Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-14
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

read him, he will call him dull But
we wager that any reader, no matter
how sophisticated, who will actually
wade through the first so pages of any
Dickens novel will stay to the finish.
Many of our latest novels appear to
be but outlines of novels in their frothi-
ness when contrasted with the solid
character of Dickens works. Consider
that vast panorama of English life,
''The Pickwick Papers" Although not
properly a novel in any definite sense,
it has a breadth and scope which en-
titles it to company with the master
works in that medium.
! 1t belongs because it portrays char
acter in living way. That. after all,
is the true measure OF novel. Some
readers seem to think that the novel is
something new, comparatively speaking;
that there is positive date in history
before which no novels were written,
after which novels were written.
AS a matter of fact, ambitious trans
lators are turning their attention to
Chinese novels written thousands of
wears ago, in which the characterize
ton and action seem surprisingly mod
ern. Recently we looked over the fourth
fat volume of such a work and were
amazed at the almost modern trend IN
It, Surely it is q novel.
Dickens followed his men and women
around with the paternal solicitude of a
Victorian father He did not allow
them out of his sight for a moment:
for. to tell the truth, he did not trust
them very much. He knew they were
so full of vim that he had better keep
an eye on them. SO when they sit
down he tells us just exactly how they
sat down. If they meet new per-
sonage, he makes the reader see the
newcomer through the eyes OF the char
acter. If there is some fault or blemish
which the animal-like eye of a human
being would not miss-for we never
miss faults, any more than the ami
malS-Dickens puts it in. And by put
| ting it in, along with everything else,
he manages to work up lifelike char
acter.
Dickens excelled particularly in the
handling of sentiment. His novels are
not artificially or effectedly tender, as
his critics have insinuated. They are
in no real sense specifically emotional.
Dickens hardly ever INDUCES the SEN
sibilitieS for their own sake. The ten
der scenes in his stories grow out of
the situations and the characters as
they exist, and have naturalness
which properly belongs to them. His
|
tains to the feelings, the tender sus-
capabilities of the author eliciting alike
emotions from the reader. His Senti-
mentality is that of moral, intellectual
conviction and disposition. If there
are some who do not understand the
primary meanings in dictionaries, but
choose to regard only the secondary
meanings, that is their loss, since sophis-
tication seems to deprive many good
man or woman of the ability to see the
| good and the true, or at least to be
able to admit to themselves that they
do see it. This must be their loss, since
| the life of mankind has ever worked
away from the rough, the rude and I'M
| fined and the cultured. These oppo-
sites run in waves, reactions following
reactions, but the general current of
progress throughout the centuries is
undoubtedly along the path of senti-
| ment; true sentiment, which values the
| good things of heart, mind and spirit.
II the pages of Dickens mix with this
best Sentimentality some bits of mawk-
| 1shness, viewed with the eyes of today,
1t must never be forgotten that the
| eyes of today look out from a point of
| SophiStication which tomorrow may be
| reversed-nay, most likely will be re-
versed. The world has place in it for
the novels of such sentimental writer's
as Charles Dickens. If any reader
wants flip. superficial, sophisticated
stories, in trend with the very moment
| in which we live amid the centuries,
he has but to go to any book store and
pick up one at random from the coun-
ter. He must hurry, though, for no
one will know anything about them
| tomorrow