The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-06-15

THE COLLECTIVE" NOVEL MAY
FORM A DISTINCTIVE CLASS.
Too Much Precision In the Use of
English Is WronE-ChOice of
POet-Literary Notes.

The collective novel. says the New York
Post is a term which NJ. Rene Doumic has
launched in recent number Of the Revue
des Deux Mondes. BY IL he means that
form Of fiction which subordinates personal
interest 10 that OF people in the mass. 1t
has lately been affirmed that crowds have
kind OF common soul, and, indeed, that
entire nations at certain moments in their
history inspired by common mind and
Will. This kind OF collective personality is
beginning TO attract writer's of fiction, and
Is illustrated i'm the war novels OF M. Paul
Adam. of NM. Paul and Victor Marguelitte,
and in VI. Maurice Barres's studies Of con-
temporary Partisan society. In this coun-
try the most recent and typical example Is
Mrs. Edith WhartOnis Valley Of Decision"
though earlier Judge Albion W. Tourgee's
books on reconstruction times had many
characteristics Of this form of fiction.
II must be admitted that the line which
divides the collective novel from the more
familiar classes-the historical and the
humanitarian novel, for example-is not al
ways easy to determine; for it readily as
sumes the external features OF either class.
Yet II II deals with history, its interest is
not centered upon events or upon persons,
but upon the mind which moves the mass
Thus the mere excess of pageantry In a
novel like Flauh ert's "Salammbo" makes
It, while an amazing evocation of the actual
life Of Carthage. an historical rather than
q collective novel. The humanitarian novel
touches the class We are considering more
nearly, but though the humanitarian novel
necessarily deals with the psychology OF
the throng, II seldom does so disinterested
ly- In Les Miserables' and Uncle Toms
Cabin" indeed in oliver Twist, or mo.
John a
and II society is painted as 1t is, 1t Is only
that IL may be changed To a fairer form.
The preoccupatlon Is not with that which
the throng feels. but with that which it
should be made 10 feel. or with that which
others sould feel about the throng.
Perhaps the test for the collective rO-
mance-this still vaguely defined genre-is
convertibility into the psychological novel.
When one finds the same kind OF penetra-
tive analysis that Mr.. James or NJ. Bourget
applies 10 individual temperament applied
20 the collective mind cf a mass of in
dividuals, then one may be sure that he is
dealing with the newest kind of novel. For
its methods are those of the psychological
novel like which il prefers mental states
10 actions, and moral crises 10 all splendOr
of circumstance. But il is less important to
identify this new kind of novel than ii is
to estimate its present Importance and its
promise. Is the collective novel merely a
hybrid and sterile form, is IL the begin
ming OF a genre which is TO be as fruitful
as the historical and the realistic novel
were before it2
No one can fail to see that the collective
novel involves great sacrifice OF very i'm
pOrtant qualities Of fiction To elucidate
the psychology of the crowd means that
individual interest must be kept in the
background. for crowd can more sue
cessfully compete with an individual than
the admirably trained mob" in a notable
revival OF Julius Caesar really over
Swallowed Barrett's Casius and Booths
BrutuS. To perSOnify the feelings OF a
mass Of people requires. I'm short, a power
of abstraction which few have at their
command. Furthermore to portray fully
hn ffxrr ind ne efr crcyIa for
preston, demands Just what the analytical
novel always eXacts-the suppression of
the merely picturesque elements of the
story; and this, too. is no small sacrifice.
All these great refusals' plainly to
be observed in Mrs. Wharton's novel; She
has sought describe the spiritual fer
ment which was TO lead to the Italian
risorgimento. Her subject was the hopes
and hesitancies of superior inteligences
which saw the road that they, leaders
of Italy. must tread. while they felt about
their ankles the gives of the past and de-
SPARED Mrs. Wharton's learned book has
fairly rendered the image of the eighteenth
century soul In Italy, but IL has done so at
the cost OF reducing her Prince Odo and
FuIVfa and the Grand Duchess to mere
wraiths and symbols; at a cost OF depict
ing a time that sbounded in color in the
refined monotone Of the literary psycholo-
gist.
We are surely dealing In this case less
with defect OF talent than with some in
herent weakness Of the literary form. And,
IN fact the collective novel inevitably
suffers from the fact that, being at bottom
historical psychology. II must carry the
traditional impedimenta of the true novel.
II should logically take the next step dis
pense with its fictitious characters and
circumstances and become history Of the
more vivid sort. No one will ever write
good a collective novel Carlysle's
French Revolution" OF that we may be
sure. The collective novel is then. fol-
lowing NJ Doumic, rather a transitional
than permanent form OF fiction II marks
not a new departure, but simply a re-
fnement-through more accurate appre-
citation OF collective psychology-upon an
accepted form-the historical novel We
shall have in the future simply a fuller
recognition. beside the hero and heroine
OF third personality-that OF the people
or the class.