Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1882-07-14

sale of all her books is stated to be abou
half million, some reaching sale {
moro than fifty thousand each. Her ow
words furnish the truest commentary o
what she has done or tried to do. Sh
says !: try to avoid the sensational. an
never deal in murders or robberies o
ruined young girls but rather in dc
mestic life Us know it to exist. meal
always to write good, pure, and natura
story, such as mothers are willing thei
daughters should read, and such rs vii
do good instead of harm.
| Among her best are ELENA Rivers,
meadow Brook" Darkness and Day
light" and Edith Lyle" We motto,
that her name is on the tabooed list sen
out by the American Library Association
This list also contains the respectabl,
names Of Wilkie Collins, Jessie Forther
gill, and Martha Finley-good compan,
for any novelist The same list omits
by the way, the name of Miss Dupuy
Mrs. Cathnrinc A. wnrneid.
Mrs: Catharine A. Warfeld. author oi
''The Household of Bouverie," "a Dou
BILE Wedding" Hester Howard's Temp.
tation," Romance of Beauseincourt,
and ''The Cardinals Daughter" enjoys a
steady popularity based upon her genu-
Inc ability, and somewhat perhaps upon
the fact that all her stories are connected
in plot. In spite of some objections made
to her on the ground of a certain morbid
ness supposed to inhere in all she does, it
Is not overpraise to say that her gifts of a
powerful imagination and considerable
fancy are merits which outweigh her
faults. Ifa still greater acquaintance with
her would result in n corresponding de-
crease in the reading of Mrs. Hentz or
Miss Dupuy, it would be gain.
1t should be noticed that these ladies'
are or have been of good education, of
some position in the world; that, good,
bad, or Indifferent rs their stories NAV
be, no charge can be brought against
them of purpose to unsettle convictions,
or to instil.. foul things into their readers
minds. There is no "Ouida" nor "NIrs.
Forester" among them. Having a large
public to write for, whose taste is strong
for the sensational, perhaps they have
found it financially profitable to write as
they have done, and once begun thew
have continued. In Mrs. Southworth's 5
case, MS has been mentioned, her later
books show higher standard She has
won her constituency and can now afford
to write as she pleases. To cite another
case of this same sort Of improvement
over an early style, Mrs. Henry Wood,
the author of East Lynne" has lately
demonstrated capacity for better
things.
With every public library, great or
small, there must be limit to the pur-
chase of fiction, and this limit must be
defined by some policy. A small library
can determine to buy the best first, and
then the mediocrities. When it has made
its selections from such lists as the cheap
and serviceable Tauchnitz Collection,
now more than two thousand numbers
strong, and secured the best of the Leis-
ure-H Hour Series, aud of the many good,
if not first-rate, sets of novels constantly
there will still be many whose
claim to place in library comes before
such writers rs we have noticed. Natural
selection ought to be reason enough to
exclude the poorer sort of books from q
small library for the best must come
first. For the large libraries, which are
in a measure to consider the
demands of all, there is the old and
diplomatic, not to say tricky
method, of buying one copy of each OF
these undesirable books, so that the per-
sistment enquirer may be silenced by the
that what he wants is to be
had, though he may try year before he
gets it. But any such method seems
preferable to the fatuity of publicly put
ting ban upon books, which do not
come up to the literary or social require
ments of fastidious criticism.