The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-01-07
Schoolgirls and "The Best" in
Fiction.

Some English people who haven't very
much to do are discussing the absorbing
question: What do girls read?" This
leads the washington Herald to remark
that the schoolgirl of good breeding
furnishes sure test of literature" mas.
much as what she likes rs certain to be
the gi4,ndulterated best" 1t seems that
an Informal canvass desisned to ascer-
tain 'the most popular author" was re-
Gently taken among the young women Of
won. The Herald appears to feel that
this might not appear wholly to support
its "unndulterated best contention. It
admits that Mr.. Haggard's victory might
ut first seem not entirely satisfactory"
So, indeed, 1t might. But our contempo-
rary smoothes away that faint doubt by
explaining that Haggnrd is r"clcar AMI
bracing," and that he is certainly not
one Of those modern writers who ply
the muck rake of the soul in fiction" IN
tho same canvass. Miss Marie Corelli
took very back seat, indeed. And
this, too, is fortunate, though the Herald
does not say SO; for an immensely serious
gentleman, in tho Westminster Review,
has recently exposed the hitherto revered
Marie as the propagation of tones which
are "lnsidlous and harmful to public
morality" and which are admirably cal
cuated to train up a nation OF crirni-
al ipo 10 10 IA
our SCHOOLGIRLS read, tho better, say we.
As to fiction, what IS the "unadulter-
ated best" anyway? Not long ago we
all read of the young woman who was
observed wandering about and smelling
the books In public library. CUES
toned by the librarian, she explained
that she invariably took out" books that
smelt of tobacco, because that meant
that men read them, and the books read
by men were always the best. Probably
her conception of "the best was wholly
different from that of the young colonials.
but there is no good way of proving that
it was not quite as correct. Personally
We should rather Rave our reading mat
ter selected by the young woman of the
anecdote than by the girls who voted that
Mr.. Haggard was perfectly lovely. And
in any case, where tie point of view IS
so various, and where the standard as to
modern books is not notably high. the at
tempt to determine the best" must be
a somewhat inconclusive pursuit.
Schoolgirls. certainly do not determine
it, any more than schoolboys, lawyers,
clerks. or woman suffragists. School
girls of to-day, in fact, can scarcely be
said to represent n distinctive reading
class at all. Thirty years ago 1t was
quite different Then they read The
Wide, Wide World" didn't they? And
Maria Edgeworth? And Mrs Whitney,
and Louisa Alcott, and Augusta Evans?
But we have an idea that they don't do
1t any more, worth mentioning. II we
could look over their shoulders some even
ing. as they settled 10 an hours reading
before bedtime, probably we should find
the majority of their hands filed with
The Fighting Chance,'' or with ono of
the oddly admired works of Mr.. George
Barr McCutcheon. So far from their
preferences establishing an infallible in
deX to what is best in fiction, they mere
ly read. in point of fact, the books thew
see their elders reading, in so far as their
own more imperfect taste makes that
policy agreeable to them.