Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-03-25
THE MODERN NOVEL
The Subject Of an Address Delivered
Before the Nineteenth Century Club
Of New Ysrk Tuesday Night.
How Did the FaBaticism OF Realism
Come About? D Neyelists Must Net
be Frightened by the Critics.

NEW YoRK.-The Tribune reports that e
large assenblzge of ladies and gentlemen
filed Courtlsndt Palmers brightly-lignted
parlsrI in Creamery Park on Tuesday night.
The occzsion was the regular meeting Of the
Nineteenth Century Club, of which Mr.~Pal-
mer is president. The subject which the
club was 10 discuss was The Modern Novel"
The principal address Of the evening Was de-
liverea by Julian Hawthorne, who read
slowly and distinctly from manuscript his
address, which wac in part as follow:
Novel. are the only books that are read from 40
selfish motive, AID they are the only true books
these works OF fctiOn"-because they tell the
vicisStu les Of that only great conservative the
human heart. Shakespeare IA fresh today though
Bacon is left behind. Nae against late was the
81. I-ppds.r,arf ~ ihe tEristiSn e. I5 oar
modern school Of fiction tse csnhict perhaps lies
between culture and proyl1gi@.isa WIZ the
auIhsr on the sde Of culturs II tbs art Of Teton
be not finer art in our day than At fsrn=T pc
risd. ii is at all events sore near slghted one.
or or not we see sore deeply into them. Until
quite recently the plot received more alteration
! into hII own skeleten Now some of our best
writer's is their anxiety 10 plot too much almost
cease , t. have ~, any Po at on al :veS such n,ys
| the true alternative from too much plot
| is not to No plot, but to plot OF higher and
\ more interior kind. lake number Of characters
and bring them to bear upon each other until an
4
| occarTing OF the inner plane Of thought and emo
| ton which are not only oil supreme interest IN,
trinsicaliy but which spprise US that all external
incident is but q reflection or consequence OF the
| other. The depth from which our words are
spoken Is the measure OF the septn A. when tney
| will be heard, and the deeRer we lay tins move
| ment Of our story the deeper and more permanent
will be it. impress or The reader. Fer the out
ward memory of and is leas reteRtive tn an
| that OF the emotions and judgment.
| As regards characters, you NAY have noticed oil
late a certain timidity about using the Old -faah-
| toned heroes and hsfoines They are considered
| mot good for z'-too demopstrAtIye! Besides, art
| m uIt draw from nature, and where are the heroes
| and heroines of our own little social circle, fol
| aRple? Therefore, il is thousht, We should put
into our stories such commonplace and familiar
figures as we are forever stumbling over in the
hotels and at our friends houses, AID make up FOL
the unpretehtiousness OF our material by the DIT |
| lSncy with which we describe and d1sSect II. The
reader, moreover, will be more edited aud con
| vInced by lesson brought down 10 the level q
his daily experience than sy lofty oracles IRON
This argument is plausible. but does It no
forget the fict that every human being, no matte
how mean and ir.i his UNINSURED personal quail
ty, may at need draw ilhmitably Spou that vss
) ocean OF husan natHre which hsws oeneath u
heroes OF history, only the organs and instru
menz OF great opportunities, and, as Emsr-ol
says, they are tae most indebted men, Inc
are not great in Themselves There il no ratio be
tween their achievements and them our guag
ment is rnialed; we do not discriminate between
t the m eans and the cause aud effect We need no
be afraid, therefore. TO put heroes IN our novels
only iet US be careful 10 p &c Ies Sf
If the incidents and occasions are inS'gnlncan'
/. 10 must the characters be, no mats MAJ
| what exalted gifts the novelist may HScriDe I
" | them. When our civil war broke out society Gel
a t.tnly showed no more noble linesments than
a does now, and yet before we had Ieus hit yssr "
: | had heroes by the thousand, and SIS many gTe'
men we needed. Human nature is always u
