The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-11-15
THE BEST OF FICTION.
John Habbert0n Tells What
Novels to Read.
UNCLEAN BOOKS BAD COMPANY,
Decent People Are Commonplace, to BE
Sure, but We Ought to Try so Get
Interested in Them.

resp0ndence. Novels and romances nerve
before abounded as now nor was the read
er of fiction ever in such quandary as 20
what to read. Although an Unsuitable
craving for stories is not indicative of a
healthy conscience, there certainly Is
laudable desire among a great many novel
readers to peruse only the best, and to
avoid whatever is doubtful on NOR al
grounds.
But what is the reader to do? He has
three sources of information as to the
quality of new books-the publisher, the
critic, and the readers own friends. OF
the three the publisher, although selishly
interested, is quite as likely as either OF the
others to tell the truth, but he says very
little, for advertising is costly, and
there is not great profit in more
than one novel in hundred. Ones
friends praise or find fault with novels ac-
|. cording to their own tastes, and probably
no two agree, so the reader usually falls
back on the boo k reviewer of his own
favorite paper. although reviewers
disagree quite as radically as ordinary
readers. Besides, the entire guild of critics,
like experts in all other arts, concern
themselves more with form than sub
stance. Whether a statue be of Carrara
marble, or of dirt from the gutter, the art
cri ic regards it as a statue and describes
it accordingly. In like manner the liter
airy critic treats a book, and the honest
reader sometimes finds himself nauseated,
catches his breath and wonders whether
the critic has lost his senses.
What fiction We shall read must depend
on our purpose in reading. About ninety
nine in every hundred ask only that the
novelist shall entertain them; to such,
the choice of novel should be made just
as one would select acquaintance, and in
such case a proper respect for ones self
should never for an instant be abated. An
unclean book, no matter how brilliant, is
as unsafe companion as a bad man or
woman. Among stories, as well as among
people, the worst are often the most fas-
cinating, for the reason that certain
passions are permanent fixtures
of human nature, and passions
are more likely than principles, or even
sentiments, to be perverted. Good men
and women have been turned into foul
murderers by long contemplation of the
art of killing, Cor the impulse to STAY an
offending fellow-being has been human
passion ever since the first murderer killed
his brother and each man was law unto
himself The sexual passion was through
many generations a substitute for love
instead of loves servant, and to this
day it is unsafe for any man or
woman to read unclean stories or
contemplate irregular relations of the
sexes. Even the bringing of such a story,
IN real life, into court has a bad and last
ing effect upon the community: so true is
ffaf 10 ha ~t1Sf of ha h.l
bench and the bar of all countries to sup
press such stories as far as possible; this
custom holds even in France Yet it is
over French novels and authors, whose
subject-matter is almost invariably a lapse
from virtue or chastity, that many review
ers become most enthusiastic, not on ac-
count of the subject but of the treatment.
No man or woman can be better or hap
pier through reading a book by lola,
Maupassant or any other OF the many
French writer's who are translated and re-
printed in America 1t is quite true that
at the end of such book virtue is re-
warded or vice is punished, just as in
plays so bad that the police will not allow
them to be produced, but it is equally true
that virtue is for the time being throttled
and vicious thoughts are stimulated in
WIoeftr VI y
oit-quoted quatrain is entirely to the point:
Vice Is monster OF such hideous mien
That, to be hated. needs but to be seen;
But seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity. then embrace.
The safest fiction to read is what most
critics will call the stupidest. The critics
and the reader never will agree, and while
the former is often very useful as guide,
through his ignoring or depreciation of q
Hoo e oSh oh. hi t,t,a
load on an unsuspecting community, his
own tastes should be studied before being
copied. If architects tastes were con-
suited ana conformed TO, not one person
in thousand could find salts
factory new house; in the mean
time nine hundred and ninety-nine
would abandon their old homes.
Yet why should they? The old home is
surrounded oy a thousand associations
which are old and familiar enough to have
become dear. The commonplace novel
occupies a parallel position. Usually it
tells about two decent young people who
meet by accident, become interested in
each other until they imagine themselves
in love, and are honest. honorable and
romantic enough to imagine that their
meeting was planned in heaven before
the foundation of the world. 1t may all
be nonsense, but as people have been
believing and acting in that way since
the world began, the average novelist
will continue to write such stories, and he
will not be mistaken in supposing that the
public want such stories. To introduce
into the lisT of characters a man or woman
of double life is TO reproduce scenes and
intrigues which are not unusual in this
wicked world but why should it be done?
When done, why should people read it?
Young people who read novels-and
young people form the great majority of
readers of generally have parents
to warn them against bad associates and
associations: why, therefore, should they
be compelled 10 contemplate the unclean
and loathsome creatures who are por-
trayed in some novels?
What is said about books by any one
who is surfeited with literary food is often
misleading. A man who is iounderlng
through bog-which, fguratively speak
ing, is about the position of the average
book reviewer, delights in occasionally
finding a solid foothold, even if ii chance
TO be on a garbage heap. To many pro-
fessional readers, a novel, like a joint of
meat on the table Is tasteless if ii has not
high" flavor Nothing is TO be gained
by trying TO conform ones tastes
to such a standard. 1t is quite
true that real life is seldom like
the existence portrayed in romanees; on
the other hand. however, II is equally I'M
like the turgid and sensational stuff
dished up IN so-called realistic" stories.
Little though romance resembles real life,
it is far truer than most alleged realism,
the purpose of which seems to be TO get rs
far from the truth as possible.
1t is one of the benefits of fiction that
the novelist shows It's everyday characters
as they are, and others as they ought 10
be. but realism, while doing the former,
introduces many beings whom no one
IN m