Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-23
The Curse of the Novel.

FROM the Christian Advocate.
The grinding out of novels goes steadily on.
The amount of time and labor Occupied in
writing novels, in printing them. and. last of
all, in reading them, is simply enormous.
Their character changes with the temper and
the conditions of the time which produces
them. The most useful which our century
has produced are the historical romances of
Walter Scott. Perhaps the next are those of
Thackeray. The many tales of Dickens have
won a large place in the affections of two
generations, but their terrible prolixity makes
the reading of them sad loss of time how
ever eager one may be to learn the secrets of
the darkest stratum of London life. In the
latest novels there is no improvement but the
reverse. Robert Elsmere, which is Just now in
many hands, and acquires a certain import
ance because of the kinship sof the authoress
with the Arnold family, is one of the most I'M
wholesome books of the last twenty-five years:
for it is the dark story of minister of the
Gospel losing his faith, making sad his devout
and evangelical wife, and dying in Agiers
leaving nothing but the seeds of afree-thinking
brotherhood in London. Blacks Princess of
Thule, which appeared some years ago. was a
good picture of Hebridean life; but all his
later works seem to be chips fallen during his
more serious hewing. The fact is the present
typical novel is poor stuff, to say the most of it.
We claim. therefore, that the vast amount of
u.
return which comes to the reader is a certain
excitement of the sympathies, a wear upon the
affections, and now and then a dark disap-
pointment But the novel reader pushes out
of one fiction into another. Nothing satisfies
The intoxication is akin to gambling, horse
Pacing. or any other vice. The new creation
of a favorite teller of stories is awaited with
passionate interest. The story is read. and
still another and the craze for the new and the
unreal remains as unsatisfied as before Who
is the better for reading MiddIemarch, its
grave padding OF Jewish lore, or a single one
of Anthony Trollope's score Of thin stories?
Does one know any more after reading these
books? Is his nature purer? Is the world any
better field for him to think and work in? Does
he love his fellows more fervently for reading
the fictions of matchmaking, social DISCUSSES,
and scheming searchers for hearts and gold?
The thirst for reading can be well satisfied
by better books than the current novel His
tory may seem dry at first to one who has been
wandering in fiction; but by little mastery of
ones self, and by selecting authors who have
added the imaginative element to historic de.
scription, the study Of history can soon become
a. facinating as any work of fiction. To a
sound taste no work can be of more transcend
emit interest than Macaulay's History of Eng
land. or Motley's magnificent Histories, or
Parkman's Episodes in American Colonial His
tory.
Biography to q well-cultivated mind has all
the charm OF romance without its emptiness
and wild excitement. Stanley's Life of Thomas
Arnold u worth dozen Of Tom Brown at Ok
ford, and all the sea stories of Clark Russell
and the fctions of Florence Marryatt and Mrs.
Oiphant. Trevelyan's Life Of Macaulay. and
the Life and letters Of Carlyle. by Froude and
other editors, are Of permanent value and Of
richest interest
To cure ones self Of devotion to the novel
there are needed no little effort of the will
and wise planning OF courses in serious
reading. Mark out historical group for
consecutive study. Consult wise literary
friend, and see where it can be amended.
Throw in biography and travellers side
lights, and follow up the plan thoroughly. In
due time one win have o solid and connected
treasury, which will furnish food for thought
and become the foundation for other and larger
courses Of reading. Let the now novel 90 by.
It viii soon die. Have the pluck to say,
when one pertly asks, "Have you read Rider
Haggard's She and King solomon's Mimes."
and similar dross, mo, and ! don't intend 70
s.-s them. ~ IN search ct better beeks."