New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-06-17
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Alphonse Daudet also and here, too, he is silent
npon the worst faults Of his subject as exhibited
in Sapho.n Daudet is no doubt consummately
artistic novelist, with an irresistible style and
fecund, graceful fancy But surely he is not the
first living writer of fiction, and surely there are
many limitations to his genius which Mr.. James
has overlooked. But if we find cause for census
in these papers on French novelists it is in great
part because the writer of them puts his ideas with
such seductive ingenuity that one is tempted to
accept his conclusions without reflection There
is an appearance of discrimination so measured and
careful in his criticisms and his style is so full Of
wit and felicity Of expression that the soundneS
of the doctrine expounded is apt to be taken FOX
granted And it would be unfair to impute TO
Mr.. James any conscious sympathy with the GALLO
theory Of fiction he now and then seems TO APP
prove. Evidently his ultimate aim is simply to
vindicate that principle of literary freedom which
he holds to be necessary TO the production OF any
strong and enduring work. Yet in his paper on
The Art of Fiction" he appears to miss distlnc-
ton which is of really capital importance. Com'
mentng on an essay Of Mr.. Besant on the same
subject and demurring to Mr.. Besants posiuon
that fiction should have a moral purpose as
being narrowing Of art, he goes on to say:
There is one point at which the moral sense and
the artistic lie very near together that Is IN
the light of the very obvious truth that the deepest
quality of n work of art will always be the quaIy
of the mind of the producer In proportion as
that intelligence is fine will the novel, the picture,
the statue partale Of the substance of beauty and
truth To be constituted of such elements is to
my vision, to have purpose enough NOW, IL aP
pears to us that here Mr.. James fails to recognize
what is after all the main issue namely, the dis
tinction between the non-moral and the immoral
What he wishes to contend for is the former what
in the concrete instance of Guy de Maupassant, he
unwittingy defends and justifes, is the latter.
conscious moral purpose may be out of place in
felton, but the objection lies, not against the mega,
ton of moral teaching, but against the assertion
of immoral teaching.
As between fiction which, as Mr.. James says
speaking of the English novel, is addressed in
large degree to young people," and fiction which
like too many French novels. seems addressed IN
q large degree to old SatyrS, we do not think there
can be much indecision of choice from any artistic
point of view which is worth holding. Nor, when
VIC see what the French Interpretation OF literary
freedom and scope is, can we confidently expee'
that the cause Of true art can be enectlvely ad
vanced by the abolition of all ethical STANDARDS
in fiction and the substitution of individual caprice
morbidneSs, anlmaliSm, mental jaundlce or mental
myopa No doubt the world appears with dI'
ference to every man, but it does not follow tha'
every mans conception of it is equally deserving
of record equally interesting, elevating, or harm.
less Yet, if the plea of integrity in individual
expression of no matter what uncleanness' pess-
mism or folly is to be considered sufficient wartiIo
for publication, there would seem to be no poSslo'
limit to the extravagancies Of composition anu III
means by which criticism can discriminate pes
tween the wholesome and the unwhoesome, tne
noble and the base.