver, of these she is\\nstrangely conscious in her enjoyment of them;\\nshe enjoys both spiritual and physical horror, she\\nenjoys the thousand reflex emotions, and she also\\nenjoys the genuine fatigue and bodily weakness\\nwhich follow after. For the majority of women\\nour life is an everlasting, half-waking expectation\\nof something that never comes, or it may be noth-\\ning more than a hard day s work; but life for a\\ntalented actress becomes a double existence, filled\\nwith warm colors sorrow and gladness. She can\\ndo what other women never can or would allow\\nthemselves to do, she can express every sensation\\nthat she feels, she can enjoy the full extent of a\\nwoman s feelings, and live them over and over\\nagain. But because this life is half reality and\\nhalf fiction, and because the strain of acting is\\nalways followed by a feeling of emptiness and", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0149.jp2"}, "150": {"fulltext": "128 Six Modern Women\\ndissatisfaction, great actresses are always disil-\\nlusioned, and that is perhaps the reason why\\nDuse s attractive face wears an expression of\\nweariness and hopeless longing. But the warm\\ncolors the colors of sorrow and passion are\\nalways enticing, and that is why great tragedians\\ncan never forsake the stage, although gradually,\\nlittle by little, the intensity of their feelings\\ngrows less, and the colors become pale and more\\nfalse.", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0150.jp2"}, "151": {"fulltext": "IV\\nThe Woman Naturalist", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0151.jp2"}, "152": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0152.jp2"}, "153": {"fulltext": "It is a well-known peculiarity of Norwegian\\nauthors that they all want something. It is\\neither some of the new devilries with which\\nFather Ibsen amuses himself in his old age, or\\nelse it is the Universal Disarm-ment Act and\\nthe peace of Europe, which Bjornson, with his\\nincreasing years and increasing folly, assures us\\nwill come to pass as a result of universal\\nmorality; or else it is the rights of the flesh,\\nwhich have been discovered by Hans Jaeger;\\nbut whatever they want, it is always something\\nthat has no connection with their art as authors.\\nAll their writings assume the form of a polemical\\nor critical discussion on social subjects; yet in\\nspite of their boasted psychology, they care little\\nfor the great mystery which humanity offers to\\nthem in the unexplored regions lying between\\nthe two poles man and woman and as for physi-\\nology, they are as little concerned about it as Paul\\nBourget in his Physiologie de V Amour Moderne,\\nwhere there is no more physiology than there is\\nin the novels of Dumas pere.\\nWhen the green tree, etc. That is the style\\nof the Norwegian authors and as for the author-", "height": "3537", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0153.jp2"}, "154": {"fulltext": "132 Six Modern Women\\nesses of the three Scandinavian countries, -r- they\\nare all ladies who have been educated in the high\\nschools. They cast down their eyes, not out of\\nshyness, for the modern woman is too well aware\\nof her own importance to be shy, but in order\\nto read. They read about life, as it is and as it\\nshould be, and then they set themselves down to\\nwrite about life as it is and as it should be; but\\nthey really know nothing of it beyond the lit-\\ntle that they see during their afternoon walks\\nthrough the best streets in the town, and at the\\nevening parties given by the best bourgeois\\nsociety.\\nThis is the case with all Scandinavian author-\\nesses, with one exception. This one exception\\ncan see, and she looks at life with good large\\neyes, opened wide like a child s, and sees with\\nthe impartiality that belongs to a healthy nature;\\nshe can grasp what she sees, and describe it too,\\nwith a freshness and expressiveness which betray\\na lack of cultured reading.\\nII\\nA lady of remarkable and brilliant beauty may\\nsometimes be seen in the theatre at Copenhagen,\\nor walking in the streets by the side of a tall,\\nstout, fair gentleman, whose features resemble\\nthose of Gustavus Adolphus. Any one can see\\nthat the lady is a native of Bergen. To us", "height": "3482", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0154.jp2"}, "155": {"fulltext": "The Woman Naturalist 133\\nstrangers, the natives of Bergen have a certain\\nsomething whereby we always recognize them,\\nno matter whether we meet them in Paris or in\\nCopenhagen. Bjornson s wife has it as decidedly\\nas the humblest clerk whom we see on Sundays\\nat the table of his employer at Reval or Riga.\\nTheir short, straight noses lack earnestness, their\\nhair is shiny and untidy, their eyes are black as\\npitch, and they have the free and easy movements\\nthat are peculiar to a well-proportioned body; it\\nis as though the essence of the vitality of Europe\\nhad collected in the old Hanseatic town of the\\nNorth. I do not think that the inhabitants of\\nBergen are remarkable for their superior intelli-\\ngence; if they were it might hinder them from\\ngrasping things as resolutely, and despatching\\nthem as promptly as they are in the habit of\\ndoing. But among Norwegians, who are known\\nto have heavy, meditative natures, the people of\\nBergen are the most cheerful and light-hearted,\\nin as far as it is possible to be cheerful and\\nlight-hearted in this world.\\nThe lady who is walking by the side of the man\\nwith the Gustavus-Adolphus head is a striking\\nphenomenon in Copenhagen. She is different\\nfrom every one else, which a lady ought never to\\nbe. Compared with the flat-breasted, lively, and\\nflirtatious women of Copenhagen, she, with her\\nwell-developed figure and large hips, is like a\\ngreat sailing-ship among small coquettish pleas-\\nure boats. She is always doing something which", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0155.jp2"}, "156": {"fulltext": "134 Six Modern Women\\nno lady would do; she wears bright colors, which\\nare not the fashion and I saw her one evening at\\nan entertainment, where there were not enough\\nchairs, sitting on a table and dangling her feet,\\nalthough she is the mother of two grown-up\\nsons\\nIll\\nWhen the woman s rights movement made its\\nappearance in Norway, authoresses sprang up as\\nnumerous as mushrooms after the rain. Women\\nclaimed the right to study, to plead, and to legis-\\nlate in the local body and the state they claimed\\nthe suffrage, the right of property, and the right\\nto earn their own living; but there was one very\\nsimple right to which they laid no claim, and\\nthat was the woman s right to love. To a great\\nextent this right had been thrust aside by the\\nmodern social order, yet there were plenty of\\nScandinavian authors who claimed it; it was only\\namongst the lady writers that it was ignored.\\nThey did not want to risk anything in the com-\\npany of man they did not want any love on the\\nfourth story with self-cooked meals; they pre-\\nferred to criticise man and all connected with\\nhim; and they wrote books about the hard-work-\\ning woman and the more or less contemptible\\nman. The two sexes were a vanquished stand-\\npoint. These were completed by the addition of", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0156.jp2"}, "157": {"fulltext": "The Woman Naturalist 135\\nbeings who were neither men nor women, and, in\\nconsequence of the law of adaptability, they con-\\ntinued to improve with time, and woman became\\na thinking, working, neutral organism.\\nGood heavens When women think\\nAmong the group of celebrated women-thinkers,\\nLeffler, Ahlgren, Agrell, etc., who criticised\\nlove as though it were a product of the intelli-\\ngence, followed by a crowd of maidenly amazons,\\nthere suddenly appeared an author named Amalie\\nSkram, whom one really could not accuse of\\nbeing too thoughtful. It is true that in her first\\nbook there was the intellectual woman and the\\nsensual man, and a seduced servant girl, grouped\\nupon the chessboard of moral discussion with a\\nmeasured proportion of light and shade, that\\nwas the usual method of treating the deepest and\\nmost complicated moments of human life. But\\nthis book contained something else, which no\\nScandinavian authoress had ever produced before\\nher characters came and went, each in his own\\nway; every one spoke his own language and had his\\nown thoughts there was no need for inky fingers\\nto point the way; life lived itself, and the hori-\\nzon was wide with plenty of fresh air and blue sky,\\nthere was nothing cramped about it, like the\\nwretched little extract of life to which the other\\nladies confined themselves. There was a wealth\\nof minute observation about this book, brought to\\nlife by careful painting and critical descriptions,\\na trustworthy memory and an untroubled honesty;", "height": "3556", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0157.jp2"}, "158": {"fulltext": "136 Six Modern Women\\none recognized true naturalism below the hard\\nsurface of a problem novel, and one felt that if\\nher talent grew upon the sunny side, the North\\nwould gain its first woman naturalist who did not\\nwrite about life in a critical, moralizing, and\\npolemical manner, but in whom life would reveal\\nitself as bad and as stupid, as full of unnecessary\\nanxiety and unconscious cruelty, as easy-going,\\nas much frittered away and led by the senses as\\nit actually is.\\nTwo years passed by and Constance Ring,\\nthe story of a woman who was misunderstood,\\nwas followed by Sjur Gabriel, the story of a\\nstarving west coast fisherman. There is not a\\nsingle false note in the book, and not one awk-\\nward description or superfluous word. It re-\\nsembles one of those sharp-cut bronze medallions\\nof the Renaissance, wherein the intention of the\\nartist is executed with a perfected technical power\\nin the use of the material. This perfection was\\nthe result of an intimate knowledge of the mate-\\nrial, and that was Fru Skram s secret. Her soul\\nwas sufficiently uncultured, and her sense of har-\\nmony spontaneous enough to enable her to repro-\\nduce the simplest cause in the heart s fibre. She\\ndescribes human beings as they are to be found\\nalone with nature, with a raw, niggardly, unre-\\nliable, Northern nature; she tells of their never-\\nending, unfruitful toil, whether field labor or\\nchild-bearing, the stimulating effect of brandy,\\nthe enervating influence of their fear of a harsh", "height": "3536", "width": "2291", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0158.jp2"}, "159": {"fulltext": "The Woman Naturalist 137\\nGod, the God of a severe climate, the shy,\\nunspoken love of the father, and the overworked\\nwoman who grows to resemble an animal more\\nand more. Such are the contents of this simplest\\nof all books, which is so intense in its absolute\\nstraightforwardness. The story is told in the\\nseverest style, in few words without reflections,\\nbut with a real honesty which looks facts straight\\nin the face with unterrified gaze, and is filled\\nwith a knowledge of life and of people combined\\nwith a breadth of experience which is generally\\nthe property of men, and not many men. We\\nare forced to ask ourselves where a woman can\\nhave obtained such knowledge, and we wonder\\nhow this unconventional mode of thinking can\\nhave found its way into the tight-laced body and\\nsoul of a woman.\\nA second book appeared the same year, called\\nTwo Friends. It is the story of a sailing ves-\\nsel of the same name, which travels backwards\\nand forwards between Bergen and Jamaica, and\\nSjur Gabriel s grandson is the cabin boy on\\nboard. This book offers such a truthful repre-\\nsentation of the life, tone of conversation, and\\nwork on board a Norwegian sailing vessel, that\\nit would do credit to an old sea captain. The\\ntone is true, the characters are life-like, and the\\nhumor which pervades the whole is thoroughly\\nseamanlike. The description of how the entire\\ncrew, including the captain, land at Kingston\\none hot summer night to sacrifice to the Black", "height": "3553", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0159.jp2"}, "160": {"fulltext": "138 Six Modern W omen\\nVenus, and the description of the storm, and the\\nshipwreck of the Two Friends on the Atlantic\\nOcean, the gradual destruction of the ship, the\\nstate of mind of the crew, and the captain s sud-\\ndenly awakened piety; it is all so perfectly life-\\nlike, so characteristically true of the sailor class,\\nand so full of local Norwegian coloring, that we\\nask ourselves how a woman ever came to write\\nit, not only to experience it, but to describe it\\nat all, describe as she does with such masterly\\nconfidence and such plain expressions, without\\nany affectation, prudery, or conceit, and without\\nany trace of that dilettantism of style and sub-\\nject which has hitherto been regarded as in-\\nseparable from the writings of Scandinavian\\nwomen.\\nIV\\nWhence comes this sudden change from the\\ndilettante book, Constance Ring, with its\\nBjornson-like reflections, to the matured style of\\nSjur Gabriel and Two Friends\\nI could not understand it all at first, but the\\nday came when I understood. Amalie Skram as\\na woman and an author had come on to the sunny\\nside.\\nI have often wondered why it is that so few\\npeople come on to the sunny side. I have studied\\nlife until I became the avowed enemy of all\\nsuperficial pessimism and superficial naturalism.", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0160.jp2"}, "161": {"fulltext": "The Woman Naturalist 139\\nI have discovered a secret attraction between hap-\\npiness and individualism, an attraction deeper\\nthan Zola is able to apprehend; it is the complete\\nhuman beings who, with wide-opened tentacles,\\nare able to appropriate to their own use every-\\nthing that their inmost being has need of; but\\nwhether a person is or is not a complete human\\nbeing, that fate decides for them before they are\\nborn.\\nFru Amalie Skram was, in her way, one of\\nthese complete women. She passed unscathed\\nthrough a girl s education, was perhaps scarcely\\ninfluenced by it, and with sparkling eyes and\\nglowing cheeks she gazed upon the world and\\nsociety with the look of a barbaric Northern\\nwoman, who retains the full use of her instinct.\\nWhen quite young she married the captain of a\\nship, by whom she had two sons. She went with\\nhim on a long sea voyage round the world she\\nsaw the Black Sea, the Sea of Azof, and the\\nshores of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. She\\nsaw life on board ship, and life on land, man s\\nlife. Her mind was like a photographic plate that\\npreserves the impressions received until they are\\nneeded; and when she reproduced them, they\\nwere as fresh and complete as at the moment\\nwhen they were first taken. These impressions\\nwere not the smallware of a lady s drawing-room;\\nthey represented the wide horizon, the rough\\nocean of life with its many dangers. It was the\\nkind of life that brings with it freedom from all", "height": "3553", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0161.jp2"}, "162": {"fulltext": "140 Six Modern Women\\nprejudice, the kind of life which is no longer\\nfound on board a modern steamer going to and\\nfro between certain places at certain intervals.\\nBut it was not to be expected that the monotony\\nof the life could satisfy her. She separated her-\\nself from her husband, and remained on shore,\\nwhere she became interested in various social\\nproblems, and wrote Constance Ring.\\nIt was then that she made the acquaintance of\\nErik Skram.\\nThe man with the head of Gustavus Adolphus\\nis Denmark s most Danish critic. His name is\\nlittle known elsewhere, and he cannot be said to\\nhave a very great reputation; but this may be\\npartly accounted for by the fact that he has no\\nambition, and partly because he has one of those\\nprofound natures that are rendered passive by the\\ndepth of their intellect. He is a man of one\\nbook, a novel called Gertrude Colbjornson, and\\nhe is never likely to write another. But he con-\\ntributes to newspapers and periodicals, where his\\nspontaneous talent is accompanied by that quiet,\\ndelicate, easy-going style which is one of the\\nforms of expression peculiar to the Danish\\nsceptics.\\nFruAmalie Miiller became Fru Amalie Skram,\\nand the bold Bergen woman, who was likewise the\\ndissatisfied lady reformer of Christiania, became\\nthe wife of a born critic, and went to live at\\nCopenhagen. She was an excitable little bru-\\nnette, he a fair, phlegmatic man, and together", "height": "3538", "width": "2321", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0162.jp2"}, "163": {"fulltext": "The Woman Naturalist 141\\nthey entered upon the struggle for the mastery,\\nwhich marriage always is.\\nIn this struggle Fru Amalie Skram was beaten;\\nevery year she became more of an artist, more\\nnatural, more simple, more herself, and more of\\nall that a woman never can become when she is\\nleft to herself. Her husband s superior culture\\nliberated her fresh, wild, primitive nature from\\nthe parasites of social problems; the experienced\\ncritic saw that her strength lay in her keen obser-\\nvation, her happy incapacity for reasoning and\\nmoralizing, her infallible memory for the impres-\\nsions of the senses and emotions, and her good\\nspirits, which are nothing more than the result\\nof physical health. He cautiously pushed her\\ninto the direction to which she is best suited,\\nto the naturalism which is natural to her. Her\\nbooks were no longer drawn out, neither were\\nthey as poor in substance as books by women\\ngenerally are, even the best of them they grew\\nto be more laconic than the majority of men s\\nbooks, but clear and vivid there was nothing in\\nthem to betray the woman. And after he had\\ndone this much for her, the experienced man did\\nyet one thing more, he gave her the courage of\\nher recollections.", "height": "3533", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0163.jp2"}, "164": {"fulltext": "142 Six Modern Women\\nV\\nAmalie Skram s talent culminated in Lucie.\\nIn this book we see her going about in an untidy,\\ndirty, ill-fitting morning gown, and she is per-\\nfectly at home. It would scandalize any lady.\\nAuthoresses who struggle fearlessly after honest\\nrealism like Frau von Ebner-Eschenbach and\\nGeorge Eliot might perhaps have touched upon\\nit, but with very little real knowledge of the\\nsubject. Amalie Skram, on the other hand, is\\nperfectly at home in this dangerous borderland.