The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-01-11
LITERATURE OF 1904.

Speaking of the literature of the
past year the Chicago Inter Ocean says
that Judging by the quantity of new
books of every sort sent out from the
press, the year 1894 was remarkably
rich in literary wealth produced.
This is especially true in the line of
fiction.
This is the age of the novel. That
form of literature is having its day in
court. it is the distinctive modern
feature of authorship. Speak of poe
try and the mind goes back to Homer,
David, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare,
and Milton, dwelling lightly upon the
Victorian poets. The term history
brings to mind Thucydides, Herodo-
tus, Strabo, Livy, and Tacitus. In
philosophy the foremost names are
Socrates. Plato, and Aristotle, with
Bacon the nearest approach to con-
temporary. But the novel hardly eX-
listed until long after Bacon, Shake
speare, and Milton had ceased their
deathless singing. 1t takes assiduous
cropping in the dark to find any real
wealth of fiction until Sir Walter
Scott poured out his soul in romance.
Oliver Goldsmith, Defoe, and few
others did something, but Scott did
more than them all. The year now
closing it's record shows that the flood
has not yet begun to subside. 1t is
hardly too much to say that romance
has been steadily growing in relative
Importance from the day of the
Waverley novels, and it surely shows
no signs of any WEAKNESS and decay
of power"
Every year has some particular book,
and the book of 1894 was "Trilby," in
which Du Maurier gives picture Of
art life in Paris, which has attracted
wide attention on both sides of the
Atlantic. Whether it will be long
lived or not; whether it will meet the
appreciation of One-half of those who
read it or not, the fact has been ad-
mitted that the book has been sue
cess. Evidently, says the Inter Ocean,
it is the kind of story the public
taste of the year craved. The COM
paniOn book of next year may be quite
different. 1t may not be story at all,
but the chances are that it will be.
Never in the history Of letters was
the supply of novelists so great and
the standard of artistic merit SO high
as now. There is every reason to eX-
pect from them an abundant harvest
during 1895. There are no signs of any
abatement in the productive energy
of the novelist. That form of litera-
ture is making up for lost time.
AS to the poetry Of the year, the air
was not filled with much melody. The
year saw the last of that galaxy Of
sweet singers which graced this side
of the Atlantic, close his eyes in his
last long sleep None who are known
to the world as poets have produced
anything which will add to their per-
manent fame. Several new names
have been added to the poets list, but
time only will reveal the place they
are to occupy. Evidently it is one of
those lulls in the march of the cen
turtles when the genius of poetry rests
from its labOrs, but none can tell how
soon it will awaken and thrill the
world with it's sweet songs. Sweet
singers we have with us at all times,
and many of them do doubt will ac-
quire quite place in history, though
they will never rank with the master
minds, which after all are like noun
tain peaks, few and far between.