Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-26

What quality is it which gives some
novels q compelling interest, an interest
which demands Of the reader that he
continue to the last line?
Many very great stories do not have
it; sometimes a lesser novel possesses
it. 1t is not plot. nor style, nor theme,
because stories with all these lack it.
This quality of compelling interest
as We may call it, arises In the last
analysis because the writer had it in
the first place.
Maybe such an answer does not solve
the problem. Admittedly! If we could
thus easily solve it. we would write a
few such novels ourselves: If we held
the key to the secret. we would sell it
to aspiring writer's, so that they in their
turn might turn out masterpieces.
The truth is that even the greatest
novelists possessed it only upon occa-
sion. The supreme quality of interest
will be found in one of their works, but
not in the next; if they infallibly knew
the secret, they would have applied it
in all their books.
One will seldom read novel with
so much compelling interest as Emile
Zola's ''L'Assommoir, the title of
which is most often translated as THE
Dram-Shop."
Here Is story which we do not see
how any one can start and not finish,
or. having started, not read through as
quickly as possible. Compelling interest
is the only phrase that describes it.
1t is plotless, in the sense that one of
Dumas romanceS has a plot, but it goes
on, just as life moves on, and carries
the reader with it just as life carries
him along.
The reader wants to see what hap
pens next. Is not that the supreme
reality in novel writing? No matter
how fine the word handling or how
intricate the story plot, if a novel does
not make the reader want to "see what
comes next" it has more or less failed
OF its high purpose of entertainment
Let us be frank for moment. There
has been great deal Of CUFF written
about the purpose" of the drama and
the novel, until many sincere persons
come to feel that the one is almost
equivalent to a sermon and the second
to a lecture.
No doubt many novels do achieve
moral ends. "L'Assommoir" did. Many
persons who are opposed to the prohi-
bltlon amendment, and who profess to
believe that the amendment was put
over" by small minority, are ignorant
OF the fact that more than half a
century ago there was published in
France powerful dramatic novel deal
ing with the question of strong drink.
1t was by Emile Zola, the leader of
the "realist school" of fiction, and its
name was "L'Assommoir. which means.
literally, bludgeon, something which
knocks down and destroys. The term
was applied to a cheap drinking place in
the suburbs of Paris, and the astute
proprietor, instead of being offended,
emblazoned it over the door. 1t was
much the same as If a saloon had
painted Rot Gut" over It's entrance.
The translation of THE Dram Shop"
therefore, is not so good, in that it
tends to give moralistic flavor to a
book which was utterly without one.
lola never preached except uncon-
sciously. That is, as in the work under
discussion, when plain picture of the
life and death of the plain people Of
Paris was presented.
X X X
lola had not purpose in mind, when
he wrote "L'Assommoir," except to write