\\nShe is much better informed than Heinz Tovote,\\nfor instance, and he is a poet who sings of\\nwomen who are not to be met with in drawing-\\nrooms. She describes the pretty ballet girl with\\ngenuine enjoyment and true sympathy; but the\\nbook falls into two halves, one of which has suc-\\nceeded and the other failed. Everything that\\nconcerns Lucie is a success, including the part\\nabout the fine, rather weak-kneed gentleman who\\nsupports her, and ends by marrying her, although\\nhis love is not of the kind that can be called\\nennobling. All that does not concern Lucie\\nand her natural surroundings is a failure, espe-\\ncially the fine gentleman s social circle, into\\nwhich Lucie enters after her marriage, and where\\nshe seems to be as little at home as Amalie\\nSkram herself. Many an author and epicurean\\nwould have hesitated before writing such a book", "height": "3522", "width": "2300", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0164.jp2"}, "165": {"fulltext": "The Woman Naturalist 143\\nas Lucie. But Amalie Skram s naturalism is\\nof such an honest and happy nature that any\\nsecondary considerations would not be likely to\\nenter her mind, and in the last chapter the brutal\\nnaturalism of the story reaches its highest pitch.\\nIn the whole of Europe there are only two gen-\\nuine and honest naturalists, and they are Emile\\nZola and Amalie Skram.\\nHer later books take, for instance, her great\\nBergen novel, S. G. Myre, Love in North\\nand South, Betrayed, etc. are not to be\\ncompared with the three that we have mentioned.\\nThey are naturalistic, of course; their naturalism\\nis of the best kind they are still unco in de la\\nnature, but they are no longer entirely vu a\\ntravers un temperament. They are no longer quite\\nAmalie Skram.\\nNorwegian naturalism we might almost say\\nTeutonic naturalism culminated in Amalie\\nSkram, this off-shoot of the Gallic race. Com-\\npared with her, Fru Leffler and Fru Ahlgren are\\ngood little girls, in their best Sunday pinafores;\\nFrau von Ebner is a maiden aunt, and George\\nEliot a moralizing old maid. AH these women\\ncame of what is called good family, and had\\nbeen trained from their earliest infancy to live\\nas became their position. All the other women\\nwhom I have sketched in this book belonged to\\nthe upper classes, and like all women of their\\nclass, they only saw one little side of life, and\\ntherefore their contribution to literature is worth-", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0165.jp2"}, "166": {"fulltext": "144 Six Modern Women\\nless as long as it tries to be objective. Natu-\\nralism is the form of artistic expression best suited\\nto the lower classes, and to persons of primitive\\nculture, who do not feel strong enough to elim-\\ninate the outside world, but reflect it as water\\nreflects an image. They feel themselves in sym-\\npathy with their surroundings, but they have not\\nthe refined instincts and awakened antipathies\\nwhich belong to isolation. Where the character\\ndiffers from the individual consciousness, they do\\nnot think of sacrificing their soul as a highway\\nfor the multitude, any more than their body\\na la Lucie to the commune bonum.", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0166.jp2"}, "167": {"fulltext": "V\\nA Young Girl s Tragedy", "height": "3555", "width": "2186", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0167.jp2"}, "168": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3521", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0168.jp2"}, "169": {"fulltext": "It seldom happens that a genuine confession pen-\\netrates through the intense loneliness in which a\\nperson s inner life is lived; with women, hardly\\never. It is rare when a woman leaves any written\\nrecord of her life at all, and still more rare when\\nher record is of any psychological interest; it is\\ngenerally better calculated to lead one astray.\\nA woman is not like a man, who writes about\\nhimself from a desire to understand himself.\\nEven celebrated women, who are scarce, and\\ncandid women, who are perhaps scarcer still,\\nhave no particular desire to understand them-\\nselves. In fact, I have never known a woman\\nwho did not wish, either from a good or bad\\nmotive, to remain a terra incognita to her own\\nself, if only to preserve the instinctive element\\nin her actions, which might otherwise have\\nperished. There is also another reason for this\\nreticence. A woman does not live the inner life\\nto anything like the same extent as a man; her\\ninstincts, occupations, needs, and interests lie\\noutside herself; whereas a man is more self-con-\\ntained, his entire being is developed from within.\\nWoman is spiritually and mentally an empty ves-", "height": "3552", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0169.jp2"}, "170": {"fulltext": "148 Six Modern Women\\nsel, which must be replenished by man. She\\nknows nothing about herself, or about man, or\\nabout the great silent inflexibility of life, until\\nit is revealed to her consciousness by man. But\\nthe woman of our time and many of the best\\nwomen, too manifests a desire to dispense with\\nman altogether; and she whom Nature has des-\\ntined to be a vessel out of which substance shall\\ngrow, wishes to be a substance in herself, out of\\nwhich nothing can grow, because the substance\\nwherewith she endeavors to fill the void is un-\\norganical, rational, and foreign to her nature.\\nThe mistake is tragic, but there is nothing im-\\npressive about it; it is merely hopeless, chaotic,\\nheart-rending; and because it is chaotic in itself,\\nit creates a void for the woman who falls into\\nit, a void in which she perishes. The more\\ntalented she is, and the more womanly, the\\nworse it will be for her. And yet it is gen-\\nerally the talented woman who is most strongly\\nattracted by it, and man remains to her both\\ninwardly and outwardly as much a stranger as\\nthough he were a being from another planet.\\nWhat can be the origin of this devastating prin-\\nciple at the core of woman s being? Among all\\nthe learned and celebrated women whom I have\\nattempted to depict in this book, there is not\\none in whom it has not shown itself, either in a\\nlasting or spasmodic form but neither is there\\none who did not suffer acutely on account of it.\\nHow did it begin in these women, who were so", "height": "3522", "width": "2294", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0170.jp2"}, "171": {"fulltext": "A Young Girl s Tragedy 149\\nrichly endowed, whose natures were so produc-\\ntive? Was it developed by means of outward\\nsuggestion? Or does it mark a state of transi-\\ntion between old and new? It is possible that\\nit is not found only amongst women, but that\\nthere is something corresponding to it in men.\\nI shall return to this subject afterwards.\\nOf all the books which women have written\\nabout themselves, I only know of two that are\\nwritten with the unalloyed freshness of spon-\\ntaneity, and which are therefore genuine to a\\ndegree that would be otherwise impossible; these\\nare Mrs. Carlyle s diary and Marie BashkirtsefFs\\njournal. The contents of both books consist\\nchiefly of the cries of despair which issue from\\nthe mouths of two women who feel themselves\\ncaptured and ill-used, and are consequently tired\\nof life, though they do not know the reason nor\\nwho is to blame. Mrs. Carlyle was an imbittered\\nwoman, unwilling to complain of, yet always in-\\ndirectly abusing, that disagreeable oddity, Thomas\\nCarlyle; he was an egotistical boor, who required\\neverything and gave nothing in return, and was\\ncertainly not the right husband for her. The\\ntwo books stand side by side one is the writ-\\ning of a discontented woman of a much older\\ngeneration, whose long-suppressed wrath, annoy-\\nance, and indignation, combined with bodily and\\nspiritual thirst, resulted in a nervous disease;\\nwhile the other is far more extraordinary and\\ndifficult to comprehend, as it is the writing of a", "height": "3553", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0171.jp2"}, "172": {"fulltext": "150 Six Modern Women\\nyoung girl who is rich, talented, and pretty, and\\nwho belongs entirely to the present generation of\\nwomen, since she would be only thirty-four years\\nof age were she living now. Both books are\\nconfessions d ontre tombe, and they are both the\\nresult of a desire to be silent, a desire not\\noften felt by women.\\nMrs. Carlyle maintained this silence all her\\nlife long towards her husband, and it was not\\nuntil after her death that he discovered, by means\\nof the diary, how little he had succeeded in mak-\\ning her happy; his surprise was great. Marie\\nBashkirtseff also maintained silence towards an\\nall too affectionate family, consisting of women\\nonly. They both possessed a strength of mind\\nwhich is rare in women, and it was owing to this\\nthat they did not confide their troubles to any\\none; theirs was the pride that belongs to soli-\\ntude, for they had neither women friends nor con-\\nfidants, and it was only when they were no\\nlonger able to contain themselves that some of\\ntheir best and worst feelings overflowed into these\\nbooks, in Mrs. Carlyle s case in a few bitter-\\nsweet drops, but with Marie Bashkirtseff they\\nwere more like a foaming torrent filled with thun-\\ndering whirlpools, with here and there a few quiet\\nplaces where the stream widens out into a beauti-\\nful clear lake, and thin willows bend over the still\\nwaters. The one felt that she had not developed\\ninto a full-grown woman by her marriage; the\\nother was a young girl who never grew to be a", "height": "3522", "width": "2313", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0172.jp2"}, "173": {"fulltext": "A Young Girl s Tragedy 151\\nwoman but both are less interesting on account\\nof what they tell us than on account of that\\nwhich they have not known how to tell. Marie\\nBashkirtseffs book, which in the course of ten\\nyears has run through almost as many editions,\\nis especially interesting in the latter respect, and\\nis a perfect gold mine for all that has to do with\\nthe psychology of young girls.\\nII\\nMarie Bashkirtseff was descended from one\\nof those well-guarded sections of society from\\nwhence nearly all the women have sprung who\\nhave taken any active part in the movements of\\ntheir time during the latter half of our century.\\nHers was more than ordinarily happily situated.\\nThe two families from whose union she sprang, the\\nBashkirtseffs and Babanins, were both branches of\\nold South Russian nobility; but for some reason\\nor other, which she appears never to have ascer-\\ntained, the marriage between her parents was an\\nunhappy one. They separated after having been\\nmarried for a couple of years, during which time\\ntwo children, a son and a daughter, were born,\\nand her mother returned to her old home, accom-\\npanied by little Marie. Petted and spoiled by\\nher grandparents, her mother, her aunt, and the\\ngovernesses, who, even at that early age, were\\ngreatly impressed by her numerous talents and", "height": "3545", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0173.jp2"}, "174": {"fulltext": "152 Six Modern Women\\ndetermined will, she spent the first years of her\\nlife on her grandparents property; but in May,\\n1870, the whole family went abroad, including the\\nmother, aunt, grandfather, Marie, her brother, her\\nlittle cousin, a family doctor, and a large retinue\\nof servants.\\nFor two years they wandered from place to\\nplace, staying at Vienna, Baden-Baden, Geneva,\\nand Paris, and finally settling at Nice. It was\\nthere that Marie, who was then twelve years of\\nage, began the journal, published after her death\\nat four-and-twenty, which was to be her real life\\nwork.\\nShe has bequeathed other tokens of her labor\\nto posterity. They hang in the Luxembourg\\nmuseum, in the division reserved for pictures by\\nartists of the present day which have been pur-\\nchased by the State. If we go into one of the\\nsmaller side rooms, we are suddenly confronted\\nby a picture of dogs barking in a desert place;\\nthere is something so real and vivid about it that\\nthe rest of the State-rewarded industry seems pale\\nand lifeless in comparison. A bit of nature in\\nthe corner attracts, while it makes us shiver; it\\nis large, bold, brutal, and what does it repre-\\nsent Only a couple of street urchins talking to\\neach other as they stand in front of a wooden\\npaling. There is no doubt but that the influence\\nof Bastien Lepage has been at work here. There\\nis something that reminds us of him in the hot,\\ngray, sunless sky; but there is also a certain", "height": "3522", "width": "2310", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0174.jp2"}, "175": {"fulltext": "A Young Girl s Tragedy 153\\nRussian atmosphere about it that gives a dry look\\nthat contrasts strangely with the French land-\\nscapes. And where would Bastien Lepage get\\nthese contours? We have never seen lines more\\ncarelessly drawn, and yet so true; there is real\\ngenius in them. This picture is a primitive bit\\nof Russian nature, child-like in its honesty, and\\nthe painter is Marie Bashkirtseff.\\nNear the door hangs a little portrait of a young\\nwoman dressed in fur. She has the typical Rus-\\nsian face, with thick, irregular eyebrows, from\\nunder which a pair of Tartar eyes look at you\\nstraight in the face with a curious expression.\\nWhat can it be? Is it indifference, or defiance;\\nor is it nothing more than physical well-being?\\nAmong all the pictures painted by women that\\nI have ever seen, I do not remember any where\\nthe temperament and individuality of the artist\\nare revealed with greater force. The touch is so\\nprimitive, so uncultured in the best and worst\\nsense of the word, that it surprises us to think\\nthat it is the work of a woman, half child, who\\nbelongs to the best society; it would seem rather\\nto suggest the claws of a lioness.\\nYet Marie Bashkirtseff was a thorough lady,\\nnot only by birth and education, but in her heart\\nas well she was a lady to the tips of her fingers,\\nto an extreme that was almost absurd; she was\\nnot merely a fashionable lady, in the way that\\ncertain clever young men take a half ironical\\npleasure in appearing fashionable, but a lady in", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0175.jp2"}, "176": {"fulltext": "154 Six Modern Women\\nreal earnest, with all the intensity of a religious\\nbigot.\\nShe had been educated by ladies, by a gentle\\nand refined though rather shallow mother, by an\\naunt whose vocation seems to have consisted in\\nself-sacrifice for others, a domineering grand-\\nmother, two governesses, one Russian and the\\nother French, and an angelical doctor who\\nlived in the house, and always travelled with\\nthem, and who seems to have become somewhat\\nof a woman himself from having lived amongst so\\nmany women.\\nShe was no more than twelve years old when\\nshe discovered that her governesses were insup-\\nportably stupid, and that the only thing that\\nthey understood was how to make her waste her\\nprecious youth. There was no time for that.\\nShe was already aware of the shortness of time,\\nand it was her anxiety to make the most of it that\\nafterwards hurried her short life to its close. She\\nwas possessed of an intense thirst for everything,\\nlife, knowledge, enjoyment, sympathy. But\\nalthough her grandfather had been Byronic in\\nhis youth, the family passed their lives vegetat-\\ning with true Russian indolence; there was no\\nhelp for it; she knew that nothing better was\\nto be expected of them. And accordingly she\\nhunted her governesses out of the house and took\\nher education into her own hands. A tutor was\\nengaged, and a list was made from which no\\nbranch of learning was excluded. The tutor", "height": "3522", "width": "2321", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0176.jp2"}, "177": {"fulltext": "A Young Girl s Tragedy 155\\nnearly fainted with astonishment when it was\\nshown to him, but he was still more astonished\\nat Marie s progress afterwards. Drawing was\\nthe only lesson in which the future great artist\\ndid not succeed; it bored her, and nothing came\\nof it.\\nHer inner life, meanwhile, is stirred with\\ntumultuous passions. She is in love, as pas-\\nsionately and as truly in love as any matured\\nwoman. And, after all, this thirteen-year-old\\ngirl is a matured woman she is more developed,\\nmore truly woman-like than the worn-out woman\\nof three-and-twenty, who only lived with half her\\nstrength. The man whom she loves is a very dis-\\ntinguished Englishman, who had bought a villa\\nat Nice, where he spent a few months with his\\nmistress every year, but this circumstance does\\nnot affect Marie in the very least she is expe-\\nrienced in her knowledge of the world, and by no\\nmeans bourgeois in her way of thinking. There\\nis another reason, however, that causes her intol-\\nerable suffering, the handsome English duke\\nis too grand for her. She is troubled, not only\\nbecause he pays her no attention at present, but\\nbecause she thinks that he is never likely to\\nesteem her sufficiently to wish to marry her,\\nunless, indeed, she could do something to make\\nherself a name, and become celebrated. Marie\\nBashkirtseff, accordingly, wishes to become cele-\\nbrated. She would like to be a great singer, who\\nis at the same time a great actress; she would", "height": "3553", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0177.jp2"}, "178": {"fulltext": "156 Six Modern W omen\\nlike to have the whole world at her feet, includ-\\ning the duke, and be able to choose between royal\\ndukes and princes, and then she would choose\\nhim. For a couple of years or more she lives\\nupon this dream, studies, reads, cries, and suffers\\nthat unnecessary overplus of secret pain and\\nanxiety which usually accompanies the develop-\\nment of richly gifted natures.\\nShe has a lovely voice and great dramatic\\ntalent, but the former is not fully developed, and\\ncannot be trained for some years to come. She\\nbuys cart-loads of books but as there is no one\\nto guide her choice, and her social intercourse\\ndoes not diverge a hairbreadth outside her family\\nand a small circle of friends, consisting chiefly\\nof compatriots, it is only natural that her reading\\nshould be confined to Dumas/^, Balzac, Octave\\nFeuillet, and such literary tallow candles as\\nOhnet, and others like him. Her taste remains\\nuncultivated, her horizon bounded by the family,\\nand her knowledge continues to be a mixture of\\nancient superstitions combined with the newest\\nshibboleths.\\nHer most familiar converse is between herself\\nand her Creator, whom her imagination pictures\\nas a kind of superior great-grandfather, very grand\\nand powerful, and the only One in whom she can\\nconfide. To Him she lays bare her heart, be-\\nseeching Him to give her that which is a neces-\\nsity of life to her, and she makes numerous\\npromises, to be fulfilled only on condition that", "height": "3544", "width": "2334", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0178.jp2"}, "179": {"fulltext": "A Young Girl s Tragedy 157\\nher prayers are granted; she respects what she\\nconceives to be His wishes with regard to prayer\\nand almsgiving, and overwhelms Him with re-\\nproaches if these are of no avail. And they are\\nof no avail. Her voice, which has been tried\\nand praised by the highest musical authorities in\\nParis, is being gradually undermined by a disease\\nof the throat, and the duke marries; thus her\\nhopes of becoming famous and of gaining a great\\nlove are gone, gone forever.