human
Outre-Mer had been published some time before, with moderate success, but
gpt
Hyperion was destined to attract far more attention. It is first mentioned in his journal on September 13, 1838, though in a way which shows that it had been for some time in preparation, and its gradual development is traceable through the same channel. One entire book, for instance, was written and suppressed, namely,
human
St. Clair's Day Book, the hero having first been christened Hyperion, then St. Clair, and then Paul Flemming. Its author wrote of it,
gpt
I called it 'Hyperion,' because it moves on high among clouds and stars, and expresses the various aspirations of the soul of man. It is all modelled on this idea, style and all. It contains my cherished thoughts for three years.
human
Hyperion was received was due partly to the love story supposed to be implied in it, and largely to the new atmosphere of German life and literature which it opened to Americans. It must always be remembered that the kingdom in which Germany then ruled was not then, as now, a kingdom of material force and business enterprise, but as Germans themselves claimed, a kingdom of the air; and into that realm Hyperion gave to Americans the first glimpse. The faults and limitations which we now see in it were then passed by, or visible only to such keen critics as Orestes A. Brownson, who wrote thus of it in
gpt
The Boston Quarterly Review, then the ablest of American periodicals except
human
The Dial:
gpt
I do not like the book. It is such a journal as a man who reads a great deal makes from the scraps in his table-drawer. Yet it has not the sincerity or quiet touches which give interest to the real journals of very common persons. It is overloaded with prettinesses, many of which would tell well in conversation, but being rather strown over than woven into his narrative, deform where they should adorn. You cannot guess why the book was written, unless because the author were tired of reading these morceaux to himself, for there has been no fusion or fermentation to bring on the hour of utterance. Then to me the direct personal relation in which we are brought to the author is unpleasing. Had he but idealized his tale, or put on the veil of poetry! But as it is, we are embarrassed by his extreme communicativeness, and wonder that a man, who seems in other respects to have a mind of delicate texture, could write a letter about his private life to a public on which he had as yet established no claim.... Indeed this book will not add to the reputation of its author, which stood so fair before its publication. {41} This is the criticism of which Longfellow placidly wrote,
human
I understand there is a spicy article against me in the 'Boston Quarterly.' I shall get it as soon as I can; for, strange as you may think it, these things give me no pain.
gpt
--that is, of experiment.{43} It would be interesting to know whether this accomplished author, looking back upon
human
Hyperion more than thirty years later, could reindorse this strong assertion. To others, I fancy, however attractive and even fascinating the book may still remain, it has about it a distinctly youthful quality which, while sometimes characterizing even his poetry, unquestionably marked his early prose. A later and younger critic says more truly of it, I think,
gpt
Plainly in the style of Richter, with all the mingled grandeur and grotesqueness of the German romanticists, it is scarcely now a favorite with the adult reader; though the young, obedient to some vague embryonic law, still find in it for a season the pleasure, the thrilling melancholy, which their grandfathers found. {44} But Professor Carpenter, speaking from the point of view of the younger generation, does not fail to recognize that Paul Flemming's complaints cease when he reads the tombstone inscription which becomes the motto of the book; and I recall with pleasure that, being a youth nurtured on
human
Hyperion, I selected that passage for the text of my boyish autobiography written in the Harvard
gpt
Class Book