New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-01-12
MIR. HOWELLS'S THEORY OF FICTION.

To the EdttOr OF The tribune.
SIR: Mr.. Howels, in his new department III
Harpers Monthly records his opinions on severa"oIksoi
fiction and some these strike as so strange tha
am moved TO solicit space enough 10 discuss them lit
lie I'm your columns. While praising Miss Murfrees
story, The Prophet Of the Great smoky MOUNTAINS
Mr. Howells cites poetcar passage from 1t to point au
uucompIinentary reference to-whom it is not quite
clear though the tendency of the criticism Is apparent
1--WE know" he says, whom sue learned that poor
business owho the great master WAS that having done
a fine thing abandoned himself to hysterca emotional
ity over It, what people cali sympahy WIN Ms cA"F
acters and presently wandered of into waste OF mol
low and sounding verbage." The presumption Is that
Dickens is here meant though from the fact that lie is
introduced by name in the following sentence and IN
peculiar manner, may feel uncertain ABOUT lhis'
Mr. IIowes proceeds We have some fear, also, that
Dickens with his Victor Hugosh martyr OF Sidney
Carton was not wholly absent when the last
end of Miss Murfree's Prophet was imagined.
though probably lie not present TO the
authors consciousness. IL Ia DOT IN such
romantic wise that men really die FOR men Inc real
sacrifices indeed been offered for races not Tor
persons 1t ia not aferthis manner that even saint
gives his life TO save his euemys" In these sentences
much is revealed concerning Mr. Howellss theory OF
ncon and venture TO say that the nature OF his hn-
tations been more strongly marked Inc view"
however, which excludes "emotionality" from hcton'
sgnatizng 1t "hyserca Is not iess false To human
nature than the remarks Mr. Howels about the man
uerence The specific reference to Sidney Carton Is
snguary unfortunate, iuasmuch Just such rubsti-
tuition as Carton effected in the prison Is recorded as
having occurred during the Terror" But surely Mr.
uowells is quito in supposine that real life offers
no paralles TO such sacrifices that of the Prophet
Perhaps he wraps up mental reservation in the mean
INC no gives 10 the term romantic" but 1t certainly Ia
not true that real sacrifices have been made Tor
races and not for individuals" The real sacrifices OF
which all history; past sad pre'ent is full lave most
frequently been for individuals What Mr. How
ellis seems by romantic when translated into
tholaDguage everyday hfe Is the surrender i'm
pulse TO noble and unsedsh prompting and this kind
OF deed, repeatedly involving the death OF men Tor
their fellows, happens even more commonly In real
life than in fiction Take the case Of the Brkenhead,
where body Of English soldiers in sinking ship, the
boats OF which could only the and children
deliberately devoted themselves TO death to save those
dear 10 them aud ranged as r parade upon the deck,
fred their deathvoley In the moment OF the final
plunge Come nearer home and examine the NanticoKe
disaster where OF men worked day aud night In
documentary danger Of entombment, their m-
nrisoned comrades. Read the vOlulnnOus records OF
rcscucs shpwrcck where hundreds OF instances OF
the olest seEdevoton without hope or thought of
ward are 20 found. Think OF the daily hourly proofs
of sesacrfce which modern life affords; Of the wives,
otherz sisters who brave contagious diseases to nurse
,hsr dear ones of the ply sioans who tako their lives
M their hands continually; OF the engineers who save
the people to them by sacrificing themseives
OF the scores of instances of heroic soabandoament
which prove, IL they prove anythns that "omotion
atty" playa too prominent part Ia human life TO be
Ignored ny the noyes al tho cost OF the truth aud
value OF his art.
But, Indeed, Mr.. Hoveuss OWE writings the best
possio,e evidence OF the By rs attempt to exclude
"emotonality" arc wGleh, "romautc," he deolar
70 DO worse than unnteresttrg he has produced hc
non which repes those who best appreciate its
,ki And IL repes because It has been made inbuman
by the writer's false thecrr Human lie Is lot pup
Pct show TO be regarded through masnify,ng glasses
with oo,y critical temper Its chief interest consists
On the pay OF those passions which move " all after
kind; which, rs they are enh"Dns or degrading, afcct
fhe Deeds and atanding OF all Of US; and
which through the CONSEQUENCES OF COM
,.on pas,sssIon. keep alive In ~ tdo bond OF union
we cpr sympathy When great master Ike
Tackcray describes life the satire which his clear Wis
ion shnr,eus harden revolt us because the
warm hunsDy and responsive sympathy OF tha writer
soften oven tho realistic pictures and Invest thcm
With toncEos OF highest and tenderest emotion. Tho
creator of Rocky Sharp a.o the author Of Colonel
Newcomb. No Two characters In fiction ara further
aart or more absontely unlike The one Is tho type OF
a uhenomenaily Dad woman tina other that OF
fundamentally noble man. But Tbackoray could not have
conceived CJicnsl Ncwconb had Ito held Mr Howeliss