New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-22
THE NOVEL IN FRANCE.
Some Leading Causes of Its As
serted Decay.
Paris Letter to The Pail Mall Gazette


The French novel is going through
crisis as has already been pointed out by
YOUR literary correspondents II goes nuch
deeper than a mere matter OF trade. More
neonIe read novels than used to be tho case,
but more people write them. individually peo-
pie read less than they did some years age
when it was possible to keep pace with the 1T
erary output. It is no longer. and the aver
age Frenchman has resigned himself to the fact.
Yet with all this, the profession or letters mas
risen vastly in the public estimation. Not so
long ago the bourgeoisie would have considered
themselves disgraced by an alliance with the
spilIers of ink. To-day 1t is quite otherwise
livery man with any pretensions to social con-
sideration. produces his novel, which he
lays with immense pride on mis- drawing room
table. 1t is as a certificate Of responsibility.
At the same time the public in general is
little the better for this amateur industry The
keen edge OF It's literary appeIlte 10 tdheH OIL
by weak and woolIy books published because the
author pays the bill; consequently IL has moth
ing but jaded appreciation of the work OF the
man of letters. For this reason, no doubt, the
dearth of literary criticism in the French press is
to be depored. How shall the people distinguish
the good from the bad If there is no one TO tel
them? The literary critic has been replaced
bv the literary puff sandwiched in between
praise of false teeth and the latest lady of the
music halls. Presumably there are people hav-
ing three francs fifty to spend who are naive
enough to be tricked by the horid phrases OF
the puff writer; but it is difficult to imagine It
The exclusion of the discerning critic is to be
deDlored in this sense: That it gives opportuni-
ties for wantonness in literature which, unbal-
anced by any critical judgment, passes muster
If was in the public interest that this kind OF
censorship should be conserved
The yulgarization of the novel has been for
SIS downfall, too. All the newspapers print in
stan9ents of fiction, and very hard put 10 it for
circulation would they be If the practice were
abandoried The ordinary reader, who can be
thrilled for a halfpenny, does not see why he
ebo,IId spend seventy halfpennies without being
ohSoIutely convinced that the shock viii be
cnDerior in intensity. Women writer's again, are
Ia eelv responsible for a glut in the market
TsJefr literary activity is prodigious. In gen
oral wav no doubt, the crisis Of the novel is due
"a o,,ernroduction and the artificial conditions
nnder which so much literary work is projected
mon the booksellers stands. An astonishing
SaaTalonroant has taken place recently In maya
lines and this may have something to do with
a. @Ie sails Tout" ''F'emina," La Vie Heureuse
a.I seezAToi" and others of the kind cater TO a
r1nItifl,de of readers; but 1t can hardly be sup
,aoeed that they are really at the bottom Of the
decadence of the novel -,
THE haste of all men, whether naturally quail
zad ar NOT 10 see their names on the title pages
- noveIs has not conduced, as may be supposed.
- tho conservation Of a pure form or literary
eyareesion On the contrary, many are tle
faI,Its in stvle that mark the latest books. !t
tae often been said that the shop signs or Paris
a,e becoming more cosmopolitan every day 1t
a,nr as n the same tendencies exist in contern-
.,orarv literature. Nor is this new and alto
eetFaT unlikable spirit TO talk with many
IoneJes. while ostensibiy speaking French, sum.
GENTLY checked In the schools. The "Ienps,