There is something raw in William Dean Howells’ novel of 19th century New York City life, the feel of a work handbuilt out of new materials. Perhaps the reader is observing the American novel of manners under construction. It’s not an entirely unpleasant experience, but one feels often the tentative character of the writing, the striving toward something that will be worthy of its European predecessors, yet will stand stoutly, independently, as a representative work for the developing land of America.
Most enjoyably, one feels the fresh air blown in with writing that is developing along with the yet new country of Howells’ day. Less enjoyably, one winces at the mannered naivete, the struggle to create a work of proportion and substance, and the author’s discomfort with a society whose culture is perhaps not yet worthy of the “high sentence” he wants to accord it.
Perhaps not surprisingly then, it is the social interactions among Howells’ characters that feel most stilted. While a competent painter of his characters’ interior lives, he often falls short of the mark when trying to create believable dialogue. See, for example, this interchange between Miss Vance and the painter Beaton, as they discuss newcomers to New York City:
‘Oh yes,’ said Miss Vance, fashionably, and looked down; then she looked up and said, intellectually: ‘Don’t you think it’s a great pity? How much better for them to have staid where they were and what they were!’
‘Then you could never have had any chance of meeting them,’ said Beaton. ‘I don’t suppose you intend to go out to the gas country?’
‘No,’ said Miss Vance, amused. ‘Not that I shouldn’t like to go.’
‘What a daring spirit! You ought to be on the staff of Every Other Week,’ said Beaton.[A Hazard of New Fortunes, Modern Library Classic edition, p. 177]
Such dialogue, not only woodenly uninspired but unbelievable, is common in AHoNF; this excerpt also demonstrates a lack of finish which is often found in Howells’ writing: who knows after all, what it means to speak either “fashionably” or “intellectually,” or, for that matter, what it would contribute to our appreciation of this interaction between Miss Vance and Beaton if we did know.