\\nThose were the first and second cruel wounds\\nwherewith life made its presence felt in this sen-\\nsitive soul they were wounds which never healed,\\nand which imparted hidden veins of venom to the\\nhealthy parts of her being.\\nDoes not this remind us of the fairy tale about\\nwounds that never heal? Is not this just the\\nway that the wounds made by Fate, or by human\\nbeings, in our souls continue to bleed forever?\\nThey are like tender places, which shrink from\\nthe touch throughout a lifetime, and wither if a\\nbreath passes over them. The more sensitive a\\nperson is, the more painful they are, and nothing\\nis so easily wounded as a growing organism.\\nThe nerves have a good memory, better even\\nthan the brain, and there are some wounds re-\\nceived in youth and impressed during growth\\nwhich seem to have been wiped out ages ago, till\\nsuddenly they present the appearance of a putre-\\nfying spot, a poisonous place, the point of disin-\\ntegration of the entire organism. Or there may", "height": "3542", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0179.jp2"}, "180": {"fulltext": "158 Six Modern Women\\nbe something crippled in the person s vitality.\\nThey live on, but one muscle, perhaps only a\\nvery small one, is strained and just a little out\\nof order, and the soul is compelled to replace\\nwhat the body lacks by means of extra exer-\\ntion, which is afterwards paid for by excessive\\nweariness.\\nThere are some sluggish natures, especially\\namong women, who exert their strength to the\\nleast possible degree, and do their work in a\\nhalf-hearted manner. There are also souls which\\nseem all aglow with the psychic and sensuous\\nwarmth of their natures, who carry the whole\\nsubstance of their being in the hand, and who\\ngive themselves up entirely to the interest of\\nwhat they are feeling and wishing for at the\\nmoment. Their path is strewn with fragments\\nof their life, which fall off dead, and every stroke\\naimed at them hits the heart. Their soul has no\\ncovering to protect them from disappointment;\\nneither have they the forgetful sleep of animals,\\nwherein the body is at rest. But such natures\\nare generally possessed of an endless supply of\\nself-sustaining strength, which imbues them with\\nthe power to grow again; and although their\\nwounds are plentiful, their germinating cells are\\nplenteous also. The parts that are crippled\\nremain crippled still, but new possibilities are\\ncontinually developing in new directions.\\nThe young girl of whose silly, half-fancied\\nlove story I have made so much, was one of these", "height": "3522", "width": "2303", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0180.jp2"}, "181": {"fulltext": "A Young Girl s Tragedy 159\\nnatures. She was formed of the material out of\\nwhich destiny either moulds women who become\\nthe greatest of their sex, or else casts them aside,\\ndiscarded and broken. It generally depends upon\\nsome very trifling matter which of the two takes\\nplace. Marie was an exceedingly spoiled child\\nwhen the first blow fell; but there was something\\nlacking in her nature a dead spot that revealed\\nitself with the destruction of her voice while\\nher body was blossoming into womanhood. There\\nwas a dead spot somewhere without as well, some-\\nthing that lacked in life, else it were not possible\\nto long so ardently and not obtain. There was\\nsomething that gazed at her with evil, ghost-like\\neyes, causing her nerves to quiver beneath its\\nicy breath. She was a brave girl. She did not\\ncomplain, did not look back, but drew herself\\ntogether, silent and determined. Her passionate\\nlove of work took the form of painting, and as\\nshe could not become a great singer, she meant\\nto be a great painter. But a part of her being\\ncongealed and withered away; her young heart\\nhad expanded to receive a return of the love it\\nhad so freely given, and was left unsatisfied.\\nThe years passed in much the same way as they\\nhad passed before for this spoiled child of for-\\ntune. A few people who were indifferent to her\\ndied, and others came who were no less indif-\\nferent. They travelled from Nice to Paris, and\\nfrom Paris to Nice, but she was equally lonely\\neverywhere. She had no playfellows, no girl", "height": "3548", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0181.jp2"}, "182": {"fulltext": "160 Six Modern Women\\nfriends, no school-room companions, and to life s\\ncontrasts she remained a stranger. Her cousin\\nDina was the only one who was always with her,\\nand she was the typical girl, a pretty, good-\\nnatured nonentity. And thus, though always\\nlonely, she was never alone. Wherever she\\nwent, her mother and aunt went with her, and\\nwherever they did not go, Marie Bashkirtseff did\\nnot go either. In all her journeyings, she never\\nreceived a single impression for herself alone; it\\nwas always reflected at the same moment in the\\nsun-glasses of her aunt and mother, and never a\\nword did she hear but was also heard by her\\nduennas. No man was allowed within the circle\\nof her acquaintance until he had first been judged\\nsuitable from a marriageable, as well as a social\\npoint of view. The female atmosphere by which\\nshe was surrounded paralyzed every other.\\nIt was her destiny!\\nLife was empty around her, and in the void\\nher excited nerves became even more and more\\ncentred upon her own ego. Her opinion of her-\\nself assumed gigantic proportions, and whatever\\nthere had been of soul grandeur in her nature\\nwas changed into admiration of self. And yet,\\nin spite of all, this girl, who was undoubtedly a\\ngenius, never realized her own power to the full.\\nThe natural nobility of her feelings assumed a\\nmoral, bourgeois dress, and her young senses,\\nwhich had manifested such a passionate craving\\nat their first awakening, withered and grew numb.", "height": "3522", "width": "2336", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0182.jp2"}, "183": {"fulltext": "A Young Girl s Tragedy 161\\nShe was sixteen when she experienced her\\nsecond disappointment in love, and it became\\nfor her the turning-point of her inner life.\\nAt her earnest request the family had gone to\\nRome. It was the time of the Carnival, and\\nafter the conventional life at Nice, the sudden\\noutbreak of merriment in the Eternal City called\\nforth a frivolous mood in every one. There was\\nsomething delightful in the ease with which ac-\\nquaintances were made, and the simple, straight-\\nforward manner in which homage was done. A\\nyoung man makes love to Dina; he belongs to\\nan old, aristocratic, Roman family, and is the\\nnephew of an influential cardinal. Marie entices\\nhim away from her, and the young Italian falls a\\nprey to the brilliant fascination and wild coquetry\\nof her manner. He is dazzled by such aggres-\\nsive conduct on the part of so young a girl, and\\nthe equivocal character of it spurs him on. He\\nstorms her with declarations of love, and Marie\\nreciprocates his passion, not very seriously\\nperhaps, but her senses, her vanity, her pride, all\\nare on fire. The young man communicates to\\nher something of his habitual good spirits, and\\nher head, no less than the heads of her mother\\nand aunt, is completely turned at the prospect of\\nsuch a distinguished parti. The family set to\\nwork in good earnest to bring matters to a climax,\\nfor which object they employ suitable deputies,\\nwhile Marie persistently holds the legitimate\\njoys of marriage before the face of her importu-", "height": "3552", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0183.jp2"}, "184": {"fulltext": "1 62 Six Modern Women\\nnate lover. The Italian slips past these danger-\\nous rocks with the dexterity of an eel. He knows\\nwhat Marie and the house of Bashkirtseff, con-\\nvinced as they are of the grandeur of their Rus-\\nsian ancestry, cannot realize, that for him, the\\nheir and nephew of the cardinal, no marriage will\\nbe considered suitable unless it brings with it\\nconnection with the nobility, or the advantages\\nof an immense fortune; and in this opinion he\\nfully concurs. The result is that they are always\\nat cross purposes he talks of love, she of mar-\\nriage; he of tete-a-tites on the staircase after mid-\\nnight, she of betrothal kisses between lunch and\\ndinner under the auspices of her family. When\\nhis allusions to his uncle s disapproval of a mar-\\nriage with a heretical Russian lady from the\\nprovinces do not produce any effect on the\\nfamily other than indignation, expressive of their\\nwounded feelings, he goes away, and allows him-\\nself to be sent into retreat in a monastery.\\nWhile there, he ascertains that the Bashkirtseffs\\nhave left Rome and given up all desire to have\\nsuch a vacillating creature for a son-in-law. They\\ngo to Nice, and no more is said about him until\\nMarie persuades her family to return to Rome,\\nwhere she meets him at a party, but only to dis-\\ncover that he loves her when there, and forgets\\nher again the moment that she is out of sight.\\nThis was the second time that she had knocked at\\nthe door of life; and, as on the former occasion,\\nFate held back the joys which she seemed to have", "height": "3522", "width": "2291", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0184.jp2"}, "185": {"fulltext": "A Young Girl s Tragedy 163\\nin store, only opening the door wide enough to\\nlet in the face of a grinning Punchinello.\\nFew writers have attempted to describe the\\nstate of a young girl s mind on such occasions,\\nwhen a thousand cherished hopes are instantane-\\nously charred as though struck by lightning, and,\\nworse still, all that she had wished for becomes\\nhateful in her eyes, and the shame of it assumes a\\ngigantic scale, and continues to increase, though\\nmaybe at the cost of her life. Men have no sus-\\npicion of this, and they would find it hard to\\nunderstand, even supposing that they were given\\nthe opportunity of observing it. They grow up\\namid the realities of life; a girl, in the unreal.\\nThe disappointments which a man endures are\\nreal ones, and unless he is a fool, he is in a\\nposition to form an approximate valuation of his\\nown importance. With a girl it is different; her\\nopinion of herself is exaggerated to an extent\\nthat is quite fantastical and altogether unreal,\\nand this is especially the case when her educa-\\ntion is of a strictly conventional character, and\\nhas been conducted mainly by women. The\\npreservation of her purity is the foundation of\\nher creed, but she is not told, nor does she guess,\\nwherein this purity consists, nor how it may be\\nlost; and consequently she imagines that it can\\nbe lost in every conceivable way, by a mere\\nnothing, by a pressure of the hand, but in any\\ncase by a kiss. This kiss Marie Bashkirtseff\\nhad actually given and received, and after it she", "height": "3553", "width": "2184", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0185.jp2"}, "186": {"fulltext": "1 64 Six Modern Women\\nhad been forgotten and despised That kiss\\nbranded her in secret all her life. She never\\nforgot it.\\nThis is not the only consequence of the change\\nfrom the real to the unreal which takes place\\nwhen the outer world casts its reflection in the\\nmirror of a young girl s soul. Every girl has an\\nexaggerated idea of the value of the mystic purity\\nof her maidenhood in the eyes of men and when\\nshe makes a man happy by the gift of herself,\\nshe imagines that she has given him something\\nextraordinary, which he must accept on bended\\nknee. What words can describe the humiliation\\nwhich she feels if he does not set a sufficiently\\nhigh value on the gift, or if he thrusts it aside\\nlike a pair of old slippers that do not fit All\\ngirls are silly to a certain extent, even the\\ncleverest; and the girl who is not silly on this\\npoint must have lost something of her girlish\\nmodesty.\\nIn the case of Marie Bashkirtseff, a part of her\\nbeing was blighted after her encounter with the\\nItalian, and she never entirely recovered from the\\neffects of it. This, her first acquaintance with a\\nman, was so full of racial misunderstandings and\\nothers besides, that it destroyed her faith in man,\\nas indeed it is doomed to be destroyed sooner\\nor later in every girl with a strong individuality\\nand healthy nature. And for her, as for many\\nanother, followed the lifeless years into the\\nmiddle of the twenties, when a new and very", "height": "3543", "width": "2345", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0186.jp2"}, "187": {"fulltext": "A Young Girl s Tragedy 165\\ndifferent faith begins to show itself as the result\\nof wider views of life and internal changes. But\\nwith her this faith never came. Her vitality-\\ngave way too soon. Those dead years which\\nmust inevitably follow upon an all too promising\\nand too early maturity, leaving a young woman\\napparently trivial and devoid of any true individ-\\nuality of character, and which often last until the\\nthirties, when the time comes for a new and\\ngreater change, those years with Marie, as with\\nmany another struggling girl, were filled with\\nan unnatural craving for work.\\nShe wanted to be something on her own\\naccount, as an individual. She compelled her\\nmother and aunt to go with her to Paris, where\\nshe could go to Julian s studio, which was the\\nonly one for women where painting was taught\\nseriously. The working hours were from eight\\nto twelve, from one to five.\\nBut she worked longer. This spoiled child,\\nwho had never known what it meant to exert her-\\nself, was not satisfied with eight hours of hard\\nlabor. She works in the evenings as well, after\\nshe comes home; she works on Sundays; she is\\ndead to the world, and with the exception of her\\ndaily bath, she renounces every luxury of the\\ntoilet, and succeeds in condensing into two years\\nthe work of seven. One day Julian tells her that\\nshe must work alone, because, he says, you\\nhave learned all that it is possible to teach.", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0187.jp2"}, "188": {"fulltext": "1 66 Six Modern Women\\nIII\\nMarie Bashkirtseff was not born an artist, with\\nthat stern predestination with which nature deter-\\nmines the career of persons with one talent. If\\nher voice had not been destroyed during its\\ndevelopment, she would in all probability have\\nbecome one of those great singers whose charm\\nlies not only in the outward voice, but in the\\nindescribable fascination of a deep, strong indi-\\nviduality. Her journal, especially the first part,\\nreveals an authoress with a rare psychological\\nintuition, an understanding of human nature, a\\ndeep sympathy, a mastery of expression, and an\\nearly-matured genius, which are unsurpassed even\\namong Russians, well known for the richness of\\ntheir temperament. If this young woman, whose\\nshort life was consumed by a craving for love,\\nhad gained the experience she so greatly desired,\\nwhere would the woman be found who could have\\nborne comparison with her? Who like her was\\ncreated to receive the knowledge whereby a\\nwoman is first revealed to herself, and is devel-\\noped into the being who is earth s ruler, the\\ngreat mother, on whose lap man reposes, and from\\nwhence he goes forth into the world? All that\\nshe had was original it was all of the best mate-\\nrial that the earth has to give; and therein lay\\nthe mystery of her downfall.", "height": "3545", "width": "2344", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0188.jp2"}, "189": {"fulltext": "A Young Girl s Tragedy 167\\nThe backbone of her nature was that indom-\\nitable pride whereby a great character reveals\\nthe consciousness of its own importance. The\\nlioness cannot wed with the house-dog. The same\\ninstinct which, in animals, marks the boundary\\nline between the different species, determines in\\na still higher degree higher far than the mate-\\nrialistic wisdom of our schools will allow the\\nattractions and antipathies of love. The iron\\nlaw which compels healthy natures to preserve\\ntheir distinction, prevented this girl from sink-\\ning to the level of the men of her own class,\\namongst whom she might have found some to\\nlove her. She tried it more than once, but it did\\nnot answer. Her exceptionable nature required\\na husband superior to herself. One or two such\\nmen might be found nowadays, who not only as\\nproductive minds, but also in the subtle charm\\nof their manly characters, would have been the\\nborn masters of an enchantress such as Marie\\nBashkirtseff. But these men are not to be met\\nwith in the drawing-rooms and studios of Paris,\\nnor yet in the Bois de Boulogne not in St. Peters-\\nburg either, nor on the family estates of Little\\nRussia, and she never got to know them.\\nThis woman, who was born to become a great\\nsinger, a great painter, a great writer, born\\nbefore all else to be loved with a great love,\\nnever learned to know love, and died without\\nbeing great in any way, because she was en-\\nchained all her life long to that which was", "height": "3553", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0189.jp2"}, "190": {"fulltext": "1 68 Six Modern Women\\ngreater than all her possibilities, a young girl s\\ninfinite ignorance.