Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1890-01-25
WRITER'S OF FICTION.
BY VIM. ALEXANDER BOWEN

| S9SfasamS Nh novel without a
& AH lhero. It's only
| ~ M2JLHsssSA' heavy villain is
-. Becky Sharp, if
go we except Lord
Stayne, who is really secondary
| character While the novel taken as
a whole, is the most terrible satire in
| the English language, not excepting
Swift's works, it is also true. This makes
it all the more forcible Thackeray
was more than an artist. He wrote
not only to produce something inter
csting and valuable. but to give vent
to his scorn and hatred of the shams
| and hypocrisy and snobberv and time
serving mammon- worshiping age in
which he lived.
Our own novelists treat love temper
ately, depending on what the critics
call realism" for that absorbing in
tercst which was formerly thought to
be found only in making love the pre-
dominant theme. Thus Howells, in
his best novel, A Modern Instance, )"
makes the interest center, not in the
loyemaking of his hero, but in the de-
velopment of the character of BARLEY
who IS smart in the American sense
Mr.. Henry James, whose name is al
ways thought of in connection with
that of Mr. Howclls, rarely permits his
lovers to exhibit much emotion. He
also deals in the same calm manner
with the other feelings. 1t may be for
this reason that neither of the novel
lists is popular with any except that
class which claims to be more intel
lectual than their neighbors. But, new
ertheless, no novelist of any age has
ever been more careful in sketching his
characters, or has given us stronger
touches of human nature and action
than Mr.. James. In "The Bostonians"
he pictures to us the real and the sham
philanthropists of the city of culture,
its charlatanry, its fads and its genuine
enthuslasms.
Mrs. Burnett and Miss Woolson arc
more intense than either of the latter
named, and more impressed with the
Importance of love as a factor in human
life. Being women, they could not be
otherwise. Through One Admins
tration" is love story, and, at the
same time, study of manners and
characters at the national capital.
Mrs. Burnett and Miss Woolson both
award the palm to duty where they
picture a struggle in their stories be-
tween love and duty. In this they
differ from the old school of love-story
novelists. Miss Murfree Charles
Egbert Craddock is equally powerful
in depicting the passions of the heart.
1t may be set down as fact that
stories without love as the strongest
passion in them will never be popular
with any class Of readers. Love is the
strongest passion in life, and must be
so in stories of human life, to be popu-
lar with readers who love, or have
loved.
Many people think they have
reached the summit of criticism when
they complain that there is too much
love in novels and stories. 1t will,
perhaps, be enough to say. before OK
aiming this charge thas any story
which did not deal with love at all
would not be a story of life in this
world. Love is the great motive power
which spurs men and women on to &C
tiyity. This and its wicked sister
spirit, hatred, are the two great con-
trolling forces of humanity.
But the charge mentioned was for
merly more just than now. Only the
fewest, comparatively, of readers would
tolerate q novel which did not have
love as the prime factor of life; love
and the most thrilling experiences of
those actuated by that passion must
form the basis Of any story which is to
be popular with the masses. And
after all, writer's toll only that they
may become popular, because this
achievement means wealth as we'll as
fame.
But Balzac and Thackerav, in writ
ing novels without love in thcm, UNI
dertOok what some critics call broader
treatment of human life than making
love the foundation of their novels.
They saw clearly that to have no other
key than love to unlock the secrets of
life they could never lead to an undcr-
standing of history, public or private,
or the sciences and common affairs Of
life.
Balzac had q mind to study all the
passions all the strong, controlling
motives of life. He was assiduouS in
investigating all those abnormal devel-
opmcnts of character which may he
safely classcd on the harmless side of
insanity, but which result, neverthe-
less, in the deformity of moral charac-
ter. In the old-style novel the villain
served simply to complicate the plot
and to act rs Il foil to the virtues of the
hero until the last act, Or chapter,
when virtue invariably triumphed.
Balzac found that this was seldom the
result in real life, and that the villain
could be made interesting on his own
account; and that he could be made to
serve higher purpose, and lie at the
same time more interesting, if shown
in novel just as he is in real life
Chicago LeJger