The morning call., 1892-01-04
A NEW SCHOOL OF FICTION.

In the introduction TO his translation OF
Anatole Frances Crime Of Sylyestre Bon
nard" Lafradis Hearn expresses the opinion
that the existing school of French fiction
has exhausted its possibilities. and that the
time has come Tor the birth Of a new school,
which shall deal with the higher emotions
aud avoid the coarse realism of the school
Of which lola has been the head, and
Flaubert Goncourt. Mendes and Maui
PEASANT shining lights. Anatole France
writes as one who is feeling his way in
search Of new canon Of art. just as sixty
years ago Hugo and Dumas the elder
were feeling their way toward the creation
OF the romantic school.
Mr.. Hearn is in one respect a connecting
link between the two liteTatuTes. His mother
tongue, and we Judge his usual speech, Is
French, but he writes IN English. He may
thus be called as an expert witness on the
condition Of AngIo-Sax0n as we'll as
French fiction. 1t would be interesting to
know what he thinks Of the present outlook
of the Anglo-American novel. That
branch Of art is IN a curious and probably
a transition state. What viii be the next
step 10 its evolution?
The inquiry involves a retrospect. The
novel If the eighteenth century was Of Two
kinds, the merry, coarse novel of real life
by Sm0Ilett, Fielding and Sterne, and the
sentimental novel by Richardson, Who was
followed, as was natural, by the Minerva
Press and the lackadaisicat school OF Miss
Burney. Engiish-s peaking communities had
to be satisfied with This till Scott appeared
in 1914. Scott founded a school, and thir-
teen years afterWaTd, in 1927, Bulwer es-
tablished a branch OF IT. Dickens followed
with a further variation In 1881 Although
Scott, and BulweT IN his early works, dealt
mainly with the past, while the later novels
Of BuIWeT and nearly all those CT Dickens
deal with the present, their methods were
the same, and there is no difficulty about
classifying them together. The school
VIII iCh they founded exists to this day, 1t
counts among its members Collins, Rpade,
TT0llope amOug the dead, aud H0weIls,
James, Crawford, BroughtOn and a score OF
others among the living. But it is a fact to
which all observers Of letters will bear tes-
timony, that it Is dying out-that The quality
Of the work produced by the school is de-
terioratin Z, and that the public is neglect
ing it.
OF the noYel-wTiteTS whose works fifteen
years ago commanded so wide sale that it
was difficult to keep them in stock only TWO,
Clark Russell. the author of the Wreck Of
the GrosvenoT," and Walter BeSant, retain
their popularity. A new novel by Howells,
or Cable, or Crawford, or James, or Bret
Harte, or Stevenson, or Stockton, or Mere
ditb, OF Miss MurfIee, or Miss Broughton,
or Mrs. 0uphant, or ShOrthOuSe can count
upon What the French icall a success Of
esteem, bat nothing mo re. There is no
rush for them at the booksellers. When
they appear in serial form there is no eager
waiting for the publication Of the next chap.
ter. Ii is evident that the genius to which
they were due is drifting in some other
direction.
Whether new school Of fiction is to be
evolved out Of the decay Of the old one re-
mains to be seen. That people are as eager
as ever TO feed the Imagination is evident
from the enormous number Of short stories,
good, bad and Indifferent, published in the
magazines. Out Of thirteen articles in the
Christmas HarpeT's ten were fiction. 1t
seems that it is only the sustained novel
that is falling into desuetude. Whether the
fact is due to craving on the part Of the
public for a new school Of fiction, or
whether the leading noVel-writers Of the
day are not producing as good work as they
did, IS not as plain as might be wished. 1t
has long been obvious that the unequal GiYi-
sion Of the profits Of matchmaking between
author and publisher BODIED no good to the
industry. On each copy sold Of 81 book
the author gets 10 cents. the. mechanical
work costs about 80 cents and the publisher
takes 90 cents, less his commission to retail
dealers. The result is that the great pub
fishers of the East-the Hdrpers, the Apple
tons, the Lippineotts, the Scribners, Little
& Brown and the Cassells-haye accumu-
lated splendid fortunes, while about the
only noyel-writers who have been able to
save anything for their old age are those
who have earned money in the lecture field
II this be the secret of the decline of the
modern novel the publishers have killed a
goose which laid many golden eggs.