\\nIn spite of all the knowledge that she had\\nacquired, in spite of all the probings of her sen-\\nsitive nerves and sharp intellect, she remained\\nalways and in everything incomplete. It is one\\nof the results of the incompleteness of which\\nunmarried women are the victims, that they seek\\neverywhere the complete, the perfected in man,\\ni.e., they seek for that which is only to be found\\nin men who are growing old, and have nothing\\nmore to give; in whom there are no slumbering\\nambitions, and no hidden aspirations. She must\\nhave passed by, unheeding, many a young genius,\\nwho perhaps went to an inferior woman to satisfy\\nthe passion which might have proved to both of\\nthem an endless source of blessedness, health,\\nand regeneration. She must have felt many a\\nlook rest upon her, arousing sensations which, to\\nher white soul, were a mystery. For this girl,\\nwho had drunk deeply of the literature of her\\ntime, and who knew theoretically everything that\\nthere was to know, was yet unspoiled by a single\\ntrace of premature knowledge. The pages of her\\njournal are innocent from beginning to end, an\\ninnocence that is stupid while it is touchingly\\nintact. Marie Bashkirtseff s journal is not merely\\na contribution to the psychology of girls, it is a\\nyoung girl s psychology in the widest, most typi-\\ncal sense, the psychology of the unmarried\\nstate, bequeathed by one who is ignorant to those", "height": "3538", "width": "2354", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0190.jp2"}, "191": {"fulltext": "A Young Girl s Tragedy 169\\nwho know, as her only memorial upon earth, but\\na memorial that will last longer than marble or\\nbronze. She died young, but she had no wish to\\ndie. She took twelve years to write this book,\\nand she wrote it on her travels, in the midst of\\nher pleasures, in the midst of her work, in the\\ndespair of her loneliness, and in her fear when\\nshe shrank from death she wrote it during\\nsleepless nights, and on days passed in blessed\\nabstraction in the beauties of nature. She always\\naddressed the unknown hearers who were ever\\npresent to her imagination she spoke to them so\\nthat, in case she should die young, she might live\\nupon earth in the memory of the strangers who\\nhappened to read her journal. A human docu-\\nment, by a young girl, she thought, must be of\\nsufficient interest not to be forgotten, and she\\npromises to tell us everything connected with\\nher little person. All, all, not only all her\\nthoughts, but she will not even hide what is\\nlaughable and disadvantageous to herself; for\\nwhat would be the object of a book like this,\\nunless it told the truth absolutely, accurately,\\nand without concealment?\\nThe confessions are by no means a human doc-\\nument in the sense that her three patron saints\\nZola, Maupassant, and Goncourt would have\\nused the word. They do not contain a single\\nnaked reality. They are modest, not only with\\nthe modesty of a child of nature, but with the\\nmodesty of a young hot-house beauty, a deli-", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0191.jp2"}, "192": {"fulltext": "170 Six Modern Women\\ncate lady of fashion, beneath whose snow-white\\nresplendent dress the work of a Parisian dress-\\nmaker are concealed the bleeding wounds and\\nthe pitiless signs of death. But she lets us fol-\\nlow her from the rich beginnings of her youth\\nonwards, until the stream of life trickles away\\ndrop by drop, leading us on to the weary resig-\\nnation of her last days.\\nThis exhaustion begins to show itself imme-\\ndiately after the two years of reckless overwork\\nand study in Julian s studio; but the cause of it\\nwas mental rather than physical. Julian s last\\nwords were You have learned all that it is pos-\\nsible to teach the rest depends upon yourself.\\nAnd Robert-Fleury, the principal academical pro-\\nfessor, nodded his approval. After that they left\\nher. But where was she to begin Where was\\nthe rest to come from What was she to do\\nshe, who had been such a phenomenal pupil?\\nHow was she to obtain sufficient individuality\\nfor original production? Learn! yes, of course.\\nA girl can do that better than the most painstak-\\ning young man of the faculty. There is nothing\\nto prevent it; her sex will slumber as long as\\nthe brain is kept at work. But artistic produc-\\ntion is another matter. Whence should it come?\\nNot from herself, for she has nothing; she has\\nhad no experience. She can represent what she\\nhas seen, or she can imagine, but that is all.\\nMarie s nature was too truthful to be satisfied\\nwith imitation. The old academical art did not", "height": "3541", "width": "2368", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0192.jp2"}, "193": {"fulltext": "A Young GirVs Tragedy 171\\nappeal to her, as was very natural, and the new\\nwas just bursting its shell, and contained all the\\nimpurity and rubbish that belongs to a state of\\ntransition. The imperfect in her desired the\\nperfect she who was an incomplete woman felt\\nthe need of a perfected man.\\nShe made no progress. She painted at home\\nfrom models, and she went out driving with her\\nmaid, accompanied by some young Russian\\nfriends, and sketched street scenes from the car-\\nriage. So great was her need for ideas that she\\nattempted pictures on religious and historical\\nsubjects, and with some difficulty she finished a\\npicture for the next Salon, went half mad with\\nempty pride, but had to admit that it was very\\nmuch inferior to the former one which she had\\npainted under Julian s supervision. For two\\nyears she meets with no success. Her pictures\\ncontain nothing that is characteristic; she has\\nno individual style, no personal experiences, and\\nno original ideas. But her individuality, though\\ndormant, is too strong to allow her to imitate\\nthe style of other lady artists, one half of whom\\nare too amateurish, and their painting too de-\\nvoid of character, to content her, while the others\\nhave betrayed their sex, and adopted a severe,\\nmasculine style.\\nAt last the day came when Bastien Lepage was\\na public celebrity. Marie Bashkirtseff saw his\\npictures, became his pupil, worshipped him, and\\never after sang his praises.", "height": "3536", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0193.jp2"}, "194": {"fulltext": "172 Six Modern Women\\nYet, in all this, there was something lacking.\\nHis bright coloring, and the atmosphere of\\nhis landscapes, with their pale, sultry heat, the\\naggressive physical character of his people, etc.,\\nall these points appealed strongly to her South-\\nRussian nature. He set free her national feelings,\\nwhich had hitherto been bound and suppressed\\nbeneath academical influences, and she discovered\\na kindred spirit in him, a primitive element at\\nthe root of his being, which made her tenderly\\ndisposed towards him. But she had no intention\\nof remaining his pupil. She was too deeply con-\\nscious of the difference between them, and saw\\nclearly that his influence was not likely to be\\nmore than a passing phase.\\nShe worshipped him from a long-suppressed\\ndesire to worship some one, but her worship was\\ncalm and passionless. This little Bastien Lepage\\nwas not the man to arouse her deepest affections;\\nhe was too bourgeois, and his fine art was too\\ntame.\\nAnd yet she praised him, half mechanically.\\nSaint Marceaux, the sculptor, had appealed to\\nher feelings more deeply than he had done.\\nThere was a reason for it. There was a strong\\ntie between these two beings, who seemed only\\ndestined to exert a passing influence over one\\nanother.\\nThey were both ill when they made each other s\\nacquaintance: life, with its deceptive pleasures,\\nhad ruined the health of Bastien Lepage; and", "height": "3522", "width": "2354", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0194.jp2"}, "195": {"fulltext": "A Young Girl s Tragedy 173\\nMarie Bashkirtseff was ill from want of life,\\nher youth, her beauty, her vitality, had all been\\nwasted.\\nIt is the usual fate of the cultured young\\npeople of our time: he comes to her ruined,\\nbecause he has satiated his thirst she comes to\\nhim ruined, because her thirst has never been\\nsatisfied.\\nThey are as far apart as two separate worlds,\\nand they do not understand one another.\\nThe development of the last few years, through\\nwhich Marie Bashkirtseff had passed before she\\nmet Bastien Lepage, had brought her and the\\nreaders of her journal nothing but pain and\\ndulness.\\nWhat with ambitious plans for artistic work,\\nand the life with her family, which resembled\\na convent more than anything else, interrupted\\nby occasional smart dinners, balls, and various\\nprojects of worldly marriages, which came to\\nnothing, Marie Bashkirtseff had become super-\\nficial and almost stupid. Her genius appeared\\nto have flown, and a sickly, blasee hot-house\\nplant, solely occupied with herself, was all that\\nremained of her. She was like the ordinary girl\\nof good family, who has grown rather disagree-\\nable, and is no longer quite young, who is still\\nignorant of most things, and becomes extremely\\ntiresome by chattering on subjects which she\\ndoes not understand. All this is changed after\\nher meeting with Bastien Lepage.", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0195.jp2"}, "196": {"fulltext": "i74 Six Modern Women\\nShe regains her youth in a wonderful way she\\nbecomes shy and easily bewildered. When he\\npays his first visit she gets quite confused, turns\\nback three times before entering the drawing-\\nroom, and cannot think of anything to say after\\nthey have shaken hands. But he, with his un-\\naffected manner, and little insignificant person,\\nsoon succeeds in putting her at her ease. The\\nlong tirades in her journal come to an end at\\nlast, and are followed by short, cautious, but very\\nexpressive sentences.\\nBastien Lepage is anything but a lover. His\\nmanner is straightforward and simple, and he\\nholds himself strikingly aloof, maybe for want\\nof practice in the art of love-making, or perhaps\\nout of sheer weariness.\\nWhen he leaves her, she becomes as vain and\\negotistical as before; but when he is there she\\nwatches his every movement with a still, calm\\njoy.\\nShe had been ill for several years. One lung\\nwas affected, and now the other followed suit;\\nshe also suffered from deafness, and that troubled\\nher more than anything else. She had never\\ngiven a thought to her health.\\nWhen Bastien is there, all is well. She is\\nalways able to hear what he says, and in his eyes\\nshe is always pretty her art takes a new turn,\\nand inspired by him she becomes original. The\\nresult is the picture in the Luxembourg, called\\nA Meeting, besides several very good por-", "height": "3522", "width": "2355", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0196.jp2"}, "197": {"fulltext": "A Young Girl s Tragedy 175\\ntraits. There is no question of love between\\nthem; he is never anything but the artist, and\\nher old coquettish manner vanishes. She has\\na peculiarly tender affection for him, and the\\ndevelopment from a self-centred girl to a full-\\ngrown woman is accomplished within her.\\nHe suddenly becomes violently and hopelessly\\nill. He is seized with violent pains, followed by\\nthe cramp, and his legs are paralyzed.\\nThe green bud of her love withers without\\never having blossomed. But as his illness grows\\nworse, his longing to have Marie always beside\\nhim increases. When he is sufficiently free from\\npain to go out driving, he gets his brother to\\ncarry him up to her; and at other times she comes\\nwith her mother to visit him. It is quite a little\\nidyl. His mother, a worthy woman of the work-\\ning-class, cooks his soup; while her mother, who\\nis a smart lady, cuts his hair, which has grown\\ntoo long, and his brother, the architect, crops his\\nbeard. After their united efforts he looks as\\nhandsome as ever, and no longer so ill. Then\\nMarie must sit by his bedside, while he turns his\\nback upon the others and looks only at her, and\\nspeaks of art.\\nIt is September, 1884. Marie coughs and\\ncoughs. Bastien is getting worse and worse,\\nand he cannot bear her to leave him, even while\\nhe is undergoing his worst paroxysms of pain.\\nOn the 1st of October she writes in her journal\\nTant de degoilt et tant de tristesse", "height": "3533", "width": "2177", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0197.jp2"}, "198": {"fulltext": "176 Six Modern Women\\nWhat is the use of writing?\\nBastien Lepage is getting worse and worse.\\nAnd I cannot work.\\nMy picture will not be finished.\\nAlas! Alas!\\nHe is dying and suffers a great deal. When\\none is with him, one seems to have left the world\\nbehind. He is already beyond our reach, and\\nthere are days when the same feeling comes over\\nme. I see people, they talk, and I answer; but\\nI seem to be no longer on the earth, a quiet\\nindifference, not painful, almost like an opium\\ndream. And he is dying I go there more from\\nhabit than anything else; he is a shadow of his\\nformer self, and I, too, am scarcely more than a\\nshadow what is the good of it all\\nHe is hardly conscious of my presence now;\\nthere is little use in going; I have not the power\\nto enliven him. He is contented to see me, and\\nthat is all.\\nYes, he is dying, and it is all the same to\\nme; I do not take myself to account for it; it is\\nsomething that cannot be helped.\\nBesides, what difference does it make\\nAll is over.\\nIn 1885 they will bury me.\\nIn that she was mistaken, for she died the\\nsame month. Until the last few days Bastien\\nLepage had himself carried up to her; and she,\\nshaken by the fever of the last stage of consump-\\ntion, had her bed moved into the drawing-room,", "height": "3541", "width": "2321", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0198.jp2"}, "199": {"fulltext": "A Young Girl s Tragedy 177\\nwhere she could receive him. There, by her\\nbedside, as she had formerly sat beside his, with\\nhis legs resting upon a cushion, he remained\\nuntil the evening. They scarcely spoke; they\\nwere together, and that was all they cared for.\\nAnd she, who ever since her first awakening con-\\nsciousness had yearned so passionately and so\\nimpatiently for permission to live her life, died\\nnow, silent, resigned, without a murmur; and\\nknowing that the end was near, she was great in\\ndeath, since she had not succeeded in being great\\nin her short life.\\nIV\\nWhat remained of her? A book of a thousand\\npages, of which, in ten years, nearly ten thousand\\ncopies were sold, which Andre Theuriet provided\\nwith an introductory poem written in his best\\nstyle, and to which Maurice Barres dedicated an\\naltar built by himself and sanctified a rather mis-\\ntaken Marie Bashkirtseff cult. There was also\\nA Meeting in the Luxembourg, which, accord-\\ning to Marie Bashkirtseff s own report, Bastien\\nLepage criticised as follows He says that it is\\ncomparatively easy to do choses canailles, peasants,\\nstreet urchins, and especially caricatures but to\\npaint beautiful things, and to paint them with\\ncharacter, there is the difficulty.\\nIn order to complete the sketch of this girl, in", "height": "3543", "width": "2167", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0199.jp2"}, "200": {"fulltext": "178 Six Modern Women\\nwhich I have tried especially to accentuate the\\ntypical element, I should like to let her speak for\\nherself, with her characteristic expressions, her\\nimpulsive views and peculiar temperament.\\nAt the age of thirteen, she writes\\nMy blood boils, I am quite pale, then sud-\\ndenly the blood rises to my head, my cheeks\\nburn, my heart beats, and I cannot remain quiet\\nanywhere; the tears burn within me, I force them\\nback, and that only makes me more miserable;\\nall this undermines my health, ruins my char-\\nacter, makes me irritable and impatient. One\\ncan always see it in a person s face, whether\\nthey take life quietly. As for me, I am always\\nexcited. When they deprive me of my time for\\nlearning, they rob me for the whole of my life.\\nWhen I am sixteen or seventeen, my mind will\\nbe occupied with other thoughts; now is the\\ntime to learn.\\nAnd afterwards, with a depth of understanding\\nworthy of Nietzsche\\nAll that I say is not original, for I have no\\noriginality. I live only outside myself. To walk\\nor to stand still, to have or not to have, it is\\nall the same to me. My sorrows, my joys, my\\ntroubles do not exist.\\nAnd again\\nI want to live faster, faster, fast, I am\\nafraid it is true that this longing to live with the\\nspeed of steam foretells a short life.\\nWould you believe it? To my mind every-", "height": "3537", "width": "2337", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0200.jp2"}, "201": {"fulltext": "A Young Girl s Tragedy 179\\nthing is good and beautiful, even tears, even\\npain. I like to cry, I like to be in despair,\\nI like to be sad. I like life, in spite of all. I\\nwant to live. I long for happiness, and yet I\\nam happy when I am sad. My body cries and\\nshrieks; but something in me, which is above\\nme, enjoys it all.\\nThen this simile, drawn with wonderful\\ndelicacy:\\nAt every little sorrow my heart shrinks into\\nitself, not for my own sake, but out of pity I\\ndo not know whether anybody will understand\\nwhat I mean every sorrow is like a drop of ink\\nthat falls into a glass of water; it cannot be\\nobliterated, it unites itself with its predecessors\\nand makes the clear water gray and dirty. You\\nmay add as much water as you like, but nothing\\nwill make it clear again. My heart shrinks into\\nitself, because every sorrow leaves a stain on my\\nlife, and on my soul, and I watch the stains\\nincreasing in number on the white dress which\\nI ought to have kept clean.\\nAt the age of fourteen she wrote these prophetic\\nwords\\nOh! how impatient I am. My time will\\ncome; I believe it, yet something tells me that\\nit will never come, that I shall spend the whole\\nof my life waiting, always waiting. Waiting\\nwaiting!\\nWhen she was sixteen, at the time of the inci-\\ndent with the cardinal s nephew:", "height": "3552", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0201.jp2"}, "202": {"fulltext": "180 Six Modern Women\\nIf I am as pretty as I think, why is it that no\\none loves me? People look at me! They fall in\\nlove But they do not love me And I do so\\nwant to be loved.\\nAt seventeen, the first entry in her journal for\\nthat year\\nWhen shall T get to know what this love is of\\nwhich we hear so much\\nLater on\\nVery much disgusted with myself. I hate\\nall that I do, say, and write. I despise myself,\\nbecause not a single one of my expectations has\\nbeen fulfilled. I have deceived myself.\\nI am stupid, I have no tact, and I never had\\nany. I thought I was intellectual, but I have no\\ntaste. I thought I was brave I am a coward. I\\nbelieved I had talent, but I do not know how\\nI have proved it.\\nAt the age of eighteen\\nMy body like that of an antique goddess, my\\nhips rather too Spanish, my breast small, per-\\nfectly formed, my feet, my hands, my child-like\\nhead. A quoi bon When no one loves me.\\nThere is one thing that is really beautiful,\\nantique: that is a woman s self-effacement in\\nthe presence of the man she loves; it must be\\nthe greatest, most self-satisfying delight that a\\nsuperior woman can feel.\\nIn 1882, at the beginning of her illness:\\nSo I am consumptive, and have been so for\\nthe last two or three years. It is not yet bad", "height": "3539", "width": "2359", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0202.jp2"}, "203": {"fulltext": "A Young Girl s Tragedy 181\\nenough to die of it. Let them give me ten\\nyears longer, and in these ten years, fame or love,\\nand I shall die contented, at the age of thirty.\\nThe following year\\nNo, I never was in love, and I never shall be\\nany more a man would have to be very great to\\nplease me now, I require so much.