New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-03-11
Gbe Aeao'Wnrk 0ribassa&
SUNDAY. MARCH II, 1906.

the failure of a new book by an important NV
elist to stimulate the interest or lne leaus
public as it was stimulated by the latest 'ol-
ume of a Daudet, lola or MaupassahI |
U-boraunon an English commentator deplores
NJ PRISONS failure to say anything ABOUT lhe
general Improvement in the literary CRAFTSMAN
ship of the novel, as notable in France DIS II ID
in England, and an important factor III any
estimate that may be attempted. IL Is hoIdDie
here too, and is of some importance to Hie
critic But it is not half so important DIS II
seems to be to some observers. Decent crafts
manShip used to be taken as matter OF course |
1t is only because the horde of novel writers
developed in the last twenty years has Included
so many amateurish if not positively iillterate
persons that the more recent uplifting or tne
average has provoked special comment Fur
thermore not all the craftsmanship in the
world will stir the reading public unless IL Is
accompanied by creative power Inc trouDie
with the modern novel is not that it Is badly
written but that it is uninterestng. Clever
young men and women can easily put story
together in a fairly wOrkmanlike manner put
even when they have brains and Imagination, |
and this is rare enough, they Lack experience
of life the power to understand human nature, |
or TO sympathize with it AS we have often
said before, and cannot say too often, when a
genius arises the public will take notice
himself from the study Of abstruse Chaucerian
problems, and pays his compliments to some
modifying development in current literature, he |
is always entertaining. He has written to The |
Academy" to express sympathy with the oD1ec- |
ton raised by that journal to the smart intro |
ductiOn which has a way of getting itself pre- |
fixed to a classic He believes that it is good |
for the reader to know the place of book In
the history of literature, but he goes on to say:
"All that we want to know about book is
brief account of its origin, and all the facts
and dates regarding it that are essential and
acceptabIe But what I, for one, resent with
nv whole heart is a mass of opinions about its
style and its relation to the styles OF other
writers The twaddle about style is in
+oIerobe The only editor whom can re
spcct is one who faithfully serves and helps me,
and who has sufficient common sense to know
when he has said enough" Such editors are
hard to find More than half of the 'introduc-
tons" which appear in reprints Of the classics
are written for obvious purpose whatever
save that of giving UnimpOrtant writer's the
opportunity to say their say about their betters.
Professor Skeat performs a public service in
lending the weight of his authority to the cas-
dgatiOn of these busybodies
Doubtless it never entered the heads of such |
Journalists as attended a recent meeting of the
Classical Association. TO hear Professor S. ii.
Butcher on Greek Study in Relation to Some
Present Influences on Literary Style" that the
speaker would drag in the newspaper. But that
is just what Professor Butcher did. He be
walled the spirit of hurry peryading journalism,
and declared that its prevailing style bore the
traces of this breathless haste, that lit is smart
~ pictorial restless impatient, emphatic" He
told how he had asked young journalist if he |
had not often been brought to a standStiH for |
lack of knowledge and proceeded to quote the |
naughty youths reply: NO; 4 rule l 90 gayly |
ahead and without pause. My only difficulty !
is when happen to know something about the |
subject" 1t is rather drOll that Professor |
Butcher should have been taken in by this |
harmless bit of levity. Perhaps we are preju- |
diced, but fancy that the professor over
estimates both the ignorance and the rhetorical |
vices of journalism. In any case he ought to |
have realized what 1.-The Outlook" calls to his |
attention, that "the literary conscience of the |
nation is not in the keeping of journalists as
Journalists. 1t is the concern of the authors"
u well conducted newspaper knows that it has !
responsibilities in literary matters and steadily
strives TO discharge them in proper manner; |
but where style is concerned it has never yet |
pretended to substitute models for those en-
bodied in the works of the great masters