Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1889-05-09
MANY Books but Little Literature. :"


The year that has just ended has pro-
duced a great many books but very
little literature. The amount of fiction
which the printing presses have poured
forth, with Il rapidity with which the
most ardent devourers of novels cannot
keep pace, has been greater than ever.
But few of these works rise above me-
diocrity, and little of the annual liter
airy crop will be garnered for the edifi-
cation of posterity. In novels, as III
dress, there are fashions, regulated, so
far as one can see, rather by caprice Or
accident than by fixed law. A few
years ago the American psychological
novel-to use u big adjective TO define
a rather triAing literary quality-was
all the rage, and taste for their style
and matter was considered mark OF
literary refinement; but, although many
of them showed considerable ability and
observation, great fuss about nothing
was the pivot on which they moved,
and one can hardly blame the taste of
the public for craving more substantial
food than these thin-spun narratives of
the tepid loves of somewhat nane
young ladies and gentlemen. The
jump made was in the other direction,
and stories of blood and thunder, MUIR
der and OF sudden death, next became
the mode. But the novel of adventure,
pure and simple, is much less popular
than it was twelve months ago. and
though il is not yet clear what direc-
ton the next wave of literary taste may
take, yet the interest shown in ro-
mances whose attraction is due to the
blended forces of religious controversy
and the loves OF the hero and heroine
is evident enough that what Miss Cobbe
calls the scientific spirit of the age"
has percolated down to that stratum OF
readers whose acquaintance with alb
stract theology and modern Biblical
criticism is due to articles in reviews
and knowledge at secondhand. Young
ladies and gentlemen suffering from
religious doubts" of which they are
rather vain, are seen on every side, and
IL is such as these who welcome the
agrostic novel, especially when it is eX-
banded by no small amount OF ordinary
sentiment The singular alacrity with
which people whose autobiographies
contain nothing of extraordinary inter-
est have poured their confessions into
the public ear in the forms of recollec-
tions OF themselves, and anecdotes OF
deceased acquaintance naturally un-
able TO correct any error in the narra-
ton, has been the most striking literary
phenomenon of the past year. The
growing curiosity of the people in
everything that has reference to
actors and actresses is evinced
by the demand there has been
for all memoirs where they
figure. This has been mistaken for an
elevated interest in the drama as fine
art, but we cannot always call things
by their right names. A great deal of
nonsense has been talked about the
realism of the French school of novel
lists, of whom NJ. lola is usually deem
ca the arch offende? or the great teach
er, according TO the taste and idiosyn-
crasZs of the critic. We do not in
tend here to enter on either an attack
or a defense of writer of very re-
markable powers, but the Judgment
which an English court of law recently
passed on the translation of La
Terren reflected accurately the opinion
of English people on the most degrad-
ed development TO which the litera-
ture of France has attained. We are
told that poetry is a drug in the mar
ket," but no doubt this might have
been said OF any literary period. Shell
ley and Keats sang to the general read
err in vain in the beginning of the pres
ent century, but he needed them not,
and probably any new singer, inspired
by Apollo though he were, would be
heard with the same indifference to-
day. 1t is the custom 10 deride
the younger contemporary writers
of verse as poetasters aud
sentimental scribblers, but a good
deal of poetry, remarkable for much
technical skill and refinement of ear,
is produced, although it must be adj
mitted that we have no one to fill the
void that Tennyson and Browning leave
unoccupied. The book of the year is
by universal consent Mr.. Bryce's work
on the American constitution. 1t has
met with warm welcome in the Unit
ed States, and seems likely to become
the textbook on the subject Another
volume which deserves TO be widely
read. on account of the man it eulo-
gizes, is Mr.. Walter Besant's work or
Richard Jefferies, the prose poet, the
| touching beauty of whose rural idylys
| is unique in our language. The death
of Matthew Arnold was deplorablC
loss to English letters. AS nation
we sadly need the higher crlsicisms II
ethics, poetry, and art. There is, alas
no one to ill his place, or whose pen Il
keen enough to penetrate the thict
wadding of self-complacency will
which John Bull so aggressively on
fronts the world. 1t seems, In 81 inc
ing through the literature of the pas
year, that VIC have rather this grea
loss to lament than any great work Il
chronicle. -Swindon Advertiser.