Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-08-24

tuduCtS Dub ltli NAlti Nllc EEcsil public will think. I know so much as this-that the story will either make the authors fame, and so his fortune, or else 1t will be a dead failurc."
 Not long after the story was published in instsllments, and bcforc many chapters had been printed it was made plain that in tho United States at least it was to win great popularity. It Is tho story now so widely known as A Gentleman of France" and tho author Is Stanley Woy man, who Is today probably the most popular writer of historical romanccs in Great Britain. Like Conan Doyle and J. M. Barrie, Woyman took up story writing as m incident to Is vocation that was in- tended to be his lffcwork. Doyle was a practicing physician while writing for some 10 years with some success.
 Wcymnn has of late had the experience that bcfcll many writers whose succCrSS,rS come after some seeming failures. At all the watering places and summer rcs 'rtS a novel of his is meeting with grrat sale, and it Is supposed tn bc new tale, just written. But the fact is that The Story of Francis Cludd" is not n rcccnt work of Wcyman's, but was written some years ago and published ohscurcly. Nobody read 1t. Nobody seems ever to have heard of 1t. But when Wcyman gained fame with "A Gentleman of France" and again WlLn I nucE the Acu AuDCY Il4cl tnCEC came great demand for anything from his pen, and so the forgotten Story of Francis Cludd" was unpublished. It Is having one of tho great sales of the summer. Those who hnvc read 1t wonder that 1t could havc fallen fat when first published.
 Wcyman is now so profltably employed with his pen that he finds no time for pro- fessional work. His success confronts thosc who havo been saying that tho day e. .k.. L. that what the great re6Sing public wants Is n picture realistic and almost photo graphic of contempornncOus life It is also a serious setback for tho realists, who havo been claiming that modern fiction should be an exact reproduction of those characters who 1.-Two about us.
 Those who depend upon the summer time for thcir light reading, or even for tho reading of exciting romance, would find tho material very scant wcrc it not for the English writers. wCyman Is un- doubtedly the grcat favoritc this summer, as Sarah Grand was last year The salo of the Heavenly Twins has this ycaI fallen off almost as suddenly as did that of Robert Elsmcre," which dropped from n thousand one week to almost noth- ing the next.
 Dr. Conan Doyle, who Is coming to the United States in a few weeks. has written short story soon to be published, and did 1t, the publisher says, within thrCc days. Doyle, however, Is II very rapid writer, as arc Barrie and WCyman, whcPaS Quiller Couch. like w. ID. Howclls, l. very slow. Marion Crawford, whOso ''kath- rine Laudcrdale' is one of the very sue ccssful books of the summer, Is n vCry rapid writer, easily turning out novel in from four to six weeks and often doing his best work moro rapidly than any other parts of his stories.
 It is MT. Howolls' idea that good work is slow work, and it may bc that hc is of that opinion because ho works slowly, turning out not moro than 1, ,0OO words n day. Yet tho most successful writers ot this year are all very fast workmen with the pen, as was Dumas, who was often able to write a novel or romance in n week, and who wrote his two greatest stories, ''Tho Three Guardsmen" and ''Thc Count of Monte Cristo," within ie months. Dr. Johnson wrote "Rasselas'' in a very few days, that he might raiso the money to pay the expenses of his mothers funeral, and though so quickly written 1t Is n clas- sio. Walter Scott wrote some of his best romanccs in six weeks, and one of thom in less than e month.
 But the summer reading list contains some now books thnt arc of great interest and upon which great toll was put. Miss Murfree's latest story Is ono of the popu- lar books of the season, and Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes voices Q common opinion when he says, as he did recently, that she is one of the most artistic and successful of American novelists.
 Professor Beers of Yale college has just collected and published A volume contain ing some of his short stories, and they nru meeting with 0 success unusual for com pilations of short tales. Many of thoso who have read Professor Beers sketches have felt tempted to say that a great nov elist is lost in tho college professor. Had John D. Barry's story "A Daugh- ter of Thespis," now running in the New York Tribune, been finished in time for publication in book form this summer, 1t would have been sure to attract wide and perhaps critical comment, and very likely have gained widespread popularity. Inc sensation of last year, "Ships That Pas' In the Night" "Dodo, A Yellow As ter" and "A Superfiuous Woman" have had their day and have been little called for during the present scason.
 F. J. EDWARDS.