She was told that they could not even entertain the idea of publishing it, as they were overcrowded with previous engagements; but upon her urging the point, she was politely allowed to leave the book for inspection.

Within two weeks from that time they sent a contract for its publication, addressed to the "Author of 'Emily Chester; and it was not until Crane returned the paper signed in full that they knew the name of the writer whose novel they had bound themselves to publish.

More than this, four editions were issued by leading English publishers and the story was translated into German, meeting a cordial reception in the cultured and appreciative circles of the European world.

The novel was dramatized by George H. Miles and won new fame by presentation upon the stage, exceeding the most sanguine hopes of the author as well as the adapter.

To a certain extent the work was autobiographical in character, it being an article in Miss Crane's literary creed that a novel is effective just in so far as the elements of autobiography enters into its creation.

[7] At the heart of the work was the dilemma of the title character, who married a respectable, if boring, middle class gentleman, and later fell in love with a more dashing man of her community.

The fierce moral debate that subsequently raged inside Emily - whether to stay faithful to her husband, or to pursue her passion for her real love - eventually had a deleterious effect on her physical health.

Since Goethe's 'Elective Affinities,' we are aware of no story in which the psychology of exceptional sentiment and passion is represented with such keenness and force as in ' Emily Chester.'

Max Crampton and Frederic Hastings are also types of character strongly individualized, and the contrasted magnetism they exert on the mind and heart of the heroine is vividly represented.

In those parts in which the author is not analyzing and representing the strange mental phenomena which constitute the fascination of the book, she shows immaturity both of thought and observation... Emily Chester' exhibits such palpable mastery of illusive phases of passion difficult to fix and portray, that it cannot fail to make a profound impression on the public.

Imagine the 'Elective Affinities,' with a distinct moral aim superadded, and written with the intensity and consecration of Godwin, and we get a tolerably fair impression of ' Emily Chester.'

"[2]To show the attention this novel attracted among the intellectual portion of the North, the following was a criticism from "Gail Hamilton" of New England:— "The very common fault of this book will have a tendency to conceal from the popular gaze its uncommon excellence.

It has all the millinery of a third-rate American novel—the most abounding beauty in its women, perfect manly grace in its men, fabulous wealth surrounding the important personages, with a profusion of elegant appurtenances which, at the present rates of gold, reads like an Arabian Night's entertainment .

It constantly falls into the vulgar error of making all of its outside women pretty, gossiping, envious, malignant, and hateful, with only here and there a gleam of faint and altogether flickering sunshine, as if womanly splendor were not sufficient of its own shining, but must be set off against a black background.

But discarding all resort to hard-featured fathers, mercenary mothers, family feuds, and all manner of circumstances, go directly inward, and find in the eternal mystery of the complex human being all the obstacle, the passion and purpose which life requires.

It may, indeed, be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to those conservative novel-readers who love to have a story go on in the good old paths, with which they have become so familiar that they can see the end from the beginning.

A beautiful woman, of her own free will, marries a man who is passionately and most unselfishly devoted to her, whom she holds in profound respect and reverence, yet with a feeling little short of loathing.

They are often melo-dramatic; there is a certain overdoing of attitude, gesture, and expression, as if a youthful hand had traced the windings of Emily's inward experience, her changing relations to Max, the effects of his absence and presence, the mingled distrust, repentance, regard, and gratitude.

Her mirth, her coquetry, her gentleness and wilfulness, her great heart-hunger and brainpower, her passionate tastes and distastes, are a mighty relief after the bread-and-butter heroines who mostly trip it through even our good novels.

He believes that a scathing anonymous obituary was in fact written by James who had every reason, he contends, to want her forgotten:— "For the unknown writer of this shockingly nasty death notice, Seemüller [Crane] was a monster of such power and proportions that it was necessary, publicly, to drive a stake through her heart.