The herald., 1897-09-12
NOVELS AND NOVEL READING

StOiy ySI.
NOVELS AND NOVEL READING
The novel-reading habit has become
epidemical. and the production Of that
form of literature one of the startling
phenomena of modern times. Statistics
of public libraries show what a vast
army Is made up of the devotees of the
novel, as compared with the readers OF
other books. The habit grows with
what it feeds on, and the novel-reading
multitude increases day by day. The
moral effect of this species Of literary
dissipation can but be pernicious. OF
the thousands Of novels published every
year it is rare indeed to find even one
worth the reading. A great novel is the
work of a great mind-the production OF
genius-and this latter is rara avis in
our day. either in fiction or philosophy.
AS the English critic, Edmund Gosse.
says North American Review, AugusD,
Many of them (the novels) are inter-
testing and amusing, but the vast ma
jority wholly worthless. mere cumber-
ings of the press" And It will appear,
strangely enough, that the wholly
worthless are the very ones most pa
tronized by the general reader.
Much has been said and written touch
ing the moral degenera ton of the age
of the easy-fitting fashion Of our sense
Of duty, whether in our social relations,
as members of the household, or our busi-
ness obligations as members Of society,
and as workers in the great hive of trade
and commerce. To these or at least to
some Of these charges we must plead
guilty.-must each Of US exclaim, Mea
culpa!
Are we in error in suggesting that we
may trace large percentage. at least,
of the cause of our shining, in these par
ticulars, to the malign influences of
questionable novels-to the reading OF
trashy fiction, the product Of question
able if not tainted brains? To parents
espe pecially, this question has peculiar
significance. The freedom with which
young girls and boys of immature minds
and, necessarily, uniformed judgments.
are permitted to select from the shelves
of libraries. or from book stalls. such
works as they desire to read Is most
If not appalling. No book.
particularly no work OF fiction. should
be permitted to go into the hands of
girl or boy without the inspection and
permission Of parent or guardian. The
weli-worn couplet of Pope has its lesson
of wisdom today as in the days Of our
forefathers:
otis education forms the tender mind.
Just as the twig is bent the trees in
clined-"
But there are novels that every one
may read. There are many charming
writer's Of fiction to select from, and these
should be exhausted before we turn
toward less delectable fields. In fact. there
are novels which every one, young ani.
old. should read. OF these We may men
ton the works of Dickens. Thackeray.
Bulwer Scott, Bronte, Goldsmith, Du-
mas. Austen, Edgeworth. Hawthorne,
Cooper and a host Of others.
To turn from these classic authors to
the ephemeral, tawdry. 'yellow-back"
trash of the sensational school might we'll
provoke the question Of Hamlet to his
mother:
" Could you on this fair mountain leave
to feed,
And batten on this moor?"
The works of the authors named. and
Of those Of their school, interest, instruct
and amuse the reader. Their literary
style Is admirable. They. as rule. in
culcate fine moral lesson. The reader
rises from their final pages with larger
and better views Of life and with the
consciousness Of increased strength for
the performance of it's duties. On the
other hand, it Is but rarely the sensa-
tional novel leaves the reader bequest
other than WEAKNESS, or a conviction
other than time misspent. It would
seem a moral, conservative law that
even the most inferior mind revolts at
last against the mock heroics, sickly SEN
timent and grotesque If not impossible
scenes, incidents and conclusions Of the
average sensational popular" novel.
But the reader Of such finds that his
sense Of delicacy has been blunted, and
although he filings the finished book in
disgust from him, he turns to another
Of the same ilk. This Is always true of
familiarity with vice or vicious things
1--WE first endure. then pity. then embrace"
There are novels in the stealthy hands
Of maids and matrons today that, under
veil Of f1orid prose or honeyed lines of
rhyme, only half conceal sentiments
antagonistic to the purity and honesty
of social life and to the continuance of
the divine institution of marriage
Novels that, to the masculine mind, ad-
vance reasons for sedition, anarchy or
communism. Right here lies the danger
Ct such novels. Under the mask of SEN