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A Modern Instance
A Modern Instance is regarded as one of the most pivotal works in the career of William Dean Howells; it solidified his reputation as a champion of realism in the United States. The novel is about the deterioration of a once loving marriage under the influence of capitalistic greed. It is the first American novel by a canonical author to seriously consider divorce as a realistic outcome of marriage. The story chronicles the rise and fall of the romance between Bartley Hubbard and Marcia Gaylord, who migrate from Equity, Maine, to Boston, Massachusetts, following their marriage.William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American realist author, literary critic, and playwright. Nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters", he was particularly known for his tenure as editor of the Atlantic Monthly as well as his own prolific writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day", and the novels The Rise of Silas Lapham and A Traveler from Altruria. Howells is known to be the father of American realism, and a denouncer of the sentimental novel. He was the first American author to bring a realist aesthetic to the literature of the United States. His stories of Boston upper crust life set in the 1850s are highly regarded among scholars of American fiction.
338 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1882
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760 people want to read
About the author
William Dean Howells
1,183 books101 followersWillam Dean Howells (1837-1920) was a novelist, short story writer, magazine editor, and mentor who wrote for various magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly and Harper's Magazine.
In January 1866 James Fields offered him the assistant editor role at the Atlantic Monthly. Howells accepted after successfully negotiating for a higher salary, but was frustrated by Fields's close supervision. Howells was made editor in 1871, remaining in the position until 1881.
In 1869 he first met Mark Twain, which began a longtime friendship. Even more important for the development of his literary style — his advocacy of Realism — was his relationship with the journalist Jonathan Baxter Harrison, who during the 1870s wrote a series of articles for the Atlantic Monthly on the lives of ordinary Americans.
He wrote his first novel, Their Wedding Journey, in 1872, but his literary reputation took off with the realist novel A Modern Instance, published in 1882, which described the decay of a marriage. His 1885 novel The Rise of Silas Lapham is perhaps his best known, describing the rise and fall of an American entrepreneur of the paint business. His social views were also strongly represented in the novels Annie Kilburn (1888), A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890), and An Imperative Duty (1892). He was particularly outraged by the trials resulting from the Haymarket Riot.
His poems were collected during 1873 and 1886, and a volume under the title Stops of Various Quills was published during 1895. He was the initiator of the school of American realists who derived, through the Russians, from Balzac and had little sympathy with any other type of fiction, although he frequently encouraged new writers in whom he discovered new ideas.
Howells also wrote plays, criticism, and essays about contemporary literary figures such as Henrik Ibsen, Émile Zola, Giovanni Verga, Benito Pérez Galdós, and, especially, Leo Tolstoy, which helped establish their reputations in the United States. He also wrote critically in support of American writers Hamlin Garland, Stephen Crane, Emily Dickinson, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Sarah Orne Jewett, Charles W. Chesnutt, Abraham Cahan, Madison Cawein,and Frank Norris. It is perhaps in this role that he had his greatest influence. In his "Editor's Study" column at the Atlantic Monthly and, later, at Harper's, he formulated and disseminated his theories of "realism" in literature.
In 1904 he was one of the first seven people chosen for membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, of which he became president.
Howells died in Manhattan on May 11, 1920. He was buried in Cambridge Cemetery in Massachusetts.
Noting the "documentary" and truthful value of Howells' work, Henry James wrote: "Stroke by stroke and book by book your work was to become, for this exquisite notation of our whole democratic light and shade and give and take, in the highest degree documentary."
In January 1866 James Fields offered him the assistant editor role at the Atlantic Monthly. Howells accepted after successfully negotiating for a higher salary, but was frustrated by Fields's close supervision. Howells was made editor in 1871, remaining in the position until 1881.
In 1869 he first met Mark Twain, which began a longtime friendship. Even more important for the development of his literary style — his advocacy of Realism — was his relationship with the journalist Jonathan Baxter Harrison, who during the 1870s wrote a series of articles for the Atlantic Monthly on the lives of ordinary Americans.
He wrote his first novel, Their Wedding Journey, in 1872, but his literary reputation took off with the realist novel A Modern Instance, published in 1882, which described the decay of a marriage. His 1885 novel The Rise of Silas Lapham is perhaps his best known, describing the rise and fall of an American entrepreneur of the paint business. His social views were also strongly represented in the novels Annie Kilburn (1888), A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890), and An Imperative Duty (1892). He was particularly outraged by the trials resulting from the Haymarket Riot.
His poems were collected during 1873 and 1886, and a volume under the title Stops of Various Quills was published during 1895. He was the initiator of the school of American realists who derived, through the Russians, from Balzac and had little sympathy with any other type of fiction, although he frequently encouraged new writers in whom he discovered new ideas.
Howells also wrote plays, criticism, and essays about contemporary literary figures such as Henrik Ibsen, Émile Zola, Giovanni Verga, Benito Pérez Galdós, and, especially, Leo Tolstoy, which helped establish their reputations in the United States. He also wrote critically in support of American writers Hamlin Garland, Stephen Crane, Emily Dickinson, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Sarah Orne Jewett, Charles W. Chesnutt, Abraham Cahan, Madison Cawein,and Frank Norris. It is perhaps in this role that he had his greatest influence. In his "Editor's Study" column at the Atlantic Monthly and, later, at Harper's, he formulated and disseminated his theories of "realism" in literature.
In 1904 he was one of the first seven people chosen for membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, of which he became president.
Howells died in Manhattan on May 11, 1920. He was buried in Cambridge Cemetery in Massachusetts.
Noting the "documentary" and truthful value of Howells' work, Henry James wrote: "Stroke by stroke and book by book your work was to become, for this exquisite notation of our whole democratic light and shade and give and take, in the highest degree documentary."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
January 5, 2020
The GR description fails to place this novel in context, in my opinion. The “capitalist greed” referenced is so little of what occurs that it surprises me it is even mentioned. Yes, Bartley Hubbard wants to get ahead, but don’t we all? It isn’t as if he’s ever going to be filthy rich. He has decided the newspaper business suits him better than the law. If he were planning to be wealthy, he would have chosen the law.
In other places we are told of Bartley Hubbard’s corruption. That, too, fails the context. Oh, do not think I am exonerating Bartley, but he wasn’t nearly as awful as I think some descriptions/reviewers would have you think. It would be a kindness for me to call his wife Marcia a jealous shrew. I think I never read of any one character jump to so many erroneous conclusions and then blame someone else for her trouble. Supposedly she loves Bartley to distraction, but, if so, Howells forgot to write that part for her. (Perhaps he thought he *was* writing that part, it’s just not how I think love actually behaves.) Bartley, despite all, was very patient with her. Until he ran out of patience.
Howells is of the group of realism authors as are Trollope and Balzac and probably a few others that don’t come immediately to mind. They appeal to me. It seems it has been easy for me to let them slip by in favor of 20th Century authors, but each time I go back to them I wonder what kept me so long. Still, if this breaks the 4-/5-star line it just barely does so.
In other places we are told of Bartley Hubbard’s corruption. That, too, fails the context. Oh, do not think I am exonerating Bartley, but he wasn’t nearly as awful as I think some descriptions/reviewers would have you think. It would be a kindness for me to call his wife Marcia a jealous shrew. I think I never read of any one character jump to so many erroneous conclusions and then blame someone else for her trouble. Supposedly she loves Bartley to distraction, but, if so, Howells forgot to write that part for her. (Perhaps he thought he *was* writing that part, it’s just not how I think love actually behaves.) Bartley, despite all, was very patient with her. Until he ran out of patience.
Howells is of the group of realism authors as are Trollope and Balzac and probably a few others that don’t come immediately to mind. They appeal to me. It seems it has been easy for me to let them slip by in favor of 20th Century authors, but each time I go back to them I wonder what kept me so long. Still, if this breaks the 4-/5-star line it just barely does so.
March 4, 2012
A solid read. I enjoyed it. I think it accurately describes both the mechanics and the ethos of American journalism. To wit: Bartley Hubbard, a newspaperman blessed with "no more moral nature than a baseball," serves as the prototype of the glib and smiling journalist familiar to the audiences of Nightline or Washington Week.
February 4, 2018
Hick Duo Go Splitsville in Beantown
Since reading this novel first back in 1997, I've always felt that it has one of the most unattractive titles of any book I know. On re-reading it, I still think so. This should not put readers off, however, because behind that bland, unimaginative moniker, which reflected some long-since faded thoughts by the author, you will find a fascinating study of divorce in the 19th century, in a society that condemned it. Sixty five years ago I can remember my own mother whispering the word "divorced" when speaking about a couple no longer together---it was too shameful to say out loud. Yeah, well, times have changed. But what about the mid-1870s ? Howells carefully draws the picture in his usual, nuanced style.
A handsome, but shallow youth, Bartley Hubbard, flirts with Marcia Gaylord in a small Maine town. We can see their union is ill-fated right from the start, her family opposes it (he seems to have no relatives), but Marcia burns for Bartley. They marry surreptitiously and head for Boston where Bartley gets a foothold in the newspaper world. He mouths idealistic pap like "I hope I shall never do anything unworthy of your idea." but basically he has no moral framework in his character; he's selfish, facile, opportunistic, and self-indulgent. Marcia, though beautiful, is ignorant, self-centered, and very jealous. Howells emphasizes their lack of religion as a key to their deficiencies. As the marriage falls apart, we turn more and more to other characters, all in the higher levels of Boston society, who have the moral fiber that the Hubbards do not. Ben Halleck, Bartley's ex-friend, wrestles with his conscience over his secret love for Marcia as he sees her suffer over Bartley's abandonment of her. In very 19th century style, he worships her "as a woman whose constancy to her mistake" makes her sacred. He suppresses all his desires, even disappearing to Uruguay for two years, but merely thinking of another man's wife, albeit a desperately unhappy one, is utterly beyond the pale. He castigates himself unmercifully and winds up a penitent minister. But A MODERN INSTANCE is not a simple melodrama---it is a complex mix of personalities. There are no simple answers---isn't it easy to be upright when you are financially secure ?---and the end is indefinite. Though Hubbard is used as an example of moral decay, a man without firm principles and moral rectitude, he is still the most vivid, most realistic character. He is a likeable scamp, no matter how he is villified by the Boston society people.
