Evening star., 1931-06-24
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES Z. TRAcEwELL.

the inherent qualities Of the romancel
Of Alexandra Dumas.
y y
Some men have an uneasy feeling
| that what they admired in boyhooG
| they should give over in manhood, les
some unthinking fool call them juvenile
still.
Fortunately the world of men has toS
long admired Alexandra Dumas for an!
one to suffer this uneasy feeling. Th'
good tendency of the modern mind, II
every nation, is to pay respect to thu
achievement Of intentions, whatever
those intentions may have been.
Dumas set out to write a certain
| type of fiction, and he wrote it well
And how" as the young people say.
He has never been outdistanced ir
the type of romance which he created
When 1t comes to swashbuckling, ro-
mantle action, yet withal suftused with
geniality, steady huMor and a senst
Of honor, no writer In worlds history
has excelled him.
Scott Is lifeless, almost dull, in COM
parison, while excelling him in many
points. The comparatively few biog-
raphies of Dumas have uniformly OBJ
scured the fact that he was dramatist
Of no mean ability, that had life beer
different with him he might have made
name for himself next TO that Of
Moliere.
* 4 +
Perhaps It was because he was essen
TALLY a dramatist that he mans ged to
give his written stories what we can
only call a certain lifelike quality.
Offhand, this might seem poor praise
since most noYelists write OF life; to say
that their work is lifelike might be con-
strued as no praise at all.
And in a sense the romances Of Alex
andre Dumas are very unlike life, in
that they picture situations as most
men and women never experience them
But let us see. The quality we call
'"hfelike" is more than ready, de-
tailed account Of living, else there could
be no question as to the first place OF
stories such as those written by the
leading realiStS Of the nations.
Such realism leads only as such real
ism, If the reader will permit us to put
it that way. There is another realism,
and this Is the realism Of desire, of
the hearts ease, Of that mighty long
ing for adventure which the world calls
reaching for the moon. in children, and
perhaps madness, in adults.
When q fictionist creates this atmos-
phere to the satisfaction of body of
critical readers, who have had a de-
cent experience of ether types of fic-
ton, we may say in all truth that he is
lifelike
II his characters go on adventures
which the ordinary man will never en-
ter, and would not be able to handle cor
rectly If he did, this Is saying nothing
more than that they are lifelike in their
situations and surroundings.
The average reader is not such fool
that he cannot understand perfectly
how a man Of spirit and honor ought
to act in a given situation.
When his man comes through,
whether 1t be in Dumas or in the New
Testament. he experiences a glow of
mind and heart which is at cnce a per-
sonal satisfaction and one of the glories
of the human race.
1t is because We can feel so, upon
moments of exaltation. that the world
yet has hope OF eradicating evil, OF over
coming the plain enemies of society, Of
ousting the takers and crooks.
1t is because the novels of Alexandra
Dumas, filled with the very heartbeat
Of life, create this sense of high ad-
venture. and its resultant mood of exal-
tation, that the reading world still holds
them dear