The New York herald., 1922-06-04
WELLS Joins SHAW
in ASSAILING NGES
ATTACKSONF|CTION
Resent the Gloomy Deans
Charges That Lust Taints
Their Work.
SEXUALITY IN STORIES
Impossible to Keep It Out Of
Love Tales, London Church
man Is Told.
sExUALITY IN STORIES

Copyright, 1gez, by THE NEW YoRK HERALD.
New York Herald Bureau.
London, June 3.
Having cited H. G. Wells and Ber-
nard Shaw as authors whose works
contain characters tainted with lust,
Dean Inge in his attack on what he
calls the "vulgarity and indecency of
modern English fiction" has brought
vigorous replies from both these au-
thors.
In his answer to Dean Inge Of st.
Paurs Cathedral. who is popularity
known as the Gloomy Dean" Mr..
Wells calls attention to the many books
he las written without love or sex
interest and others in which the love
theme is very simple and direct.
young people marry will, gusto, and
of course there is hint Of indelicacy
about that" says Nr. Wells. Regard
ing his Secret Places of the Heart"
he says:
1T is a perfectly STRAIGHTFORWARD and
on the whole brutal treatment Of the
conflict between the sexual drive ana
the desire for human service. 1t is the
one really sexual book l have written
since 1914"
The Critic Is Criticized.
In reviewing his list of books he asks;
"Where is the growing obsession of
sensuous ideas in this record? 1t is not
there. Where. on the other hand, is that
scholarly accuracy of statement which
once distinguished Dean 1nge? / note.
instead, a growing slovenliness of phrase
and thought OF the. tolerated public
scold. .. / won't discuss the rela
tive prevalence of adultery among
horses and literary writer's OF the news
paper world to-day, though to be strictly
accurate l suppose 1t Is owing to the
lack of any sound equestrian marriage !:
It is slightly higher in the latter case.
But J would like 20 utter a protest
against this nonsense of the Deans that
1t Is possible to write love stories with
out sexuality.
"rhe homely reminders Of the An
glican marriage service should have
taught the Dean better Even among
the higher clergy love Is. I understand.
an affair between people of the opposite
sex. 1t seems to me that people who
undertake TO marry without strong SEX
ual desires are the worst sort OF un-
pleasant. intolerable people, and that love
stories without wholesome ,undertone
of sensuousness are not SO commend
able as the Dean would have US think.
1t is nonsense to think that one can
write love. stories without sexuality."
what shaw Has to Say.
Mr. Shaw. in his reply, says: Like
Dean Inge. do not go to fiction to study
pathological cases. The only fictitious
characters which give me satisfaction,
and those look for in works OF art are
those with full range Of common hu-
man faculty do not mind Don Quixote
beins a little crazy, or Sanch6 Panza
being totally illiterate. but the slightest
touch of morbidity would spoil both.
III people want to read about acci-
dents. criminals and diseases they
should read the daily papers. Fiction
should deal with healthy people In cir
cumstances which are normal, or would
be normal II imagined in the period.
But Victorian literature did not
really comply with these conditions.
Thackeray knew very well that his young
men were incomplete and therefore un-
true to life as compared with Fielding's
Tom Jones'. All Victorians had to pre-.
tend that marriage is a law of human
nature. and that It is both unnatural
and improper to lapse for an instant
from a state of monogameity
That which the Dean complains of Is
nothing but a violent reaction against
an intolerahly dishonest affectation. The
Victorian pretense that women had no
legs or digestion is so exasperating that
women are being provoked toe strip off
all their clothes in fiction to prove their
right to adequate sanitary accommoda-
tion.
IT doubt IL there is single excess of
modern fiction that cannot be traced to
this suppression during the reign OF
Victoria. Is Wells to describe sexual
human nature falsely, as the Victorans
required. or Is he to describe 1t as II.
actually is? That Is the question.
have Just read Wells's new book and /
swear II does not contain single ugly
story OF seduction.
"Tn his book there are four men. in
cluding two who do not come upon the
stage; 20 per cent Of them are as
monogamic as the Master OF Ravens
wood or Rob Roy; 25 per cent. are
polygamic. Is this. taken as picture
Of society, anything like so false in re-
spect to sex as the Victorian fiction
? was? 1t seems to me that when the
Dean applies the word seduction to a
perfectly natural attraction between
two fully grown, highly capable adults
and qualities II as ugly, he is for once In
his life writing like taboo ridden
Dean instead OF like one of the mentally
NEST gifted Englishmen now living.
wells does not shirk facts because
they are considered scandalous, espe-
cially when the conventional foundation
that views them has become more and
more questionable"