The values that people live by in Boston circa 1875 are far from those we know today. They agonize about things that would not give us much pause. They emote on "civilization" because they, like Howells, could not imagine the horrors of the 20th century. Thus, in a sense, Howells' novel is passé. Yet, his conversations, his picture of relationships, his description of the times, and even of nature are excellent. For example the vivid logging camp scenes (pp.79-97)are pure genius. You feel that you know that time and place by the end. Even if there are certain melodramatic twists and turns in the novel, and even if the last 90 pages drag a little, I would certainly recommend that you read A MODERN INSTANCE if you have any interest at all in American literature. It is a startlingly powerful book whose characters will stay with you.
Since reading this novel first back in 1997, I've always felt that it has one of the most unattractive titles of any book I know. On re-reading it, I still think so. This should not put readers off, however, because behind that bland, unimaginative moniker, which reflected some long-since faded thoughts by the author, you will find a fascinating study of divorce in the 19th century, in a society that condemned it. Sixty five years ago I can remember my own mother whispering the word "divorced" when speaking about a couple no longer together---it was too shameful to say out loud. Yeah, well, times have changed. But what about the mid-1870s ? Howells carefully draws the picture in his usual, nuanced style.
A handsome, but shallow youth, Bartley Hubbard, flirts with Marcia Gaylord in a small Maine town. We can see their union is ill-fated right from the start, her family opposes it (he seems to have no relatives), but Marcia burns for Bartley. They marry surreptitiously and head for Boston where Bartley gets a foothold in the newspaper world. He mouths idealistic pap like "I hope I shall never do anything unworthy of your idea." but basically he has no moral framework in his character; he's selfish, facile, opportunistic, and self-indulgent. Marcia, though beautiful, is ignorant, self-centered, and very jealous. Howells emphasizes their lack of religion as a key to their deficiencies. As the marriage falls apart, we turn more and more to other characters, all in the higher levels of Boston society, who have the moral fiber that the Hubbards do not. Ben Halleck, Bartley's ex-friend, wrestles with his conscience over his secret love for Marcia as he sees her suffer over Bartley's abandonment of her. In very 19th century style, he worships her "as a woman whose constancy to her mistake" makes her sacred. He suppresses all his desires, even disappearing to Uruguay for two years, but merely thinking of another man's wife, albeit a desperately unhappy one, is utterly beyond the pale. He castigates himself unmercifully and winds up a penitent minister. But A MODERN INSTANCE is not a simple melodrama---it is a complex mix of personalities. There are no simple answers---isn't it easy to be upright when you are financially secure ?---and the end is indefinite. Though Hubbard is used as an example of moral decay, a man without firm principles and moral rectitude, he is still the most vivid, most realistic character. He is a likeable scamp, no matter how he is villified by the Boston society people.
The values that people live by in Boston circa 1875 are far from those we know today. They agonize about things that would not give us much pause. They emote on "civilization" because they, like Howells, could not imagine the horrors of the 20th century. Thus, in a sense, Howells' novel is passé. Yet, his conversations, his picture of relationships, his description of the times, and even of nature are excellent. For example the vivid logging camp scenes (pp.79-97)are pure genius. You feel that you know that time and place by the end. Even if there are certain melodramatic twists and turns in the novel, and even if the last 90 pages drag a little, I would certainly recommend that you read A MODERN INSTANCE if you have any interest at all in American literature. It is a startlingly powerful book whose characters will stay with you.
January 22, 2020
"A Modern Instance" is a novel written by William D. Howells. The novel was serialized in Century Magazine in eleven installments between December 1881 and October 1882; it was published in book form in Boston by James R. Osgood and Company in October 1882. Howells got the idea for the novel after he saw a performance of "Medea" in Boston in 1875. When he witnessed on the stage the recreation of Medea's love for Jason, her husband who betrays her, and how her love changes to hatred, as Howells himself said, "the novel was born." Up until the time of publication Howells continued to refer to his work in progress as The New Medea. Howells considered "A Modern Instance"his finest novel.
The novel begins in the village of Equity, Maine. A village where:
" winter was full half the year. The snow began at Thanksgiving, and fell snow upon snow till Fast Day, thawing between the storms, and packing harder and harder against the break-up in the spring, when it covered the ground in solid levels three feet high, and lay heaped in drifts, that defied the sun far into May."
The villagers are called "captives of winter"and watch out their windows where "every movement on the street was precious to them."In this first page the "movement" happens to be our hero and heroine Bartley Hubbard and Marcia Gaylord going down the street in a cutter, "gay with red-lined robes". Bartley takes Marcia to the church socialble, and he brings her back to her father's house in the "moonlight silence." We are told about Marcia that:
"her beauty was of the kind that coming years would only ripen and enrich; at thirty she would be even handsomer than at twenty..."
Marcia is the daughter of Squire and Mrs. Gaylord. The Squire is the town lawyer and his wife seldom went out of her own door. Marcia is the apple of her father's eye and he has spoiled her.
Bartley is the editor of the Equity Free Press. Bartley's life had been quite different from Marcia's life. He was an orphan, dependent on his own exertions for a livelihood, he had entered college with difficulty, and with heavy conditions. We are told that:
" The fact of his smartness had been affirmed and established in the strongest manner by the authorities of the college at which he was graduated..." however; "One, indeed, still felt it a duty to call attention to the fact that the college authorities said nothing of the young man's moral characteristics in a letter dwelling so largely upon his intellectual qualifications."
This is one early clue as to Bartley's true character.
It is quickly obvious that Marcia is madly in love (or thinks she is) with Bartley, and Bartley is definitely not in love with Marcia, although he is fond of her. He seems to be fond of women in general though, and Marcia is extremely jealous of them all. Bartley's feelings towards Marcia are given here;
"Bartley was still free as air; but if he could once make up his mind to settle down in a hole like Equity, he could have her by turning his hand."
Although it seems to me that this relationship can go absolutely no where, Marcia and Bartley do become engaged at which time "The house seemed too little for Marcia's happiness."However, almost immediately something goes wrong when Bartley and his assistant have a fight over one of the office girls, Hannah Morrison, and Bartley's assistant is seriously injured. Marcia when she finds out breaks the engagement, not because of his violence, but because of Hannah. Because of this Bartley is asked to leave the newspaper, and he leaves town.
However, Marcia finds that she cannot live without Bartley, and even though she is hurt because of the other girl, she leaves her home and follows Bartley. They marry and continue on to Boston. I wonder if their marriage would have run more smooth from this point if they would have remained in Equity, but they aren't in Equity and I doubt it would have helped. From this point on the book centers on the quarrels and reconciliations of this couple, and there are alot of them. Marcia is so absorbed in Bartley that it is annoying, if not for him, it is for the rest of us. She is extremely jealous and just a woman talking to Bartley throws her into a rage.
Sometimes during the novel you feel as if Bartley is a great criminal, as low as you could ever be; but really he isn't. He is just too handsome, too shallow, and way, way too selfish. But there was good in him, it seems as if he was really a good natured man; if he would have had the right influences in his life things may have turned out differently. However, as the book goes on he falls lower and lower, Marcia is absolutely no help; she seems to spend her time either gazing at Bartley with admiration and devotion in her eyes hanging on his every word, or slamming doors and locking them because she saw another woman speak to him at a party.
Here are some of the most memorable lines for me anyway:
"He still clung to his old-fashioned deistical opinions; but he thought no worse of a man for not holding them; he did not deny that a man might be a Christian, and still be a very good man."
"Well, I shouldn't begin to plough for corn just yet," replied Kinney. "It's curious," he went on, "to see how anxious we are to have a thing over, it don't much matter what it is, whether it's summer or winter. I suppose we'd feel different if we wa'n't sure there was going to be another of 'em. I guess that's one reason why the Lord concluded not to keep us clearly posted on the question of another life. If it wa'n't for the uncertainty of the thing, there are a lot of fellows like you that wouldn't stand it here a minute. Why, if we had a dead sure thing of over-the-river,--good climate, plenty to eat and wear, and not much to do,--I don't believe any of us would keep Darling Minnie waiting,--well, a _great_ while"
"But he was restored to reason when the composer sat down at the piano and played, amid the hush that falls on society at such times, something from Beethoven, and again something of his own, which was so like Beethoven that Beethoven himself would not have known the difference.."
"Halleck turned. "What could be a worse hell than marriage without love?" he demanded, fiercely.
"Love without marriage," said Atherton".
I liked the book, I'll read it again someday. For me it was definitely a four star novel.
The novel begins in the village of Equity, Maine. A village where:
" winter was full half the year. The snow began at Thanksgiving, and fell snow upon snow till Fast Day, thawing between the storms, and packing harder and harder against the break-up in the spring, when it covered the ground in solid levels three feet high, and lay heaped in drifts, that defied the sun far into May."
The villagers are called "captives of winter"and watch out their windows where "every movement on the street was precious to them."In this first page the "movement" happens to be our hero and heroine Bartley Hubbard and Marcia Gaylord going down the street in a cutter, "gay with red-lined robes". Bartley takes Marcia to the church socialble, and he brings her back to her father's house in the "moonlight silence." We are told about Marcia that:
"her beauty was of the kind that coming years would only ripen and enrich; at thirty she would be even handsomer than at twenty..."
Marcia is the daughter of Squire and Mrs. Gaylord. The Squire is the town lawyer and his wife seldom went out of her own door. Marcia is the apple of her father's eye and he has spoiled her.
