The Savannah morning news., 1903-02-01
THE LITERARY OUTLOOK
Zolas Third EVangelThe Tables Turned on kfpIng-.A
Scots View Of English Fiction.
By HERBERT BREWSTER.

ular novel soon to appear in a stage
version.
Angus Mcneil" whoever he may be,
has written a book of biting sarcasm
on THE Egregious English"-the an
swer of a ScOtchman to THE Unspeak-
able Scot" He has considerable irony
for English fiction.
After much patient thinking"
writes this author. the English have
come to the conclusion that there is
but one branch of literary art. and thar
It's name is fiction. The high priest and
the high priestess who serve to the
right and the left of the altar. are as
every one knows, Hall Game and Marie
CoreIi. Each of them wears a golden
ephod, with a breastplate of Jewels ar
ranged to spell out the magic figures.
one hundred thousand. All the other
priests of the tabernacle look with awe
ana envy upon these two, because the
other priests breastplates have hard
work TO spell out fifty thousand. and
some OF them do not even achieve one
thousand five hundred. Burnt offer
lngs of Caine and CoreIli therefore fiji
the place with SAVIOUR. A pair of sor
Tler writer's never was on sea or land
Everybody knows it. nobody denies IL
ana nobody seems sad about if The
SIX smiling novel is an established Eng
llsh institution. Game and Corel1i ne
Its prop and stay, and the rest do their
pest TO keep in the running and pick up
the minor money-bags.
THE perusal of six-shiITing fiction is
practically a sort of mania. IT has
seized in its grip the fairest England
has to show, particularly matrons. the
younger women, and stock brokers
For the Englishwoman the daily round
would lose its sadness did she not
have handy the newest six-shilling
novel by Mr. Caine, Miss Corelli or
the next literary bawler in the mar
ket place. From morning till
night many Englishwomen do little but
read this precious stuff. What they
get out of it amounts in the long run
to hysteria and anaemia. 1t brings
about a general deadening of the mind
and a general jaggedness of the emo
tions, coupled with an utter incapacity
to take any save an exaggerated view
of the facts of life. Discomfort. disil-
lusionment, ennui, boredom. ill-temper
a sharp tongue and cynical spirit are
other symptoms which the siX-shilling
novel is prone to evoke. The habit is
cigarettes 1t is just the devil, and
that is all you need say about it. The
persons employed in the opium traf-
fic are supposed to be very wicked. TO
my mind the persons employed in the
fiction traffic are as wicked. as wicked
can be. When the foul disease began
first to make its raVages obvious,
there were not wanting persons who
would have checked it, and provided
remedies for it. These persons squeak
ed somewhat and nothing more has
been heard of them. So the thing goes
on unrestrained, and even applauded
by press and pulpit alike; and the
EnglishWoman has become a confirm
ed, inveterate and incurable notion
reader. If a man have an enemy to
whom he would do an abiding injury,
let him persuade that enemy to obtain
the six most popular siX-shilling nov
els of the moment, and read them
through. If the mans enemy sticks to
his bargain-at which, however, he VIII
probably shy in the middle of the sec
ond volume-the chances are that he
gets up from that reading broken
and spiritless man. His brain will be
as soggy as a sponge full of treacle,
and his vision as unreliable as that
of the alcoholist who always saw two
cabs, and invariably got into the one
that was not there.
seriously, however, what is there
about this English fiction-or, for that
matter. about Scottish fiction-that
men and women should buy it and de-
vour it to the exclusion of all other
literary fare? 1t is ill-written, 1T is
not original; it is not like fire; it is
not beautiful; it is not inspiring; it does
not touch the profound emouons 1t
means nothing, and it ends no
"Some months back a considerable
huhbub arose in English literary circles
because NJ. Jules Verne had been say
ing to an interviewer, that the novel
as a form of literary expression was
doomed, and would gradually die out of
popular favor. 1t is safe to say that,
in the eyes of sundry critics of pretty
we'll every nationality, the novel has
been doomed any time this last fifty
years. Yet the novel comes up smiling
every time. Since it was reduced in
price to six shilling in England it has
undoubtedly deteriorated, not only as
a piece of writing, but also in the mat
ter of ethical intentions. So long as
it remains the prey of some of its lat
ter-day exploiters, so long will it con-
tinue to deteriorate. So long as the
English mind continues to be feeble
and unwholesome, and to yearn for ar
tificial thrills and undesirable emotions,
so long will English fiction continue to
be Of its present decadent quality. AS
the capitalist says. it is all a question
of supply and demand. The great aim
of writer's of fiction. or at any rate of
80 per cent. of them. is to produce an
article that will sell. You must turn
out what the public want. and they win
assuredly buy il. The knack of hit
ting the public taste looks easy to ac-
qure, and the fictionist strives after it
with all his might. Many are called
to make fortunes out Of woodworking: