The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-05-28

common tflngS, the ordinary Things,
the groundlings of life, always with
| the Interior faith of a spirituality in
them that had been ignored. The
French writers taught the people not
to shrink from the things of clay and
dirt about them that was so much a
part Of the world as its ideals, and
also taught them not to think about
these things as being devoid of a
spiritual significance.
ut was the French, under the in
fiuence of personal liberty, who then
developed in their literature the sa-I
tire in the public mind for dukes
and counts, and the artificialities of
titles.
Play and Short Story.
Young writer's begin habitually by
| initiating the style of some we'll
known author. 1t will always be so;
the young writer must consciously or
unconsciously, initiate the style of
some one till he finds his own level
! Often the student initiates the master
| he hates"
rs it an important matter in a
short story?" l asked.
Il consider the short story justly
an American growth, and, therefore
| it develops many originalities. me
dramatic instinct is no doubt most
| evident in the short story. In plays,
for instance, one does not get as close
| to a man as you do in a novel. Al
most any short story gets printed
somewhere, unless it is hopelessly
bad, and there is a great mass of good
stuff being written from all over the
country just now"
A great deal of it was dramatically
strong, but crude in style. Compare
lively few writer's had the quality of
culture, for instance, which distin-
guished the work of Mr.. Howells
himself.
Couture, suppose is a love for
| the turn of things, the graces OF
phrase, the choice of words, the dls-
| tinction possible in the revealing or
a nature" said the author. Henry
| James, for instance, always has an
| intangible distinction of culture in his
writing yet he does not appeal TO
merely the alltra-intellectual, for peo-
pie who are not of the great world,
| who are not great readers or strictly
intellectual, enjoy his books. Women
| who have keen intuitionS find that ne
| expresses for them just what they
discover but cannot tell about. Cul-
| ture in writing requires of the writer
| poetic insight, psychology and phil
| osophy, with an actual wide knoWl-
edge and intimate contact with the
| great world and great people"
| SHOULD the novelist seek for the
big thing in life?''
| TOlstOy's Fiction Realistic.
81 would not advise any writer to
hunt for the big thing exclusively. If
| the big subject does not come to
| him, he is not likely to find it. Little
subjects grow wonderfully sometimes;
besides, life rarely behaves as fiction
does, except in the best fiction, like
| Tolstoy's, for instance. In fiction the
clock strikes IL, and in five minutes
| it strikes /. a man dimes, and then
he dies. 1t is always the false thing
| that survives in fiction, though act
ual as an incident. One must neces-
sarily sacrifice some naturalness to
| form. Tolstoy is formless. Turgeniff
| is quite the opposite. The modern
playwright is nearer the Greek unities,
a standard which demands unity or
period, of time, of place of action. l
was particularly struck with this fact
in William Gillette's play, Secret Ser
vice. and yet when / talked with him
about it he said he had never heard
of the Greek unities: he had done it
all by dramatic instinct. l have no
| inconsiderable esteem for Clyde Fitch.
He keeps on writing. nothing discour-
ages him; he must, have the true fire
| of the dramatist in him
The Literature of Instinct.
Then there is a literature of IN
sinct?"
Undoubtedly there is. A great deal
| of good literature is being lost.
missed somehow I often wonder why
it is some writer's get the go-by. In
this instance / am thinking more es-
pecially of man in England who
has published several books of UNI
usual ability in the psychological and
sociological field. His name is Leon
ard Merrick, and he has taken up
such characters as the journalist who
is making journalism pay while he is
working at fiction, the actor who de-
velops into management, the actress
who struggles for success and fame.
His books are very shapely; they are
of the moment and told in a good
kind of actually. L don't suppose
YOU have heard OF him, and yet Amer
Leans buy more books than the Eng
lish. In English people are omnivor-
Gus readers of the novel, but they
borrow their books from Libraries.
Americans buy many more, but the
English are greater readers. 1t is
very uncommon when almost any
book does not sell at least 5000 copies
now, yet in very early days that was
considered a big sale"
The story of action written for ac-
ton did not interest Mr.. Howells, al
though he said it was not new, and
would always have some readers, but
the tale with a pointed moral had long
gone by.
Knows Little of MOderns.
George Eliot, for instance, was
eminently ethical-very great, of
course, but ethical The great novel
of the day is not SO moralistic-that
is if you take any novel for the moral
IN it, ! think the serious novel or
the future will give the writer's vision
of what life is rather than what it
ought to be or it might be. As to the
classic novel, there are no classic
novelists, never have been but one,
and her name was. Jane Austen" Mr..
Howells said he knew little of the
modern writer's such as Robert HIGH
ems, Gertrude Atherton or George
Moore.
None of them could be as big as
Balzac.
Reading is largely accidental; one
is so busy these days working, said
the author quietly.
Tho question of the influence of the