Bartley is the editor of the Equity Free Press. Bartley's life had been quite different from Marcia's life. He was an orphan, dependent on his own exertions for a livelihood, he had entered college with difficulty, and with heavy conditions. We are told that:
" The fact of his smartness had been affirmed and established in the strongest manner by the authorities of the college at which he was graduated..." however; "One, indeed, still felt it a duty to call attention to the fact that the college authorities said nothing of the young man's moral characteristics in a letter dwelling so largely upon his intellectual qualifications."
This is one early clue as to Bartley's true character.
It is quickly obvious that Marcia is madly in love (or thinks she is) with Bartley, and Bartley is definitely not in love with Marcia, although he is fond of her. He seems to be fond of women in general though, and Marcia is extremely jealous of them all. Bartley's feelings towards Marcia are given here;
"Bartley was still free as air; but if he could once make up his mind to settle down in a hole like Equity, he could have her by turning his hand."
Although it seems to me that this relationship can go absolutely no where, Marcia and Bartley do become engaged at which time "The house seemed too little for Marcia's happiness."However, almost immediately something goes wrong when Bartley and his assistant have a fight over one of the office girls, Hannah Morrison, and Bartley's assistant is seriously injured. Marcia when she finds out breaks the engagement, not because of his violence, but because of Hannah. Because of this Bartley is asked to leave the newspaper, and he leaves town.
However, Marcia finds that she cannot live without Bartley, and even though she is hurt because of the other girl, she leaves her home and follows Bartley. They marry and continue on to Boston. I wonder if their marriage would have run more smooth from this point if they would have remained in Equity, but they aren't in Equity and I doubt it would have helped. From this point on the book centers on the quarrels and reconciliations of this couple, and there are alot of them. Marcia is so absorbed in Bartley that it is annoying, if not for him, it is for the rest of us. She is extremely jealous and just a woman talking to Bartley throws her into a rage.
Sometimes during the novel you feel as if Bartley is a great criminal, as low as you could ever be; but really he isn't. He is just too handsome, too shallow, and way, way too selfish. But there was good in him, it seems as if he was really a good natured man; if he would have had the right influences in his life things may have turned out differently. However, as the book goes on he falls lower and lower, Marcia is absolutely no help; she seems to spend her time either gazing at Bartley with admiration and devotion in her eyes hanging on his every word, or slamming doors and locking them because she saw another woman speak to him at a party.
Here are some of the most memorable lines for me anyway:
"He still clung to his old-fashioned deistical opinions; but he thought no worse of a man for not holding them; he did not deny that a man might be a Christian, and still be a very good man."
"Well, I shouldn't begin to plough for corn just yet," replied Kinney. "It's curious," he went on, "to see how anxious we are to have a thing over, it don't much matter what it is, whether it's summer or winter. I suppose we'd feel different if we wa'n't sure there was going to be another of 'em. I guess that's one reason why the Lord concluded not to keep us clearly posted on the question of another life. If it wa'n't for the uncertainty of the thing, there are a lot of fellows like you that wouldn't stand it here a minute. Why, if we had a dead sure thing of over-the-river,--good climate, plenty to eat and wear, and not much to do,--I don't believe any of us would keep Darling Minnie waiting,--well, a _great_ while"
"But he was restored to reason when the composer sat down at the piano and played, amid the hush that falls on society at such times, something from Beethoven, and again something of his own, which was so like Beethoven that Beethoven himself would not have known the difference.."
"Halleck turned. "What could be a worse hell than marriage without love?" he demanded, fiercely.
"Love without marriage," said Atherton".
I liked the book, I'll read it again someday. For me it was definitely a four star novel.
September 30, 2020
(My ranking of Howells' best novels: https://azleslie.com/posts/howells-ra...)
Modern Instance, like many a Howells novel, seems to start slowly: as becomes clear around the halfway mark, however, this is only becauae the reader didn't know what patterns to be looking for. Howells' prose is subtle; one of his greatest achievements as a realist is that he doesn't flag things as significant beforehand, instead forcing the reader - like real life - to recognize significance retrospectively. The farther into Modern Instance one gets, the farther the novel forces them to think back. It's an excellent accomplishment of both style and plotting. Another classic Howells move here is the presentation of a moral center late in the novel (Atherton, speaking about divorce and society) that is well-reasoned and thematically consistent with the novel but is nonetheless depicted as under-satisfying and countered by another character (Olive). Howells gives us a conclusion which the novel would lead us to endorse, yet he slyly also voices its limitation. Excellent stuff.
Modern Instance, like many a Howells novel, seems to start slowly: as becomes clear around the halfway mark, however, this is only becauae the reader didn't know what patterns to be looking for. Howells' prose is subtle; one of his greatest achievements as a realist is that he doesn't flag things as significant beforehand, instead forcing the reader - like real life - to recognize significance retrospectively. The farther into Modern Instance one gets, the farther the novel forces them to think back. It's an excellent accomplishment of both style and plotting. Another classic Howells move here is the presentation of a moral center late in the novel (Atherton, speaking about divorce and society) that is well-reasoned and thematically consistent with the novel but is nonetheless depicted as under-satisfying and countered by another character (Olive). Howells gives us a conclusion which the novel would lead us to endorse, yet he slyly also voices its limitation. Excellent stuff.
February 19, 2018
A solid study of marital breakdown marred by staid moralism and a one-dimensional heroine.
June 14, 2017
A story about a loyal wife and an ethically freelancing husband who begin their life together in near-bliss only to find things deteriorating with each little instance. It deals with the subject of divorce as well as other social/historical aspects of life in New England of the 1870s (religion, ethics, the legal profession, journalism, town life vs. country life, etc.). With sincere Victorian earnestness, the author takes the issue of marriage and divorce very seriously and nowhere does one get the impression that he is advocating the idea that attitudes toward marriage are outmoded and ought to be discarded. He does, however, present us with the plight of an abandoned wife, its effects on those around her, as well as the contention that there are cases in which divorce is justifiable. Even though the husband is clearly in the wrong throughout, he is not a villain, and has moments in which he desires to do what it right. Even though, the wife is clearly in the right, she is not without her flaws as well. According to the back cover, this novel is one of the first attempts at dealing with the subject of divorce in American literature.
January 26, 2013
This is an extraordinarily entertaining read. It's a strange hybrid of moral narrative and broad comedic satire. While the moral purpose of the novel will mean little to most people today, the satire and the plot events kept me interested and engaged. Howells's interest in developing "realistic" fiction ("naturalistic" as literary critics would say) is strongly apparent in this work, in which the two main characters' "love" and marriage are shown to take the courses they do because of the two parties' inherent psychological characteristics as well as how they react to outward events beyond their control. A very interesting novel.
June 22, 2015
This novel is an expose of the doomed marriage (and, eventually and blessedly, divorce) between the jealous, overemotional Marcia Gaylord and her selfish, manipulative egomaniac of a husband, Bartley Hubbard. For some reason, this book was absolutely fascinating despite the fact that it portrays two deeply unlikeable people making each other miserable. Case in point: at one point while reading this I fell down the staircase in my house because I couldn't put the book down long enough to pay attention to where I was going. Reading this was almost like watching one of those trashy celebrity couple "reality" shows, except infinitely more intellectually fulfilling.
September 17, 2010
Reading the first few chapters alone was worth it because of the insights provided into the character of Bartley Hubbard. I first "met" Bartley in Howells' novel "The Rise of Silas Lapham" and thought him cynical, but likable (except for the way he treated his wife). "A Modern Instance" is Bartley's story and finding out that he was an orphan and a self-made man wannabe really shows how despicable he was during his interview with Silas Lapham in the aforementioned book. Howells very deftly lets us understand that Bartley is an immature and selfish narcissist and the reader's heart goes out to his poor wife (who is just as sweet in this book as she was in her cameo in the Lapham text). The device of highlighting a minor character from one text in another reminds me of Balzac (and why not? I think the American realists made no secret of their admiration for him nor his influence on them). Howells impresses me more and more.
June 25, 2007
The best book with no plot or purpose ever!
May 3, 2013
I can see the historical importance of the novel: its careful focus on characters' psychology, its treatment of the largely man's world of journalism, its concern with changing estimations of religion are hallmarks of nineteenth-century realism. Yet I was bothered by Howells' assumptions about women's psychological and cognitive weakness and regional differences. As a champion of regional fiction, he might have been more sophisticated about people from outside the urban cultural centers. Yet Edith Wharton, who I find to be much more effective as a writer (and more modern in writing about divorce), also betrays this kind of bias in some of her work. Anyway, I like that the main characters in A Modern Instance are somewhat complicated, but I also wish they hadn't been so flawed--Marcia swinging between jealousy and self-recrimination and her husband Bartley so obviously a cad.
October 18, 2010
A Modern Instance was an interesting read. I enjoyed how easily I could feel for the characters. I was angry with Marcia for being such a deluded idiot and I melted when Ben revealed that the picture he held on to was really a picture of Marcia. It is interesting that when I read the beginning, I actually liked Bartley, but by the end of the novel I detested him. I think Howells did that by changing Bartley's physical appearance towards the end. Howells could not be biased since he decided to write the novel in a journalistic way, so he had to create images in the minds of readers that would make each reader begin to form biases of his/her own.
May 15, 2017
This book is an American classic coming out of the Realism period of the American literary period, so this novel doesn't leave much for the reader in the sense of coming to conclusions or having to really figure anything out. As with the time period, authors wrote in pain-staking detail every aspect of emotion and setting. However, this is a great novel that talks on the aspect of love and bad relationships, and people who just don't have a clue about their presentation to other people. Even for its age, it is a very relatable novel even in today's era, which speaks volumes on people in general and the timelessness of Howells.
May 27, 2015
I have a better understanding of what the title means in relation to the book and now. Naming the book A Modern Instance might seem a bit presumptuous but the story does relate well a hundred years later, which shoes that this the theme of the book is indeed a modern one that still plagues us. I really like how I was able to see that this book was relatable to things like The Princess Bride or "The Dark Night" and it was easier to see how it could relate to my life. I definetly enjoyed this more than Middlemarch and would happily read it again.