. same. and II is always just as capable OF rising
| the ideal as of sinking to noneztty. 1t is tn
| poets business, the noveiiSts business, 10 kes
: the ideal before us and to use the nonentiiy as
4. And this Suggests the question, How did tn
fanaticism OF Realism come about? II WI
. | originally, doubt, q reaction from the llteIe
/ | sentiment and morbid huH bug which had con
Y down to from an ill-edueAtsd and srthci
paEt. But the indignant HteTalists Who expose
an ridiouled it's artihciaity, allowed their enth
|. siasm to carry them too far. Not all sentiment
e yapid, nor is sill fgurative1ess false. There Is
class of minds which mistakes discords for trut
II They find dixcoIds everywhere. They find the
contradictory Of harmony and idealsnl, and th'
conclude hat TO Law to gu souls the ALTERING M
ton Of ideklism and hsTHssy in defiance OF the e'
dencs of phlpsDle facts about US must be Wron
Hence the celebration of discords which is calf
'e Liberalism. Now, so far as this promotes sinceri
and simplicity in srt, It is eonnendabls, a
d writers and sAtirists But the seuteneEs OF lat
8, lists il not Away. balanced By their tas,e Tn
D. reputation for calling spade spade, they Try
d. maintain II by calling carved goblet By Cell
ID q pewter mug The ridicule of what is ridiculol
ne developing by natural selection into riSioule
what is not ridiculous and cul ninating in rdieu
for ridicule's SAKE, has resulted not SO much
pruning folly, which we have always with US
matter what we do, as in stunting and choPpi
down the wholesome and spontaneous growth
beauty and inspiration. Writers OF genins and
nnsment are getting to be afraid to Say their Sol
are their OWE, or let on" that they have
souls at all. They might be accused OF fine fe'
ings" or "sentimentality." They begin to sistrl
the generous glow that sccomesnies free a
geuisl com position. With the sensitiTeness ms
arabic from the artistic temperament, they shri
back in studied sel1-coDscious attitude, addr
us in graceful and fsEtidiOus sut frisid phrss
and cultivate the air of having divorces the
selves from all sympathy with their owa stories
Now it may be question whether an autt
should gossip about his drdnlatis persona as fre
as Fieldin. Ssd ThsckerIy de, but, be that a
De may, peril Turks on the other side. For,
make the comment" in novel colorlesS or or
cal is not the same thing to have no comment
all. Instead of permitting the emotion or seHtimt
OF the scene TO have It's unbiased effect, = disco
is constantly obtruded bet. cen the positive Iii
m, of the story ana the neutral tint of the
marks, and the writer instead OF rendering hi
self invis b e, becomes inveterstely conspicuo
The writer who truly forgets himself, and so lei
his reader to forget him, is the wfitsr who go 8
sitiyely sttunes himself to the dominant chord
his story that, though the sense OF his words
;, taken his voice is rot heard Moreover. the writ
=" lack of sympathy with his characters commu
Gates itself not to the reader alone but TO the oh
acters themselves, and they also. begin 10 p
their way fastidiously through their language q
to behave with wellbred selfrestraint Reserve
N, admirable. but it is hardly cre.tiye There is
the seed planted in the ground.
These norclists Of ours, with their great 6
and their noble purposes, should not perait
cracking of thsrns under the pot" to firth
them into uttering less than their highest conc
tioss They should not lapse into shape
all very well, but it seems sllost impossible
le7 overrate its value. You remem Der how, over
outer gate OF the Enchanted Castle, was writ
"Be Bold" over the second BE Bold and E.
v" more Be Bold" and over the inner one "Be Be
but Not Too Bold So, ever the fist door of
scnosl of modern hctiou we might is2cTibe
legend "Be Cultured" over the next BIS
tured Eyermore be CuItgrtd,' and over the T.
BE Not Too Cultured" l have left myself
time to speak OF the minor features OF the st:
such as style purpose buHaor, the great Amer
novel, and so on. In fact what 1 have s&iC
ESP merely . revelation OF what remains to say.