The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-15

and the indignant defence of the institu-
ton by the South. It is also certain that
Dickens expose of abuses in warehouses;.
schools, and shops did a great deal for
the poorer classes of England and led to
Investigations which might otherwise
never have been made.
The purpose novel of recent years has
been less effective, and there is one dis
| tinct difference between it and its pre-
decessor. As a rule, it deals not with
| living questions, but dead questions; it
does not cause a tidal wave. but is left
| by the ebb of wave caused by some
| thing else 1t pictures rather than moves
| There are exceptions but that is the rule
| Take, for example the most prominent
| purpose fiction of the last twenty years
the religious novel. Robert Elsmere,"
| John Ward, Preacher" and the little
group Of books OF the same type which APP
peared within decade We're pictures of
| struggle already accomplished. They
| threshed over figures of straw. The COM
ment of the orthodox on Robert Els
| mere" was generally, that nobody be-
| lieves that now" John Ward was an
| anachronism. If that book had come out
| fifty years ago the hero would have fair
| " represented the great body of orthodox
clergymen; today he is as strange figure
almost as Savonarola. The one exception
| to this. possibly, is Ramona which was
certainly written with a purpose and
burning one at that. Whatever excite
ment it created was because of its art,
not its theme; and had it not been the
work of a writer already well known it
Rock" which was evidently written by
Mr.. Page with the object of confuting "A
FOOLS Errand, owes its popularity part
ly to the authors reputation, partly to its
real excellence as a picture of a period
seldom handled in fiction, and partly TO
the reaction against all reconstruction
ideals, which makes it easy for the public
to accept any book embodying the spirit
and feeling of the Old South. "A Fools
Errand' was the last of the purpose
novels to create even a ripple of excite
ment or interest because of its theme
alone; and its political chapters were
rarely read, and it portrayed, or attempt
ed to portray, with a strong political bias,
conditions already put fifteen or twenty
years in the past. The political bias was
so evident that perhaps two-thirds of its
readers discounted it on that account.
There is at present a strong tendency
to take the purpose novel with a pinch
of salt. 1t is scarcely probable that were
the greatest of living novelists to attack
the greatest of modern abuses in the
form Of fiction, and tell the exact truth
about all the conditions, the ma jority
of his readers would trust his statements
There would inevitably be a disposition
to attribute their strength, however true,
however strongly bclstered up with affi-
davits and proof, to his wish to prove his
theory. The desire for realism is just at
present stronger than anything else. and
it is liable to prevent the acceptance of
anything which is not obviously realism.
which deals with the conditions of today. |
The modern public instinctively rejects |
any idealistic Interpretation of its life, |
refusing to believe that the novelist liv- |
ing in the midst of it onditions can for |
mulate or preserve a .iieory of it.