November 15, 2010
I wish I liked it more, and I understand the novelty and shock of the theme, but my humble opinion is that it never got the reader there - what's common today, if then was an aberration, should still hit the modern reader like a blow, and the book just...treaded water, or rather did a dead man's float, all the way through. I was unmoved, untouched, and really didn't care at the end, even though Howells did create most of the characters as fully three-dimensional people.
January 21, 2018
I don't think I'm spoiling this for anyone by saying that no-one gets a happy ever after. But then, none of the characters deserve one, either: rarely have I disliked anyone as much as I disliked Bartley Hubbard. William Dean Howells is one of those authors who insists on telling rather than showing, but does it so pitilessly and clearly that the inevitability of the tragedy carries you along. The rather abrupt end lost it the final star, though I'd give it 4.5 if I could.
September 13, 2012
As I grow older, I become more aware of how the seemingly peaceful "days gone by" were, in truth, filled with many of the same mistakes and frustrations that society and individuals still face today. Hence, while culture described in the story was very different from the culture I live in, the characters and their views felt very familiar.
December 1, 2014
Howell’s depiction of character flaws, failing marriage, and the corruption of individual isolation in modern, industrial, and capitalistic America, is one of heartrendingly desolation, reflecting a shift in American literature to realism.
March 28, 2014
What a moving book.
It just goes to show how ambition and jealousy can threaten to destroy a marriage and how the innocent party would be looked on by a society where divorce was shunned.
An excellent read.
It just goes to show how ambition and jealousy can threaten to destroy a marriage and how the innocent party would be looked on by a society where divorce was shunned.
An excellent read.
February 9, 2008
I read this for a Literature class that I took at Snow College. If I remember correctly, I liked it. It's been awhile. I probably aught to read it again.
November 30, 2010
Love it! Wonderful look at a marriage gone wrong. Ruins all those ideas that divorce is something our modern society struggles with....
January 19, 2020
Pretty good. A first look at divorce.
September 27, 2013
review of
William Dean Howells's A Modern Instance
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - September 25, 2013
WARNING: This review has spoilers but is hopefully written in such a way that even if you read it thru it won't actually spoil yr enjoyment of reading the novel b/c the review doesn't give you the plot as much as it does my meta-take on the plot.
Ah.. yes, yet-another "too long" review of mine. For the full thing go here: http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/3...
It seems almost inevitable to me that reading a bk entitled A Modern Instance over 130 yrs after it was originally published is going to yield a bit of 'how modern does it seem now?' type thinking - much as a Science Fiction novel written predicting what was then the future & now the past will undergo scrutiny as to its accuracy. In this case, Howells is a very good observer of human nature & I found myself emotionally engaged in his characters in a way I wdn't have if they didn't still ring true.
As seems to be usually the case when I read a 19th century novel these days I find myself wondering why I bother when I have so many other bks to read & review that're more immediately relevant to my current life & interests. Nonetheless, I generally find the descriptions to be written w/ detail that appeals. Furthermore, what ultimately endeared me to this bk, & wch was something completely unexpected to me, was that I ended up w/ a personal take on the people in it that brought to my introspective attn some of my takes on people in general.
In particular, I found myself at odds w/ the author of the Introduction, noted Howells scholar Edwin H. Cady. Ordinarily, I read such framing material in full expectation of being illuminated by the scholarship. I accept as a given the superior knowledge of the commentator. I read Cady's Intro &, not having read the novel yet, just read it w/o having any understanding of what he was referring to. THEN I read the novel & gradually began to find Cady's introduction to it.. repulsive.. almost like a malicious gossip's unfair maligning. It was as if Cady, himself, was a particular type of person in real life who was envious of the type of person represented by the main character Bartley Hubbard & who was taking out his own frustrations on the character.
"Bartley was not a villain. There wasn't enough of him to furnish forth villainy. He was just a run-of-the-mill scoundrel with nothing much in him but a large, tender ego and a great deal of shallow cleverness. He had not an unselfish bone in his body, nor one that wasn't lazy. Is he not a modern man? Is he not the modern man, the "new man," a foregone failure?" - p xvi
The reader is certainly being set up for a completely negative perception of Bartley, in much the same way an 'expert witness' at a trial acts like a spin doctor to ruin the reputation of whoever he's being pd top dollar to defame. &, yet, consider this tidbit from a few pp later:
"But scarcely half of A Modern Instance had been serialized before Mark Twain, lost in admiration at the portrayal of the drunken scoundrel Bartley, claimed emphatically that Howells had taken Bartley from Sam Clemens. Promptly denying it, Howells said he had used himself for Bartley." - p xviii
Interesting, eh? Clemens/Twain liked the character enuf to identify w/ him & so did Howells. Given that they both may've had a sense of humor & probably more than a little bit of self-deprecating humor, they might've still felt that Bartley Hubbard wasn't w/o his redeeming qualities. So is he really "the drunken scoundrel" Cady makes him out to be? I think not. From my POV, Hubbard actually has MORE qualities than most of the other characters in the novel - most of whom are envious & contemptuous of him w/o any trace of introspection about themselves & their own privileges & weaknesses.
The novel's action precedes, happens during, & follows the contested presidential election of 1876 in wch the people voted for Samuel J. Tilden but the Electoral College voted for Rutherford B. Hayes. Hence Hayes became president against the voting public's wishes. From Howells's perspective of the 'modernity' of these times, youth was having a pretty unrestrained time of it:
"It was midnight, as the sharp strokes of a wooden clock declared from the kitchen; and they were alone together and all the other inmates of the house were asleep. This situation, hardly conceivable to another civilization, is so common in ours, where youth commands its fate, and trusts solely to itself, that it may be said to be characteristic of the New England civilization wherever it keeps its simplicity. It was not stolen or clandestine; it would have shocked no one in the village if the whole village had known it; all that a girl's parents ordinarily exacted was that they should not be waked up." - p 7
Hubbard, "the drunken scoundrel", as Cady wd have the reader think, is a handsome & witty man who gets the girls. Does Cady envy him & his counterparts in real life? After reading the whole bk, I tend to think so. In fact, much of the hatred in the novel directed against Hubbard seems to be based on such envy by people who never acknowledge it to themselves or anyone else. Whether Howells intended this to be read that way or not, I can't say. Here's Bartley flirting w/ Marcia, the girl who eventually becomes his wife, by trying to get her to write a letter accepting his invite to go on a ride thru the snow w/ him:
""Now the address. Dear"—
""No, no!" she protested.
""Yes, yes! dear Mr. Hubbard. There, that will do! Now the signature: Yours"—
""I wont write that. I wont, indeed!"
""Oh, yes you will. You only think you wont. Yours gratefully, Marcia Gaylord. That's right. The Gaylord is not very legible, on account of a slight tremor in the writer's arm, resulting from a constrained posture, perhaps. Thanks, Miss Gaylord, I will be here promptly at the hour indicated"—
"The noises renewed themselves overhead; some one seemed to be moving about. Hubbard laid his hand on that of the girl still resting on the table, and grasped it in burlesque alarm; she could scarcely stifle her mirth." - p 13
Marcia can "scarcely stifle her mirth" b/c Bartley's flirtation is doing exactly what he wants it to do: it's making her have fun, making her attracted to him. Is this "shallow cleverness" or "lazy", as Cady describes him? I think not. It's both hard work & ACTUALLY CLEVER. Cady strikes me as a type of man who ENVIES Hubbard b/c he's good at what less successful men only wish they were. The above passages are from the beginning of the novel. Cady says that "When A Modern Instance opens, Bartley is, though mildly, already demonic." (p xvii)
"Bartley is the first fully drawn worshipper of William James's "bitch-goddess Success" in American fiction. He is the new "success" type (who would so confuse later writers like Norris and Dreiser and London). Cozy, he is quick to spot a hole and dive through it to advantage. Easy-going , cynical, he lives by an unrationalized code of social Darwinism. When he can, he will 'take' anybody for anything and in any way; he will exploit and devour; never a lover or a giver, he lives psychically and professionally by grasping and extorting." - p xvii
Cady even quotes character Ben Halleck in his condemnation of Hubbard: "As early as college he had achieved, as his generous, self-sacrificing friend Halleck perceived, "no more moral nature than a baseball."" (p xvii) But there are some very, very significant things lacking in Cady's characterization here. Ben Halleck's 'generosity' is w/ inherited wealth - he didn't work for it, it's from his father's leather business. Never is Ben's wealth questioned as potential ill-gotten gains. In fact, EVERYONE'S money, except for Hubbard's, is accepted as somehow deserved - even tho the 'charitable' Clara Kingsbury is depicted as more or less completely out of touch w/ the harsh realities that she's ostensibly dedicated to 'righting'.
In fact, Ben's hatred for Bartley is rooted in one simple thing far more than any other: Bartley gets the girl(s) - in this case, Bartley specifically gets the beautiful Marcia who Ben's been pining for in secret. But Ben has a somewhat crippled leg b/c as a child he injured it after being tripped by another child. I kept wondering if this wd be neatly tied together by having the malicious tripper turn out to be Bartley. I'm thankful to Howells that he didn't go that route. Ben never acknowledges to himself that he's sexually frustrated & inhibited by his leg. Instead, Bartley, who's not nearly as horrible a husband as the others frequently choose to believe, is under constant scrutiny for any action that can be blamed against him. Bartley is assertive, he has to be to survive. Unlike Ben, he isn't wallowing in inherited wealth that enables him to wander aimlessly in a self-deluding miasma of impotent self-righteousness. Interestingly, Ben asks the lawyer Atherton, sometimes presented as one of the more ethical characters, this question about Marcia's reaction to Ben's taking Bartley home one night after Bartley had gotten uncharacteristically drunk (followed by Atherton's reply):
""Shouldn't you expect her to make you pay somehow for your privity to her disgrace, to revenge her misery upon you? Isn't there a theory that women forgive injuries, but never ignominies?"
