New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-04-17

romance and the novel consists IN the Iact tnal
the first is concerned with the spirit of place
and the second with character. Perhaps the |
lecturer may have contrived, with the aid of |
many qualifications, reservations and what-not |
70 lend FEASIBILITY to this assertion. But taken
II stands. torn from its context, 1t strikes us |
as far from conclusive 1t Is true that the |
novel is irreyocably associated with the idea of |
the analysis OF character, but IL is also true |
that your most thoroughly novelistic novelist
may be romantic II he has the gift, and still
not make his book a hybrid. Labels al
ways misleading. Because there such
serious differences between Dumas and Balzac,
for example, or between Scott and Thackeray,
we Jump TO the conclusion that those differ
enceS are as drastic any to be noted, say,
between poetry and prose, and that an author
must play the game strictly according to the
one system or the other. AS n matter Of fact,
the spirit Of romance may be found almost
anywhere. and in the right hands 1t may be
made to exhale from almost any character or
situation Thomas Hardy is novelist II ever
there was one but you may find a spirit of
romance I'm any Of his books unless the
thought of romance is inseparable in your mind
from the thought of costume place and a GER
tain kind Of adventurous incident-which win
only be your own misfortune
AS stated in a note in The Tribune the
other day, Mr.. Kipling has been making some
bright political speeches at the Cape This
might be regarded as bad news, from one point
Of view. Certainly many of Mr.. Kiplings later
stories have moved his admirers to wish that
he would let politics alone But that was be-
cause his way of bringing politics into the
stories in question was not, on the whole, q
way calculated to inspire admiration. On the
other hand, if he is content just now to confine
himself to making political speeches. harm
is DONE for it means that he is giving his pen
rest 1t is one Of the curses Of modern litera-
ture that when a man wins success he is be-
sieged by editors and publishers with such
generous offers that he generally finds it i'm
possible to resist their Establishments, and
writes altogether too much. No news received
about a deSeryedly popular author is more
cheering than the news that he is letting his
mind lie fallow for a time. He, even more
than most of u.s. needs to do this, and especially
in the present day. The life of the novelist or
of letters is not what it once was. life
with every opportunity for comparatively I'M
disturbed labor We hear less of what used
to be called the literary world" and more of
the literary market" place humming like
a hive of industry and commerce, and, what Is
more, the competitor in this mart is assailed
at every point by what he is pleased to con-
slider professional and social obligations
Strong in the virtuous conviction that he must
do wat everybody tells him to do study his
fellow man, he plunges enthusiastically into a
course of-dining OUT The old rule of outlet
for outlet presently rises up to confront him.
an added strain is thus imposed upon him, and
as though all this were not enough TO exhaust
his time, he responds whenever anybody asks
him for an opinion on something concerning
which he knows nothing. Plainly, he needs a
rest whenever he can get it
According TO 'The London Outlook" only
three countries have officially abandoned the
misuse of the word edition" England Spain
and Denmark. They make point of calling
n book that is reprinted without change a new
impression; a republication. without change
Of text in q different form or at a different
price, a reissue; and they only use the
Jhrase new edition" for an impression of mat
ter which has undergone some change for
which the type has been reset Here and there
In this country this admirable policy has been
adopted but it has not yet we believe, been
made the general rule. Its merits OBJ
vious as to need no comment, and we trust that
il is only question of time when it will be
permanently adopted by all our publishers.
Meanwhile we suggest that some rule be
framed with reference to American editions of
English books that differ from the latter. We
reviewed year ago the English edition of Mr..
G. X Chesterton's Twelve Types" Under the
title of Varied Types he has printed. in an
American edition, the same essays with some
others added. but there is no PREDATORY note or
purely photographed indication given with re