\\nAnd simply to fall in love with a handsome\\nboy, no, it would not answer. Love could no\\nlonger wholly occupy me now; it would be. a\\nmatter of secondary importance, a decoration to\\nthe building, an agreeable superfluity. The idea\\nof a picture or a statue keeps me awake for nights\\ntogether, which the thought of a handsome man\\nhas never done.\\nIn another place\\nWhom shall I ask? Who will be truthful?\\nWho will be just\\nYou, my only friend, you at least will be\\ntruthful, for you love me. Yes, I love myself,\\nmyself only.\\nTwo weeks before her death, after a visit from\\nBastien Lepage\\nI was dressed entirely in lace and plush, all\\nwhite, but different kinds of white; Bastien\\nLepage opened his eyes wide with joy.\\nIf only I could paint he said.\\nAnd I!\\nObliged to give it up, the picture for this\\nyear!", "height": "3556", "width": "2112", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0203.jp2"}, "204": {"fulltext": "1 82 Six Modern Women\\nHer portrait represents the face of a typical\\nbeauty of Little Russia; the firm, dark eye-\\nbrows, arched over eyes that are far apart, give\\nthe face an expression that is peculiarly honest\\nand straightforward. The eyes gaze fixedly and\\ndreamily into the distance; the nose is short,\\nwith nostrils slightly distended, the mouth soft\\nand determined, with the upper lip passionately\\ncompressed. The face is round as a child s, and\\nthe neck short and powerful, on a squarely built,\\nfully developed body.", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0204.jp2"}, "205": {"fulltext": "VI\\nThe Woman s Rights Woman", "height": "3544", "width": "2187", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0205.jp2"}, "206": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3522", "width": "2254", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0206.jp2"}, "207": {"fulltext": "The latter half of our century is comparatively\\npoor in remarkable women. Nowadays, when\\nwomen are more exacting than they used to be,\\nthey are of less importance than of old. We\\nhave rows of women artists, women scientists,\\nand authoresses the countries of Europe are\\noverrun with them, but they are all mediocrities;\\nand in the upper classes, although there are\\nplenty of eccentric ladies, they are abnormities,\\nnot individuals. The secret of a woman s power\\nhas always lain in what she is, rather than in\\nwhat she does, and that is where the women of\\nto-day appear to be strangely lacking. They do\\nall kinds of things, they study and write books\\nwithout number, they collect money for various\\nobjects, they pass examinations and take degrees,\\nthey hold meetings and give lectures, they start\\nsocieties, and there never was a time when women\\nlived a more public life than at present. Yet,\\nwith all that, they are of less public importance\\nthan they used to be. Where are the women\\nwhose drawing-rooms were filled with the greatest\\nthinkers and most distinguished men of their\\nday They do not exist. Where are the women", "height": "3547", "width": "2183", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0207.jp2"}, "208": {"fulltext": "1 86 Six Modern Women\\nwith delicate tact, who took part in the affairs of\\nthe nation? They are a myth. Where are the\\nwomen whose influence was acknowledged to be\\ngreater than the counsel of ministers? Where\\nare the women whose love is immortalized in\\nthe works of the greatest poets Where are the\\nwomen whose passionate devotion was life and\\njoy to man, bearing him on wings of gladness\\ntowards the unknown, and leading him back to\\nthe beautiful life on earth? They have been,\\nbut where are they now? The more that woman\\nseeks to exert her influence by main force, the\\nless her influence as an individual the more she\\nimbues this century with her spirit, the fewer\\nher conquests as woman. Her influence on the\\nliterature of the eighties has shown itself in an\\nintense, ingrained hatred. It is she who has\\ninspired man to write his hymn of hatred to\\nwoman, Tolstoi in the Kreutzer Sonata,\\nStrindberg in a whole collection of dramas,\\nHuysman in En Menage, while many a lesser\\nstar is sceptical of love and in the writings of\\nthe younger authors, where this scepticism is not\\nso apparent, we find that they understand noth-\\ning at all about women. It is a peculiar sign of\\nthe times that, in spite of the many restrictions\\nof former days, men and women never have stood\\nwider apart than at present, and have never\\nunderstood one another more badly than now.\\nThe honest, unselfish sympathy, the true, I should\\nlike to say organical union, which is still to be", "height": "3546", "width": "2266", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0208.jp2"}, "209": {"fulltext": "The Woman s Rights Woman 187\\nobserved in the married life of old people, seems\\nto have vanished. Each goes his or her own way;\\nthere may be a nervous search for each other\\nand a short finding, but it is soon followed by a\\nspeedy losing. Is it the men who are to blame\\nThe men of former days were doubtless very\\ndifferent, but in their relations to women they\\nwere scarcely more sociable than at present.\\nOr is it the women who are at fault? For some\\ntime past I have watched life in its many phases,\\nand I have come to the conclusion that it is the\\nwoman who either develops the man s character\\nor ruins it. His mother, and the woman to whom\\nhe unites himself, leave an everlasting mark upon\\nthe impressionable side of his nature.\\nIn most cases the final question is not, What\\nis the man like? but, What kind of a woman is\\nshe And I think that the answer is as follows\\nA woman s actions are more reasonable than they\\nused to be, and her love is also more reasonable.\\nThe consequence is a lessening of the passion\\nthat is hers to give, which again results in a\\ncorresponding coolness on the part of the man.\\nThe modern system of educating girls by teach-\\ning them numerous languages, besides many other\\nbranches of knowledge, encourages a superficial\\ndevelopment of the understanding, and renders\\nwomen more exacting, without making them more\\nattractive; and while the average level of intelli-\\ngence among women is raised, and the self-conceit\\nof the many largely increased, the few who are", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0209.jp2"}, "210": {"fulltext": "1 88 Six Modern Women\\noriginal characters will in all probability disap-\\npear beneath the pressure of their own sex, and\\nin consequence of the apathy which governs the\\nmutual relations of both sexes.\\nThe age in which we live has produced another\\nclass of women in their stead, who, since they\\nrepresent the strongest majority, must be reckoned\\nas the type. It is natural that they should have\\nneither the influence nor the fascination of the\\nolder generation, and they are not as happy.\\nThey are neither happy themselves, nor do they\\nmake others happy; the reason is that they are\\nless womanly than the others were. From their\\nmidst the modern authoresses have gone forth,\\nwomen who in days to come will be named in\\nconnection with the progress of culture; and I\\nthink that Anne Charlotte Edgren-Leffler, Duchess\\nof Cajanello, will long be remembered as the most\\ncharacteristic representative of the type.\\nII\\nShe was the supporter of a movement that origi-\\nnated with her, and ceased when she died. She\\nwas known in countries far beyond her native\\nSweden; her books were read and discussed all\\nover Germany, and her stories were published in\\nthe Deutsche Rundschau. She had a clearer brain\\nthan most women writers; she could look reality\\nin the face without being afraid, and indeed she\\nwas not one who was easily frightened. She was", "height": "3541", "width": "2226", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0210.jp2"}, "211": {"fulltext": "The Woman s Rights Woman 189\\nvery independent, and understood the literary side\\nof her calling as well as its practical side, and her\\nstruggles were by no means confined to her writ-\\nings. She threw aside the old method of seeking\\nto gain her ends by means of womanly charm she\\nwanted to convince as a woman of intellect. She\\ncondemned the old method which used to be con-\\nsidered the special right of women, and fought\\nfor the new right, i.e., recognition as a human\\nbeing. All her arguments were clear and tem-\\nperate; she was not emotional. The minds from\\nwhich she fashioned her own were Spencer and\\nStuart Mill. Nature had endowed her with a\\nproud, straightforward character, and she was\\nentirely free from that affected sentimentality\\nwhich renders the writings of most women\\nunendurable.\\nIn the course of ten years she became cele-\\nbrated throughout Europe, and she died suddenly\\nabout six months after the birth of her first child.\\nSonia Kovalesky, the other and greater European\\ncelebrity, who was Professor of Mathematics, and\\nher most intimate friend, also died suddenly, as\\ndid several others, Victoria Benediktson (Ernst\\nAhlgren), her fellow-countrywoman, and for many\\nyears her rival Adda Ravnkilde, a young Danish\\nwriter, who wrote several books under her influ-\\nence; and a young Finnish authoress named\\nThedenius. The last three died by their own\\nhands; Sonia Kovalevsky and Fru Edgren- Lefrler\\ndied after a short illness.", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0211.jp2"}, "212": {"fulltext": "190 Six Modern Women\\nFru Leffler was the eldest, she lived to be\\nforty-three the others died younger, the last two\\nvery much younger. But they all made the same\\nattempt, and they all failed. They wanted to\\nstand alone, they demanded their independence,\\nthey tried to carry into practice their views with\\nregard to man.\\nGeorge Sand made the same attempt, and she\\nsucceeded. But then her independence took a\\nvery different form from theirs. She followed\\nthe traditions of her family, and set no barriers\\nto love she drank of the great well of life until\\nshe had well-nigh exhausted it. She was quite\\na child of the old regime in her manner of life.\\nThe efforts made by these other women, at the\\nclose of the nineteenth century, took the form of\\nwishing to dispense with man altogether. It is\\nthis feature of Teutonic chastity, bounding on\\nasceticism, that was the tragic moment in the\\nlives of all these short-lived women.\\nIt is a strange piece of contemporary history of\\nwhich I am about to write. It is this that is the\\ncause of the despondent mood peculiar to the last\\ndecade of our century; it is this that acts as a\\nweight upon our social life, that makes our leisure\\nwearisome, our joys cold. It is this decay in\\nwoman s affection that is the greatest evil of the\\nage.\\nOne of the tendencies of the time is the crav-\\ning for equality, which seeks to develop woman s\\njudgment by increasing her scientific knowledge.", "height": "3542", "width": "2300", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0212.jp2"}, "213": {"fulltext": "The Woman s Rights Woman 191\\nIt might have answered from the woman s point\\nof view, so far, at least, as the man was con-\\ncerned, for it does not much matter to a woman\\nwhom she loves, as long as she loves some one.\\nBut women have become so sensible nowadays\\nthat they refuse to love without a decisive guar-\\nantee, and this calculating spirit has already\\nbecome to them a second nature to so great an\\nextent that they can no longer love, without first\\ntaking all kinds of precautionary measures to\\ninsure their future peace and comfortable main-\\ntenance, to say nothing of the unqualified regard\\nwhich they expect from their husbands.\\nAll things are possible from a state of mind\\nsuch as we have described, except love, and love\\ncannot flourish upon it. If there is a thing for\\nwhich woman is especially created, that is,\\nunless she happens to be different from other\\nwomen, it is love. A woman s life begins and\\nends in man. It is he who makes a woman of\\nher. It is he who creates in her a new kind of\\nself-respect by making her a mother it is he who\\ngives her the children whom she loves, and to\\nhim she owes their affection. The more highly\\na woman s mind and body are developed, the less\\nis she able to dispense with man, who is the\\nsource of her great happiness or great sorrow, but\\nwho, in either case, is the only meaning of her\\nlife. For without him she is nothing.\\nThe woman of to-day is quite willing to enjoy\\nthe happiness which man brings, but when the", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0213.jp2"}, "214": {"fulltext": "192 Six Modern Women\\nreverse is the case, she refuses to submit. She\\nthinks that, with a little precaution, she can\\nbring the whole of life within the compass of a\\nmathematical calculation. But before she has\\nfinished her sum, and proved it to see if it is\\ncorrect, happiness and sorrow have flown past her,\\nleaving her desolate and forsaken, hardened for\\nwant of love, miserable in spite of a cleverly cal-\\nculated marriage, and imbittered in the midst of\\njoyless ease and sorrow unaccounted for.\\nSuch was the fate of these five short-lived\\nauthoresses, although they might not have de-\\nscribed it as I have done. Anne Charlotte\\nEdgren-Leffler was chief among the Scandinavian\\nwomen s rights women who have made for them-\\nselves a name in literature. Her opinions were\\nscattered abroad among thousands of women in\\nGermany and in the North, and as she died with-\\nout being able to dig up the seed which she had\\nsown, she will always be considered as a type of\\nthe Jin de sikcle woman, and will remain one of its\\nhistorical characters.\\nI write this sketch in the belief that it will not\\nbe very unlike the one she would have written of\\nherself, had she lived long enough to do so.\\nIll\\nAnne Charlotte Leffler was born at Stock-\\nholm, and, like all her townsfolk, she was tall,\\nstrong, and somewhat angular. She was by", "height": "3543", "width": "2258", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0214.jp2"}, "215": {"fulltext": "The Woman s Rights Woman 193\\nnature cold and critical, and in this respect she\\ndid not differ from the women of North Sweden.\\nThe daughter of a college rector, she had received\\na thoroughly good education, and was probably far\\nbetter educated than the majority of women, as\\nshe grew up in the companionship of two brothers,\\nwho were afterwards professors.\\nWhen she was nineteen years of age, she pub-\\nlished her first work, a little play, in two acts,\\ncalled The Actress. The piece describes the\\nstruggle between love and talent, and the scene is\\nlaid in the rather narrow sphere of a small coun-\\ntry town. The characters are decidedly weak, but\\nnot more so than one would naturally expect from\\nthe pen of an inexperienced girl of the upper\\nclass. There was nothing to show that it was\\nthe work of a beginner. Her faculty for observa-\\ntion is extraordinarily keen, her descriptions of\\ncharacter are terse, striking, and appropriate, and\\nthe construction of the piece is clever. It shows\\na thoughtful mind, and there is none of the clumsy\\nhandling noticeable in young writers; the con\\nflict is carefully thought out, and described with\\nmathematical clearness. But however ornate an\\nauthor s style, however remarkable her intellect,\\nthese qualities do not form the most important\\npart of her talent as a woman and an authoress.\\nIn considering the first book of a writer who after-\\nwards became celebrated throughout Europe, the\\nquestion of primary importance is this How much\\ncharacter is revealed in this book\\n13", "height": "3553", "width": "2071", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0215.jp2"}, "216": {"fulltext": "194 Six Modern Women\\nOr, to put the question with greater precision,\\nsince it concerns a woman How much character\\nis there that the author was not able to suppress\\nThe sky seems colored with the deep glow of\\ndawn; it is the great expectancy of love. Here\\nwe have the writing of a young girl who knows\\nnothing about love except the one thing, that it\\nis a woman s whole existence. She has never\\nexperienced it, but her active mind has already\\ngrasped some of its difficulties; and one great\\ndifficulty, which must not be overlooked, is the\\nourgeois desire to maintain a sure footing. An\\nactress is going to marry into a respectable middle\\nclass family. Nobody in this section of society\\ncan think of love otherwise than clad in a white\\napron and armed with a matronly bunch of keys.\\nLove here means the commonplace. The actress\\nis accustomed to a worse but wider sphere; love\\nfor her means to become a great actress, to attain\\nperfection in her art, but to her intended it means\\nthat she should love him and keep house.\\nThe problem does not often present itself like\\nthis in real life, and if it did the result would in\\nall probability be very different in the imagina-\\ntion of a well-bred girl of eighteen, like Anne\\nCharlotte Leffler, it was the only conclusion pos-\\nsible. And as he will not consent to her wishes,\\nand she refuses to give way to his; as he has no\\ndesire to marry an actress, and she no intention of\\nbecoming a housewife, they separate with mutual\\npromises of eternal platonic love.", "height": "3522", "width": "2343", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0216.jp2"}, "217": {"fulltext": "The Woman s Rights Woman 195\\nThe end is comic, But it is meant to be taken\\nseriously. No matter how it begins, the ordinary\\nwoman s book always ends with platonic love; and\\nit is very characteristic of Anne Charlotte Leffler\\nthat her first play should have a platonic and not\\na tragic ending.\\nThe tragic element, which generally assumes\\nsupernatural proportions in the imagination of the\\nyoung, did not appeal to her; her life was placed\\nin comfortable, bourgeois surroundings, and she\\nwas perfectly contented with it.\\nWe find the same want of imagination in all the\\nSwedish authoresses, from Fru Lenngren, Frede-\\nrica Bremer, and Fru Flygare-Carlen onwards.\\nA few years later Anne Charlotte LefBer wrote\\na three-act play, called The Elf, of which the\\ntwo first acts afford the best possible key to her\\nown psychology. It was acted for the first time\\nin 1 88 1, but it was probably written soon after\\nher marriage, in 1872, with Edgren, who was at\\nthat time in the service of the government.\\nIV\\nFru Edgren was one of those proud, straight-\\nforward women who would never dream of allow-\\ning any one to commiserate them. She made no\\nattempt to suit her actions to please the world\\nher sole ambition was to show herself as she\\nreally was. When she wished to do a thing, she", "height": "3554", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0217.jp2"}, "218": {"fulltext": "196 Six Modern Women\\ndid it as quickly as possible, and without any one s\\nhelp. She wrote under the influence of her per-\\nsonal impressions, her personal judgment, and her\\npersonal opinions; whatever she might attain to\\nin the future, she was determined to have no one\\nbut herself to thank for it. But she was a woman.