""That's what the novelists teach, and we bachelors get most of our doctrine about women from them."" - p 283
Ben knows nothing about women, despite having 3 sisters, &, of course, there's plenty of novelistic self-reflexive humor in Atherton's reply. Ultimately, it's the moral posturing here that I can't relate to. B/c Bartley gets drunk ONCE Marcia is 'disgraced'. NOT. Was that really the way it was in that social milieu in the mid to late 19th century? I reckon yes b/c Howells seems to be an excellent realistic observer. But from my 21st century perspective that seems particularly stupid. Skipping back in the narrative a few paragraphs we have this:
""Atherton," he said, "if you found a blackguard of your acquaintance drunk on your doorstep early one morning, and had taken him home to his wife, how would you have expected her to treat you the next time you saw her?"" - pp 282-283
Ben refers to Bartley as a "blackguard", pompously passing judgment. &, yet, in one of the few instances that I see to Ben's credit, he saves Bartley from being arrested, in order to spare Marcia the misery:
""Do you know this man, Mr. Halleck?" asked the policeman.
""Yes—yes, I know him," said Ben, in a low voice. "Let's get him away quietly, please. He's all right. It's the first time I ever saw him so. Will you help me with him up to Johnson's stable? I'll get a carriage there and take him home." - p 272
Even Ben admits that "It's the first time I ever saw him so" drunk &, yet, b/c of this ONE incident & b/c he develops a habit of drinking light beer later on he's called by Cady a "drunken scoundrel".
From the Introduction, I got the impression that Bartley was a reporter. He was, but he was, more importantly, an editor. Howells was a magazine editor who transitioned away from that into full-time novelist thru this bk. Undoubtedly, Howells was critical of the ethics of mainstream publishing, undoubtedly Hubbard is used as a critical foil. But I see Hubbard as not so much a scoundrel as simply an energetic man who doesn't ethically scrutinize the givens of the social milieu he finds himself in. But neither does anyone else. All the characters are just un-self-critical players in the game they find themselves born into.
While Howells is still setting the atmosphere of the small town that the novel begins in, he writes that: "Religion had largely ceased to be a fact of spiritual experience and the visible church flourished on condition of providing for the social needs of the community." (p 24) Now given that I find religion to be one of the most malevolent forces in society b/c it encourages total obedience to a non-existent external authority that unscrupulous humans then present themselves as representatives of, I don't think that churches that provide "for the social needs of the community" are a bad idea at all. If they cd get rid of the 'god' shit & just serve an actual positive purpose for the community then they'd be much, much better from my POV.
But what surprised me here was the modernity of such a description. Throughout my adult life, as a performer I've often used church spaces for events. In BalTimOre, where I'm originally from, there were at least 4 inner-city churches that were open to political & cultural events that had no connection otherwise to the church & its dogma. EG: here's footage of a Franz Kamin performance called "A.S.R.B.#1 (Aleatoric Reactory Systemic Bulletin #1)" in a church: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tzwxf... & of another Franz Kamin peerformance of a piece called "Unknowing Games at the Hut"":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C32z98... at another church.
Cady says that Hubbard "will 'take' anybody for anything and in any way; he will exploit and devour; [& is] never a lover or a giver" but it seems to me that there are numerous instances in Howells's depiction of him that contradict this. Take this internal monolog of Hubbard's: "A distaste for their somewhat veteran ways in flirtation grew upon him as he thought of her; he philosophized against them to her advantage; he could not blame her if she did not know how to hide her feelings for him. Yet he knew that Marcia would rather have died than let him suppose that she cared for him, if she had known that she was doing it. The fun of it was that she should not know; this charmed him, it touched him even; he did not think of it exultantly, as the night before, but sweetly, fondly, and with a final curiosity to see her again, and enjoy the fact in her presence." (p 31) He thinks of Marcia "to her advantage", he's "charmed" & "touched", he thinks of matters related to her "sweetly" & "fondly" - these are hardly the characterizations of a completely hard-hearted man.
Cady prejudices the reader in advance by referring to Bartley as "the drunken scoundrel". However, this isn't born out by the narrative. Take, eg, this: "Ricker offered him his choice of beer or claret, and Bartley temperately preferred water to either; he could see that this raised him in Ricker's esteem." (p 171) Indeed, while Hubbard eventually develops a drinking habit, he's initially plagued by an actual drunkard whose excesses far exceed anything Hubbard ever reaches:
""Old Morrison was here, just before you came in, and said he wanted to see you. I think he was drunk," said Bird, anxiously. "He said he was coming back again."
[..]
"Where Morrison got his liquor from was a question that agitated Equity from time to time, and baffled the officer of the law empowered to see that no strong drink came into the town. Under conditions which made it impossible even in the logging camps, and rendered the sale of spirits too precarious for the apothecary, who might be supposed to deal in them medicinally, Morrison never failed of his spree when the mysterious mechanism of his appetite enforced it. Probably it was some form of bedevilled cider that supplied the material of his debauch; but even cider was not easily to be had." - pp 63-64
The ensuing encounter w/ the drunk Morrison is one of the key events leading to Hubbard's eventual downfall. In this encounter, Hubbard is sober. The misunderstanding deliberately fostered by Morrison's drunkenness leads to Hubbard's jealous assistant assaulting Bartley:
"Here his rage culminated, and with a blind cry of "Ay!" he struck the paper, which he had kept in his hand into Bartley's face.
"The demons, whatever they were, of anger, remorse, pride, shame, were at work in Bartley's heart too, and he returned the blow as instantly as if Bird's touch had set the mechanism of his arm in motion. In contempt of the other's weakness he struck with the flat of his hand, but the blow was enough. Bird fell headlong, and the concussion of his head upon the floor did the rest. He lay senseless." - p 69
Bartley, engaged to be married to Squire Gaylord's daughter, Marcia, is faced w/ the decision of how to break the news of his having hit Bird & of Bird's subsequent concussion: "If on the other hand, he went first to Squire Gaylord the old lawyer might insist that the engagement was already at an end by Bartley's violent act, and might well refuse to let a man in his position even see his daughter." (p 75) &, yes, Bartley is ill-perceived & treated. It appears that no-one seems to blame Bird much for the assault that resulted in his being struck back. "The more Bartley dwelt upon his hard case, during the week that followed, the more it appeared to him that he was punished out of all proportion to his offense." (p 83) Howells may've been ironically mocking Bartley's indignation here but I tend to agree w/ Hubbard's assessment & to take it even further. Hubbard was actually SORRY he'd struck Bird - & not for purely selfish reasons. I say Bird deserved it.
As for Cady's contention that Hubbard's "never a lover or a giver"? I say, once again, the narrative contradicts this. Marcia is understandably angry about a social affair she & Bartley have just gone to. She's sensitive to things that Bartley's willfully oblivious to. When they return home she rushes off to bed in a huff. Consider Bartley's reaction:
"Bartley stood a moment in the fury that tempted him to pursue her with a taunt, and then leave her to work herself out of the transport of senseless jealousy she had wrought herself into. But he set his teeth, and, full of inward cursing, he followed her upstairs with a slow, dogged step. He took her in his arms without a word, and held her fast, while his anger changed to pity, and then to laughing. When it came to that, she put up her arms, which she had kept rigidly at her side, and laid them round his neck, and began softly to cry on his breast." - p 228
Bartley chooses to de-escalate the situation rather than to give in to his anger. That strikes me as a loving & giving solution.
William Dean Howells's A Modern Instance
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - September 25, 2013
WARNING: This review has spoilers but is hopefully written in such a way that even if you read it thru it won't actually spoil yr enjoyment of reading the novel b/c the review doesn't give you the plot as much as it does my meta-take on the plot.
Ah.. yes, yet-another "too long" review of mine. For the full thing go here: http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/3...
It seems almost inevitable to me that reading a bk entitled A Modern Instance over 130 yrs after it was originally published is going to yield a bit of 'how modern does it seem now?' type thinking - much as a Science Fiction novel written predicting what was then the future & now the past will undergo scrutiny as to its accuracy. In this case, Howells is a very good observer of human nature & I found myself emotionally engaged in his characters in a way I wdn't have if they didn't still ring true.
As seems to be usually the case when I read a 19th century novel these days I find myself wondering why I bother when I have so many other bks to read & review that're more immediately relevant to my current life & interests. Nonetheless, I generally find the descriptions to be written w/ detail that appeals. Furthermore, what ultimately endeared me to this bk, & wch was something completely unexpected to me, was that I ended up w/ a personal take on the people in it that brought to my introspective attn some of my takes on people in general.
In particular, I found myself at odds w/ the author of the Introduction, noted Howells scholar Edwin H. Cady. Ordinarily, I read such framing material in full expectation of being illuminated by the scholarship. I accept as a given the superior knowledge of the commentator. I read Cady's Intro &, not having read the novel yet, just read it w/o having any understanding of what he was referring to. THEN I read the novel & gradually began to find Cady's introduction to it.. repulsive.. almost like a malicious gossip's unfair maligning. It was as if Cady, himself, was a particular type of person in real life who was envious of the type of person represented by the main character Bartley Hubbard & who was taking out his own frustrations on the character.
"Bartley was not a villain. There wasn't enough of him to furnish forth villainy. He was just a run-of-the-mill scoundrel with nothing much in him but a large, tender ego and a great deal of shallow cleverness. He had not an unselfish bone in his body, nor one that wasn't lazy. Is he not a modern man? Is he not the modern man, the "new man," a foregone failure?" - p xvi
The reader is certainly being set up for a completely negative perception of Bartley, in much the same way an 'expert witness' at a trial acts like a spin doctor to ruin the reputation of whoever he's being pd top dollar to defame. &, yet, consider this tidbit from a few pp later:
"But scarcely half of A Modern Instance had been serialized before Mark Twain, lost in admiration at the portrayal of the drunken scoundrel Bartley, claimed emphatically that Howells had taken Bartley from Sam Clemens. Promptly denying it, Howells said he had used himself for Bartley." - p xviii
Interesting, eh? Clemens/Twain liked the character enuf to identify w/ him & so did Howells. Given that they both may've had a sense of humor & probably more than a little bit of self-deprecating humor, they might've still felt that Bartley Hubbard wasn't w/o his redeeming qualities. So is he really "the drunken scoundrel" Cady makes him out to be? I think not. From my POV, Hubbard actually has MORE qualities than most of the other characters in the novel - most of whom are envious & contemptuous of him w/o any trace of introspection about themselves & their own privileges & weaknesses.
