The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1901-06-30
|, Romance y y
|" ! and Realism.

,a amount OF ink that has
y u oro end con in the quarrel over
~ ~ novel. little has gone to ex-
gs really one OF the most etrec-
W. .eots on the pro side.
" nsa,,ai novel Is valuable edu-
h,lV II Is educational in itself
~ snnplles the ignorant with infor-
~ ,,tters whereof they might
- y ',oea ignorant TO the end. my,
n ,bat-you and doubtless
U.s. tves 10 be persons of average
Y Y Nevertheless, II we deal hon
ourselves we shall be obliged to
'.a.e that there are large lacunae
knowledge. Mayhap the most
" ,',orlcal romance that comes across
a,.tual pathway may I'll up this
IN our knowledge of the
- mo world or of that part OF the
y n rhlrh should be the most important
sur own country.
~ said that people ought to go
~ history to the historians, and not
,lsts who supply fact sureharged
s0,lop That may be so. But one
.a,,ont the actual not with the po-
hct with the Indicative, mood.
Y. .sht 10 read authentic history.
Rut II they don't. they don't,
'e ARES an end ont. To those who
M well to offer the compromise of
,,..orlcal novel.
y, every man of ordinary intelli-
IN separate the fiction from the fact
"a me hints supplied by the novelist
~ where he Is doubtful he can
,..ourse TO the cyclopaedla, which is
4, available, If not in his own home,
:, some nearby library. IN order
IN fully novel Of the historical type,
N lnlfact, be essential that he should
aulnate the fact from the fiction.
ho,e comes in the main value of
.-..I romance as an educational factor.
,e driven by 1t to the cyclopaedia,
A.,ter still. TO history and biography
Il tpoyu fact that Harper & Brothers
4 !, t.spe new edition of Trevelyan's
\. a Fox" to supply the interest
IA in that statesman among the
n IN of 'Rlchard Caryel" Librarians
Il ,.t,ll dealers in books will inform
4 nat the demand for standard works
nj descrlptlon has considerably in
,.,d since the historical craze struck
soyelreader. You may say that this
y AZ another plR,e Of the same craze
ire hctlonlst catered to taste,
,,dy developed, for the annals Of the
s. We'll, the fact that this taste exists
Itself reasSurlng sign of our times.
& point Of fact. however, careful luqui-
have met with the answer that the de.
ID for historical books has taken Ger
= courses wherein II was evident that
q that popular fiction had led the
Richard Carvel' not only qulckencd
gsitr interest In Charles James Fox. but
4 niny OF his contemporaries. English and
,Hean-notably in John Paul Jones.
= b lives Of that great commander fol-
hi hard In the wake OF Churchill's
zanee. They may not have been inteu-
iiIy planned TO profit from Its success,
that they did so profit Is incontroverti-
he game way ''ro Have and To
pr reawakened Interest in the Virginia
early colonial days. and Janice Mere
aN In the New York and New Jersey
TIE revolutionary period.
= 4 would be hard to point ont any
aNstlc' novel which has In a similar
vet people TO profitable reading and
4 equally profitable thought and discus
concerning what they read.
q n the old, old cry that the heroes OF
8fintie fiction even when they pretend
y historical characters, are not plau
human beings, hut pigments of the
n Enatlon, the old. old answer may he
Fned that they are often as true to the
n sG facts Of life as the creations of the
called realIsts The Anglo-Saxon Is
4 Allowed to tell the utter truth. 1t /,
~ he should not, so long as his audienc,
4 hrgey composed OF the boys ant
lpns to whom the reverence of rcti
~ Is proyerhIally due. Nevertheless.
a'snuon for convention the reticcncC
ne American reallst is not less Illusion
y than the exaggeratlon of the no
anetr.
- historical romancer has to re-creati
A~a through the mist OF history
'ealist' too, has limitations imposed
am. Many of our novelists of thi
are Refuses or scholars whose affec
ior real life comes largely from TIL
- exercised by the unknown and tn
'Pofed- They, too, have TO re-creat
world through the mists that hav
s''fc upon their study-wlndow.
William X Walsh.