Omaha daily bee., 1895-10-13
OPPOSITION TO REALISM
School of Fiction Without Substantial
Public Favor.
REALITIES TOO GRIM AND S0RDID
Romanticism Preferred by the Multi
tu,ic, and the Reasons Therefor
Ideals that Stir the
Emotions.

At the session OF the Federation Of Women's
Clubs recently held in Lincoln, the following
paper, dealing with the romantic and realistic
schools Of literature, was prepared and read
by Miss Irene Byrne OF Omaha:
The evolution Of each century Is incarnated
in particular form of literature, and the
form of our age is the novel. There Is al
ways a harmony between the social move
ment, which is the cause, and the literary
expression, which is the effect. Thus Greece.
In the heroic age. wrote epic poem telling
how brave men lived and loved and voyaged
and died, telling OF gallant life and honest
purpose; the mystical middle ages left us a
poem OF heaven and hell, of darkness and
death and doom; Shakespeare. the flower of
tho Renaissance, gave us dramas varied as
humanity, and the nineteenth century man
sends the nervous shiver of his age thro' the
novel.
But n-you think OF the novel as simply a
narrative, the main object of which is to
please, you have little idea OF the scope OF the
modern art, little idea of the potent force
which fiction has come to be in the life Of
humanity.
The novelist Of today has complete freedom
in the choice of his subject and the manner
a platform or a pulpit use 1t as means or
an end, think Of II as merely vehicle for
conveying his theories of life and philosophy,
or regard it itself as all in all.
The novel which he gives us may be his
torical and critical, heavy as a German
treatise, precise as a column of statistics, or,
IL like Stevenson, fancy has filled his eyes
with ranbows, he may send warm blood into
tho dead chill and show us the shmmerng
purple hued possibilities Of a life more ardent
and vigorous in conception than our own
tame dull colored one
And this is what large number of the
young men, the new writer's. have been doing
Make list Of the books most widely read
and discussed and you will find a large per-
centage written by men Of whom the literary
world knew but little ten years ago; then
look at the books themselves and you will
find that In them life has been viewed from
Its picturesque, romantic and adventurous
sides. Their stories tell Of brave men and
fair women. who thrill and inspire us by
showing what heroic things the human heart
can do: they transport us to new and
marvellous world Of magic landscapes, where
herolsm seems natural, and where we learn
that in spite Of the desolating monotony Of
things there lie within the limits Of human
achievement nObler deeds than We have done
deeper emotions than We have felt. higher
ideals Of faith-friendship-than We have
reached, and as cur life currents ebb or flow
in sympathy with the hopes and fears, the
desires and disappolntments Of these people
most real. tho they have never existed, we
are glad TO know that back Of the veneer Of
civilization the human heart can still thrill
aud throb, and that tho We may not have
done so more richly endowed natures have
IN their passionate love OF life warmed both
hands before its fire and drunk deeply OF its
cup, whether for veal or woe
But books lighted by imagination and