New-York tribune., 1902-05-11
COLLECTED EDITIONS.
AND THE YOUNG READERS OUTDOOR

@A-NL' LiiS- i''-N'' ->---N'--
From The Saturday Review.
1t is good TO see monuments to departed
atucSS. such as these collected editions -n
literary period when from Dan L. IEvrSU,l- t--
is barren. The young and foolish. crude ia
taste. in education and experience. ana t'+ri'
as is natural youth. for the novelties oi tneli
day. insure What seems mouStrouS popularity
Tor certain writer's of novels IN VoSue al pres
ent II is swollen. tco. by others VINO have No1
their excuse OF y0utf 3nd lneNlerlrIce N'-lS-
minds are not so much uniformed as nui-rN-
iStent, far Judgment and enjoyment OF
literature are in question Who are the writers
now whose works suppose Will be t1i-
leCted forty years hence. and take their place
among the OIympianS of the library. and be
established as the LareS and PenaJes OF every
cultivated household? 1t would be an unh-gpy
prospect for the before mentioned young E.1I.e
when they become sensible persons of middle
age. if there were not such collections as these
awaiting them.
We who have attained that difficult age When
novel IS the most tedious of all human Iar-
formanCes, with the exception of impo-eut
poetry. II II Is nothing more than the low story
of immature boy and girl, would pthvI..l.e
greatly pity them They came too late i'm ,l'
nineteenth century To read. as they appear -
the works OF the novelstS who will he found
worthy of collected editions. How unfortunate
ior them that the writer's whose acIuainJAH.'
they made in the circulating libraries had l",i-
derosity and dulnesS without genius. or v.r'
lnelodrarnatIc and eNtraVaS1nt without Uy~-
terry. charm or taStei Taking the uoyct raaiiH;
period from httten to thirty. when the crave
for novels begins to SIacken. unless th. reader
Is an i'll educated woman. this must have been
the experience of most people still readiu- cur
rent novels The hest they can have known vii!
have been Stevenson. Nj. Stanley Weyrnlu. lIT.
Anthony Hope and DT. Conan DOvlr who have
certainly not been ponderuuS because they have
had Goo little substance. hut To who's. mr,'-
drama we must grant certain style and good
sense and discretion which raise them out 1t
the class of coarse mtludrumdtic novels AMI
lhtn There are One or two other writers who
during THIS supposed novel reading life viii
nav" aCdcd sonnet ching to the permanent stock.
MT Meredith, perhaps. with DIANA of the
CFuSSNayS, or "tnr OF Our ConquerorS' ur
theIe may he "Juhu InSic-aut' or "AyiViu-''
Nr MeredtthS collection is being made. Ii VIII
ne ready Tor those whose novel reading is COW
hhed 10 the collected editions of the masters
ranged ON their own library shelves. and for
MloIh the productions Of the day have no charm
ihen we may hope that when they have r'-
come bored. their curiosity in imaginary lives
having been stated through experience of their
own they may have enough love of literature
To turn To the collected editions of works of
other days, IN the absence IF anythiu- OF VIiGe
remaining or their own. They viii leave the
young and foolish To read the novels TELLING oi
brand new loves. and fuSsinS about social and
otner problems that have come into existence
since they formed their own conclusions about
'tiiuSs ana settled down to the plan of life po--
SIhle for themselves.
Old ways OF living. old ways of thinking. old
scenes old loves these are the objects that
can dwell on for rrfreshment of mind The
masters OF the novel know this and the novels
We read were written either in the past tense.
Is We may say. or they have become that tense
To us in the etlluNiOn of time