The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-07-06
In THE LITERARY FIELD
WAY IN WHICH GREAT HISTORIC
NOvELISTS DID THEIR WORK.
Mr.. Mabie Says People Should Read
What They L~ike-GeOrge EliOt's
Men and ~Steyenson's Women.

They threw themselves upon history with
a healthy appetite. Dumas and Scott with
no other idea than of finding a good story
there. Hugo with a very different idea;
and they all told their story as they saw
it, in the best language and with the best
embellishments at their command, says the
London Saturday Review in an article on
the historic novels. 1t need hardly be added
that their stories were nearly all embel-
lishment. That, indeed, helps to prove our
point. Immediately after them came
T~hackeray. Now, "Esmond' is a very
great novel. but it will never hold the boys
mind as Monte Cristo" does. We see the
modern serious novelist coming along. The
history is far too exact; we often feel that
Thackeray is thinking less of his story
than of the reported facts of history. There
are parts of 'Esmond" which we can read
and reread with intense pleasure. but those
are precisely the parts where he let's his
history so hang. When he gives us his ac-
count of the battle of Fontenoy, he makes
us feel that we are not boys, but men. We
turn to Dumas. or Scott. or even Hugo,
and we read and know that we are boys,
and enjoy ourselves enormously. Whether
the thing is true or not is a matter that
does not concern US. The story is all in all.
The historic novel need possess only one
quality, but II must have that one: it
must be a story. Those early fellows did
it, as we have said, without self-conscious-
ness; they seized their material with avid
ity and put it to such uses as they pleased,
the uses being those of the storyteller. Ali
the later men have tried to combine the
two things: TO tell a story and to write
histOry-Or, rather, TO rewrite history. Even
stevenson, who was a born storyteller,
n maXsT one eG he ! is; t %rit Gi1amp Ritb IN cr rn1Gs
"Short History" in front of him. That dis
tinguished novelist, Mr.. Hall Caine. in
whose works one finds nothing to offend
the taste of the most vulgar, makes one
feel that he is writing with Baedeker in
front of him.. 1t is a curious fact that there
Is not such a thing as a great historic
novel. In drama history has been used for
great, tremendous purposes. No one can
deny greatness TO Shakspeare's Henry
W But no sooner does an historic novel
get on the way 10 being great than ii be-
comes dull. 1t must be amusing or it is
nothing. The fact is. if we want to take
history seriously, to be interested in it, to
get the true thrill and tragedy of it. We
must go to those who have seriously
studied it, who understand it, who can
make us understand and feel it. The sheer
storymaker also must have taken history
seriously must have seriously studied il,
must have been interested in It,; but his
ultimate object is quite different from the
historians. He does not want to tell the
truth; he wants, as we have said, TO tell a
story. He wants adventure, action, ro-
nance, the color and glory or active life
lived in the bright sunlight. So far as the
vast reading public is concerned Hugo is
known only as a story writer, and no one
would dream of thinking about Dumas as
anything else. We welcome Dumas again.
We are glad to have this fine edition Of
THE Black Tulip" and we shall be glad
to be driven once again to read more OF his
tales, yes, ali of them.