The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-08-31
THE NOVEL OF THE DAY.

Amelia B. Edwards, whose novels were
the delight of young people thirty years
ago, and whose Psychological essays won
for her diploma from Columbia College.
left behind her at her death an article on
the Art of the Novelist" which has just
been published in an English review.
The author of "Barbara's History" and
LORD Brackenbury" must certainly have
known something about that art; and yet
Miss Edwards conclusions will not be ac-
cepted by the writers of the present day.
she will be relegated to the class of old
fashioned writer's whose school went out
with golosbes and hoopskiTts.
She lays down the law that in fiction
vice must never go UNPUBLISHED. virtue
must never 60 unrewaIded, constancy
must never go unreQuited. That law has
been in force ever since novels were first
written in Egypt. and according to Mrs.
Edwards it stands unrepealed In England
and the United States. 1t rests on an in
stinct which is universal. Everybody
wants a novel to end pleasantly-tO have
the villain frustrated and the hero ana
heroine fall lovingly into each others
arms at last. Novels which end otherwise
leave a bad taste in the mouth. And yet
if fiction be the poriraiture of truth the
uniform triumph of virtue is indefens-
ible. for in real life the villain does often
win the day and the virtuous youth and
maiden do often come 10 grief. Sins, we
are told by the NeO-ChrstiaD school. are
always punished in this life, and Sheol is
really in the directory; but this must
always be explained by pointing out that
wrongdoers suffer from a relnorse which
gives no outward and visible sign. So far
as the public discerns some Of the greatest
raScals are also the most successful men
of their day. and some of the most deceit
full and selfish girls make the best matches.
For half a century or more men of pro-
gressive thought have felt that art was not
true to itself in being untrue to nature.
The feeling has boiled over from time to
time in Instructions against tradition.
Such was the OutburSt OF the romantic
school in France. with Hugo at Its head.
The doctrine of the school was carried out
to its utmost conclusion in that most mel
ancholy of all novels, "Notre Dame de
Paris" The school was so successful tina
1t swept classcism off the face of The earth.
Romanticism appeared in England in the
shape Of pre- Raphaelite rebellion against
convention. with Ruskin as the arch-rebel.
Here it ran counter to the conservative in
stincts of the English people. and 1t was
with difficulty that Turner and Millas
made good their footing. Dickens and
Thac&eray both felt the influence; the
former in Great Expectations" the latter
in THE Neweom bes" departed from tradi-
ton in leaving the fate of their heroines
underlined. 1t was left for Wagner to
carry Neo-philosophy into music. He did
not live to see his triumphs over the mel
odsts, but the conversion of Verdi showed
how we'll his work has been done.
The emancipation of art from conven-
tonalty is not complete. as is shown by
the sporadic outbursts of the spirit of in
Quiry in our day. The impressionists are
the lineal heirs of the pre-Raphaelites.
Like the latter, they are aiming at truer
truth than any which has yet been dis
covered. So the Decadenls or Symbolists
in letters are struggling to see whether
they cannot get nearer to nature and truth
than Hugo or Dumas. Thus far these new
schools have not established much beyond
a reputation for eccentricity: but they are
faithful TO COncourt's motto that the past
is false and that it is only by trying some
thing new that we shall light upon some
thing true. Perhaps their best work is not
what they do themselves. but what they
inspire others to do-outside Of their own
school Il is Observable that few of the
great writers of the day end their stories
with marriage bells and pleasing state
ment that the hero and heroine had many
children and were happy forever after
ward; more aud more works of fiction in
our day end and leave the story at loose
ends, TO be knotted together at the decree
of fate. jast as happens in real life.