\\nThough usually possessed of a clear judgment,\\nshe did not sufficiently realize what it means for\\na woman to enter upon a literary career by her-\\nself. She succeeded in her literary career; but in\\ndoing so she sacrificed the best part of her life,\\nand was obliged to suppress her best and truest\\naspirations, thereby destroying a large amount of\\nreal artistic talent.\\nThere are few things that afford me more gen-\\nuine pleasure than the books of modern authors.\\nI enjoy them less on account of what they tell\\nme than for that which they have been unable\\nto conceal. When they write their books, they\\nwrite the history of their inner life. You open a\\nbook and you read twenty lines, and in the tone\\nand character of those twenty lines you seem to\\nfeel the beating of the writer s pulse. In the\\nsame way as a fine musical ear can distinguish a\\nsingle false note in an orchestra, a fine psycho-\\nlogical instinct can discern the true from the\\nfalse, and can tell where the author describes\\nhis own feelings and where he is only pretending\\ncan discern his true character from among the\\nmultitude of conscious and unconscious masks,\\nand can say: This is good metal, and that a worth-", "height": "3501", "width": "2296", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0218.jp2"}, "219": {"fulltext": "The Woman s Rights Woman 197\\nless composition, wherewith he makes a dupe of\\nhimself and of others.\\nThe woman who attempts to write without a\\nman to shield her, to throw a protecting arm\\naround her, is an unfortunate, incongruous being.\\nThat which sets her soul aglow which calls\\nloudly within her she dare not say. When a\\nman wishes to be a great writer, he defies conven-\\ntionalism and compels it to become subservient\\nto him; but for a lonely woman, conventional-\\nism is her sole support, not only outwardly, but\\ninwardly also. It forms a part of her womanly\\nmodesty; it is the guide of her life, from which\\nnaught but love can free her; that is why the\\nmore talented a woman is, the more absolutely\\nlove must be her pilot.\\nFru Edgren s best play and her two most inter-\\nesting stories are The Elf, Aurora Bunge,\\nand Love and Womanhood. None of her other\\nworks can be said to equal these in depth of feel-\\ning, and none strike a more melancholy note.\\nThere is an emotional, nervous life in them\\nwhich presents an attractive contrast to the cold\\nirony of her other works. She has put her whole\\nbeing into these writings, with something of her\\nwomanly power to charm; while in the others we\\nmeet with the clear insight, the critical faculty,\\nand the rare sarcasm to which they owe their\\nreputation.\\nYet in these three works we notice how very\\nmuch she is hedged in on all sides by conven-", "height": "3558", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0219.jp2"}, "220": {"fulltext": ".198 Six Modern Women\\ntionalism. The Elf, Love and Womanhood,\\nand Aurora Bunge make us think of a large\\nand beautiful bird that cannot fly because its\\nlong, swift wings have been broken by a fall\\nfrom the nest.\\nThe elf is the wife of the respected mayor\\nof a small country town. Her father was a\\nSwedish artist, whose whole life was spent in\\ntravelling, because every time that he came home\\nhe was driven away by the narrow social life of\\nSweden. When he is lying on his deathbed, he\\nleaves his penniless child to the care of his\\nyounger friend, the Mayor, who knows no better\\nway of providing for her than. by making her his\\nwife. He is universally considered the best son,\\nthe best partner in business, and the best man\\nin the town. The elf wanders about the woods,\\nand becomes the subject of much gossip, likewise\\nof envy, among the smart ladies of the town.\\nOne evening when they are giving a party, and\\nshe forgets to play the part of hostess, their\\nneighbor, a Baron, arrives with his sister. Both,\\nno longer young, free from illusions, liberal in\\nthought and speech, seem to carry with them a\\nbreath from a bigger world their mere presence\\nserves to make the elf thoughtlessly happy, and\\nfrom henceforward she sits daily to the Baron for\\na picture representing Undine when the knight\\ncarries her through the wood, and her soul awakes\\nwithin her. The elf s soul i.e., love is also\\nawakened. She feels herself drawn towards this", "height": "3548", "width": "2365", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0220.jp2"}, "221": {"fulltext": "The Woman s Right s Woman 199\\nman, who has sufficient fire to awaken her woman-\\nhood with a kiss. She does not wish, she does\\nnot think, but she would not like to be separated\\nfrom him; he lives in an atmosphere that suits\\nher, and in which she thrives. She is still a\\nchild but the child would like to wake. It is\\ntrue that her conscience reproaches her with\\nregard to the Mayor, but here the circumstances\\nare related as though she were not quite married,\\nthat is a mistake which nearly all Teutonic\\nauthoresses make.\\nThe Baron tells her the story of Undine. The\\nknight finds her at the moment when the brook\\nstretches forth his long white arm to draw her\\nback, but he does not let her go; he takes her in\\nhis arms and carries her away, and she looks up\\nat him with a half anxious expression there is\\nsomething new in this expression. She is no\\nlonger Undine. She loves. She has a soul.\\nIn this drama, Anne Charlotte Edgren-Leffler,\\nthe future leader of the woman s rights move-\\nment, makes the confession that a woman s soul\\nis love. She is the only Swedish woman writer\\nwho would have owned as much.\\nThe Baron is a decadent. Fru Edgren took\\nthis type from real life long before the decadence\\nmade its appearance in literature. He had enjoyed\\nall sensations with delight and inner emotion,\\nuntil the woman in the elf opens her eyes in the\\nfirst moment of half consciousness, and when that\\nhappens she becomes indifferent to him. His", "height": "3548", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0221.jp2"}, "222": {"fulltext": "200 Six Modern IV omen\\npassion cools. It is true that his actions still\\ntend in the same direction, but he is able to gaze\\nat his thoughts critically. He is not the knight\\nwho lifts Undine out of the cold water. He\\nleaves her lying in the brook.\\nAmong the experiences by means of which\\nindependent women, with a vocation, awake\\nto womanhood, this is probably the most com-\\nmon. It is very difficult to define their feelings\\nwhen they realize a change in the man who first\\naroused their affections; but I think that I am\\nnot far wrong, in saying that it is something akin\\nto loathing. The more sensitive the woman, and\\nthe more innocent she is, the longer the loathing\\nwill last. Howevep cold her outward behavior\\nmay appear, the feeling is still there.\\nThere is nothing that a woman resents more\\nkeenly than when a man plays with her affections,\\nand neglects her afterwards. The more inexperi-\\nenced the woman, the more unmanly this behavior\\nseems. If she is a true woman, her disappoint-\\nment will be all the greater; she will feel it not\\nonly with regard to this single individual, but it\\nwill cast a shadow over all men.\\nThe last act reveals the author s perplexity.\\nFrom an aesthetic point of view the ending is\\ncold, and to a certain extent indifferently exe-\\ncuted but judged from a psychological point of\\nview, it is thoroughly Swedish. Considered as\\nthe writing of a young lady in the year 1880, it\\nmust be confessed that the dialogue is tolerably", "height": "3522", "width": "2236", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0222.jp2"}, "223": {"fulltext": "The Woman s Rights Woman 201\\nstrong, even piquante but in order to please the\\nhighly respected public, it is necessary for the\\nplay to end well.\\nSuddenly they one and all in this land of\\npietism and sudden conversion beat their breasts\\nand confess their sins. The Mayor examines\\nhimself, and repents that he was selfish enough\\nto marry the elf; his mother repents because she\\ncared more for her son than her daughter-in-law;\\nthe elf repents because she almost allowed her-\\nself to be betrayed into falling in love; and the\\nBaron s sister, who, throughout the piece, has\\nalways held aloft the banner of love and liberty,\\nrepents in a general way, without any particular\\nreason being given. Thus everything returns to\\nits former condition, and Undine remains in the\\nduck-pond.\\nWith this satisfying termination, The Elf\\nsurvived a large number of performances.\\nThe question which suggests itself to my mind\\nis Whether the author intended the piece to end\\nin this manner? Or was the original ending less\\nconventional, and was Fru Edgren obliged to\\nalter it in order that the play might be acted?\\nWhat else could she do? A lonely woman like\\nher dared not sin against the public morals. It\\nwere better to sin against anything else, only\\nnot against the public morals; for in that case\\nthey would have condemned her to silence, and\\nher career would have been at an end. The key-\\nnote of the piece was the yearning to escape from", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0223.jp2"}, "224": {"fulltext": "202 Six Modern Women\\nthe long Swedish winters and the gossip by the\\nfireside, out into the fresh air, into the light and\\nwarmth of the South.\\nV\\nTen years afterwards Fru Edgren returned to\\nthe same problem in Love and Womanhood,\\nand this time she treated it with greater delicacy\\nand more depth of feeling.\\nThe heroine is no longer the traditional elf,\\nbut the modern girl, nervous, sensitive, with a\\nsharp intellect and still sharper tongue; she is\\nvery critical, very reserved, full of secret aspi-\\nrations, and very warm-hearted her heart is\\ncapable of becoming a world to the man she\\nloves, but it needs a man s love to develop its\\npower of loving. She loves an elegant, self-\\nsatisfied Swedish lieutenant, who has served as a\\nvolunteer in Algiers, and has written a book on\\nmilitary science; he is just an ordinary smart\\nyoung man, and he takes it for granted that she\\nwill accept him the instant he proposes. But\\nshe refuses him. He is indignant and hurt he\\ncannot understand it at all, unless she loves some\\none else. But no, she does not love any one\\nelse. Then what is the reason? She is sure\\nthat he does not care enough for her; there is\\nsuch an indescribable difference between her love\\nfor him, or rather the love that she knows herself", "height": "3522", "width": "2355", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0224.jp2"}, "225": {"fulltext": "The W oman s Rights Woman 203\\ncapable of feeling, and the affection that he\\nhas to offer her, that she will not have him on\\nany account, and looks upon his proposal almost\\nin the light of an insult. He goes away, and\\nreturns, soon afterwards, engaged to a little\\ngoose.\\nFru Edgren develops an elaborate theory, to\\nwhich she returns again and again. According\\nto her, it is only the commonplace little girls\\nof eighteen, innocence in a white pinafore, with\\nwhom men fall in love. I myself do not think\\nthat there is much in it a dozen men who are\\nnonentities fall in love with a dozen young\\nwomen who are likewise nonentities. On the\\nother hand, we have that numerous type, which\\nincludes the modern girl, full of soul, originality,\\nand depth of character, clever and modest, pos-\\nsessed of a keen divination with regard to her\\nown feelings and that of others, mingled with a\\nchaste pride that is founded upon the conscious-\\nness of her own importance, a pride that will\\nnot accept less than it gives. And these girls\\nare confined to the narrow circle to which all\\nwomen are reduced, to two pr three possibilities\\nin the whole course of their long youth, possi-\\nbilities which chance throws in their way, and\\nwhich are perhaps no possibilities at all to them.\\nA few years pass by, and these girls have become\\nstern judges upon the rights of love, and they\\nhave developed a bitter expression about the\\nmouth, and a secret gnawing in the soul. A", "height": "3558", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0225.jp2"}, "226": {"fulltext": "204 Six Modern Women\\nfew years more, and this unappreciated womanly\\ninstinct will have brought them to hate men.\\nFru Edgren went the same way In her\\nSketches from Life we find some traces of\\nthis feeling in the stories where she displays the\\ncomparative worth of men and women take, for\\ninstance, the tale called At War with Society.\\nBut before she had quite joined the army of stern\\njudges, she weighed the problem of love once\\nmore, in the second of her five completed novels,\\ncalled, Aurora Bunge.\\nFor the last ten years Aurora Bunge has been\\nchief among the ball beauties of Stockholm.\\nEverything in her life is arranged and settled\\nbeforehand. In the winter she goes to balls,\\nnight after night, to parties and plays; in the\\nsummer she is occupied in much the same way\\nin a fashionable watering-place. For the last\\nten years she has known exactly with whom she\\nis going to dance, what compliments will be paid\\nher, what offers she will receive, and whom she\\nis eventually going to marry. The marriage can\\nbe put off until she is thirty and now she is\\nnearly thirty, and the time has come. She is\\none of those girls who have danced and danced\\nuntil everything has grown equally indifferent\\nand wearisome to them and yet she is without\\nexperience, and is likely to remain so to the end.\\nShe allows herself perfect freedom of speech, but\\nshe will never allow herself a single free action.\\nA couple of intrigues in the dim future are not", "height": "3522", "width": "2271", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0226.jp2"}, "227": {"fulltext": "The Woman s Rights Woman 205\\nentirely excluded from her plans, but what differ-\\nence will that make? She has something of\\nStrindberg s Julie, but without the latter s\\nperversity; she is also some years in advance of\\nher. She would have no objection to eloping\\nwith a circus rider, or doing something de tres\\nmauvais goilt, but she knows that she will never\\ndo it. The summer previous to the announce-\\nment of her engagement she is seized with a fit\\nof liking the country, and she accompanies her\\nmother to one of her properties, which is situated\\non a desolate part of the coast. It is the first of\\nher thirty summer visits that is not quite comme\\nil fanU In a sudden outburst of enthusiasm for\\nnature, she spends days and weeks wandering\\nabout in the woods and fields, with torn dress\\nand down-trodden shoes, and goes out sailing\\nwith the fishermen. She becomes stronger and\\nmore beautiful, and is more than ever imbued\\nwith an indescribable longing. This vague\\nlonging leads her on towards that which she is\\ngoing to experience which is to be her life s\\nonly experience. She feels her pulses beat and\\nher heart burn within her, and not till then does\\nthe matured woman of thirty tear aside the ban-\\ndage that binds her eyes; and looking out, she\\ncries: Where art thou, who givest me life s ful-\\nness? On one of her boating expeditions, she\\ngoes to the nearest lighthouse. The lighthouse-\\nkeeper, a strong, quiet young man, comes out.\\nShe looks, and she knows that it is he", "height": "3531", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0227.jp2"}, "228": {"fulltext": "206 Six Modern Women\\nUp to this point Fru Edgren has copied the\\nsecret writing in her own soul, and every touch\\nis true. But her experience went no further.\\nThe part that follows is psychological and logical\\ntoo, but it has the greatest fault that a romance\\ncan have; i.e., it is word, for word imagined,\\nnot experienced, and for this reason it is over-\\ndrawn. Aurora has scarcely landed before a\\nstorm sets in. She flutters like an exhausted\\nbird, in and out of the narrow lighthouse. The\\nlighthouse-keeper sees the danger, and hurries\\ndown. She wants to throw herself into the\\nwater. He climbs down the rocks and seizes\\nhold of her. Already before, this son of the\\npeople had found time to give her a love poem\\nto read. The storm lasts three days, and for\\nthree days she remains there. On the fourth\\nday the fishermen return to fetch her, and the\\nlighthouse-keeper is furious. By this time she\\nis no better than a very ordinary fisher girl. She\\nis deathly pale, but insists on leaving him. He\\nthreatens her with his fists, and she proposes\\nthat they should drown themselves together; but\\nhis mother had already drowned herself, and he\\ndoes not wish to have two suicides in the family.\\nAurora goes home, and they never meet again.\\nA few months afterwards she marries an officer\\nwho is in debt.\\nFru Edgren s men may be divided into two\\ntypes, the one she cannot endure, but she\\ndescribes him admirably; the other she cannot", "height": "3522", "width": "2265", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0228.jp2"}, "229": {"fulltext": "The Woman s Rights Woman 207\\ndescribe at all, but she likes him very much\\nindeed. The first is the fashionable man of\\nStockholm society, who has tasted life s pleas-\\nures, and is wearied of them the second is the\\nsimple, unsophisticated son of the people.\\nVI\\nFru Edgren looked life boldly in the face,\\nlife, which was continually passing her by, be-\\ncause she was a lady, whose duty it was to lead\\na blameless existence. She was by this time a\\ncelebrated authoress, with a comfortable income,\\nbut what had she gained by it Merely this\\nthat envious eyes watched her more narrowly\\nthan before, and that she was expected to live\\nfor the honor and glory of Sweden, and for the\\nhonor and glory of her position as a woman\\nwriter. Yet, after all, were they not in the\\nNorth? And was she not allowed all possible\\nfreedom up to a certain point Even this cer-\\ntain point might be overstepped sometimes, in\\nprivate, of course, and such was the general\\nusage. But she was one of those proud natures\\nwho will not tolerate a greasy fingermark on the\\nuntarnished shield of their honor, and she was\\nalso one of those sovereign natures whose will\\nis a law to themselves.\\nWe are confronted by a strange sight in Scan-\\ndinavian literature. We find man s laxitv and", "height": "3528", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0229.jp2"}, "230": {"fulltext": "208 Six Modern Women\\nwoman s prudery existing side by side. Bjornson,\\nIbsen, Garborg, Strindberg, were contemporaries\\nof Fru Edgren, and their renown was at its\\nheight. The eighties were the great period of\\nScandinavian romance, and this romance turned\\nsolely upon the problem of man and woman.