The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-09-02

GROWTH OF THE NOVEL,
fhe Oldest Form of Literature
New York Times.l

New York Times)
Many persons are disposed to regard
novels as comparatively modern, although
they are among the most ancient kinds
of literature of which we have preserved
any trace. The novel grows out of, and
responds to, reed of humanity; it is ca.
gerly sought bv all classes and all races !;
1t is at once pleasure, stimulant, and
distraction. Life is usually so different
from what man would have it; it so battles
his desires and defeats his expectations,
that he gladly turns from the real to such
presentation Of the ideal as the ordinary
novel contains
1t is natural for the average reader to
identify himsef or herself with the hero
or heroine, and SO get reflex satisfaction
Tor honorS never received and for virtues
never possessed. The novel takes us, for
the time, out of the aridness of our own
existence and puts us in imaginary and
very pleasant relations with persons and
things fashioned after our wishes and our
fancies No wonder the novel is popular.
no wonder it has appealed to all ages in
all zones.
In general sense, novel is a recital
in prose of icticious events, bound to.
gether by plot. describing scenes and
portraying Characters closely connected
with the story. Romances, which are
novels of fantastic or marvellous sort.
have from the remotest era been familiar
to the nations of the East. The Chinese
have, in their Oldest literature, allegorical
and wonderful tales in prose and verse,
and have had for centuries narratives of
. social, domestic life similar 10 those of
Europe. They alone, Of all the Asiatics,
nave dellneated common, every day ex.
perlences, relating conditions, customs
conversations of the family without
Genchlng upon the miraculous, or even
the improbable. The Hindus have ro
nances as ancient as the Chinese; but
they deal with the surprising and the SUI
pernatural. Giants, genii, demons sor-
cery, spells, talismans play so prominent
part, and So resemble in many respects
the Persian and Arabian tales, that these
are thought by many scholars to be deriv
Cd from India.
We demand Of the novel of to-day that
h shall be drawn from the actual; that
breathing men and women, shall be there !,
that we shall be able to see in the charac-
tiers a reflex of ourselves, under varified
circumstances, with fewer limitations,
less meager and prosaic in needs and con-
ditions, but still our intellectual kindred
and spiritul familiars. There are now
more than ever two classes of nove-read
ers-those whose sole aim is to be anus
ed, who are anxious to dissipate the time,
and those who, interested in the mystery
and meaning of life, are searching for
any glimpse Of truth.
The spirit of inquiry is strong in all cul-
tnred minds existence and its problems
have, for the first time, fully come home
to us; we feel as we have never felt before
that we are related to the whole universe,
and that we are slowly getting at its Sc
crets.
Plot and pomp, situations and speech
es, do not appeal to us in fiction as they
once did. We want characters and their
analysis; we are hungry for literary vivi-
section: we are OH the stretch TO know if
our fellows be less happy or more wretch
Cd than we, and II they be, why.
Our novel reading is pursued with
certain philoshphic energy, with an in
tense desire TO penetrate into the enjg-
matte brotherhood Of the race. Many
more novels are written and read than in
any previous era: their number is rapidly
growing their influence is extending.
The novel Of the time is the every day
epic into which we look for the familiar,
yet unknown; where we hope to find
ourselves, under better provisions, work
ing out in advance in the personagcs pre-,
sented the proplem of destiny that has
always batlled our keenest search. The
novel reflects the age as the age reflects
the novel. There is not more difference
between the contemporaneous and the an
cient Chinese novel than there will be be-
tween the novel Of the present and the
novel of the future. In the mirror of'Gc-
ton we always see the body Of the
time