Dramatists of Today Author:Edward Everett Hale Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SUDERMANN There used to be, in Germany at least, quite a general critical opinion which placed Sudermann as a dramatist somewhere between Hauptmann and Wilden... more »bruch. Hauptmann was the delight of the advanced guard and Wildenbruch was the favourite of the conservatives; Sudermann seemed to be somewhere between the two. As far as one could learn, however, he was not admired by advanced guard and conservative alike, but on the other hand was condemned at least by the ultras of each party. One side called him a compromiser and conventionalist, and the other said that he merely used old technique for exploiting sensational claptrap in the way of so-called ideas. The more advanced said that his dialogue was written for schoolgirls, the conservatives said that his material was light-headed extravagance. He was, I believe, in Germany the representative of " Real- ismus," while Hauptmann's particular lay was " Naturalismus," and Wildenbruch's I don't know just what. For myself I am inclined to like this middle po- of SUDERMANN 68 sition and to think of his plays in the words applied to that unknown dramatist whose worts were caviare to the general (not that Sudermann's are), namely, that it is " an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning." His method is, comparatively speaking, as wholesome as sweet, and byv very much more handsome than fine. In other words, while Sudermann's plays have not the brilliancy and exhilaration of some of the dramatists of our day, in form at least, and dialogue, they are well put together and written. But with such matters it would be impertinent for me to meddle, for one would hardly expect one who did not follow German literature pretty closely to have an opinion on these things. Nor are they muc...« less