\\nThe productive enthusiasm of those days drove a\\nmultitude of women into the fields of literature,\\nincluding those whom we have mentioned, who\\ndied early, and some lesser ones, who still con-\\ntinue to lead a useless, literary existence. But\\ntheir writings are strangely poor compared with\\nthose of the men, even though there were\\nnumbered amongst them an Edgren- Lefrler, an\\nAhlgren, and a Kovalevsky. The men were not\\nafraid; they all had something to impart, and\\nthat which they imparted was themselves. But\\nthere was not a single woman s voice to join in\\nthe mighty chorus of the hymn to love; not one\\nof them had experienced it, and they had nothing\\nto say. Their longing kept silence. When, how-\\never, the literature of indignation, with Kalchas\\nBjornson at its head, broke loose against the\\ncorruptions and depravity of men, then all the\\nauthoresses raised their voices, and instituted a\\ngrand inquisition.\\nFru Edgren took part in it. What hymn could\\nshe sing? She had no experience of love, and\\nher patience was at an end. Towards the end\\nof the eighties, love had completely vanished\\nfrom her books, and its place had been filled by", "height": "3537", "width": "2294", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0230.jp2"}, "231": {"fulltext": "The Woman s Rights Woman 209\\nthe question of rights, women s rights with\\nregard to property and wage-earning, and mar-\\nriage rights. The Doll s House was followed\\nby a deluge of books on unhappy marriages, and\\nFru Edgren contributed to increase their num-\\nber. In a play called True Women, she con-\\ntrasts the hard-working, wage-earning woman\\nwith the indolent, extravagant man; while she\\nseverely condemns the woman who so far lowers\\nherself as to love a husband who has been un-\\nfaithful to her. She is, in fact, so badly dis-\\nposed towards love that she allows an honest,\\nhard-working man, in the same piece, to be\\nrefused by an honest, hard-working woman, and\\nfor the simple reason that superior people must\\nno longer propose, nor allow others to propose\\nto them.\\nHer drama, How People do Good, is written\\nin the same mood. The Gauntlet and The\\nDoll s House have exerted such a great influ-\\nence over her that she has unconsciously quoted\\nwhole sentences. She has become no better than\\nthe ordinary platform woman; her former sense\\nand good taste are no longer to be observed in\\nher writings, and even socialism has a place in\\nher programme. This woman, who knows noth-\\ning of the proletarian, represents him in a melo-\\ndramatic manner, as she has done before with\\nthe son of the people. She travels about the\\ncountry and fights for her rights; she becomes a\\npropagandist.\\n14", "height": "3583", "width": "2035", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0231.jp2"}, "232": {"fulltext": "210 Six Modern Women\\nIt was at this time that the celebrated mathe-\\nmatician, Sonia Kovalevsky, was appointed to\\nthe high school at Stockholm at the instigation of\\nFru Edgren s brother, Professor Mittag-Leffler,\\nand the two women became the greatest of friends.\\nSonia Kovalevsky had practised the principles of\\nwomen s rights and asceticism in her own mar-\\nried life, and was now, after her husband had\\nshot himself, a widow.\\nShe was probably Bjornson s model in more\\nthan one of his books, and she combined Russian\\nfanaticism with the Russian capacity to please.\\nShe had not been long at Stockholm before\\nthe war broke loose. Strindberg raged against\\nwomen, ignoring Fru Edgren and others on the\\nplea that they could not be reckoned as women,\\nsince they had no children. Bjornson and Fru\\nEdgren were everywhere welcomed at women s\\nmeetings as the champions of women s rights.\\nFor four or five years Sonia Kovalevsky and Fru\\nEdgren were almost inseparable. Fru Edgren\\ntook back her maiden name of Leffler after her\\nseparation from her husband. The two friends\\nwere always travelling. They went to Norway,\\nFrance, England, etc., together, and Fru LefBer\\nwrote her longest novel, A Tale of Summer.\\nIt was the old problem of love and the artistic\\ntemperament. A highly gifted artist falls in\\nlove with a commonplace schoolmaster, she\\nnervous, refined, independent he young, big,\\nstrong, true-hearted, and very like a trusty New-", "height": "3538", "width": "2369", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0232.jp2"}, "233": {"fulltext": "The Woman s Rights Woman 211\\nfoundland dog. It does not answer. An artist\\nmust not marry, the most learned of Newfound-\\nland dogs cannot understand an artist, and yet\\nartists have a most unfortunate preference for\\nNewfoundland dogs.\\nThere was something in this novel that was\\nnot to be found in any of her earlier works, a\\nhasty, uneven beat of the pulse, something of the\\nfever of awakened passion.\\nSonia, meantime, was engaged with her work\\nfor the Prix Bordin; but she had scarcely begun\\nher studies before she left, them to devote herself\\nto a parallel romance, about which she was very\\nmuch excited. It was called The Struggle for\\nHappiness: How it Was, and How it Might\\nHave Been. She persuaded Fru Leffler to give\\nthis thought a dramatic setting, and she was very\\nanxious to have it published. It was nothing\\nmore or less than a hymn to love, which had fast\\nbegun to set flame to her ungovernable Russian\\nblood. Fru Leffler wrote the piece, but it proved\\nan utter failure.\\nOn her travels she made the acquaintance of\\nthe Duke of Cajanello, a mathematician, who was\\nprobably introduced to her by Sonia Kovalevsky.\\nHe was professor at the Lyceum at Naples, and\\nFru Leffler appears to have fallen suddenly and\\npassionately in love. Her last novel bears wit-\\nness to this fact like the former one, it treats of\\nLove and Womanhood, but here the proof of\\ntrue womanliness lies in the loving. She was", "height": "3551", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0233.jp2"}, "234": {"fulltext": "212 Six Modern Women\\ndivorced from her husband and went to Italy.\\nLiberty, love, and the South, all were hers at\\nlast.\\nShe had something else besides to satisfy her\\nambition as a society lady, when, in May, 1890,\\nshe became the Duchess of Cajanello. After her\\nmarriage she paid a visit to Stockholm with her\\nhusband, and every one thought that she looked\\nyounger, more gentle, more womanly, and happier\\nthan she had ever done before.\\nAfter the marriage, her friendship with Sonia\\nKovalevsky was at an end. The latter had not\\nfound happiness in loving, and she died in the\\nyear 1891.\\nThe Duchess of Cajanello lived at Naples, and\\nin her forty-third year she experienced for the\\nfirst time the happiness of becoming a mother.\\nWhen she died, the little duke was scarcely more\\nthan six months old. Up to the last few days of\\nher life, she was to all appearances happy and in\\ngood health. Her last work was the life of her\\nfriend Sonia Kovalevsky. In writing it she ful-\\nfilled the promise which they had made, that\\nwhichever of the two survived should write the\\nlife a living portrait it was to be of the other.\\nShe had just begun to correct the proofs before\\nshe died. On the last day before her illness, she\\nworked till three o clock in the afternoon at a\\nnovel called u A Narrow Horizon, which was left\\nunfinished. She died after a few days illness.", "height": "3541", "width": "2265", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0234.jp2"}, "235": {"fulltext": "The Woman s Rights Woman 213\\nFru Edgren-Leffler belonged to that class of\\nwomen whose senses slumber long because their\\nvital strength gives them the expectation of long\\nyouth. But when the day comes that they are\\nawakened, the same vitality that had kept them\\nasleep overflows with an intensity that attracts\\nlike a beacon on a dark night. It is the woman\\nwho attracts the man, not the reverse. Fru\\nEdgren-Leffler found in her fortieth year that\\nwhich she had sought for in vain in her twen-\\ntieth and thirtieth, love The unfruitful be-\\ncame fruitful; the emaciated became beautiful;\\nthe woman s rights woman sang a hymn to the\\nmystery of love and the last short years of hap-\\npiness, too soon interrupted by death, were a con-\\ntradiction to the long insipid period of literary\\nproduction.\\nTHE END", "height": "3548", "width": "2126", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0235.jp2"}, "236": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3489", "width": "2256", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0236.jp2"}, "237": {"fulltext": "The Keynotes Series.\\nI Smo. Cloth. Each volume with a Titlepage and\\nCover Design.\\nBy AUBREY BEARDSLEY.\\nPrice $1.00.\\nI. KEYNOTES. By George Egerton.\\nII. THE DANCING FATJN. By Florence Farr.\\nIII. POOR FOLK. By Fedor Dostoievsky. Translated\\nfrom the Russian by Lena Milman. With an Introduc-\\ntion by George Moore.\\nIV. A CHILD OF THE AGE. By Francis Adams.\\nV. THE GREAT GOD PAN AND THE INMOST LIGHT.\\nBy Arthur Machen.\\nVI. DISCORDS. By George Egerton.\\nVII. PRINCE ZALESKI. By M. P. Shiel.\\nVIII. THE WOMAN WHO DID. By Grant Allen.\\nIX. WOMEN S TRAGEDIES. By H. D. Lowry.\\nX. GREY ROSES AND OTHER STORIES. By Henry\\nHarland.\\nXI. AT THE FIRST CORNER AND OTHER STORIES. By\\nH. B. Marriott Watson.\\nXII. MONOCHROMES. By Ella D Arcy.\\nXIII. AT THE RELTON ARMS. By Evelyn Sharp.\\nXIV. THE GIRL FROM THE FARM. By Gertrude Dix.\\nXV. THE MIRROR OF MUSIC. By Stanley V. Makower.\\nXVI. YELLOW AND WHITE. By W. Carlton Dawe.\\nXVII. THE MOUNTAIN LOVERS. By Fiona Macleod.\\nXVIII. THE THREE IMPOSTORS. By Arthur Machen.\\nSold by all Booksellers. Mailed, postpaid, on receipt of price,\\nby the Publishers,\\nROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston, Mass.\\nJohn Lane, The Bodley Head, Vigo Street, London, W.", "height": "3527", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0237.jp2"}, "238": {"fulltext": "Messrs. Roberts Brothers Publications.\\n]foam of tbe Sea.\\nBy GERTRUDE HALL,\\nAuthor of Far from To-day, Allegretto, Verses, etc.\\n16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00.\\nMiss Gertrude Hall s second volume of short stories, Foam of the Sea and\\nOther Tales, shows the same characteristics as the first, which will be instantly\\nremembered under the title of Far from To-day. They are vigorous, fanciful, in\\npart quaint, always thought-stirring and thoughtful. She has followed old models\\nsomewhat in her style, and the setting of many of the tales is mediaeval. The\\natmosphere of them is fascinating, so unusual and so pervading is it and always\\nrefined are her stories, and graceful, even with an occasional touch of grotesquerie.\\nAnd there is an underlying subtleness in them, a grasp of the problems of the\\nheart and the head, in short, of life, which is remarkable and yet they, for the\\nmost part, are romantic to a high degree, and reveal an imagination far beyond\\nthe ordinary. Foam of the Sea, like Far from To-day, is a volume of rare\\ntales, beautifully wrought out of the past for the delectation of the present\\nOf the six tales in the volume, Powers of Darkness alone has a wholly nine-\\nteenth century flavor. It is a sermon told through two lives pathetically misera-\\nable. The Late Returning is dramatic and admirably turned, strong in its\\nheart analysis. Foam of the Sea is almost archaic in its rugged simplicity,\\nand Garden Deadly (the most imaginative of the six) is beautiful in its\\ndescriptions, weird in its setting, and curiously effective. The Wanderers is a\\ntouching tale of the early Christians, and In Battlereagh House there is the\\nbest character drawing.\\nMiss Hall is venturing along a unique line of story telling, and must win the\\npraise of the discriminating. The Boston Times.\\nThere is something in the quality of the six stories by Gertrude Hall in the\\nvolume to which this title is given which will attract attention. They are stories\\nwhich must some of them be read more than once to be appreciated. They\\nare fascinating in their subtlety of suggestion, in their keen analysis of motive,\\nand in their exquisite grace of diction. There is great dramatic power in\\nPowers of Darkness and In Battlereagh House. They are stories which\\nshould occupy more than the idle hour. They are studies. Boston Adver-\\ntiser.\\nShe possesses a curious originality, and, what does not always accompany this\\nrare faculty, skill in controlling it and compelling it to take artistic forms. Mail\\nand Express.\\nSold by all Booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price, by\\nthe Publishers,\\nROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston, Mass.", "height": "3540", "width": "2242", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0238.jp2"}, "239": {"fulltext": "Messrs. Roberts Brothers Publications.\\nFAR FROM TO-DAY.\\n21 Folume of Stories*\\nBY GERTRUDE HALL,\\n16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00.\\nTHESE stories are marked with originality and power. The titles\\nare as follows viz., Tristiane, The Sons of Philemon, Servirol,\\nSylvanus, Theodolind, Shepherds.\\nMiss Hall has put together here a set of gracefully written tales, tales of long\\nago. They have an old-world mediaeval feeling about them, soft with intervening\\ndistance, like the light upon some feudal castle wall, seen through the openings of\\nthe forest. A refined fancy and many an artistic touch has been spent upon the\\ncomposition with good result. London Bookseller.\\nAlthough these six stories are dreams of the misty past, their morals have a\\nmost direct bearing on the present. An author who has the soul to conceive such\\nstories is worthy to rank among the highest. One of our best literary critics, Mrs.\\nLouise Chandler Moulton, says I think it is a work of real genius, Homeric in\\nits simplicity, and beautiful exceedingly.\\nMrs. Harriet Prescott Spofford, in the Newburyport Herald:\\n11 A volume giving evidence of surprising genius is a collection of six tales by\\nGertrude Hall, called Far from To-day. I recall no stories at once so powerful and\\nsubtle as these. Their literary charm is complete, their range of learning is vast, and\\ntheir human interest is intense. Tristiane, the first one, is as brilliant and ingenious,\\nto say the least, as the best chapter of Arthur Hardy s Passe Rose Sylvanus\\ntells a heart-breaking tale, full of wild delight in hills and winds and skies, full of\\npathos and poetry; in The Sons of Philemon the Greek spirit is perfect, the\\nstory absolutely beautiful Theodolind, again, repeats the Norse life to the echo,\\neven to the very measure of the runes; and The Shepherds gives another reading\\nto the meaning of The Statue and the Bust. Portions of these stories are told\\nwith an almost archaic simplicity, while other portions mount on great wings of\\npoetry, Far from To-day, as the time of the stories is placed; the hearts that\\nbeat in them are the hearts of to-day, and each one of these stories breathes the joy\\nand the sorrow of life, and is rich with the beauty of the world.\\nFrom the London Academy, December 24th\\nThe six stories in the dainty volume entitled Far from To-day are of imagina-\\ntion all compact. The American short tales, which have of late attained a wide and\\ndeserved popularity in this country, have rot been lacking in this vitalizing quality;\\nbut the art of Mrs. Slosson and Miss Wilkins is that of imaginative realism, while\\nthat of Miss Gertrude Hall is that of imaginative romance; theirs is the work of\\nimpassioned observation, hers of impassioned invention. There is in her book a\\nfine, delicate fantasy that reminds one of Hawthorne in his sweetest moods; and\\nwhile Hawthorne had certain gifts which were all his own, the new writer ex-\\nhibits a certain winning tenderness in which he was generally deficient. In the\\ndomain of pure romance it is long since we have had anything so rich in simple\\nbeauty as is the work which is to be found between the covers of Far from\\nTo-day.\\nSold by all Booksellers. Mailed, postpaid, on receipt of price, by the\\nPublishers t\\nROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston, Mass", "height": "3526", "width": "2158", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0239.jp2"}, "240": {"fulltext": "THE WEDDING GARMENT,\\nCale of fyt life to QDome.\\nBY LOUIS PENDLETON.\\n16tno. Cloth, price, $1.00. White and gold, $1.25.\\nu The Wedding Garment tells the story of the continued existence of a young\\nman after his death or departure from the natural world. Awakening in the\\nother world, in an intermediate region between Heaven and Hell, where the\\ngood and the evil live together temporarily commingled, he is astonished and\\ndelighted to find himself the same man in all respects as to every characteristic ot\\nhis mind and ultimate of the body. So closely does everything about him\\nresemble the world he has left behind, that he believes he is still in the latter\\nuntil convinced of the error. The young man has good impulses, but is no saint,\\nand he listens to the persuasions of certain persons who were his friends in the\\nworld, but who are now numbered among the evil, even to the extent of following\\nthem downward to the very confines of Hell. Resisting at last and saving him-\\nself, later on, and after many remarkable experiences, he gradually makes his way\\nthrough the intermediate region to the gateways of Heaven, which can be found\\nonly by those prepared to enter, where he is left with the prospect before him\\nof a blessed eternity in the company of the woman he loves.\\nThe book is written in a reverential spirit, it is unique and quite unlike any\\nstory of the same type heretofore published, full of telling incidents and dramatic\\nsituations, and not merely a record of the doings of sexless shades but of\\nliving human beings.\\nThe one grand practical lesson which this book teaches, and which is in\\naccord with the divine Word and the New Church unfoldings of it everywhere\\nteach, is the need of an interior, true purpose in life. The deepest ruling pur-\\npose which we cherish, what we constantly strive for and determine to pursue as\\nthe most real and precious thing of life, that rules us everywhere, that is our ego,\\nour life, is what will have its way at last. It will at last break through all dis-\\nguise it will bring all external conduct into harmony with itself. If it be an\\nevil and selfish end, all external and fair moralties will melt away, and the man\\nwill lose his common sense and exhibit his insanities of opinion and will and\\nanswering deed on the surface. But if that end be good and innocent, and there\\nbe humility within, the outward disorders and evils which result from one s\\nheredity or surroundings will finally disappear. From Rev. John Goddard s\\ndiscourse, July i, 1894.