Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-07-07
THE FUTURE OF THE NOVEL
TOLD OF BY HASKIN
Daily Letter by Frederic j. Haskio

WASHINGTON, July What i;
the novel coming to?
The reader picks up an important
work, which he understands is q
mastery Interpretation of life. He
wades through 900 pages in which
the inner workings of a few careful
ly chosen Freudian specimens are
X-rayed and the symptoms anal
yzed.
He comes to the last chapter, won-
dering what the outcome of the story
is to be, and he is rewarded by the
information that the hero went out
into the park to sit in philosophical
meditation among the squirrels. The
world is granted a farewell glimpse
of the heroine frying eggs signifi-
cantly-everything she does is sig
nificant-in her bachelor apartment,
h and the hero were married in
the first chapter, but they drifted
thoughtfully apart on page forty
two, and they have been thinking
and talking about life ever since.
In the effort to portray life as ii
is, novelists have taken to studying
everyday existence about them at
its most commonplace levels. This
information is supplemented by in
trospection of the novelists' own
thoughts and emotions. They have
made careful observation of the way
a reacts when she finds that
last years hat can not be made over
and they tell you with faithful hon
esty to the extent of an entire chap
ter how a man feels when he pays
a dull call.
Thus the ultra modern novel
climbs to the heights of artistic real.
ism-or does it? Recently sixty-twc
novelists, mostly British, gave Their
professional opinions as to the trend
and future of the novel, and their
opinions turned out to be somewhat
surprising.
Most of the well known British au-
thors r included in this symposium
on THE Future of the Novel," and
it might have been expected that
phychoanalysis and realism and
cradle-to-grave biographies would
receive some enthusiastic support
from such a group. The effect of
realism and character analysis in
modern novels does seem to interest
the writing fraternity greatly. AL
most every one of the sixty-two has
something to say on the subject,
But nearly all have seized the op-
portuninty to show up the shortcom-
ings of modern literature along
these lines. Almost to a man they
cry that the story is the thing, and
that the story is being neglected
with unfortunate results.
Realism Reaches Its Limit
Thus j. D. Beresford, known as
one OF the psychoanalytical novel
lists thinks that realism is an expert
ment which has reached its limit.
He explains hat to attain an Ultimate
realism an author must drop alto
gether the detached, observing meth
cd and be subjective rather than OBJ
i~ective. Instead of describing a fact
which he observes, he must describe
only his reactions to the fact.
This method has been carried out
in Ulysses" by James Joyce, and in
Dorothy Richardson's pilgrimage
and Mr.. Beresford declares that real
ism can go no further in this direc-
ton than these books have gone.
The experiment of realism has run
its course, and now novelists must
turn to supplying the demands oil
the majority of readers who are
seeking a and fantasy in nc
ton.
Mr.. Beresford holds the opinion
that European civilization is tending
to disintegrate, and consequently
people who are fighting a losing
struggle with life will want to read
only of success; they will want &c
escape from life in their fantasies
and will find that escape mainly If
romance"
This author is the only one tc
express the belief that civilization if
endangered, but the idea that moss
readers open a novel with the de-
sire to escape for a brief time from
the limits of their own lives is elab-
Grated again and again. Literature
has the mission of providing vari-
GUS romance and adventure to sup
plement the meager experiences q
the average life But just now. some
Of the novelists say, literature is
failing to provide this escape. Authors
ask us TO be interested in the in
volyed thoughts of characters who
are less interesting than ourselves,
and therefore than our own lives,
These books have been a novelty
and often have been written with
lbrilltance. Now hoMAXsEa almost al