The novel's action precedes, happens during, & follows the contested presidential election of 1876 in wch the people voted for Samuel J. Tilden but the Electoral College voted for Rutherford B. Hayes. Hence Hayes became president against the voting public's wishes. From Howells's perspective of the 'modernity' of these times, youth was having a pretty unrestrained time of it:
"It was midnight, as the sharp strokes of a wooden clock declared from the kitchen; and they were alone together and all the other inmates of the house were asleep. This situation, hardly conceivable to another civilization, is so common in ours, where youth commands its fate, and trusts solely to itself, that it may be said to be characteristic of the New England civilization wherever it keeps its simplicity. It was not stolen or clandestine; it would have shocked no one in the village if the whole village had known it; all that a girl's parents ordinarily exacted was that they should not be waked up." - p 7
Hubbard, "the drunken scoundrel", as Cady wd have the reader think, is a handsome & witty man who gets the girls. Does Cady envy him & his counterparts in real life? After reading the whole bk, I tend to think so. In fact, much of the hatred in the novel directed against Hubbard seems to be based on such envy by people who never acknowledge it to themselves or anyone else. Whether Howells intended this to be read that way or not, I can't say. Here's Bartley flirting w/ Marcia, the girl who eventually becomes his wife, by trying to get her to write a letter accepting his invite to go on a ride thru the snow w/ him:
""Now the address. Dear"—
""No, no!" she protested.
""Yes, yes! dear Mr. Hubbard. There, that will do! Now the signature: Yours"—
""I wont write that. I wont, indeed!"
""Oh, yes you will. You only think you wont. Yours gratefully, Marcia Gaylord. That's right. The Gaylord is not very legible, on account of a slight tremor in the writer's arm, resulting from a constrained posture, perhaps. Thanks, Miss Gaylord, I will be here promptly at the hour indicated"—
"The noises renewed themselves overhead; some one seemed to be moving about. Hubbard laid his hand on that of the girl still resting on the table, and grasped it in burlesque alarm; she could scarcely stifle her mirth." - p 13
Marcia can "scarcely stifle her mirth" b/c Bartley's flirtation is doing exactly what he wants it to do: it's making her have fun, making her attracted to him. Is this "shallow cleverness" or "lazy", as Cady describes him? I think not. It's both hard work & ACTUALLY CLEVER. Cady strikes me as a type of man who ENVIES Hubbard b/c he's good at what less successful men only wish they were. The above passages are from the beginning of the novel. Cady says that "When A Modern Instance opens, Bartley is, though mildly, already demonic." (p xvii)
"Bartley is the first fully drawn worshipper of William James's "bitch-goddess Success" in American fiction. He is the new "success" type (who would so confuse later writers like Norris and Dreiser and London). Cozy, he is quick to spot a hole and dive through it to advantage. Easy-going , cynical, he lives by an unrationalized code of social Darwinism. When he can, he will 'take' anybody for anything and in any way; he will exploit and devour; never a lover or a giver, he lives psychically and professionally by grasping and extorting." - p xvii
Cady even quotes character Ben Halleck in his condemnation of Hubbard: "As early as college he had achieved, as his generous, self-sacrificing friend Halleck perceived, "no more moral nature than a baseball."" (p xvii) But there are some very, very significant things lacking in Cady's characterization here. Ben Halleck's 'generosity' is w/ inherited wealth - he didn't work for it, it's from his father's leather business. Never is Ben's wealth questioned as potential ill-gotten gains. In fact, EVERYONE'S money, except for Hubbard's, is accepted as somehow deserved - even tho the 'charitable' Clara Kingsbury is depicted as more or less completely out of touch w/ the harsh realities that she's ostensibly dedicated to 'righting'.
In fact, Ben's hatred for Bartley is rooted in one simple thing far more than any other: Bartley gets the girl(s) - in this case, Bartley specifically gets the beautiful Marcia who Ben's been pining for in secret. But Ben has a somewhat crippled leg b/c as a child he injured it after being tripped by another child. I kept wondering if this wd be neatly tied together by having the malicious tripper turn out to be Bartley. I'm thankful to Howells that he didn't go that route. Ben never acknowledges to himself that he's sexually frustrated & inhibited by his leg. Instead, Bartley, who's not nearly as horrible a husband as the others frequently choose to believe, is under constant scrutiny for any action that can be blamed against him. Bartley is assertive, he has to be to survive. Unlike Ben, he isn't wallowing in inherited wealth that enables him to wander aimlessly in a self-deluding miasma of impotent self-righteousness. Interestingly, Ben asks the lawyer Atherton, sometimes presented as one of the more ethical characters, this question about Marcia's reaction to Ben's taking Bartley home one night after Bartley had gotten uncharacteristically drunk (followed by Atherton's reply):
""Shouldn't you expect her to make you pay somehow for your privity to her disgrace, to revenge her misery upon you? Isn't there a theory that women forgive injuries, but never ignominies?"
""That's what the novelists teach, and we bachelors get most of our doctrine about women from them."" - p 283
Ben knows nothing about women, despite having 3 sisters, &, of course, there's plenty of novelistic self-reflexive humor in Atherton's reply. Ultimately, it's the moral posturing here that I can't relate to. B/c Bartley gets drunk ONCE Marcia is 'disgraced'. NOT. Was that really the way it was in that social milieu in the mid to late 19th century? I reckon yes b/c Howells seems to be an excellent realistic observer. But from my 21st century perspective that seems particularly stupid. Skipping back in the narrative a few paragraphs we have this:
""Atherton," he said, "if you found a blackguard of your acquaintance drunk on your doorstep early one morning, and had taken him home to his wife, how would you have expected her to treat you the next time you saw her?"" - pp 282-283
Ben refers to Bartley as a "blackguard", pompously passing judgment. &, yet, in one of the few instances that I see to Ben's credit, he saves Bartley from being arrested, in order to spare Marcia the misery:
""Do you know this man, Mr. Halleck?" asked the policeman.
""Yes—yes, I know him," said Ben, in a low voice. "Let's get him away quietly, please. He's all right. It's the first time I ever saw him so. Will you help me with him up to Johnson's stable? I'll get a carriage there and take him home." - p 272
Even Ben admits that "It's the first time I ever saw him so" drunk &, yet, b/c of this ONE incident & b/c he develops a habit of drinking light beer later on he's called by Cady a "drunken scoundrel".
From the Introduction, I got the impression that Bartley was a reporter. He was, but he was, more importantly, an editor. Howells was a magazine editor who transitioned away from that into full-time novelist thru this bk. Undoubtedly, Howells was critical of the ethics of mainstream publishing, undoubtedly Hubbard is used as a critical foil. But I see Hubbard as not so much a scoundrel as simply an energetic man who doesn't ethically scrutinize the givens of the social milieu he finds himself in. But neither does anyone else. All the characters are just un-self-critical players in the game they find themselves born into.
While Howells is still setting the atmosphere of the small town that the novel begins in, he writes that: "Religion had largely ceased to be a fact of spiritual experience and the visible church flourished on condition of providing for the social needs of the community." (p 24) Now given that I find religion to be one of the most malevolent forces in society b/c it encourages total obedience to a non-existent external authority that unscrupulous humans then present themselves as representatives of, I don't think that churches that provide "for the social needs of the community" are a bad idea at all. If they cd get rid of the 'god' shit & just serve an actual positive purpose for the community then they'd be much, much better from my POV.
But what surprised me here was the modernity of such a description. Throughout my adult life, as a performer I've often used church spaces for events. In BalTimOre, where I'm originally from, there were at least 4 inner-city churches that were open to political & cultural events that had no connection otherwise to the church & its dogma. EG: here's footage of a Franz Kamin performance called "A.S.R.B.#1 (Aleatoric Reactory Systemic Bulletin #1)" in a church: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tzwxf... & of another Franz Kamin peerformance of a piece called "Unknowing Games at the Hut"":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C32z98... at another church.
Cady says that Hubbard "will 'take' anybody for anything and in any way; he will exploit and devour; [& is] never a lover or a giver" but it seems to me that there are numerous instances in Howells's depiction of him that contradict this. Take this internal monolog of Hubbard's: "A distaste for their somewhat veteran ways in flirtation grew upon him as he thought of her; he philosophized against them to her advantage; he could not blame her if she did not know how to hide her feelings for him. Yet he knew that Marcia would rather have died than let him suppose that she cared for him, if she had known that she was doing it. The fun of it was that she should not know; this charmed him, it touched him even; he did not think of it exultantly, as the night before, but sweetly, fondly, and with a final curiosity to see her again, and enjoy the fact in her presence." (p 31) He thinks of Marcia "to her advantage", he's "charmed" & "touched", he thinks of matters related to her "sweetly" & "fondly" - these are hardly the characterizations of a completely hard-hearted man.
Cady prejudices the reader in advance by referring to Bartley as "the drunken scoundrel". However, this isn't born out by the narrative. Take, eg, this: "Ricker offered him his choice of beer or claret, and Bartley temperately preferred water to either; he could see that this raised him in Ricker's esteem." (p 171) Indeed, while Hubbard eventually develops a drinking habit, he's initially plagued by an actual drunkard whose excesses far exceed anything Hubbard ever reaches:
""Old Morrison was here, just before you came in, and said he wanted to see you. I think he was drunk," said Bird, anxiously. "He said he was coming back again."
[..]
