New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-03-25

and Pirates Of Louisiana" is fresh and ATTRACTIVE
| paper and shows deeper sense of historical pic
turesqueness THAI the former numbers of the serieS
THE ATLANTIC.
| Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, in n vigorous and
| wholesome paper on Modern Fiction" holds that
one of It's worst characteristics is its social CT
| truth TO nature which means its disregard OF the
higher laws Of art, and attempts 10 give us unldea-
zed pictures of lite. THE failure Is not, he saws
| that vulgar themes are treated. hut that the
! treatment is vulgar not that common life ~
treated, but that the treatment is commons not that
care is taken with details, hut that no selection Is
made,-and everythingis photographed regardless OF
| its artistic value"
| The characteristics which are prominent, when
we think at our recent fiction, are wholly unideal-
lied view Of human sociefv, which has got re
name Of realism n delight III representing the
worst phases Of social life: an extreme ANALYSIS OF
p .Isons and motives; the sac1 hce Of actirn 10
pSychoO gica stu ": the substitution OF studies ot
character for ANYTHING hike story notion that II
is not artistic and that il is untrue 10 natur', 10
bring any novel to definite consummatlon and
especially tn emf II happily; and dependent tone
about society,", politics, ana inc whole
drt of modern It. C. Judged o oy eur
bad way There is little beauty, joy, or light
h. nrtedne,s in living: the spontanciiy and charm
If Ii q are anaiyzed out of existence; sweet girls,
made To love amt be loved are extinct; melancholy
,Jaques never Inee's Ro lind IN the forest of Ar-
den. and If he her IN the dIaWibg-lo"m ne
poisons his pleasure with tine thoughi that IN" IS
s,brming and artificial: there are no happy mnrr-
aQes-lnderd marriage itself II almost too ma tstio
70 be- permitted by our nOvelist~, unless II can h"
sapp. enented by divorce, and art Is supposed 70
DENY any happy contamination 81 tue love. La
short modern society Is going 10 the dug'. notwih-
standing money Is only three and hall per cent.
Il s gloomy business life, NJ the BEST Nv" learned
hut Respondent university nroitssors met. not long
ago. at an afternoon coffee ana drew Gylnpa,
tb,s gonid be- said one, "witltout coheci" Yes"
replied the other, stirring the fragrant cup IN do
jecled asuect" yes; but what II. OF a world II Is
with coffee p
The analytic method in fiction is interesting,
when used by master OF dissection. but II has tins
fataI defect in q noyel-it DESTROYS illusion. We
ant 10 think that The characters IN story are real
persons We caunot do thls # we see the author set
them up if they were mari"ne'ie', ana laAe tueh
10 peces every few PAGES, ana show lh.lr INTERIOR
structure and the machinery by which they are
moved Not only i The illusion gon" bu' the move.
ment OF the story II mere l. story Is retarded III,
fine reoiler loses all enjoyment in impatlence and
weariness IOu I'M yourself saving, perhaps,
What "A very clever fellow the author ISL What an
ingenious creation this character -! How brightly
the .uthor makes his people ialk MS - blgh
praise but by no means ia" highest. ana when We
reflect we see how imm'aSnrably INFERIOR III hctoh'
the analytic mehod Is o the dramatic IN the ara
ratio method the characters appear aud snow " nat
thry are bv what thew do and say; the reader
stndie. their motives. ana par ol is enl0ymrht
IA IN analyZug them, and hla vanity Is Ia tered by
the trust repOsrd IN his pcr>Picacity. We reAhze
how unnecessary minute anal> Sis 81 character ana
peare, in which the characer are 20 Vlvldly pre-
sem ed to III act on aud speech without me least
interference OF the author III description, that we
regard them as PERSONS with whom We might nave
real relations, and not as bundles OF traits and
qualities.
Mr. Warner is shining against all the dicta lately
and so authOrilatiyely pronounced by a brother
author when he declares that II IL not true hat
civilization or cultivation has bred out Of the world
the liking for a story.
The passion for a story has no more died out than
curiosity than the passion OF love. Inc truth -
NOT that y Dries are not de handed, but that the
born rdcOnfcW and surytelier Is rare person. ho
faculty of tcling n story Is u much rarer gilt than
the ability To analyZe ch racter, aui even than the
ability truly 10 draw character IL may Ie higher
OF n lower power, but If II rarer IL Is IA natural
Vft and IT that no amount OF culture can at
tain It. any more than learning can make poet.
Nor is the complaint well founded That the stories
have AL been told, the possible plots all been
used and the combinations or circumstances
exhausted. IL Is no DOUBT our individual expert
cIcc that hear almost every daN-and we near
nothing so eagcr.y-sOme new story, better
,ynrs but new in it's cxhb iuOn OF human character,
and m the comb mat of events. AMI the strange,
cyenflu histories OF human lie Will no more DE eX-
hausted than the possible arrangement OF ma he
matical numbers. We might AZ well say that there
are no more good pictures To be painted as that
there more &, od stories to be told;
Eqnaly baselrs5 In the assumption that IL IL M
arlis ic and untrue TO nature to bring novel To
definite consummatiOn. and especially to end II
happily. Life. we are told, is ull OF ncOmpctlpn,
of broken destmIcs, of failures of romances that be-
gin bur do not end. of amOltiUns and pur-
poses frustrated, of love crossed, of unhappy
issues or rrsulless play of influences.
Well but life is full ai>O of endngs, of the results
in concrete action If character. OF completed dramas.
And we expect aud give, IL the stores We hear ana
tell IN ordinary intercourse, some point, some out
come an end OF sort. If inter st me III the
picpatatIOns OF two persons who are starting on
tourney, and expend all your Ingenuity in de-
scub M their Outlt ami their characters, and do
MOI tel me where they went or what beelI them
afterwards do not call that a story. Nor am |
auV better satisfied when you describe two persons
whom YOU know whose characters are interesting,
atd who become involved III All manner OF cDtan-
elements, and then stop your narration: ana wnen
ask say Won have moi the least idea whether they
got out of their difficulties, or what became OF
them. In real life not call that story where
eyei ythng is left uuconcluded and In the air. In
point of fact, rOmances are daily beginning and
daily ending well otherwise, under oar obscrva
ton.
Snoud they always end well in the novel; am
veIy lar from say ing that Tragedy and the pathos
of failure have their places III literature a. Wen as
III lie. only sai that, drtistcaly, "A good ending
is rs proper AS a bad ending. Yet the MAN object
of the to cnter am, and the best entertain
m-nt Is that which hits the imagination and
quickeus the spirit; to tighten the burdens o. ilie
| by taxing us Tor time ont of our humdIum and
perhaps sGrdd conditions, 80 that We
can seo familiar life somewhat IDEAL
! from an artistic point of view.
IL is of the great privileges of fiction to night
the wrongs OF life, o. do justice To the deserving and
the Vicious. IL is wholesome for us to cOhtem late
this Justice II We do not often SEE II III society
Ii il tue that hypocrisy and vulgar sclf-seeklng
often succeed IN life. occupy high places, ana make
| their exit In the pageantry Of hOnOrcd obsequies.
Yet always the man Is conscious of the hOlOwnehs
| OF hls triumph, aud the wOrlI takes pretty accu-
rate measure Of 1t. Ii Is the privilege of the novel