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The Examiner.
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Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg, Best. 340 Grimm Nr. Z 36
praised, and he learns to respect him
self. Has he found his mission ? He
accompanies Mr. Smith into the heart
of the State of New York, and almost
concludes to occupy himself there, in
Smith’s behalf, as overseer of his lum
ber business ; but at this crisis he
makes a discovery, or thinks he makes
one.
Smith has always promised to relate
his own family history. On board the
Hudson River steamer, as they return
to New York, he tells that his mother
was a German woman ; that she was
the daughter of a German pastor; but
at the urgencies of a -young countess,
she had entered her service, on her
marriage, as lady’s maid. But she had
been forced to leave her. The young
countess’s lover had been hidden in her
apartment. She had been obliged to
bear the shame, for the countess had
not had the nobility to tell the truth
and defend her. Arthur has listened
to this with some interest, for among
his mother’s pictures had been the por
trait. of a favorite lady’s maid, who had
been suddenly dismissed from his
mother’s service. Smith closes his
narration with the exclamation, " I
would like to meet the son of that
count; I would ask him, ‘ Is the count
indeed his father?’” On returning to
Smith’s house, Arthur finds from seeing
the picture of Smith’s mother, that she
indeed was the trusted and loved ser
vant of his mother. Smith’s question
returns to his mind, " Is the count his
father ? ” He falls directly into a brain
fever. From this he recovers to re
turn to Germany, and attempt to dis
cover from family letters the history of
his birth. He finds that his mother,
before her marriage, did have a lover
from whom she was separated by the
machinations of an aunt. But who
was he ? a peasant, or a nobleman ?
and was he Arthur’s father ?
This plot thus ingeniously brings up
the pith of the question. A French
romancer would have veiled the point
more delicately; an English novelist
would have feared the little shade of
ridicule in which the hero is placed.
But the position is this: Arthur feels
that as the son of a count, he ought
not stoop to labor ; it is a degradation.
He must remember the long line of
ancestors who have preceded him, who
have done nothing in the world, but
have held their place. “Noblesse oblige.”
But if he is not a nobleman, if he is
the son of a peasant? — the very
thought frees him; he may do what he
pleases with his life, may carve out his
own title. Inspired by this idea, he
presents himself to his old friend, Er
win ; he makes himself known, not only
by what he has to say of America and
its free institutions, but by articles
which he writes for the newspapers on
the subject.
The Prussian war breaks out. He
enters into the contest with zeal. He
leads a regiment — is wounded. Em
my and her mother come out to meet
him. The mother’s prejudices are set
aside. The marriage is arranged. On
the eve of his marriage Mrs. Forster
comes to bring him the deeds of his
family estate, which she has purchased.
He finds it necessary to explain to her,
what he fancied she already understood
— the doubts upon his birth. Mrs.
Forster is able to clear them; she is
indignant at the stain these doubts
bring upon the reputation of her hus
band. She repeats her story. It is
true, then, that he is the son of a count.
The thought drives him into a fit of
temporary madness. What, the old re
straints are to come back, the old ques
tionings ! Then is the same old line
of ancestors to make its claim upon
him ! He wanders out by night to the
old family estate. Towards morning
his brain grows clearer. An ideal of
life rises before him. He will accept
his nobility. He will tear down the
old castle, with its harrowing associa-
Grimm's “Invincible Powers”
263
tions, he will cultivate the estate, he
will live for the good of his country.
It is too late ! as he utters these reso
lutions to his friend Erwin, who has
come to find him, he is struck down by
the shot of a bastard peasant, who
has claimed to be the son of the count.
Emmy and her mother have happily
followed him, and Emmy receives his
last sigh. Arthur’s vacillating life has
come to an end, and it remains for his
friends to build up a fancy of what he
might have achieved.
One of the pleasantest episodes of
the book comes in at the close of the
war, when Arthur is taken wounded
from the hospital to a German castle,
by a countess who entertains him kind
ly because he is a count. Here we
have a description of petty court life,
where there is a little social circle of
dilettanti who talk upon art, and court
ladies who gossip of princesses ; where
the quiet, beautifully arranged park has
the charm of nature cultivated by a re
fined art; where time flows on in easy
channels, and life is softened by refine
ment ; where the great questions of
the day, if they are touched upon, are
approached in a placid way, and looked
at as from without. Here Arthur pass
es some weeks, forgetting for a time
the fresher and more energetic ideas
he had brought from America. This
is designedly a picture painted in con
trast with a country scene in America,
represented in the second volume, where
the pioneer had hewed out, himself, the
timber for his house, and had opened a
wide landscape of mountain and forest;
where the talk was on subjects as wide
as the scenery and as fresh and elevat
ing.
The author makes an occasional mis
take in portraying his American hero
ine. A foreigner finds difficulties in
understanding what he considers the
boldness of manner of our American
women. He does not appreciate that
it is the deference of American men
that permits the women to be more
free. An American girl is not neces
sarily more bold in her bearing towards
her lover than is a German maiden,
but the courtesy of American men al
lows her more freedom in public. A
Frenchman may be more polite to a
woman than an American, but he does
not respect her so much, aud his bear
ing is influenced by this. An Ameri
can young lady would not be more
likely to visit her lover at his house
with a comparative stranger, than
would a German Fraulein. Yet she
might venture a long journey alone for
his sake, not from her own boldness,
but from the consciousness that she
would be everywhere treated with
respect.
Yet Grimm’s characterizations of
American society are happy, and he
presents clearly the difficulties as well
as the welcome that the German would
meet with in entering it.
At the same time there is no adu
lation of American institutions. The
refinement of the older world is often
contrasted favorably for the latter. It
is this impartial study of the modes
of social thought in the Old and New
World that form the value of the book
to both Americans and Germans.
This novel is no more voluminous
than some of the later English novels.
It is far superior to some of these,
those of the Edmund Yates school for
instance, because it presents higher
questions of life. If the two classes
of novels are true pictures of the life
they represent, we should be led to
conclude from the way in which it ap
proaches these graver questions that
German society at present is on the
higher plane. This book presents a
study of far more interest than that of
the coarse women and effeminate men
who figure in this second-rate class of
English novels ; and we await with in
terest the solution that a few years will
bring. In the death of his hero, Her-