Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1890-01-10
- d FIerIoN.
By WIZ ALEXANDER BOWEN.

Vanity Fair is
e55G5Zs5 undoubtedly
novel without
+ - s-Z heavy villain Is
49, Becky Sharp, If
z@==1 we except Lord
5tayne, who is really a secondary
character. While the novel, taken as
q whole, IS the most terrible satire In
the English language, not excepting
/ SWlfbs works, 1t Is also true. This makes
it all the more fOrcible Thackerav
was more than an artist. He wrote
not only to produce something inter
/ estIng and valuable, but to give vent
/ to his scOrn and hatred of the shams
/ and hypocrisy and snobberY and time
/ serving mammOn-worshiping age In
/ which he lived.
Our own nOyehsts treat love temper
/ ateiy, depending on what the critics
! call realism for that absorbing IN
/ terest which was formerly thought to
/ be found only in making love the pre-
/ dominant theme. Thus HOwells, in
/ his best novel, GA Modern Instance. F"
makes the interest center, not in the
4 lOve-making of his hero, but In the de-
/ velOpment of the character of BARLEY
! Hubbard, a man without principle, but
/ who is smart In the American sense.
/ AIr. Henry James, whose name is al
I ways thought of in connection with
/ that of Mr. HOwelIs, 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
Iectual than their neighbOrs. But, new
ertheIess, 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
| enthusiasms.
Mrs Burnett and Miss WooIson are
/ more intense than either of the latter
! named, and more impressed with the
/ Importance of love as q factor in human
| life. Being women, they could not be
otherwise. Through One Admins
tratiOn" is a love story, and, at the
/ same time, q study of manners and
| characters at the national capital.
! Mrs Burnett and Miss WOoIson both
award the palm to duty where they
! picture struggle In their stories be
! tween love and duty. In this they
! differ from the old school of IOve-story
nOveEsts. Miss Murfree (CharIes
! Egbert Craddock) is equally powerful
/ in depicting the passions of the heart.
1t may be set down as q 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 viii,
perhaps, be enough to say, before ex-
aiming this charge, that 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
tivity. 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 a 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 well as
fame.
But BaIzac and Thackeray, In writ
! ing novels without love In them, IN
! dertOOk what some critics call a 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 under
/ standing Of history, public or private.
/ or the sciences and common affairs Of
/ life.
BaIzae had a mind to study all the
! passions-aI the strong, controlling
motives Of life. He was assiduOus In
/ inyestiga tng all those abnormal devel-
! Opments Of character which may be
! safely classed on the harmless side of
! insanity, but which result, neverthe-
/ less, in the deformity of moral eharac-
/ ter. In the Old-style novel the villain
/ served simply to Comphcate the plot
! and to act as q foil to the virtues of the
/ hero until the Last act or chapter,
when virtue invariably triumphed.
/ BaIZac 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 a higher purpose, and be at the
! same time more interesting, If shown
in a novel just as he Is in real life
| Chicago Ledger.
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