\\nPutting aside the question as to whether the scheme of the soul s develop-\\nment after death was or was not revealed to Swedenborg, whether or not the\\ntitle of seer can be added to the claims of this learned student of science, all this\\nneed not interfere with the moral influence of this work, although the weight of\\nits instruction must be greatly enforced on the minds of those who believe in a\\nlater inspiration than the gospels.\\nThis story begins where others end the title of the first chapter, I Die,\\ncommands attention; the process of the soul s disenthralment is certainly in har-\\nmony with what we sometimes read in the dim eyes of friends we follow to the\\nvery gate of life. By what power does a single spark hold to life so long\\nthis lingering of the divine spark of life in a body growing cold? It is the\\nmission of the author to tear from Death its long-established thoughts of horror,\\nand upon its entrance into a new life, the soul possesses such a power of adjust-\\nment that no shock is experienced. Boston Transcript.\\nROBERTS BROTHERS, Publishers,\\nBOSTON, MASS", "height": "3522", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0240.jp2"}, "241": {"fulltext": "POOR FOLK.\\nTranslated from the Russian of Fedor Dostoievsky, by\\nLena Milman, with decorative titlepage and a criti-\\ncal introduction by George Moore. American\\nCopyright edition.\\n16 mo. Cloth. $1.00.\\nA capable critic writes One of the most beautiful, touching stories I have\\nread. The character of the old clerk is a masterpiece, a kind of Russian Charles\\nLamb. He reminds me, too, of Anatole France s Sylvestre Bonnard, but it\\nis a more poignant, moving figure- How wonderfully, too, the sad little strokes\\nof humor are blended into the pathos in his characterization, and how fascinating\\nall the naive self-revelations of his poverty become, all his many ups and downs\\nand hopes and fears. His unsuccessful visit to the money-lender, his despair at the\\noffice, unexpectedly ending in a sudden burst of good fortune, the final despair-\\ning cry of his love for Varvara, these hold one breathless One can hardly\\nread them without tears. But there is no need to say all that could be said\\nabout the book. It is enough to say that it is over powerful and beautiful.\\nWe are glad to welcome a good translation of the Russian Dostoievsky s\\nstory Poor Folk, Englished by Lena Milman. It is a tale of unrequited love,\\nconducted in the form of letters written between a poor clerk and his girl cousin\\nwhom he devotedly loves, and who finally leaves him to marry a man not admir-\\nable in character who, the reader feels, will not make her happy. The pathos of\\nthe book centres in the clerk, Makar s, unselfish affection and his heart-break at\\nbeing left lonesome by his charming kinswoman whose epistles have been his one\\nsolace. In the conductment of the story, realistic sketches of middle class Rus-\\nsian life are given, heightening the effect of the denoument. George Moore writes\\na sparkling introduction to the book. Hartford Courant.\\nDostoievsky is a great artist. Poor Folk is a great novel. Boston\\nAdvertiser.\\nIt is a most beautiful and touching story, and will linger in the mind long\\nafter the book is closed. The pathos is blended with touching bits of humor,\\nthat are even pathetic in themselves. Boston Times.\\nNotwithstanding that Poor Folk is told in that most exasperating and\\nentirely unreal style by letters it is complete in sequence, and the interest\\ndoes not flag as the various phases in the sordid life of the two characters are\\ndeveloped. The theme is intensely pathetic and truly human, while its treat-\\nment is exceedingly artistic. The translator, Lena Milman, seems to have well\\nirfeserved the spirit of the original Cambridge Tribune.\\nROBERTS BROTHERS, Publishers,\\nBOSTON, MASS.", "height": "3553", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0241.jp2"}, "242": {"fulltext": "Messrs. Roberts Brothers 1 Publications.\\nTHE WOMAN WHO DID.\\nBY GRANT ALLEN.\\nKeynotes Series, American Copyright Edition,\\n16mo. Cloth.. Price, $1.00.\\nA very remarkable story, which in a coarser hand than its refined and\\ngifted author could never have been effectively told for such a hand could\\nnot have sustained the purity of motive, nor have portrayed the noble,\\nirreproachable character of Herminia Barton. Boston Home Journal.\\nThe Woman Who Did is a remarkable and powerful story. It\\nincreases our respect for Mr. Allen s ability, nor do we feel inclined to join\\nin throwing stones at him as a perverter of our morals and our social insti-\\ntutions. However widely we may differ from Mr. Allen s views on many\\nimportant questions, we are bound to recognize his sincerity, and to re-\\nspect him accordingly. It is powerful and painful, but it is not convincing.\\nHerminia Barton is a woman whose nobleness both of mind and of life we\\nwillingly concede but as she is presented to us by Mr. Allen, there is un-\\nmistakably a flaw in her intellect. This in itself does not detract from\\nthe reality of the picture. The Speaker.\\nIn the work itself, every page, and in fact every line, contains outbursts\\nof intellectual passion that places this author among the giants of the\\nnineteenth century. American Newsman.\\nInteresting, and at times intense and powerful. Buffalo Commercial.\\nNo one can doubt the sincerity of the author. Woman s Journal.\\nThe story is a strong one, very strong, and teaches a lesson that no one\\nhas a right to step aside from the moral path laid out by religion, the law,\\nand society. Boston Times.\\nSold by all Booksellers. Mailed, postpaid, on receipt of price, by\\nthe Publishers,\\nROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston, Mass.", "height": "3537", "width": "2368", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0242.jp2"}, "243": {"fulltext": "Messrs. Roberts Brothers Publications.\\nDISCORDS.\\nVolume of Stories.\\nBy GEORGE EGERTON, author of Keynotes.\\nAMERICAN COPYRIGHT EDITION.\\ni6mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00.\\nGeorge Egerton s new volume entitled Discords, a collection of short stones,\\nIs more talked about, just now, than any other fiction- of the day. The collection is\\nreally stories for story- writers. They are precisely the quality which literary folk will\\nwrangle over. Harold Frederic cables from London to the New York Times that\\nthe book is making a profound impression there. It is published on both sides, the\\nRoberts House bringing it out in Boston. George Egerton, like George Eliot and\\nGeorge Sand, is a woman s nom de plume. The extraordinary frankness with which\\nlife in general is discussed in these stories not unnaturally arrests attention.\\nLilian lVhiting.\\nThe English woman, known as yet only by the name of George Egerton, who\\nmade something of a stir in the world by a volume of strong stories called Keynotes,\\nhas brought out a new book under the rather uncomfortable title of Discords.\\nThese stories show us pessimism run wild the gloomy things that can happen to a\\nhuman being are so dwelt upon as to leave the impression that in the author s owr\\nworld there is no light. The relations of the sexes are treated of in bitter irony, which\\ndevelops into actual horror as the pages pass. But in all this there is a rugged\\ngrandeur of style, a keen analysis of motive, and a deepness of pathos that stamp\\nGeorge Egerton as one of the greatest women writers of the day. Discords has\\nbeen called a volume of stories it is a misnomer, for the book contains merely varying\\nepisodes in lives of men and women, with no plot, no beginning nor ending. \u00e2\u0080\u0094Boston\\nTraveller.\\nThis is a new volume of psychological stories from the pen and brains of George\\nEgerton, the author of Keynotes. Evidently the titles of the author s books are\\nselected according to musical principles. The first story in the book is A Psycho,\\nlogical Moment at Three Periods. It is all strength rather than sentiment. The\\nstory of the child, of the girl, and of the woman is told, and told by one to whom the\\n\u00e2\u0080\u00a2mysteries of the life of each are familiarly known. In their verv truth, as the writer\\nhas so subtly analyzed her triple characters, they sadden one to think that such things\\nmust be yet as they are real, they are bound to be disclosed by somebody and in due\\ntime. The author betrays remarkable penetrative skill and perception, and dissects\\nthe human heart with a power from whose demonstration the sensitive nature ma\\ninstinctively shrink even while fascinated with the narration and hypnotized by the\\ntreatment exhibited. Courier.\\nSold by all Booksellers. Mailed by Publishers,\\nROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston, Mass.", "height": "3550", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0243.jp2"}, "244": {"fulltext": "Messrs. Roberts Brothers Publications.\\n2M3ac in \u00e2\u0082\u00acngli\u00c2\u00a3f\\nMemoirs of Two Young Married Women.\\nBy Honore de Balzac.\\nTranslated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley. 12 mo.\\nHalf Russia. Price, $1.50.\\nThere are, says Henry James in one of his essays, two writers In\\nBalzac, the spontaneous one and the reflective one, the former of\\nwhich is much the more delightful, while the latter is the more extraordi-\\nnary. It is the reflective Balzac, the Balzac with a theory, whom we\\nget in the Deux Jeunes Mariees, now translated by Miss Wormeley\\nunder the title of Memoirs of Two Young Married Women. The\\ntheory of Balzac is that the marriage of convenience, properly regarded,\\nis far preferable to the marriage simply from love, and he undertakes to\\nprove this proposition by contrasting the careers of two young girls who\\nhave been fellow-students at a convent. One of them, the ardent and\\npassionate Louise de Chaulieu, has an intrigue with a Spanish refugee,\\nfinally marries him, kills him, as she herself confesses, by her perpetual\\njealousy and exaction, mourns his loss bitterly, then marries a golden-\\nhaired youth, lives with him in a dream of ecstasy for a year or so, and\\nthis time kills herself through jealousy wrongfully inspired. As for hel\\nfriend, Renee de Maucombe, she dutifully makes a marriage to please her\\nparents, calculates coolly beforehand how many children she will have and\\nhow they shall be trained; insists, however, that the marriage shall be\\nmerely a civil contract till she and her husband find that their hearts are\\nindeed one; and sees all her brightest visions realized, her Louis an\\nambitious man for her sake and her children truly adorable creatures.\\nThe siory, which is told in the form of letters, fairly scintillates with\\nbrilliant sayings, and is filled with eloquent discourses concerning the\\nnature of love, conjugal and otherwise. Louise and Renee are both\\nextremely sophisticated young women, even in their teens and those\\nwho expect to find in their letters the demure innocence of the Anglo-\\nSaxon type will be somewhat astonished. The translation, under the\\ncircumstances, was rather a daring attempt, but it has been most felicit-\\nously done. The Beacon.\\nSold by all booksellers. Mailed, postpaid, on receipt of\\nprice by the Publishers,\\nROBERTS BROTHERS. Boston Mass.", "height": "3537", "width": "2238", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0244.jp2"}, "245": {"fulltext": "Messrs. Roberts Brothers Publications,\\nGEORGE SAND IN ENGLISH,\\nNANON.\\nTranslated by ELIZABETH WORMELEY LATIMER.\\nIt is, I think, one of the prettiest and most carefully constructed of her later\\nworks, and the best view of the French Revolution from a rural point of view that\\nI know. Translator.\\nNanon is a pure romance, chaste in style and with a charm of sentiment\\nwell calculated to appeal to the most thoughtful reader. George Sand has chosen\\nthe epoch of the French Revolution as the scene of this last theme from her pro-\\nlific pen, and she invests the time with all the terrible significance that belongs to\\nit. To the literary world nothing that comes from her pen is unwelcome, the more\\nso as in this instance there is not the least trace of that risky freedom of speech\\nthat too often disfigures the best work of the French school of fiction. Nanon\\nwill be read with an appreciation of the gifted novelist that is by no means new,\\nand her claim to recognition is made stronger and better by this masterly work.\\nHer admirers and they will be sure not to miss Nanon will feel a debt of\\ngratitude to Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer for a translation that preserves so well\\nthe clear, flowing style and the lofty thoughts of the original and the publishers,\\nno less than the reading public, ought to consider themselves fortunate in the\\nchoice of so competent a translator. The A merican Hebrew.\\nThis is among the finest of George Sand s romances, and one who has not\\nmade acquaintance with her works would do well to choose it as the introductory\\nvolume. It belongs in the list of the best works of that remarkable author, and\\ncontains nothing that is objectionable or at all questionable in its moral tone. The\\nscenes are laid among the peasantry of France simple-hearted, plodding, honest\\npeople, who know little or nothing of the causes which are fomenting to bring\\nabout the French Revolution. She portrays in clear and forcible language the\\ndestitute condition of the rural districts, whose people were ignorant, priest-ridden,\\nand oppressed and she shows the wretchedness and misery that these poor people\\nwere compelled to endure during the progress of the Revolution. The book is one\\nof her masterpieces, by reason of the exquisite delineations of character, the keen\\nand philosophical thought, the purity of inspiration, and the delicacy and refine-\\nment of style Throughout the story there is a freshness and vigor which only\\none can feel who has lived at some time in close intimacy with fields and woods,\\nand become familiar with the forms, the colors, and the sounds of Nature. The\\nbook has been translated by Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer, who has performed her\\ntask admirably. Public Opinion.\\nMrs. Latimer has achieved marked success in the translation of this charming\\ntale, preserving its purity, its simplicity, and its pastoral beauty. Christian\\nUnion.\\nOne volume, i2mo, half Russia, uniform with our edition of Balzac\\nand Sand novels. Price, $1.50.\\nROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston.", "height": "3545", "width": "2224", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0245.jp2"}, "246": {"fulltext": "A. Beautiful Betrothal and Wedding Gift.\\nTHE\\nLover s Year-Book of Poetry.\\nA Collection of Love Poems for Every Day in the Year,\\nBy HORACE P. CHANDLER.\\nFirst Series. Vol. I. January to June. Bicolor, $1.25 white and gold,\\n$1.50. Vol. II. July to December. Bicolor, $1.25 white and gold, $1.50.\\nSecond Series. Vol. I. January to June. Bicolor, $1.25; white and gold,\\n$1.50. Vol. II. July to December. Bicolor, $1.25 white and gold, $1.50.\\nThe Poems in the First Series touch upon Love prior to Marriage those\\nin the Second Series are of Married-Life and Child-Life.\\nThese two beautiful volumes, clad in the white garb which is emblematic of\\nthe purity of married love as well as the innocence of childhood, make up a series\\nunique in its plan and almost perfect in jts carrying out. It would be impossible\\nto specify any particular poems of the collection for special praise. They have\\nbeen selected with unerring taste and judgment, and include some of the most\\nexquisite poems in the language. Altogether the four volumes make up a\\ntreasure-house of Love poetry unexcelled for sweetness and purity of expression.\\nTranscript, Boston.\\nMr. Chandler has drawn from many and diverse wells of English poetry of\\nLove, as the list for any month shows. The poetry of passion is not here, but\\nthere are many strains of Love such as faithful lovers feel. Literary World,\\nBoston.\\nWe do not hesitate to pronounce it a collection of extraordinary freshness and\\nmerit. It is not in hackneyed rhymes that his lovers converse, but in fresh\\nmetres from the unfailing; fountains. hidependent, New York.\\nMr. Chandler is catholic in his tastes, and no author of repute has been\\nomitted who could give variety or strength to the work. The children have never\\nbeen reached in verse in a more comprehensive and connected manner than they\\nare in this book. Gazette, Boston.\\nA very dainty and altogether bewitching little anthology. For each day in\\neach month of two years (each series covering a year) a poem is given celebrating\\nthe emotions that beset the heart of the true lover. The editor has shown his\\nexquisite taste in selection, and his wide and varied knowledge of the literature of\\nEnglish and American poetry. Every poem in these books is a perfect gem of\\nsentiment; either tender, playful, reproachful, or supplicatory in its meaning;\\nthere is not a sonnet nor a lyric that one could wish away. Beacon, Boston.\\nThe selections, says Louise Chandler Moulton, given us are nearly all\\ninteresting, and some of them are not only charming but unhackneyed.\\nHerald, Boston.\\nA collection of Love poems selected with exquisite judgment from the best\\nknowp English and American poets of the last three centuries, with a few trans-\\nlations. Home Journal, Boston.\\nThere are many beautiful poems gathered into this treasure-house, and so\\ngreat is the variety which has been given to the whole that the monotony which\\nwould seem to be the necessary accompaniment of the choice of a single theme\\nis overcome. Courier, Boston.\\nThe selections are not fragments, but are for the most part complete poems\\nNearly every one of the poems is a literary gem, and they represent nearly all\\nthe famous names in poetry. Daily Advertiser, Boston.\\nSelected with great taste and judgment from a wide variety of sources, and\\nproviding a body of verse of the highest order. Commercial Advertiser,\\nBuffalo.\\nSold by all booksellers. Mailed on receipt of price, post-\\npaid, by the publishers,\\nROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston, Mass.", "height": "3540", "width": "2366", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0246.jp2"}, "247": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3549", "width": "2065", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0247.jp2"}, "248": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3545", "width": "2260", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0248.jp2"}, "249": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3535", "width": "2181", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0249.jp2"}, "250": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3621", "width": "2321", "jp2-path": "sixmodernwomenps00hans_0250.jp2"}}