"Where Morrison got his liquor from was a question that agitated Equity from time to time, and baffled the officer of the law empowered to see that no strong drink came into the town. Under conditions which made it impossible even in the logging camps, and rendered the sale of spirits too precarious for the apothecary, who might be supposed to deal in them medicinally, Morrison never failed of his spree when the mysterious mechanism of his appetite enforced it. Probably it was some form of bedevilled cider that supplied the material of his debauch; but even cider was not easily to be had." - pp 63-64
The ensuing encounter w/ the drunk Morrison is one of the key events leading to Hubbard's eventual downfall. In this encounter, Hubbard is sober. The misunderstanding deliberately fostered by Morrison's drunkenness leads to Hubbard's jealous assistant assaulting Bartley:
"Here his rage culminated, and with a blind cry of "Ay!" he struck the paper, which he had kept in his hand into Bartley's face.
"The demons, whatever they were, of anger, remorse, pride, shame, were at work in Bartley's heart too, and he returned the blow as instantly as if Bird's touch had set the mechanism of his arm in motion. In contempt of the other's weakness he struck with the flat of his hand, but the blow was enough. Bird fell headlong, and the concussion of his head upon the floor did the rest. He lay senseless." - p 69
Bartley, engaged to be married to Squire Gaylord's daughter, Marcia, is faced w/ the decision of how to break the news of his having hit Bird & of Bird's subsequent concussion: "If on the other hand, he went first to Squire Gaylord the old lawyer might insist that the engagement was already at an end by Bartley's violent act, and might well refuse to let a man in his position even see his daughter." (p 75) &, yes, Bartley is ill-perceived & treated. It appears that no-one seems to blame Bird much for the assault that resulted in his being struck back. "The more Bartley dwelt upon his hard case, during the week that followed, the more it appeared to him that he was punished out of all proportion to his offense." (p 83) Howells may've been ironically mocking Bartley's indignation here but I tend to agree w/ Hubbard's assessment & to take it even further. Hubbard was actually SORRY he'd struck Bird - & not for purely selfish reasons. I say Bird deserved it.
As for Cady's contention that Hubbard's "never a lover or a giver"? I say, once again, the narrative contradicts this. Marcia is understandably angry about a social affair she & Bartley have just gone to. She's sensitive to things that Bartley's willfully oblivious to. When they return home she rushes off to bed in a huff. Consider Bartley's reaction:
"Bartley stood a moment in the fury that tempted him to pursue her with a taunt, and then leave her to work herself out of the transport of senseless jealousy she had wrought herself into. But he set his teeth, and, full of inward cursing, he followed her upstairs with a slow, dogged step. He took her in his arms without a word, and held her fast, while his anger changed to pity, and then to laughing. When it came to that, she put up her arms, which she had kept rigidly at her side, and laid them round his neck, and began softly to cry on his breast." - p 228
Bartley chooses to de-escalate the situation rather than to give in to his anger. That strikes me as a loving & giving solution.
October 16, 2024
Oh American classics during the realist movement… how I wish I could enjoy you. The writing itself was wonderful, often having scenes feel painterly and charming. The main characters on the other hand were less than picturesque. Although Marcia and Bartley’s tense relationship is supposed to be bothersome, I truly couldn’t stand it! Yes yes commentaries on capitalism, religion, and relationships. Maybe one day I’ll enjoy realist classics but for now I just find it a bit painful to get through. An extra star is added to my review just for the laughs I got from how dumb Bartley tended to be and how tragically sweet Mrs. Gaylord was. Honestly it was a great book, the moments we get away from the bickering couple were genuine breaths of fresh air. Beautifully real depictions of parlor rooms, New England landscapes, and woolen clothes were the only reason I could finish this book. Good stuff, just not really my style!
December 9, 2020
A talented but poor young man marries a country girl and they move to the city in order to seek their fortune. He wants to live like his wealthy friends, but he’s not “moral” enough for them, and well, things get sad—like, New England existential sad.
October 12, 2025
I did not like a single character is this book. Despite my former statement regarding the likability of the characters, I did find myself enjoying parts of the novel! Assigned reading for American Literature.
February 12, 2024
I read this book called A Modern Instance by William Dean Howells. A Modern Instance refers to newly-made divorce laws, I believe. And it takes place in the 1800s, like 1872, I think, and it's about this idiotic couple. they're just so abhorrent.
The woman is I think 19 years old, and they live in bodunk Maine, and this man who is an orphan (but he was given every Advantage growing up, by some sponsor) and he runs the little newspaper in bodunk Maine and she is just in love with him.
While they're courting he takes her for a little ride through the snow-filled Woods outside of their little bo-dunk town. Here's a disgusting little scene:
"he made the Shivering Echoes answer with his Delight in this, and chirruped to the colt, who pulsed forward at a Wilder speed, flinging his hoofs out before him with the straight thrust of the born trotter, and seeming to overtake them as they flew. 'I should like this ride to last forever!'
'forever!' she repeated. 'that would do for a beginning.'
'marsh! What a girl you are! I never supposed you would be so free to let a fellow know how much you cared for him.'
'neither did i,' she answered dreamly. 'But now - now the only trouble is that I don't know how to let him know.' She gave his arm to which she clung a little convulsive clutch and pressed her head harder upon his shoulder.
'well, that's pretty much my complaint too,' said bartley, 'though I couldn't have expressed it so well.'
'oh, you express!' she murmured with the pride in him which implied that there were no thoughts worth expressing to which he could not give a Monumental utterance. Her adoration flattered his self-love to the same passionate intensity, into something like the generous complexion of her worship. 'Marcia,' he answered, 'I am going to try to be all you expect of me. And I hope I shall never do anything Unworthy of your ideal.' "
🤢
She's supposedly the prettiest girl in town and she just throws all her love to this nasty ass man who is totally spoiled and doesn't know how to appreciate someone like her giving over her whole life to him. He's just a son of a bitch and she doesn't care; she will still adore him till the end of time, I guess.
SHe is the only child Left Alive of the children that her parents had. Her father adores her and will do anything for her, and her mother just goes along with her father.
When little Bartley gets butt hurt about something, he runs off to the station, saying he's going to Boston. Marcia is just devastated and doesn't want to let him go.
" 'You hate me!' Cried the girl. The old man walked to and fro, clutching his hands. Their lives had always been in such intimate sympathy, his life had so long had her happiness for its sole pleasure, that the pain in her heart racked his with as sharp an agony.
'well, I shall die; and then I hope you will be satisfied'
'Marcia, marcia!' Pleaded her father. 'you don't know what you're saying.'
'You're letting him go away from me - you're letting me lose him -- you're killing me!'
'he wouldn't come, my girl. It would be perfectly useless to go to him. You must - you must try to control yourself Marcia. There's no other way - there's no other hope. You're disgraceful. You ought to be ashamed. You ought to have some pride about you. I don't know what's come over you since you've been with that fellow. You seem to be out of your senses. But try - try my girl, to get over it. If you fight it, you'll conquer yet. You've got a spirit for anything. And I'll help you, marcia. I'll take you anywhere. I'll do anything for you --'
'you wouldn't go to him, and ask him to come here, if it would save his life!'
'no,' said the old man with a desperate quiet, 'I wouldn't.' "
So what does she do? She lies to her father, that she's going to go visit her girlfriend and she runs off to the train station and throws herself into Bartley's arms and tells him "forgive me forgive me, I was wrong!"
She's just sickening, this character.
So they run off together And elope. She doesn't even tell her father goodbye. When they are in Boston, renting a room in a house, her father comes to visit her. He can't help himself, he loves her so much. she knows she did wrong but she's so stuck to this Bartley character she can't help herself.
Her father is getting ready to leave after a short visit, and she says:
" 'why, father, are you going to leave me?' she faltered.
He smiled in Melancholy irony at the bewilderment, the childish forgetfulness of the circumstances which her words expressed. 'oh, no! I'm going to take you with me.'
His sarcasm restored her to a sense of what she had said and she She ruthfully laughed at herself through her tears. 'what am I talking about? Give my love to mother! When will you come again?' She asked, Clinging about him, almost in the old playful way.
'when you want me,' said the squire, freeing himself."
The character of her father made me tearful, remembering my own father who was nothing like the squire.
There's a family in Boston that's well to do, who Bartley had been friends with when he was in college. The son of the family is in love with marcia, and despises Bartley for the way he treats her. She has their baby in a carriage and runs into him in the garden at his parents' house:
"Halleck looked at her with strong self-disgust, and he dropped the bough which he had in his hand upon the ground. There is something in a young man's ideal of women, at once passionate and ascetic, so fine that any words are too gross for it. The event which intensified the interest of his mother and sisters in Marcia, had abashed Halleck; when she came so proudly to show her baby to them all, it seemed to him like a mockery of his pity for her captivity to the love that profaned her. He went out of the room in angry impatience, which he could hardly hide when one of his sisters tried to make him take the baby. Little by little his compassion adjusted itself to the new conditions; it accepted the child as an element of her misery in the future, when she must realize the hideous deformity of her marriage. His prophetic sense of this, and of her inaccessibility to human help here and hereafter, made him sometimes afraid of her; but all the more severely he exacted of his ideal of her that she should not fall beneath the tragic Dignity of her fate through any levity of her own. Now, at her innocent laugh, a subtle irreverence, which it was not able to exorcise, infused itself into his sense of her.
he stood looking at her, after he dropped the pear-bough, and seeing her mere Beauty as he had never seen it before. The bees hummed in the blossoms, which gave out a dull, sweet smell; the sunshine had the luxurious, innervating warmth of spring.... "
He abandons her and their baby and then he tries to get a divorce by saying that she abandoned him.
the notice of it gets by accident to Ben Halleck:
" 'no one knows it but you and i. The paper was left here for me by mistake. I opened it before I saw that it was addressed to her.'
he panted forth these sentences in an exhaustion that would have terrified her, if she had not been too full of indignant compassion for Marcia to know anything else. She tried to speak.
'Don't you understand, Olive? This is the notice that the law requires she shall have to come and defend her cause, and it has been sent by the clerk of the court there, to the address that villain must have given in the knowledge that it could reach her only by one chance in 10,000.'
