The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1857-01-29
Misftllanrous.
FEMALE NOVEL READERS.

FEMALE NOVEL READERS.
One Of our exchanges has the following ar.
ticle, which is worthy of wide peIusal. Il
directs attention TO an alarming social evil
needing correction. Many girls, o: really fine
intelects, are throwing away all hope of q
vigorous mental culture by an insatiate craving
for fictitious works. These works which is
sue from the press, countless as the frogs ol
Egy pt, are destitute, for the mast part, ol
imagination and good taste, and have no mower
to inyigorate the mind or improve the heart
The next generation Of American women may
furnish robust minds and characters; bnt the
prospect is dreary one, when one thinks OF
the un nbstantial food which is the only ali.
ment of many.
Itis said that four ffths of the novel reading
IN this country, 1T the present time, is ach.ev-
ed by ladies. So true is this, that publishers
cater almost exclu lively for the female taste,
IN the selection of works for issue. The con-
sequence is, that the market is flooded with
high-wrought pictures of high life for one class
OF these lady readers. and high wrought pic
lures of low life fur another class, while the
staple article the article which finds its way
into the best of famiiies--is surcharged aad
sanct'iied by sickly and slender religious SEN
timent that is hardly less enervating than the
story which forms its vehicle. Now, this is
not very complimentary to The ladies, We ad-
init; but we are not TO blame for the fact, and
certainly take no delight in stating it. There
is a fact. however, ccnnec,ed with the matter,
which is slightly complimentary to them, or
their natures. The, show signs of a snrfeit,
and those books are beginning to be drug in
the market. This fact will serve, we hope,
as warning to publishers against minister.
ing to an unhealthy appetite and a low stand
ard of taste. They have brought literature in
to disrepute by ssipa ing, rather than cher
ish'ng, healthy literary appetite; and it will
take many months to recover fairly from the
degeneration. New, il they will take as much
pains to crowd before he public good books
as they have inferior ones, hey will sooner or
later regain heir groun e.sg esf
. There is something in the position of Ameri-
can women which exposes them peculiarly to
the inf ,ence of an unworthy literature. Tney
par'ake OF tie national restlessness of miru /;
they are all readers, and there is very large
ella :. especially IL. cities, who have nothing to
do bnt read. This tack of regular purs its un-
h's them fo- any thing bat ligh. reading. They
have not the hahit Of application. time hangs
heavy on their hands, and they simply seek for
tnat kind of reading which can be pursued
with the slightest outlay of effort. They can.
not snbsist on this kind OF intellectual aliment
long a :lme; but they live on il long enough
to insure several monster editions, and to stun
ulate production TO a sickening snrfeit. There
IS another class, lara er, perhaps, Il an this
class living in the country--intelligent cou-
try girls and women, who leading tame, and
to them tas.eless lie, grasp eagerly at such
literary exctements as arr pressed to their
taste; and so learn TO live ia an artificial az
maspheie, while moving among their daily de-
tall Of duties. There is still another class,
scattered every yshere-religious : women, who
wish for amusement, and who while ond emn-
ing novels generally, will swall,w story
eagerly, il it only be peppered with pious les
sons, and saltea with a moral
American women should be something more
than mere story swailowers. They have re-
versed the Iier of things, elevated novel read.
ing to pursuit. Novels, though an import
ant department of literature, do not form TIA
highest or most important department. They
are, or sh 'uld be. incidental and subsidiary;
and when history, biography, natural phil $50
ply and criticism have fed lhe mind. and built
up within it sound views OF life, true CON-
pIehensioG of the relation OF events, and an i'm
sight into human character, the choice OF nov
els, for relaxation or study, will fall upon al
together different class from that upon which
We have aninadverteG. These suited and sill
ly fic;ions have no charins for healthy mind,
a,d are cast aside as the most unsatisfactory
chaff.