The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-03
MODERN NOVEL IS THEME IF LECTURE Dr. Richard Burton Discusses
 Literary Work HIGH RANK FOR BALZAC  Lecturer Points Out Essential Ele- ments of Great Work In Fiction.
 In an Interview National
 Theatre Is Discussed.

There was large audience at the High School auditorium last night to hear Dr. Richard Burton lecture on "The Modern Novel;" Dr. Burton has greatly pleased persons here having literary tastes and he said that he had never met with more cordiality and responsiveness among his hearers. Beginning with the epic poem which, prior to the play of the Eliza bethan period, occupied the central po- sitlon. the speaker sketehed the history of literature In it's popular forms down to the novel of the hour.
 After the plays of the seventeenth cen- tury. said Dr. Burton, came the charming essays of Addison and Sieele-the first literature of the fireade form. They had their day. This was the awakening of the ego-thr'sense of personality, further illHst,atlon of which is found in the pop 'ularity of the London Coffee Houses. the prototype of the modern club, where men met and over their chocolate discussed the events of the day with each other and the latest scandals. The personal note became dominant. People were in an interpretive mood and self-conscious. hence the logical outgrewth of the novel, which as it's name implies, is something new
 The Syllabub.
 The novel has been called by some the syllabub of the literary feast-light and evanescent and popular merely because of its entertaining qualities but these ar and unsatisfactory. The reason for its permanent place in literature Is deeper than that.
 It is in the underlying soeiologic prin- ciple. The novel Is a study of all social manifestations and it's great function and forces makes all the world kin.
 Before the time of Fielding and Rich ardson 1t was a wild conglomeratea .care- less tumble. But they changed all that. because they dealt with society as they found 1t. and incorporated into their works the humanizing and vitalizing love- steadily gained in importance, the speaker continued, as the social idea has gained in control It's three great forces are per- sonality, democracy and truth.
 The abuse of the latter is found in the school of extreme realism. of which Zola and 9Thonas Hardy, in some of his later books, stand as the type. They fix their minds upon the lower truths, the foul and the brutal. They are partialists and stop short of the full portrayal. Abuse of Personality.
 The abuse of personality is founh in the modern tendency to probe and analyze, forgetting all else. Henry James was cited as the leader of this school, his sole object being apparently to discover nice shades and fine distinctions, to the utter sacrifice of whatever there might have been of interest in the story.
 The greatest of all novelists, Dr. Burton said, Is Balzac He depicts the low, middle and high with the utmost fidelity to na- ture. He is a universalist and his sense of vastness and differentiation compre- hends the whole of art and place him close to Shakespeare.
 In closing Dr. Burton said that the type of great fiction will show blend of the historical romance-the realistic and blend of truth and beauty-realism and romance.