'And it has come to you! Oh, ben! Who sent it to you?' the brother and sister looked at each other, but neither spoke the awe-stricken thought that was in both their hearts. 'Ben,' she cried, in A solemn Ecstasy of love and pride, 'I would rather be you this minute than any other man in the world!'
'Don't!' Pleaded Halleck. His head dropped, and then he lifted it by a sudden impulse. 'OI live!' - but the impulse failed, and he only said, 'I want you to go to Atherton with me. We mustn't lose time. Have Cyrus get a carriage. Go down and tell them we're going out. I'll be ready as soon as you are.' "
and so they go off to Illinois, some little town called Atherton there, where Bartley, all fat now, is thinking he's going to get rid of the marriage in the Lazy Boy way.
They make it to the court right after the judge has granted him a divorce for abandonment, but Marcia's father gets up there and does his thing and stops the judgment. But it causes him to have a stroke, when Marsha stops him from having Bartley put in jail for contempt of court, and he's never the same again and he dies within a year.
And does Marcia take advantage of a good man like Ben Halleck loving her? Oh no. She loves that fat slob until the end of time. He finally dies.
Laugh out loud.
I gave that one four stars it was very well written.
The woman is I think 19 years old, and they live in bodunk Maine, and this man who is an orphan (but he was given every Advantage growing up, by some sponsor) and he runs the little newspaper in bodunk Maine and she is just in love with him.
While they're courting he takes her for a little ride through the snow-filled Woods outside of their little bo-dunk town. Here's a disgusting little scene:
"he made the Shivering Echoes answer with his Delight in this, and chirruped to the colt, who pulsed forward at a Wilder speed, flinging his hoofs out before him with the straight thrust of the born trotter, and seeming to overtake them as they flew. 'I should like this ride to last forever!'
'forever!' she repeated. 'that would do for a beginning.'
'marsh! What a girl you are! I never supposed you would be so free to let a fellow know how much you cared for him.'
'neither did i,' she answered dreamly. 'But now - now the only trouble is that I don't know how to let him know.' She gave his arm to which she clung a little convulsive clutch and pressed her head harder upon his shoulder.
'well, that's pretty much my complaint too,' said bartley, 'though I couldn't have expressed it so well.'
'oh, you express!' she murmured with the pride in him which implied that there were no thoughts worth expressing to which he could not give a Monumental utterance. Her adoration flattered his self-love to the same passionate intensity, into something like the generous complexion of her worship. 'Marcia,' he answered, 'I am going to try to be all you expect of me. And I hope I shall never do anything Unworthy of your ideal.' "
🤢
She's supposedly the prettiest girl in town and she just throws all her love to this nasty ass man who is totally spoiled and doesn't know how to appreciate someone like her giving over her whole life to him. He's just a son of a bitch and she doesn't care; she will still adore him till the end of time, I guess.
SHe is the only child Left Alive of the children that her parents had. Her father adores her and will do anything for her, and her mother just goes along with her father.
When little Bartley gets butt hurt about something, he runs off to the station, saying he's going to Boston. Marcia is just devastated and doesn't want to let him go.
" 'You hate me!' Cried the girl. The old man walked to and fro, clutching his hands. Their lives had always been in such intimate sympathy, his life had so long had her happiness for its sole pleasure, that the pain in her heart racked his with as sharp an agony.
'well, I shall die; and then I hope you will be satisfied'
'Marcia, marcia!' Pleaded her father. 'you don't know what you're saying.'
'You're letting him go away from me - you're letting me lose him -- you're killing me!'
'he wouldn't come, my girl. It would be perfectly useless to go to him. You must - you must try to control yourself Marcia. There's no other way - there's no other hope. You're disgraceful. You ought to be ashamed. You ought to have some pride about you. I don't know what's come over you since you've been with that fellow. You seem to be out of your senses. But try - try my girl, to get over it. If you fight it, you'll conquer yet. You've got a spirit for anything. And I'll help you, marcia. I'll take you anywhere. I'll do anything for you --'
'you wouldn't go to him, and ask him to come here, if it would save his life!'
'no,' said the old man with a desperate quiet, 'I wouldn't.' "
So what does she do? She lies to her father, that she's going to go visit her girlfriend and she runs off to the train station and throws herself into Bartley's arms and tells him "forgive me forgive me, I was wrong!"
She's just sickening, this character.
So they run off together And elope. She doesn't even tell her father goodbye. When they are in Boston, renting a room in a house, her father comes to visit her. He can't help himself, he loves her so much. she knows she did wrong but she's so stuck to this Bartley character she can't help herself.
Her father is getting ready to leave after a short visit, and she says:
" 'why, father, are you going to leave me?' she faltered.
He smiled in Melancholy irony at the bewilderment, the childish forgetfulness of the circumstances which her words expressed. 'oh, no! I'm going to take you with me.'
His sarcasm restored her to a sense of what she had said and she She ruthfully laughed at herself through her tears. 'what am I talking about? Give my love to mother! When will you come again?' She asked, Clinging about him, almost in the old playful way.
'when you want me,' said the squire, freeing himself."
The character of her father made me tearful, remembering my own father who was nothing like the squire.
There's a family in Boston that's well to do, who Bartley had been friends with when he was in college. The son of the family is in love with marcia, and despises Bartley for the way he treats her. She has their baby in a carriage and runs into him in the garden at his parents' house:
"Halleck looked at her with strong self-disgust, and he dropped the bough which he had in his hand upon the ground. There is something in a young man's ideal of women, at once passionate and ascetic, so fine that any words are too gross for it. The event which intensified the interest of his mother and sisters in Marcia, had abashed Halleck; when she came so proudly to show her baby to them all, it seemed to him like a mockery of his pity for her captivity to the love that profaned her. He went out of the room in angry impatience, which he could hardly hide when one of his sisters tried to make him take the baby. Little by little his compassion adjusted itself to the new conditions; it accepted the child as an element of her misery in the future, when she must realize the hideous deformity of her marriage. His prophetic sense of this, and of her inaccessibility to human help here and hereafter, made him sometimes afraid of her; but all the more severely he exacted of his ideal of her that she should not fall beneath the tragic Dignity of her fate through any levity of her own. Now, at her innocent laugh, a subtle irreverence, which it was not able to exorcise, infused itself into his sense of her.
he stood looking at her, after he dropped the pear-bough, and seeing her mere Beauty as he had never seen it before. The bees hummed in the blossoms, which gave out a dull, sweet smell; the sunshine had the luxurious, innervating warmth of spring.... "
He abandons her and their baby and then he tries to get a divorce by saying that she abandoned him.
the notice of it gets by accident to Ben Halleck:
" 'no one knows it but you and i. The paper was left here for me by mistake. I opened it before I saw that it was addressed to her.'
he panted forth these sentences in an exhaustion that would have terrified her, if she had not been too full of indignant compassion for Marcia to know anything else. She tried to speak.
'Don't you understand, Olive? This is the notice that the law requires she shall have to come and defend her cause, and it has been sent by the clerk of the court there, to the address that villain must have given in the knowledge that it could reach her only by one chance in 10,000.'
'And it has come to you! Oh, ben! Who sent it to you?' the brother and sister looked at each other, but neither spoke the awe-stricken thought that was in both their hearts. 'Ben,' she cried, in A solemn Ecstasy of love and pride, 'I would rather be you this minute than any other man in the world!'
'Don't!' Pleaded Halleck. His head dropped, and then he lifted it by a sudden impulse. 'OI live!' - but the impulse failed, and he only said, 'I want you to go to Atherton with me. We mustn't lose time. Have Cyrus get a carriage. Go down and tell them we're going out. I'll be ready as soon as you are.' "
and so they go off to Illinois, some little town called Atherton there, where Bartley, all fat now, is thinking he's going to get rid of the marriage in the Lazy Boy way.
They make it to the court right after the judge has granted him a divorce for abandonment, but Marcia's father gets up there and does his thing and stops the judgment. But it causes him to have a stroke, when Marsha stops him from having Bartley put in jail for contempt of court, and he's never the same again and he dies within a year.
And does Marcia take advantage of a good man like Ben Halleck loving her? Oh no. She loves that fat slob until the end of time. He finally dies.
Laugh out loud.
I gave that one four stars it was very well written.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 4, 2024
DNF but i gotta move on. bartley hubbard can die tho.
October 10, 2018
This is a realistic novel written in 1882 that has timeless themes. I read it in college (many years ago) and it has improved with time and experience. Back, I did not understand what it meant to describe someone as having no more morals than a baseball. Over the years, I have met many such people, absolutely without scruples and doing whatever it takes to be comfortable, make sure they get more than their fair share, and basically stepping on other people as they climb the corporate ladder. This book's main characters, Bartley Hubbard and Marcia Gaylord, are rather superficial, not terribly intelligent people. Marcia has been indulged her entire life by her father, a rather cynical man who sees right through the empty core of Bartley. However, he is resigned to the fact that Marcia loves Bartley passionately. After Bartley leaves town under a cloak of disgrace, she basically chases him down and the pair elope and move to Boston. Ah the good old days, looking for a place to leave for less than $12 a week!
Anyway, Bartley is increasingly unscrupulous and we watch his disintegration into moral bankrupty. I felt Marcia's pain as she became increasingly unhappy and wretched, witnessing her husband's casual cruelty and extreme self absorption. The guy is a real shit heel. He himself begins to become increasingly aware of his behavior, feeling "a curious sense of growing moral decay."
The writing is tremendous. I have barely scratched the surface with this review.
Anyway, Bartley is increasingly unscrupulous and we watch his disintegration into moral bankrupty. I felt Marcia's pain as she became increasingly unhappy and wretched, witnessing her husband's casual cruelty and extreme self absorption. The guy is a real shit heel. He himself begins to become increasingly aware of his behavior, feeling "a curious sense of growing moral decay."
The writing is tremendous. I have barely scratched the surface with this review.
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