Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-07-28
BOOKS AND WRITERS.
Changes Of Taste Among the Readers
Of Novels.
Stephen Cranes Last Work-Ihe Inaccura
cies Of Fiction.

/
| One of the Topics of the Time dis.
cussed editorially in the July Centur,
is Changes of Tastes in Fiction"
| The story of action, or romantic
novel, appears for the time to be in
complete possession of the popular field
of fiction After sporadic advances
over a considerable space of time, il
has finally carried the citadel Of public
fancy with a rush. 1t has come into
| its own without any battle of the
| schools such as We are told followed
| the youthful challenges of Hugo an6
Dumas pere, some seventy years ago
But the latter We're more truly proph-
cts, and therefore more worthy of be-
| ing distrusted in their own country
and, indeed, the authority which they
wrested from the reading world is vir-
tuaEy the royal grant on which the
present band of conquering romancers
have come into power
1t is a little singular, however, that
these new story-tellers have gained
the front rank in the lists of popular
reading without some opposition from
the sturdy band of realists and humor-
lists who were on the ground. They
have not even suffered harassment
from the critics, who have been wont,
if not to defend the established order
or things, at least to pick it the debat-
able ground against wholesale inva-
sion. The reason for all this peace
may be found, perhaps, in the confu-
sion of styles and qualities which has
prevailed in the realm OF fiction for at
least a decade. and also in the fact
that during the same period the oc-
casional brilliant foray of historical
novel has accustomed the critical world
to the romantic standard
1t has made for peace. also, that
these dashing romancers, who are so
bloodthirsty in the sphere of their
imaginations, are so transformations as
men and women on the common plane
of bread and butter. They harry no.
to gore nobodys plow-ox. They will
not even pose as geniuses. While their
books are selling by hundreds of thou
sands, they look innocent of having
done anything; they accept lionizing
if at all, in a spirit of helpless mar
trydom, and preferably go quietly
about the disbursements of their prof
its in the ways that promote their per-
sonal comfort and private dignity
They are as unlike the children of ro-
nance as the most sensible and COM
monplace of mortals. Truly, they have
the art, in every sense, of being art
less.
1t may be suspected that the Juvenile
air and yigor of the novel of action
has had a notifying effect on the in
Prospective and analytical realists, who
by their silence seem to say: These
enfants terribles are not Of our family;
it is not for us to suppress them; let
them romp without hindrance, that
the ruthless hand of ennui may the
sooner fall upon them"
There can be no doubt that in the
long run the romancers have the
greatest success with the most people
as the continued vogue of Walter Scott
and the elder Dumas amply proves, a
vogue which the lasting merit of those
writer's as amply justifies. The mass
of the readers of the world are oppor-
take what the hour affords: they pre-
fer an object story in which men and
women have rapid and exciting expert
ences; if stories in the preferred ro-
mantle mold come from the press
faster than they can be generally read
Gas has, perhaps, recently happened,)
they are prone to catch up with the
press by ignoring. maybe. the greatest
success of it's kind in order to feast on
the novel of the hour. When a writer
who is prospecting for a new field pro-
duces a novel of great and command
ing merit, yet of a different character,
his book is taken up with more or less
avidity by the mass of novel readers
other writer's follow in similar vein,
and a new taste seems to obtain. The
great novels of the world, no matter
the school to which they may be re-
ferred, satisfy a universal taste, and
survive to nourish the minds of new
generations.